Supercade - Book Review!

[Melooon]

Supercade (2001) - Book Review

I just wanted to do a quick review of this book because some of you might enjoy it! My uncle got it for me for Christmas and firstly its a BIG impressive book, but looking online right now its like 17 euro, so that's a reeeaalllyyy good deal!

Basically its a loose outline of the early history of video games, it has descriptions of some famous games and some interviews with their creators. Both are fine, its interesting that this was made before the retro games scene realy kicked off so all the interviews are like "Wow I'm surprised anyone cares about this", but I think the real benefit is the context it gives some games; it explains them in relation to what was happening at the time which is super useful as someone who did not exist then!

I think more than anything I LOVE the visual style and print format, whoever did the layout really pulled a lot from 80s design catalogues, right down to the way the ink feels on the page is perfect. I pictured it next to a real 80s catalog below for comparison. Its apparently from 2001 and maybe what I like so much is the 2001 vibe mixed with the 80s vibe? Its this super cool mashup of moods and it just exudes cool. (Discamer, I'm not sure if they have the same print quality on newer editions)

Complaints! My big complaint is that its entirely retrospective, its looking backwards without connecting that past much into the future. It is a history book though so I suppose that is to be expected! Again its also from a time before the retro scene, and I would argue being from 2001 its from a time before games got boring? (Although that's a whole other debate!)

Anyway, if you have or get this book, or other books like it Id love to hear your thoughts! Do you find books like this interesting/useful?





EDIT: There is also a newer vision that covers the later years, its quite a bit more though: https://shop.supercade.com/products/supercade-v-2-book-softcover-edition-1?variant=32034555232345

[di]

Galaga!!! *_* <3 <3

This book looks soo cool! Thank you for sharing.

[Kutan]

Oh wow, this looks really nice! I haven't read it obbiously, but I might argue that it's better that it's "looking backwards without connecting that past much into the future," since it's probably aged better as a book.

It is really interesting that it was written in 2001, though. That would be like writing a book now that interviews people that worked on PS2 and Xbox games. They're not really in the realm of vintage yet, they're just old. So yeah, I can see why the people being interviewed would be like, "wow, you guys actually care about this old stuff?" It seems like an interesting read!