ABSTRACT

In this lavishly illustrated full-color retrospective, discover never-before-seen photos that bring to life the people and stories behind the most popular games of all time, including Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Centipede, Donkey Kong, Asteroids, SimCity, Quake, Myst, Tomb Raider, and more. This is the inside scoop on the history, successes, tricks, and even failures of the entire electronic games industry.

chapter |14 pages

Landmarks of Electronic Game Prehistory

chapter |7 pages

Don’t Look Back

chapter |15 pages

Somebody's Gotta Be First

chapter |5 pages

Apple’s Early Games for the Apple II

chapter |9 pages

Astrocade

chapter 1980|2 pages

The Arcades

chapter |1 pages

Missile Command

chapter |1 pages

Defender

chapter |2 pages

Pac-Man

chapter |2 pages

New Players: 1980

Activision

chapter |2 pages

The Best of the Best

chapter |5 pages

Video Game Fans

chapter |1 pages

Some Intellivision Titles

chapter |3 pages

Imagic

chapter |1 pages

Frogger

chapter |2 pages

Centipede

chapter |2 pages

Tempest

chapter |2 pages

Donkey Kong

chapter |1 pages

Q*bert Pole Position

chapter |1 pages

Joust Tron

chapter |1 pages

Donkey Kong Jr. Robotron: 2084

chapter |2 pages

Zaxxon

chapter |1 pages

Mario Bros.

chapter |1 pages

Star Wars

chapter I|9 pages

, Robot

chapter |5 pages

ConceptsandIdeas

chapter |3 pages

Gauntlet

chapter |9 pages

Accolade

chapter |1 pages

Many Faces of Akalabeth

chapter |3 pages

The Ultima Series

chapter |2 pages

A Time of Transition

chapter 1982|3 pages

1983 1984

chapter |1 pages

Famous Beginnings at Brøderbund 1987

chapter |1 pages

Quintessential Edutainment

chapter |1 pages

Brøderbund Games of the mid-1980s

chapter |1 pages

Brøderbund Games of 1988/89

chapter |3 pages

Other Broderbund products

chapter |2 pages

Porting the Arcades

chapter |2 pages

King’s Quest

chapter |1 pages

More Quests

chapter |1 pages

Leisure Suit Larry

chapter |4 pages

Gabriel Knight Phantasmagoria

chapter |20 pages

“Hey, We Should Just Buy You Guys.”

chapter |3 pages

Steel Panthers

chapter |1 pages

Leave the Room, Lose Your Vote

chapter |1 pages

Early Days at EA

chapter |4 pages

We See Farther

chapter |2 pages

Jon Freeman & Anne Westfall

chapter |5 pages

Dani Bunten Berry

chapter |1 pages

Jordan vs. Bird:

chapter |1 pages

Earl Weaver Baseball

chapter |7 pages

John Madden Football

chapter |1 pages

Railroad Tycoon

chapter |2 pages

Magic: The Gathering

chapter |9 pages

Joining Forces

chapter |13 pages

Taking Flight

chapter |13 pages

King’s Bounty

chapter |1 pages

The Perfect General

chapter |1 pages

Empire: Wargame of the Century

chapter |1 pages

Wasteland Shanghai

chapter |1 pages

Alter Ego Little Computer People

chapter |8 pages

Millionaire

chapter |6 pages

Mario & Zelda

chapter |2 pages

The New Console Wars

chapter 1990|2 pages

Another Three-Way Race

chapter |1 pages

Neo-Geo

Hedgehog vs. Plumber

chapter |1 pages

“Sega Is Nothing”

chapter |17 pages

Electronic Arts and Sega

chapter |9 pages

More Maxis Games

chapter |4 pages

Breaking the Mold

chapter 1993|5 pages

Jaguar

chapter |15 pages

Sony/Nintendo Play Station Super Disc

chapter |1 pages

The Neverhood

chapter |1 pages

System Shock

chapter |1 pages

Deus Ex

chapter |16 pages

Age of Empires

chapter 1985|5 pages

New Players

chapter |2 pages

Ultima Online

UO Charter Edition poster.

chapter |7 pages

EverQuest

chapter |4 pages

More Dreamcast Titles

chapter |2 pages

Game Boy Advance Games

chapter |1 pages

More GameCube Games

chapter |3 pages

Xbox

chapter |1 pages

Without those three

chapter |9 pages

Xbox Begins

chapter |1 pages

Pathways

chapter |1 pages

Myth

chapter |8 pages

Myth II

chapter |1 pages

Uncle Clive

chapter |4 pages

Matchless Programmer

chapter 1982|6 pages

The Full Spectrum

chapter |5 pages

The Rise and Fall of Imagine

chapter |5 pages

The Halcyon Days

chapter |5 pages

Nigel Lays a Golden Egg

chapter |12 pages

A Down Under Connection

chapter |14 pages

Interview with Dave Jones

chapter |2 pages

Capcom

chapter |13 pages

KOEI

chapter |2 pages

Credits