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Ask HN: What are some must-read books about video games and gaming history?

by Kovah on 5/15/24, 10:20 AM with 20 comments

• by markus_zhang on 5/15/24, 6:37 PM

  If you haven't read "Masters of Doom" then that's probably the next step -- but I do consider "Doom Guy" better, in the sense that John Romero gave a much fuller description of ID's early years -- I think it matters more for Indies these days than the later years (post-Quake).

  I'm looking for some books describing the process of Console hardware development -- e.g. why did the team decide to pick this chip, why the architecture, etc. Does anyone have any idea?

• by ab0aa907 on 5/15/24, 5:26 PM

  Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture by David Kushner

  It was also amazing read and it just made me fall in love with programming all over again. And thanks for mentioning Doom Guy, just ordered it.

• by onlinesimon on 5/22/24, 8:45 AM

  For the definitive history of video games, I recommend:

  The Ultimate History of Video Games, Volume 1 & 2. (by Steven L. Kent)

  For the definitive history, with behind the scenes interviews and commentary by many legendary individuals including:

  Nolan Bushnell - Founder of Atari and a pioneer of the video game industry.

  Ralph H. Baer - Often called the "Father of Video Games," he developed the first home video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey.

  Shigeru Miyamoto - Legendary game designer from Nintendo, known for creating iconic franchises like Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Donkey Kong.

  Hiroshi Yamauchi - Former president of Nintendo who transformed the company into a video game giant.

  Hideo Kojima - Renowned game designer known for the Metal Gear series.

  Trip Hawkins - Founder of Electronic Arts (EA) and a significant figure in the development of the video game publishing industry.

  David Crane - Co-founder of Activision and designer of games like Pitfall!.

  Sid Meier - Creator of the Civilization series and a pioneer in strategy games.

  John Romero - Co-founder of id Software and co-creator of Doom and Quake.

  Will Wright - Creator of SimCity and The Sims, known for his innovative simulation games.

  The first volume takes us up to the early 1990s, and the second volume is for 1991 to early 2020s.

  This is an epic encyclopaedic reference of video game history, from the point of view of the game developers themselves, and the industry heads.

• by OnionBlender on 5/15/24, 6:07 PM

  It depends which games you like.

    - Rogue-likes? Read Dungeon Hacks. 
    - Zacktronics games? Read Zach-Like. (Free on Steam) 
    - Sid Meier games? Read his memoir. 
    - NES? Read "I am Error".

• by thorin on 5/15/24, 9:18 PM

  Would recommend this for the full 80s solo developer on 8 bits treatment. I might just read it again myself

  https://bizzley.42web.io/download.html

• by mindcrash on 5/16/24, 8:49 PM

  Although it's part art book and part text features: Every Day is Play (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gamepaused/everyday-is-...), but because it has been funded through Kickstarter and published only once at the time it could be a rare find (although a quick Google search showed me that some copies are being sold through the likes of Ebay)

• by HellDunkel on 5/16/24, 5:30 AM

  Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution - there is a great chapter on Sierra and also Atari if i remember correctly.

  Jordan Mechner's The Making of Prince of Persia

• by roland35 on 5/15/24, 8:32 PM

  Game engine black book: doom

  https://fabiensanglard.net/gebbdoom/

• by guy4261 on 5/16/24, 1:06 PM

  I read a few titles from https://bossfightbooks.com/ . As it happens much, I read about games I did not actually play. It was a nice reading though. The Majora's Mask and Spelunky books were particularly sweet, and encouraged me to watch playthroughs of both games (which I still haven't played).

• by muzani on 5/16/24, 4:09 AM

  50 years of text games

  https://if50.substack.com/

  Not just if you're interested in text games, but dealing with technical restrictions, early inspirations, and some of the things we've lost.

• by ElCapitanMarkla on 5/18/24, 1:36 AM

  I’m only mentioning the ones I haven’t seen mentioned here so far

  The Ultimate History of Video Games - Steven L. Kent - loved this. Sid Meier’s Memoir was good. And not really a must read but I enjoyed David Kushner’s Jacked about the Grand Theft Auto guys.

• by solardev on 5/16/24, 9:32 PM

  I really enjoyed the Prince of Persia book in print: https://www.jordanmechner.com/en/books/journals/

• by approxim8ion on 5/16/24, 5:54 AM

  Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made, by Jason Schreier

  Not particularly deep, but a pretty good read about more modern AAA games and crunch in the industry.

• by krapp on 5/16/24, 1:39 PM

  The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers

• by jmspring on 5/15/24, 8:57 PM

  Racing the Beam. About the Atari VCS.