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The Golden Age of Video Games
This book focuses on the history of video games, consoles, and home computers from the very beginning until the mid-nineties, which started a new era in digital entertainment. The text features the most innovative games and introduces the pioneers who developed them. It offers brief analyses of the most relevant games from each time period. An epilogue covers the events and systems that followed this golden age while the appendices include a history of handheld games and an overview of the retro-gaming scene.
218 pages, Paperback
First published March 23, 2011
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About the author
Roberto Dillon
18 booksRoberto Dillon was born in Genoa, Italy and holds a Master and a Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Genoa.
Over the years he worked in prestigious academic institutions across Europe and Asia, including KTH in Stockholm, NTU and the DigiPen Institute of Technology in Singapore.
While at DigiPen, he served as an Assistant Professor and Game Design Department Chair, teaching a variety of subjects like Game Mechanics and Game History, with his students gaining top honours at competitions like the IGF both in San Francisco and Shanghai.
He is now an Associate Professor at the Singapore campus of James Cook University where he teaches game design and project management subjects to both undergraduate and graduate students.
Since 2005 Roberto has led high profile research projects on innovative game mechanics and has designed games showcased by the international press and at events like Sense of Wonder Night in Tokyo, FILE Games in Rio de Janeiro and the Indie Prize Showcase at Casual Connect Asia.
In 2011 he founded Adsumsoft, an indie studio developing original games while also offering game design consultancy services.
Besides development and academic activities, Roberto also wrote different books for AKPeters, CRCPress and Springer: "On the Way to Fun" (where he introduced the '6-11 Framework', an analysis methodology now being taught at different universities around the world and used by game designers in studios like Ubisoft, EA, Gameloft etc.), "HTML5 Game Development from the Ground Up with Construct 2", to introduce aspiring developers to the world of game making, "The Golden Age of Video Games" and "Ready. A Commodore 64 Retrospective" about the history of computer games and their industry.
He is also a regular speaker at gaming conferences worldwide, including Game Connection, Casual Connect, Develop, Korea Games Conference, Game Convention Asia, Serious Games Summit, Game Education Summit etc
Over the years he worked in prestigious academic institutions across Europe and Asia, including KTH in Stockholm, NTU and the DigiPen Institute of Technology in Singapore.
While at DigiPen, he served as an Assistant Professor and Game Design Department Chair, teaching a variety of subjects like Game Mechanics and Game History, with his students gaining top honours at competitions like the IGF both in San Francisco and Shanghai.
He is now an Associate Professor at the Singapore campus of James Cook University where he teaches game design and project management subjects to both undergraduate and graduate students.
Since 2005 Roberto has led high profile research projects on innovative game mechanics and has designed games showcased by the international press and at events like Sense of Wonder Night in Tokyo, FILE Games in Rio de Janeiro and the Indie Prize Showcase at Casual Connect Asia.
In 2011 he founded Adsumsoft, an indie studio developing original games while also offering game design consultancy services.
Besides development and academic activities, Roberto also wrote different books for AKPeters, CRCPress and Springer: "On the Way to Fun" (where he introduced the '6-11 Framework', an analysis methodology now being taught at different universities around the world and used by game designers in studios like Ubisoft, EA, Gameloft etc.), "HTML5 Game Development from the Ground Up with Construct 2", to introduce aspiring developers to the world of game making, "The Golden Age of Video Games" and "Ready. A Commodore 64 Retrospective" about the history of computer games and their industry.
He is also a regular speaker at gaming conferences worldwide, including Game Connection, Casual Connect, Develop, Korea Games Conference, Game Convention Asia, Serious Games Summit, Game Education Summit etc
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 14, 2012
I enjoyed reading this because it was both humorous to see the old ads for video games and because I remembered being a kid, playing my favorite Atari games with my family.
However, it took me a long time to get through this very short book because it does become repetitive, it is a little dry, and because it's very generalized in that it doesn't go into any depth over the impact video games have had upon the past three generations of game-developers, gamers, families, schools, etc. It was purely a description of arcade games, consoles and their games, and how they came to be and their trajectory from the university classroom to mainstream culture from the '70's to the mid-90's.
However, it took me a long time to get through this very short book because it does become repetitive, it is a little dry, and because it's very generalized in that it doesn't go into any depth over the impact video games have had upon the past three generations of game-developers, gamers, families, schools, etc. It was purely a description of arcade games, consoles and their games, and how they came to be and their trajectory from the university classroom to mainstream culture from the '70's to the mid-90's.
October 22, 2018
A very fascinating, if not very dry, exploration of video games from their beginnings to the age of the Nintendo DS.
While you will keep reading if you are interested in the business and development of video games, the book read almost like a textbook and could have used more anecdotes to keep casual readers engaged.
Personally, I think the book "Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America" is much better written, even if it has a much narrower focus on only one pioneering company
While you will keep reading if you are interested in the business and development of video games, the book read almost like a textbook and could have used more anecdotes to keep casual readers engaged.
Personally, I think the book "Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America" is much better written, even if it has a much narrower focus on only one pioneering company
March 26, 2024
Overly shallow, it rushes through game history unnecessarily offering at best a strangely abridged (and somewhat oddly organized) high-level overview of gaming companies, their hardware, and a few personalities/luminaries of the industry. Really unclear to me why the author felt the need to rush through history as quickly as possible.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews