Vintage Games Book - Table of Contents

[Bill_Loguidice]

In the interest of keeping everyone up-to-date with, Vintage Games: An Insider Look at the History of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, and the Most Influential Games of All Time, we're now releasing the table of contents. With the book "in the can" as it were and on track for its March 2009 release date, now is as good of a time as any. Also, Gamasutra has all but agreed to run the nine bonus chapters, one a month, for nine months, starting in January. The nice thing is that this is content that is truly a bonus, as it will be found nowhere else and has the unique feature of cross referencing and being cross referenced in the book itself, so we're really treading on exciting territory there. We'll also be releasing 90+ images that didn't fit in the book on Armchair Arcade, complete with captions. That will bring total image count between everything to over 600 full color images. Here's that Table of Contents, which I hope for some will already convince you of the value of the material, and for others further pique your curiosity (remember, each of the games in question in the chapter is merely the focal point - we discuss related games both before, during and after the reign of the main game, and include plenty of quotes, references and other content to really round out the reading experience):


Preface

Acknowledgments

Chapter 01 – Alone in the Dark (1992): The Polygons of Fear
Chapter 02 – Castle Wolfenstein (1981): Achtung! Stealth Gaming Steps out of the Shadows
Chapter 03 – Dance Dance Revolution (1998 ): The Player Becomes the Star
Chapter 04 – Diablo (1996): The Rogue Goes to Hell
Chapter 05 – Doom (1993): The First-Person Shooter Takes Control
Chapter 06 – Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty (1992): Spicing up Strategy in Real Time
Chapter 07 – Final Fantasy VII (1997): It’s Never Final in the World of Fantasy
Chapter 08 – Flight Simulator (1980): Digital Reality
Chapter 09 – Grand Theft Auto III (2001): The Consolejacking Life
Chapter 10 – John Madden Football (1988 ): Modern Sports Videogames Kickoff
Chapter 11 – King’s Quest: Quest for the Crown (1984): Perilous Puzzles, Thorny Thrones
Chapter 12 – Myst (1993): Launching Multimedia Worlds
Chapter 13 – Pac-Man (1980): Japanese Gumption, American Consumption
Chapter 14 – Pole Position (1982): Where the Raster Meets the Road
Chapter 15 – SimCity (1989): Building Blocks for Fun and Profit
Chapter 16 – Space Invaders (1978 ): The Japanese Descend
Chapter 17 – Street Fighter II (1991): Would you like the Combo?
Chapter 18 – Super Mario 64/Tomb Raider (1996): The Third Dimension
Chapter 19 – Super Mario Bros. (1985): How High Can Jumpman Get?
Chapter 20 – Tetris (1985): Casual Gaming Falls into Place
Chapter 21 – The Legend of Zelda (1986): Rescuing Zeldas and Uniting Triforces
Chapter 22 – The Sims (2000): Who Let the Sims Out?
Chapter 23 – Ultima (1980): The Immaculate Conception of the Computer Role-Playing Game
Chapter 24 – Ultima Online (1997): Putting the Role-Play back in Computer Role-Playing Games
Chapter 25 – Zork (1980): Text Imps versus Graphics Grues

Bonus Web Chapters
Defender (1980): The Joys of Difficult Games
Elite (1984): Space, the Endless Frontier
Pinball Construction Set (1982): Launching Millions of Creative Possibilities
Pong (1972): Avoid Missing Game to Start Industry
Robotron: 2084 (1982): Running Away while Defending Humanoids
Rogue (1980): Have @ You, You Deadly Z’s
Spacewar! (1962): The Best Waste of Time in the History of the Universe
Star Raiders (1979): The New Hope
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (1999): Videogame Ollies, Grabs and Grinds

Index


---

Vintage Games: An Insider Look at the History of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, and the Most Influential Games of All Time, is now available for pre-order from Amazon (only $23.07 at the moment, US!) and many of the other top national and international retail locations you'd expect.

Keep in mind that the expected release date is roughly March 2009 (the publisher wants it for GDC 2009).

Thanks for all your support and we'll continue to keep everyone updated.

 

[gerrydoire]

Dune ii

Dune ii

Chapter 06 – Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty (1992): Spicing up Strategy in Real Time


One of the best games to come out!

 

[Bill_Loguidice]

Chapter 06 – Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty (1992): Spicing up Strategy in Real Time


One of the best games to come out!

It was definitely difficult choosing what RTS game to focus the chapter on, but it's hard to argue with Dune II's importance and the fact that it was the first to really bring all the modern elements we expect in such games together.

 

[Bill_Loguidice]

Gateway page for Vintage Games book

Gateway page for Vintage Games book

I have put up a preliminary gateway page for "Vintage Games", which will be the go-to page referenced in the book and going forward for all future bonus content. Check it out here: http://www.armchairarcade.com/vintagegames

I have also put up an early "praise" page for the book, here (also referenced on the gateway page): http://armchairarcade.com/neo/node/2218 . You should see some familiar names on there providing much appreciated testimonials.

This will probably be the last update until the middle of January when Gamasutra publishes the first bonus chapter, "Pong (1972): Avoid Missing Game to Start Industry". I can't wait for you all to check it out, as that's the best way to see what the book is all about - by receiving the exact type of content that you'll get in the book without giving away anything that's in the book.

I'd love to hear any comments, so either comment here or on Armchair Arcade. Thanks everyone!

(by the way, I should have more announcements over the next month or two about more books that will be worked on in 2009!)

 

[Unknown_K]

What do you think of Tribes? I think it was the first FPS that had an inside and outside of a building perspective, jetpacks, vehicles to ride, great team play. Played that game all the time until Unreal Tournament came around.

I agree on Dune II for RTS, that game got me hooked the second I played it (have a boxed copy for the pc on 3.5" floppies next to me).

 

[Bill_Loguidice]

What do you think of Tribes? I think it was the first FPS that had an inside and outside of a building perspective, jetpacks, vehicles to ride, great team play. Played that game all the time until Unreal Tournament came around.

It's certainly significant and still has many fans today, but we actually didn't mention a great deal of other FPS games in the Doom chapter. The focus on the Doom chapter and the reason why Doom was chosen over Wolfenstein 3D, which is also mentioned in the Castle Wolfenstein chapter, is that Doom was really the first FPS to bring all the basic modern elements together, including the control scheme, multiplayer and the ability to mod it. Starsiege might be a good one to mention though if we ever get to do an expanded revision where we get more pages.

 

[Unknown_K]

DOOM pretty much started the home networking craze so people could do multiplayer. I still remember setting up an IPX network with coax running up 2 stairways and in and out of rooms so all my friends could kill each other on the weekend.

 

[Bill_Loguidice]

DOOM pretty much started the home networking craze so people could do multiplayer. I still remember setting up an IPX network with coax running up 2 stairways and in and out of rooms so all my friends could kill each other on the weekend.

Agreed and that was pretty much where we went with part of the chapter.

I'm trying to recall the first game I played specifically online against someone. It might have been as late as Diablo if you don't count BBS games, though I may have to think a bit harder...