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Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age 1971-1984

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Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age 1971-1984 (Paperback)

by V Burnham (Author)

4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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Product details

Paperback: 448 pages
Publisher: MIT Press; New edition edition (4 Nov 2003)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0262524201
ISBN-13: 978-0262524209
Product Dimensions: 25 x 24.8 x 2.8 cm

Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 365,218 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in this category:
#31 in Books > Computing & Internet > PC & Video Games > History & Culture

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

It was a time when technology was king, status was determined by your high score and video games were blitzing the world... Supercade is the first book to illustrate and document the history, legacy and visual language of the video game phenomenon, from the fist interactive blips of electronic light at Brookhaven National Labs and the creation of Spacewar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to the invention of the TV Game Project and the myriad systems of Magnavox, Atari, Coleco and Mattel that followed.

From Pong to Pac-Man, Asteroids to Zaxxon, more than 50 million people around the world have come of age within the electronic flux of video games, their subconscious forever etched with images projected from arcade and home video game systems.

Exuberantly written and illustrated in full colour, Supercade pays tribute to the technology, games and visionaries of one of the most influential periods in the history of computer science--one that profoundly shaped the modern technological landscape and helped change the way people view entertainment.

The book includes contributions from such commentators and participants as Ralph Baer, Julian Dibbell, Keith Feinstein, Joe Fielder, Lauren Fielder, Justin Hall, Leonard Herman, Steven Johnson, Steven Kent, Nick Montfort, Bob Parks, Carl Steadman and Tom Vanderbilt. --Miles Taylor --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

.,." [A] satisfying, illuminating read. Recommended for hardcore gamers (and ex-gamers) of all ages." -- Dominic Al-Badri, ""Kansai Time Out, Japan"" --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews

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4.7 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)

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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic &perhaps best example yet of a glimpse into vids, 2 Oct 2001

By	ravage@rtype.com (Portsmouth, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age 1971-1984 (Hardcover)

The book starts with a fantastic 'aperitif' article about the first machines (actually, first games rather than hardware), like Computer Space, Pong and so forth (that's all I've had time to read so far!) and sets the premise of the book up superbly.

The book is a good 50/50, perhaps 60/40 split between home consoles and arcade games from the periods in 1971-84. Each game from the era is given over to a 1 or 2 pages, in full colour, on average perhaps 500 words per game (some games only have a caption box) and a plethora of screenshots, and some nice pastiches of flyers, caboinet and packaging pictures, along with culture symbols and scenes from movies, adverts (heh, even the 1984 Apple ad gets in there plus the ubiquitous Flynn's from Tron!).

The book reaches its "alcoholic coffees and mints," with some very nice articles on current exhibitions, such as Videotopia, California Extreme plus a few more I'd never heard of, and hell, there's even a few pages put over to the collectors - yippee!! We're famous :P

This washes down what basically is a damned-fine, 400-course meal of arcade and console snippets - a veritable gourmet spread. There's nothing here you're not going to find on the net, nor indeed experience with emulators, but full marks for the effort and indeed the conceptual layout is splendid - somehow a thoroughly 2000's presentation of 1980's retro scene works to perfection somehow. This book is a graphical trip down video games - which is excellent seeing video games are a visual eye-candy - a fault I think other books fall into!

There must be 400 odd pages here so whilst the cover price is expensive, it really is a fantastic blast down memories past and I'd say its worth the money, especially as the whole book doesn't have a single black and white page (oh, I lie, the Apple Mac page is set out like a desktop :p).

Criticisms?

Perhaps some of the pages with caption boxes (Major Havoc, Qix) could of had more text. I think it a travesty that Space Invaders got lumped in this category with only a screenshot and caption - although, heh, it does get to appear twice as they repeat this for Part 2/Dexlue! I've never been one for home consoles either, but I have to say its interesting to see them integrated into a chronological order.

Domonic 'Rav' Escott,... (U.K. Video Arcade Collectors Club)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An American gaming history guide, 7 Oct 2005

By	"cor33" - See all my reviews

This is a gorgeous lump of a book, well researched with 400 pages of beautiful glossy nostalgia.
However, disapointment set in when I realised it was written from an american perspective. Supercade is still a great book for the hardcore computer fan, just too many items I didn't recognise to keep me interested.

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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pure visual joy! It even feels good., 6 Jan 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age 1971-1984 (Hardcover)

29 years old, rediscovering now those arcade classics I glimsed as a 10 year old and longed to own as a 12 year old. Talk about nostalgia - you can drink it up with this book. This book oozes quality and is a treasure to own. It's big, heavy and full of colour from beginning to end.

A tad expensive you may think ? It is worth it.

The only downer in my view is that it lends a bit too much ink to covering home consoles when to me they were much of a muchness, always woefully inferior to the arcade originals.

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