Replay: The History of Video Games

Replay: The History of Video Games does very little to convince you that you need to buy it: its cover is unattractive, to say the least, and should you decide to casually browse it in the shop, you’ll be confronted with nothing but a massive wall of small-font text with the occasional black and white picture of people you probably won’t recognize. In short, this is one book that will never make the acquaintance of a coffee table. And yet, it’s an absolutely essential read for anyone that wants to broaden his/her understanding of video games, and how they came to become what they are. Not only is it hands down the most interesting book I’ve read on the subject, it’s also one of my favorite non-fiction books of all time. A clear example of substance over style, if there ever was one. Chronicling 40+ years of video game history will never be done comprehensively, even in 400 pages of dense text. But Replay is certainly the most convincing attempt at covering everything of importance. And it doesn't compromise on the width to achieve its remarkable depth. It's a history of video games, but it's also a history of the people who create them, of the hardware they run on, of the companies that make them their business, of the economic issues they had to face and of the social debates that games have raised. It gives balanced attention to the arcade and the home games. Even more remarkable, Replay is a true worldwide history, covering people and events in all the places that ever mattered for the hobby: the USA, Japan, Europe (the UK, of course, but you might be surprised to learn exactly how much happened in Spain, France or Eastern European countries), Russia... There's even a whole chapter dedicated to the very peculiar history of video games in South Korea. Very, very little bases are left uncovered. The early history is told in an essentially chronological manner. It may be the most fascinating part of the book: it's an era of heroic deeds by individuals, or small groups, who single-handedly created games and/or game machines with the reluctant agreement of companies that believed so little in the projects that they only allocated pennies to them. An era of teenage boys creating both complex and surreal worlds in their basements, and then squeezing them into the very few kilobytes of memory available on the early home computers. If you're a younger video game player, this part will probably make you wish you were born sooner! More recent times have seen the rise of bigger studios, with big-budget games rarey associated with a single creative mind, and the release of hundreds, if not thousands of games each year, render the chronological approach impractical. That's why Tristan Donovan logically switches to a more theme-centric discussion. Chapters in the second half of the book tend indeed to each focus on a couple of themes. At first, these themes appear unrelated, but he nonetheless always comes up with an elegant transition. Finally, the last chapter covers the rise of indie video games and we go sort of full circle, back to visionaries making the most of limited means. It has to be said that, being published in 2010, you won’t get coverage of the last three years. Going back to the stylistic aspects, Donovan's writing is elegant and enjoyable. Many quotes from hundreds of interviews are interspersed within his narration, making the people come alive in the reader's mind. My one and only complaint with the book would be the rare but annoying grammatical errors. I'm talking about horrible, "could of been"-style errors that one can expect to find in a teenager's Facebook wall, but certainly not in an otherwise excellent history text. Two large annexes close the book. The first is a "gameography", listing some 600 games by genre, with short comments. Many of those have already been discussed in the main text, but the annex's interest lies in its organisation: it's a sort of evolutionary tree, explaining, for example, when fighting games got split into the beat-em-up's and one-on-one fighting subgenres. The second annex lists all systems discussed in the text, with a definition in one or two sentences. It may occasionally come in handy, but is little more than a glossary. Overall, Replay is about as perfect as a history of video games can be. It's pleasingly written and entertaining enough for the general public who would like to know more about the hobby. It's also deep and rigorous enough to satisfy the more scholarly-minded reader. In short, it's an essential read for most everyone.

You have to hand it to Tristan Donovan - he’s ambitious. Covering the entire history of video games on a global basis is no small task, and he’s done an admirable job here. Starting with the earliest enthusiasts in military labs, progressing through the rise-and-fall-and-rise of game industry segments, and concluding with the indie game phenomenon that ushered in the era of the App Store, Mr. Donovan does his level best to paint a coherent picture of an industry that is anything but. His style is pop-history: mixing interviews, research, and a tiny bit of commentary to result in a book that is easy to read and well-documented at the same time. The only major drawback in my mind is that the book ends rather abruptly. I expected some sort of concluding chapter with Mr. Donovan’s grand-scale opinions on how games have shaped our society and vice-versa. Or an exposition on how hobbyists and enthusiastic geeks continue to wrestle control of a multi-billion-dollar industry back from suits and marketing types in a back-and-forth struggle for the soul and wallet of the gaming public. Instead, what we get is a line or two in the final chapter which falls just short of “Well...there you have it...history lesson is done; I’m going to go eat a bowl of soup now, so I guess we’ll chat later.” It almost seems as if the author tired of the subject, which is a shame. This book is about 7 years old now, so a ‘v2.0’ would really work well if Mr. Donovan chose to update it. You could almost see him extending from the final chapter on independent studios into the rise of the App Store phenomena like Angry Birds, Plants vs. Zombies, etc., and then move into accidental blockbusters like Minecraft and how the can function as gateways to coding for the next generation. It would also be nice to see subsequent chapters on the co-branding of media enterprises (e.g. Lego-based games seem to come out with every live-action movie title these days), the development of gaming as a televised and sponsored competitive endeavor, and maybe a better treatment of sporting games (which receive oddly light treatment here). All in all, this is a book that opens with a lot of fun and excitement that eventually bogs down under the sheer weight of the subject’s history and infinite branching. Mr. Donovan begins with a historian’s interest in videogames’ origins, a nostalgist’ interest in the heady heydays of Atari and Nintendo, and a sociologist’s interest in the development of stylistic differences on a global basis. Although he eventually falls into a near-catalog of major turning points and low-grade back story, this is still far better-written and more-cohesive than any other gaming history I have read. I’d definitely recommend it to both the gaming enthusiasts and anyone interested in global pop culture.

And did I ever get what I paid for. This is extremely well researched, and well-written. It's written in a more casual tone, as if it was someone really knowledgeable on the subject talking to you over lunch. It talks about scandals, things companies wouldn't really talk about, the highlights of each generation, the goods, the bads, actual accounts of real people, I literally was only looking for the Nintendo portions, but ended up reading more than I was planning on because of how well put together this was. If you're interested in the history of Video Games, or just a gamer in general curious for facts Wikipedia doesn't have, I'd definitely invest in buying this book. It blew my expectations out of the water, and the Table of Contents is really well done- it literally has each section listed and is there for those "I want to see what SEGA was about" and boom, you can read about SEGA right there. Great Purchase, great reference, great buy.

I read every book on video game history and, so far, this is the best of the bunch. Before I finished the introduction, I had already learned two things I had not previously known about video game history! The scope of the book is both geographically and chronologically impressive. It covers more than just the usual US and Japanese game history--the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Australia, and other parts of the world also receive attention. Their role in the history of video games is extremely interesting because the development of games both culturally and technologically followed very different paths. These are games and game developers we don't often hear about. And as for the chronological scope, the book covers everything from the early predecessors of video games in the 1940s to games that hit the shelves as recently as early 2010. It's a cliche, I know...but if you only buy one video game history book, Replay should be that book.

Featuring what has to be one of the worst covers of any book - ever - "Replay" easily overcomes that misstep by bringing forth a wealth of fantastic information. Even if you're already very familiar with the history of computers and video games, you'll find this book entertaining - and informative. Thanks to its UK origins, coverage of that region is plentiful, which is quite the change from the US slant seen in most books. There are some criticisms to be had despite the 5-star rating I've given: the writing is, at times, awkward, even allowing for differences in UK English vs US English. It definitely could have used another read-through by an editor in places. In addition, like the cover, the pictures in the book are atrocious in quality and all black & white. This is a subject that cries out for quality photos and lots of color. Still, these are minor quibbles. Pick this up today!

I expected less chapters and going bit more down into the details. But on the other side it is well written in catchy juicy style.

While by no means a comprehensive history, this offers some a nice chronology and many interesting tales about the birth and maturity of gaming. The best asset is that it's not Americentric, and offers a great history of the European market, in particular. I found the details about the European hardware market, along with the history of European software developers (French Adventure gaming, for example) fascinating. Much of the European stuff was completely new material to me. The descriptions of the type of innovation or idiosyncrasies each nation tended to bring to gaming was also fascinating, since it shows how the different cultures contributed along the way. Finally, for something being published in 2010, the book ends abruptly in the early 1990's. It's kind of jarring, because there are a lot of pages left and stories to tell. Unfortunately, the last 200+ (of 500 some) pages are not-very-interesting mind map of games and the hardware to play them. It's a shame, because two or three more chapters would have really rounded the book out. Still, video games are embedded into our culture and there is room for many accounts of the first 50 years of this nascent art. This is definitely a worthwhile read, but probably not the ideal choice for someone looking for the 'comprehensive history' condensed into one book.

I'm an old school gamer and enjoyed this book very much. Comprehensive and well written covering PC, coin-op, and console gaming from its infantry till the 2000s. Would recommend for those who grew up in the 80's and still game today.