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The Console: 50 Years of Home Video Gaming
THE CON50LE is a comprehensive yet conversational account of 50 years of home video gaming history, leaving no rarely sighted system unturned and providing a chronological account of the evolution of the biggest entertainment medium in the world. From the earliest consoles of the 1970s to the cutting-edge machines of the here and now, a line is drawn from one man’s eureka moment to the multi-billion-dollar global industry of today. All the well-known names and massive-selling consoles are the Nintendo Entertainment System, the SEGA Mega Drive, the Atari 2600, the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 2. But there’s plenty of room for hardware that many a gamer won’t have heard of before, from Japan-only releases and home computer conversions to ill-advised experiments with VHS and all manner of micro-console magic. Learn about the creators and their inspirations, the games that made the biggest consoles’ eternal reputations, and the failures and flops along the way. Even the consoles that came and went without notable commercial success left a mark, an imprint, on this compelling history – and THE CON50LE unravels it, explains it, one fascinating machine at a time.
192 pages, Hardcover
Published April 21, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 23, 2024
There is something rather comforting in realising that I am as old as the TV Video Game Console. The first, according to Mike Diver's meticulously researched book, was the Magnavox Odyssey, which beat me by a few months in the USA (1972), but I beat its 1974 European release. The Console starts there and ends with a retrogaming console the Evercade VS - which is not a bad place to end with a machine that is largely about nostalgia in itself. Along the way, the book takes its waves of Japanese and US companies battling for supremacy, and in its own story you can see pretty much how capitalism works, lots of contenders whittling themselves down to three big players and few oddities. This is a snapshot history of Nintendo, the PlayStation and Xbox, and the rise and fall of Atari and Sega, while also throwing in a few fun cul-de-sacs like the Vectrex and even a decent history of user interface and controller design.
The book is set up chronologically with a photo of the console and a brief facts box before Diver tells us a bit of context about the company, the machine, and how it did in its market. The profiles of the consoles fit nicely in the world of existing gaming journalism, trying to pitch between readers who will be bringing their own knowledge to the book, but trying to broaden that picture. It knows that most people will flick to the pages with the consoles they have owned on it, and Diver is broadly positive about most machines, only occasionally pointing out technical flaws if they damaged the chances of the machine. He's a little more honest about the market and marketing, the Wii U gets a bit of a bashing for example, but then the Switch and Wii get effusive praise; basically, the Nintendo story here is the only way this stays interesting if you were to read it as a narrative.
This is more than just a coffee table book, though it is very attractive and easy to dip in and out of. The write-ups vary from one page to five depending on how important/interesting the machines are, and each comes with a few of the must-play games for the consoles - in itself an interesting history of gaming. The only thing missing for me was something resembling a screenshot to illustrate how graphic capabilities have changed and that would certainly have started to get boring over the last fifteen years so I understand why it isn't there. A must-have for avid console gamers, it is also pretty interesting for the rest of us and on the side doesn't do a bad job at telling a slice of artistic history of the world.
The book is set up chronologically with a photo of the console and a brief facts box before Diver tells us a bit of context about the company, the machine, and how it did in its market. The profiles of the consoles fit nicely in the world of existing gaming journalism, trying to pitch between readers who will be bringing their own knowledge to the book, but trying to broaden that picture. It knows that most people will flick to the pages with the consoles they have owned on it, and Diver is broadly positive about most machines, only occasionally pointing out technical flaws if they damaged the chances of the machine. He's a little more honest about the market and marketing, the Wii U gets a bit of a bashing for example, but then the Switch and Wii get effusive praise; basically, the Nintendo story here is the only way this stays interesting if you were to read it as a narrative.
This is more than just a coffee table book, though it is very attractive and easy to dip in and out of. The write-ups vary from one page to five depending on how important/interesting the machines are, and each comes with a few of the must-play games for the consoles - in itself an interesting history of gaming. The only thing missing for me was something resembling a screenshot to illustrate how graphic capabilities have changed and that would certainly have started to get boring over the last fifteen years so I understand why it isn't there. A must-have for avid console gamers, it is also pretty interesting for the rest of us and on the side doesn't do a bad job at telling a slice of artistic history of the world.
December 14, 2023
Pen and Sword provided an early galley for review.
I was the perfect age when the home video game era began. We got an Atari 2600 when I was starting high school. From there, so many other systems came into our homes over the decades - both for myself and my son. Thus, this book instantly appealed to me.
Diver does a great job going back to the very beginning as well as bringing up systems that might not have had as a big of an impact worldwide. I definitely learned a lot of things about the industry and the evolution of the technology. He does a good job with the details, making sure not to bury the reader in the quicksand of technical jargon.
And while this is a book dedicated to the hardware, I did appreciate the additional mentions of key software/games for many of the systems.
I was the perfect age when the home video game era began. We got an Atari 2600 when I was starting high school. From there, so many other systems came into our homes over the decades - both for myself and my son. Thus, this book instantly appealed to me.
Diver does a great job going back to the very beginning as well as bringing up systems that might not have had as a big of an impact worldwide. I definitely learned a lot of things about the industry and the evolution of the technology. He does a good job with the details, making sure not to bury the reader in the quicksand of technical jargon.
And while this is a book dedicated to the hardware, I did appreciate the additional mentions of key software/games for many of the systems.
November 25, 2023
Thank you NetGalley and Pen & Sword for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.
It was really interesting to learn about consoles that are familiar to me as well as some consoles that I've never heard of. It was great to be able to see the progression through the systems up to the technology that we see today. There were some formatting issues with both the text and pictures. There was some jumping around between timelines in each section which did get confusing at times as well. However, it was still a fun read.
It was really interesting to learn about consoles that are familiar to me as well as some consoles that I've never heard of. It was great to be able to see the progression through the systems up to the technology that we see today. There were some formatting issues with both the text and pictures. There was some jumping around between timelines in each section which did get confusing at times as well. However, it was still a fun read.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews