The Video Games Guide [Paperback]

For many years its felt like video games have been classed as disposable entertainment. Not any more - at last it seems that the industry is starting to preserve its rich heritage. Thanks to a whole wave of retro compilations, Xbox Live Arcade, and now The Video Games Guide I feel the tipping point has been reached.

The Video Games Guide is actually not a product of the industry it comes from a gamer, Matt Fox, who has dedicated himself to reviewing and rating pretty much every game ever released. Every review also lists the year of release and the publisher, and at the back of the book are a number of detailed appendices. One of the appendices lists all the famous games designers and what games they worked on and you may find it fascinating to see the career paths of these often-unsung men and women. All the games that get the maximum five star rating have a screenshot in the centre of the book and this is also interesting as you get to follow how graphics have improved from the earliest game in 1962 to the latest hits of 2006.

I think video-gaming has been waiting for a definitive book like this and as Tim and Chris Stamper, the founders of Rare software house say in the introduction `not before time'.

Does what it says on the tin ! A brilliant guide to some of the best games from the last 40 years, from Pong to the PSX3.

Has a lot of Speccy/C64 reviews so you'll recognise a lot of the games if you are a UK based retro gamer.

Has a lot of colour pictures in the middle, pity there isnt a screenshot next to each game but that doesnt ruin the book. Excellent read and one of the best retro books i've bought the last year.

Like another of my fellow reviewers, although there's a lot of info in the book, it IS a little too selective, dwells only on the first of a series in many case, and there were several notable omissions from my favourites list, none of which I consider niche or obscure...

I found myself nodding in agreement with some of the author's opinions, but, and this is a BIG one... found myself disagreeing FAR more. As the other reviewer earlier put it, it IS essentially only an A-Z in terms of what the author *himself* feels about the titles listed, and worse, it is coloured by his impressions on loading them up NOW, as opposed to when he may have played them initially (and in many cases, the present is the first time he has even set eyes on them).

Consequently, a lot of the CLASSIC retro games get short thrift, even though those who played them initially (rightly) consider them classics - This has the effect of working against some of the older, classic titles, given that the graphics may be worse, the game may be harder (especially after coming back to it years later, in an age of games that hold your hand all of the way through, let you save EVERY time there's ANY danger you'll lose a life, etc), thus lessening the chance that other (possibly more hardened) retro enthusiasts will hunt them out and experience them for what they are, when in reality titles such as Uridium, Paradroid, Wizball, etc STILL play superbly today, and were absolutely groundbreaking. I can't recall exactly, but the author gives the impression that Uridium is a poor man's rip-off/inferior version of another totally different arcade shooter, which really is NOT the case - It's got obstacles to avoid, is devious, super fast and smooth, has bonus games, etc, doesn't 'cheat', and death is ALWAYS the player's fault - a sign of a truly good game - couple this to the fact that this was running on a humble C64 in the early days of home gaming, and the game was (and IS) a classic! - and this is one example of an opinion that I feel is vastly different to the retro-gaming majority!

I suppose that the dangers in the "personal Opinion" approach is that (as I'm sensing here), the author now has the benefit of having played newer, realistic games, and therefore the impact that the older games had is diminished and diluted to him. Whereas I will still happily load up say, Robotron 2084, Armalyte, Pacland or Tekken 3 (The latter of which I DO wholeheartedly agree with his review on - an absolute classic), I can also enjoy Crysis, Geometry Wars 2 - RE and Fallout 3.

The important thing is that I can appreciate both, but I am fully aware that everyone's views are different - Hence why this book didn't really work for me, and other than Matt's great little anecdotes and nostalgaic memories, the sheer number of reviews that I disagreed with made me dislike the book on the whole, and what it was potentially doing to the memory of many classic games that I and many others I'm sure, loved in our youth, and in many cases, still enjoy today...

In short, I was perhaps hoping for a better description of what the game in question was about, it's merits (or lack therof), then the author's opinion/experiences regarding the game etc, as an extra...

There are several examples of where Matt mentions his misfortune in buying a turkey, and shouts "AVOID!", but would have been far better for him to be descriptive as to WHY it should be avoided, perhaps even with humour injected, but certainly with enough info to make the reader understand why, or to believe him! (In his defence, several of the "AVOID!" type reviews DO do this, so it's a shame when others don't...

Anyway, it sounds worse than it is! - In short, a LOT of info, with yes, some glaring omissions and differences of Matt's opinion Vs, Popular opinion, but still a good, long read, and has highlighted some titles for me to seek out that I didn't know about (even though some have been slated in the highlighting! ;o) )...

Personally, I preferred "Game On" for light reading, "The Ultimate History of Video Games" for more like-minded reviews, and Jack Railton's fantastic "The A-Z of Cool Computer Games" for MANY reasons, including his GREAT sense of humour, nostalgia-inducing abilities, and again, an author I wholeheartedly identified with as a gamer! - FANTASTIC book...

All the best, and hope this helps my fellow retro-heads!

Den.