From Pong to Pokemon and Beyond...the Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World
by Steve L. Kent (2001)
There was a time when the computer games industry was not the multi-billion dollar machine as
we know it today. That was not too long ago. Only 30 years back. When the word "game
console"
was still some hazy name for a weird kind of toy, programs had to be no longer than
4096 bytes and hearing a >BEEP< out of your TV simply flashed you off the couch. If you ever
wanted to know how it all started and took its way from there, who were the people behind it
and why Super Mario is called Mario now instead of "Jumpman" this 600-page brick is it for you.
The main strength of the book are the countless interviews
with the people who were really there at the time. People like
Steven
Russell, creator of Spacewar, the first computer game
ever. Running on the hulking PDP-1 machine. People like
Ralph Baer, inventor of Pong. And, of course, Nolan
Bushnell,
the colorful founder of ATARI.
One of the most interesting things is to see how a bunch of
young
guys
who simply have some fine ideas for games - as
well as
knowledge in programming and electronics - just meet
in a
big bathtub, smoke some joints and come up with such
classics as "Breakout", "Lunar Lander", "Asteroids" or "Missile
Command".
You have an idea, you do it and
have a multi-
billion dollar industry afterwards. These brainstorming
meetings took place at the "Atari Think
Tank", a small holiday
resort located at Grass
Valley (!), Sierra
Nevada.
"So we had this little group up in Grass Valley, California. We had kind of a reputation, you
know, for smoking
pot and things like that. And I think a lot of it came from the fact that we
had a think tank in Grass Valley and
people thought. "What is that? Grass Valley can only mean
one thing." --- Nolan Bushnell, founder of ATARI
ATARI also followed the policy that they wouldn't develop two games based on the same idea.
That kept innovative game concepts coming. Games that are built into every mobile phone
today due to its simple but addictive gameplay.
But the book is much more. It follows the rise (and often fall) of such companies like Nintendo,
SEGA, Ocean,
Electronic Arts, Akklaim, Accolade, Epyx, etc. Names we know from countless
startup
screens from games we played as kids.
Despite its detailed relation of such dry stuff like court matters and economic details the book is
an extremely addictive read. Steve L. Kent, lifelong gaming enthusiast and veteran journalist,
manages to grab you at the right spots. After each chapter you instantly want to play the
mentioned
classics just to see what he was talking about.
Now the nice news is: you can do that! Simply click over to Romnation.net, get some emulators
going (MAME for arcade machines, ZSNES for the Super Nintendo, RockNESX for the NES, etc.)
and grab loads of classic ROMs. For the original feel you should play with a joystick, USB
versions of the Competition Pro, the Playstation controller or whatever are around.
Fine interview with Bushnell, 1982. Part 1 - Part 2
Along with having a lot of fun and nostalgia while reading the
book there's something to learn there as well:
"The critical ingredient is getting off your butt
and doing something. It's as simple as that.
A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who
decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow.
Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur
is a doer, not a dreamer."
--- Nolan Bushnell, founder of ATARI ---
"The Ultimate History Of Video Games", Steve L. Kent, Prima Live, 2001. ISBN: 0761536434
