 First rerelease | |
| Author | Steven L. Kent |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Three Rivers Press |
| Publication place | United States |
| Pages | 624 |
| ISBN | 0-7615-3643-4 |
| OCLC | 47254175 |
The Ultimate History of Video Games is a 2001 non-fiction book by Steven L. Kent. Published initially by Prima Publishing and then by Three Rivers Press, [1] it is an updated version of the self-published The First Quarter: A 25-Year History of Video Games. [1] [2] [3] [4]
The book is based on over 500 interviews, including multiple discussions with key industry leaders. [5] Three potential sources declined. [5] The author initially planned to publish the book in 1995 and then 1996. However, he ultimately self-published it in 2000. [4] 5,000 copies of the first edition were quickly sold exclusively through Amazon, and then Prima Publishing bought the rights. [3] [6]
Kent initially opposed referring to the new edition as "ultimate". [6] An index was added. [3] [7] He bemoaned that the Three Rivers Press edition was released before the launches of the GameCube and Xbox. [4] In 2018, and again in 2019, he mentioned that he was working on a second volume, [6] [8] which was eventually published in August 2021 and titled “The Ultimate History Of Video Games, Vol. 2” . [9] [10]
Ken Gagne of Gamebits, reviewing The First Quarter: A 25-Year History of Video Games, said it suffered from frequent typos and disliked that Kent largely withheld his own opinion. [3] LudoScience called it "an absolute must-read for anyone interested in the history of video games". [2]
Nintendo Life said that the 2001 rerelease as The Ultimate History of Video Games was Kent's "seminal work". [11] Publishers Weekly noted Kent's "infectious enthusiasm" and called the book "a loving tribute" to the videogame industry. [12] Tim Rotertson at MyMac.com called Kent a "gifted writer" and gave the book a 5/5 rating, but suggested that it should have been multiple volumes for more depth. [13]
Pong is a table tennis–themed twitch arcade sports video game, featuring simple two-dimensional graphics, manufactured by Atari and originally released on 29 November 1972. It was one of the earliest arcade video games; it was created by Allan Alcorn as a training exercise assigned to him by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, but Bushnell and Atari co-founder Ted Dabney were surprised by the quality of Alcorn's work and decided to manufacture the game. Bushnell based the game's concept on an electronic ping-pong game included in the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home video game console. In response, Magnavox later sued Atari for patent infringement.
The Sega CD, known as Mega-CD in most regions outside North America and Brazil, is a CD-ROM accessory for the Sega Genesis produced by Sega as part of the fourth generation of video game consoles. It was released on December 12, 1991, in Japan, October 15, 1992, in North America, and April 2, 1993, in Europe. The Sega CD plays CD games and adds hardware functionality such as a faster CPU and graphic enhancements such as sprite scaling and rotation. It can also play audio CDs and CD+G discs.
The video game crash of 1983 was a large-scale recession in the video game industry that occurred from 1983 to 1985, primarily in the United States. The crash was attributed to several factors, including market saturation in the number of video game consoles and available games, many of which were of poor quality. Waning interest in console games in favor of personal computers also played a role. Home video game revenue peaked at around $3.2 billion in 1983, then fell to around $100 million by 1985. The crash abruptly ended what is retrospectively considered the second generation of console video gaming in North America. To a lesser extent, the arcade video game market also weakened as the golden age of arcade video games came to an end.
In the history of video games, the fourth generation of video game consoles, more commonly referred to as the 16-bit era, began on October 30, 1987, with the Japanese release of NEC Home Electronics' PC Engine. Though NEC released the first console of this era, sales were mostly dominated by the rivalry between Sega and Nintendo across most markets: the Sega Mega Drive and the Super Nintendo. Cartridge-based handheld game consoles became prominent during this time, such as the Nintendo Game Boy, Atari Lynx, Sega Game Gear and TurboExpress.
The golden age of arcade video games was the period of rapid growth, technological development, and cultural influence of arcade video games from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. The release of Space Invaders in 1978 led to a wave of shoot-'em-up games such as Galaxian and the vector graphics-based Asteroids in 1979, made possible by new computing technology that had greater power and lower costs. Arcade video games switched from black-and-white to color, with titles such as Frogger and Centipede taking advantage of the visual opportunities of bright palettes.
1980 saw the release of a number of games with influential concepts, including Pac-Man, Battlezone, Crazy Climber, Mystery House, Missile Command, Phoenix, Rally-X, Space Panic, Stratovox, Zork, Adventure, and Olympic Decathlon. The year's highest-grossing video game was Namco's arcade game Pac-Man, while the best-selling home system was Nintendo's Game & Watch. The Atari VCS also grew in popularity with a port of Space Invaders and support from new third-party developer Activision.
International Karate is a fighting game developed and published by System 3 for the ZX Spectrum in 1985 and ported to various home computers over the following years. In the United States it was published by Epyx in 1986 as World Karate Championship.
The Sega Genesis, also known as the Mega Drive outside North America, is a 16-bit fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master System. Sega released it in 1988 in Japan as the Mega Drive, and in 1989 in North America as the Genesis. In 1990, it was distributed as the Mega Drive by Virgin Mastertronic in Europe, Ozisoft in Australasia, and Tectoy in Brazil. In South Korea, it was distributed by Samsung Electronics as the Super Gam*Boy and later the Super Aladdin Boy.
In the history of video games, the first generation era refers to the video games, video game consoles, and handheld video game consoles available from 1972 to 1983. Notable consoles of the first generation include the Odyssey series, the Atari Home Pong, the Coleco Telstar series and the Color TV-Game series. The generation ended with the Computer TV-Game in 1980 and its following discontinuation in 1983, but many manufacturers had left the market prior due to the market decline in the year of 1978 and the start of the second generation of video game consoles.
Steven L. Kent is an American writer, known for both video game journalism and military science fiction novels. He is the son of woodworker Ron Kent.
Lazer Tag is a brand name for the pursuit game using infrared toy guns, generically known as "laser tag". It was developed by Worlds of Wonder and launched in 1986. As one of America's top hit toys of 1986-1987, Lazer Tag was aggressively leveraged by Worlds of Wonder's retail sales network in an ultimatum to force the Nintendo Entertainment System into retail stores, allowing its smash hit nationwide launch, which prompted Nintendo of America to lead the nation's recovery from the 1983 video game crash and dominate the industry. The Lazer Tag brand is currently a subsidiary of Hasbro's Nerf toy line.
Joe Montana Football is an American football video game developed by Park Place Productions, and published by Sega for the Genesis in 1991. While the game does feature Joe Montana as a playable character, Sega did not obtain licenses from either the National Football League or the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA), meaning no other players, nor any official team names, are used. It was the first of many Sega published football games across the 1990s prior to moving into the NFL 2K branding in the 2000s.
Peek-A-Boo Poker, is a video game made by the company Idea-Tek and distributed by Hacker International/Panesian in 1991 as one of their three pornographic video games for NES, the other two being Magic Bubble and Hot Slots.
Football is a 1978 American football video game developed and released by Atari, Inc. for arcades. Players are represented by Xs and Os. While predated by Sega's World Cup, Football is credited with popularizing the trackball controller and is also the first non-racing vertically scrolling video game. It distributed in Japan by Namco in 1979.
Video games are a major industry in Japan, and the country is considered one of the most influential in video gaming. Japanese game development is often identified with the golden age of video games and the country is home to many notable video game companies such as Nintendo, Sega, Bandai Namco Entertainment, Taito, Konami, Square Enix, Capcom, NEC, SNK, and formerly Sony Computer Entertainment. Japan is currently the third largest video game market in the world after China and the United States.
