Bill_Loguidice
Veteran Member
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
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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.
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.