High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games, Second Edition

Rating:
Summary: High Score = 1,000,000,000 Points!
Review: High Score is a very interesting and comprehensive game history with illustration and photography from behind the scenes in one of the world's largest industries. You will find never before seen photos of Shigeru Miyamato (Super Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong) and many others from different companies and times. The book includes some very interesting facts and an in depth scope which proves too entertaining to put down. I sat down to read this book every time I walked into my local book store until finally I decided that I simply must have it for my guests and friends. Take a trip down memory lane to when games were 8-bit and walk back to current events. This 2nd edition contains new games from Playstation 2, Gamecube, and XBox and the PC. You will simply love this book if you enjoy nostalgia and retrospectives.

Rating:
Summary: Good book in many ways...
Review: I've already written a review for the first edition of this book, so I won't repeat any of that here. I'll just discuss my opinion of the differences in this second edition.

The new edition is basically the first edition with two appendixes tacked on. Minor changes (i.e. corrections of typos and small mistakes) to the content of the first edition may have been made; I haven't re-read any of that stuff closely enough to be sure, yet.

Personally, in a second edition I'd like to see more than just the addition of some appendixes. I think many, many people who got the first edition wanted to see certain additions to the main text, and it would have been nice if something had been done about that. No doubt though, the additional material in the new edition is great. The two new appendixes both deal with the parallel evolution of electronic games in other (non-North American) parts of the world. The first appendix chronicles the development of electronic games in the UK and Europe, while the second covers the development of electronic games in Japan. I was pretty happy with the coverage of both. I've always been interested in the roots of video and computer games in Japan, which are mostly pretty obscure, and a great deal of information is given on that topic here.

If you already have the first edition, this edition is worth getting if you're particularly interested in the history of games in the UK and Japan. If you don't know anything about the first edition, check out my review for that. I gave 3 stars because that's what I gave the first time around, and I still feel that's what the book, as a whole, deserves. Once again, for explanation on that check out my review for the first edition: "mixed bag", October 22, 2002.

Rating:
Summary: Good book in many ways...
Review: I've already written a review for the first edition of this book, so I won't repeat any of that here. I'll just discuss my opinion of the differences in this second edition.

The new edition is basically the first edition with two appendixes tacked on. Minor changes (i.e. corrections of typos and small mistakes) to the content of the first edition may have been made; I haven't re-read any of that stuff closely enough to be sure, yet.

Personally, in a second edition I'd like to see more than just the addition of some appendixes. I think many, many people who got the first edition wanted to see certain additions to the main text, and it would have been nice if something had been done about that. No doubt though, the additional material in the new edition is great. The two new appendixes both deal with the parallel evolution of electronic games in other (non-North American) parts of the world. The first appendix chronicles the development of electronic games in the UK and Europe, while the second covers the development of electronic games in Japan. I was pretty happy with the coverage of both. I've always been interested in the roots of video and computer games in Japan, which are mostly pretty obscure, and a great deal of information is given on that topic here.

If you already have the first edition, this edition is worth getting if you're particularly interested in the history of games in the UK and Japan. If you don't know anything about the first edition, check out my review for that. I gave 3 stars because that's what I gave the first time around, and I still feel that's what the book, as a whole, deserves. Once again, for explanation on that check out my review for the first edition: "mixed bag", October 22, 2002.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Trip Through Video Game History
Review: Perhaps there are only a few changes since the first edition, but if you've never read the first edition, this is a must-get for video game fans.

Full-color photos of hardware, screenshots, and gaming popular culture (e.g. Atari high score patches) take you through video game history. Not only are systems like Atari, Coleco, Intellevision, Nintendo, Sony, and Sega looked at, the authors also look at specific games and milestones for each hardware platform. A lot of obscure systems are covered and even computers from Commodore, Coleco, Atari, Apple, etc.

The authors have done a great job. From the Nintendo Game and Watch series to Sid Meier's Pirates, a great deal of video game history (past to present) and even memories (for some) are contained within the book. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: The most comprehensive book on the history of games so far.
Review: Searching for books on this topic is infuriating considering since electronic games is a broad subject and reaches various elements. (But hey, so is film and music.) Usually you'll find books that only cover the old arcade games, or some which only cover games of today on the PS2 and X-BOX while barely mentioning anything about the past games we grew up with, and this is twice a hassle if you're a PC gamer. But this book has the lot and it covers it brilliantly. It mentions the well known titles we see everywhere else like Mario and Sonic and all the familiar faces but delves deeps into eras that the average game would have no idea about or have forgotten such as the contributions by Trilobyte or Dragon's Lair.
Personally it would have been great if they had included some of the PC favorites like Sam & Max, Jazz Jackrabbit, One Must Fall and Little Big Adventure but for what it's worth the quantity of games the book discusses is remarkable. I'm glad that a publication like this can get out there to new gamers out there who have perhaps forgotten or have never seen games in 2-D or in less than 256 colors and they can see for themselves the culture in which a lot of us grew up in and how it has changed over the years. (For better or for worse.)