A brief history of video games

In his debut book, gaming journalist Stanton displays encyclopedic knowledge of video game history and, most important, relish for the games themselves. Sidestepping gaming's sociocultural impact-a topic belabored by countless other writers-Stanton focuses on how the games emerged, showing how solitary geniuses, corporate empires, and technological and conceptual developments shaped how games are experienced in all their dazzling variety. Gaming's saga runs the gamut from the first blips and bloops on a monitor-made by a scientist who helped build the nuclear bomb-to cabinet arcade pastimes (Pac-Man, for example) open worlds (Legend of Zelda), builders (SimCity) shooters (Doom), glorious illusions of freedom (Grand Theft Auto) and many others. Built into Stanton's work is the understanding that gaming's popularity comes from its sense of play, through liberating and empowering participants to explore, discover, interact, fail, try again, leap, run, shoot, and ultimately fly. The history threatens to devolve into a parade of worthies, but beautiful screen captures and witty writing spare readers this frustration. VERDICT Gamers will enjoy this book as will people wondering what all the excitement is about.-Michael Rodriguez, Hodges Univ. Lib., Naples, FL © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.