Videogame Project

I am currently doing extensive research into videogames past and present, focusing both on coin-ops and home systems. The man on the right is Jeff Chapman, a writer and friend who has agreed to help organize my research into a book-length format. The article below provides a brief introduction to The Golden Age of Videogames and beyond.

Dem Old Games

"You don't have to wear a conical hat with the sign of the zodiac on it in order to make these chips nowadays."
    — Dennis Wood, Tengen software executive expressing his frustration with the 1988-89 computer chip shortage when Nintendo refused to use American or Korean chip suppliers, citing price and quality concerns.

The Internet provides a rather interesting gamble when it comes to information retrieval. It takes 25 seconds to find the entire script from The Matrix, yet often times the most seemingly obvious bit of arcane trivia will take minutes or hours to find. Thankfully, when it comes to videogame history, the Internet delivers on its promise, in the most complete and thorough way imaginable. Here are some links that prove that sometimes the Net really does deliver on its promise that "information wants to be free."

ClassicGaming — Lots of info from in-the-know people.

ClassicGamer — Info on an actual print magazine about the glorious gaming past

MyVideoGames — Actual Quicktime commercials from the era

AtariHQ — Everything you ever wanted to know about Atari but were afraid to ask.

MakingIt — For the loser kids who owned an Intellivision.

GameSpy -- More Intellivision minutia

ClassicGameCreations — If you can believe it, John Dondzila is producing new games for the Vectrex, Odyssey 2 and Colecovision. The site also features some stills from a terrible 80s film about arcade life entitled Joysticks.

Internet Movie Database (IMDB) - Joysticks — For more information about the film Joysticks.

BucknerGarcia — The Pacman Fever CD has been reissued.

CGexpo — The 2000 Computer Gaming Expo has come and gone (July 29 – 30 at the Plaza Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas) but expect another the same time next year.

Vintage — Info on the annual Vintage Computer Festival in Santa Clara

Wired — Retroactivism in the March 2000 issue of Wired

Vcvgc — Vancouver Classic Video Games Club.

icwhen — The most frighteningly detailed chronological history of videogames the world will ever see.

scottw — Information about ordering the Video Documentary Series "Once Upon Atari."

CNN — do we, as a society, really need Pong to be colourized and razz-a-ma-tazzed?

Salon — Salon article about X-rated games for the 2600.

Mame — Emulator info.

There has yet to be a really good book written about videogames. Here is a list of books about gaming (in descending order of quality):

Zap! The Rise and Fall of Atari by Scott Cohen (This tome details the incredible lack of business acumen at Atari, and how they went from rich man to poor man in 18 months. Also touches upon the maleness of gaming culture. This book is out of print unfortunately, although amazon.com will special order it at a cost of billions of dollars. A better bet is your public library).

Joystick Nation by J.C. Herz (Features a good interview with the guy that programmed the game Defender. Probably the only videogame book written by a woman, hence the use of initials to disguise her gender, since men might not buy the book if they knew that a chick wrote it).
buy the book at Chapters.ca

Twin Galaxies' Official Video Game And Pinball Book of World Records by Walter Day. (Provides an occasionally too-detailed history of the Golden Age, written by the owner of the most famous arcade in the world, Twin Galaxies).
buy the book at Chapters.ca

Halcyon Days, a collection of interviews with classic game programmers, is available via "the Internet" through: Dadgum

Game Over (How Nintendo zapped an American industry, captured your dollars, and enslaved your children) by David Sheff. (An often too-detailed account of how Nintendo ruled the 1980s with an iron fist. Also out of print. You know the drill by this point).

Phoenix: The Fall & Rise of Videogames (Second Edition) by Leonard Herman and Keith Feinstein. (A clumsy read from two guys who were very involved with the Golden Age of Videogames).
buy the book at Chapters.ca

Game Over Press Start To Continue by David Sheff and Andy Eddy. (A more recent look at the Nintendo empire).
buy the book at Chapters.ca