Good electronic game books?

Jamtex · Posted: Sun May 06, 2012 6:54 pm Post subject: Good electronic game books?

Are there any good electronic game books that have decent information? A lot of the books do seem to be glorified collection books or copied verbatim from Wikipedia and other sources.

Rik · Posted: Sun May 06, 2012 9:09 pm Post subject:

What kind of information would you like to see in a book?

Something I've toyed with actually doing myself, but wanted it to be something useful more than just a coffee table book of pictures... Mr. Green

davidhorizon · Posted: Mon May 07, 2012 1:33 am Post subject:

NE146 · Posted: Thu May 17, 2012 10:02 am Post subject:

This is a pretty good one for the Nin's G&W line. http://www.pixnlovepublishing......e.tpl.html

Aside from that, I liked this book as a kid. Some don't like it though. Smile

Panic Button · Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 5:09 am Post subject:

Electronic Plastic is THE bible for handheld electronic games. It's got great graphics and though not a completist list of every game, is a great coffee table book on the subject. Unfortunately it's out of print, though there are used copies available on Amazon at a reasonable price.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Electronic-Plastic-J-Gielens/dp/3931126447

Definitely worth buying a copy if you're serious about collecting! And even if you're not!

blanka · Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 11:58 pm Post subject:

This book infected me with the love for handheld games. I rented it at the library a couple of times as a kid. There must have been a dutch version too, at the age of 9 I wasn't able to read this version Wink

.
Now I bought it again. Unfortunately, I could only find these English ones on Amazon. Awesome book. Especially the cut-away drawing of the Galaxy II game, and the section "The future of video games", which is spot on for today's games, even though it was written 1982!

Does anyone know of an alternative to Amazon where you can pay with Paypal? I always have to turn to my GF if I want something from amazon...

NE146 · Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 8:18 am Post subject:

elepla · Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 8:24 am Post subject:

dutch version: Computer Spellen

blanka · Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 12:03 pm Post subject:

That's the one! I see the English came with blue letters too. I have three, but all are red.

Jamtex · Posted: Thu May 24, 2012 3:32 pm Post subject:

As stated Electronic Plastic is a coffee table book, it has nice pictures and impresses people who do not know any better but it is lacking on decent information. Lets be honest it is a book of pictures of a collection... I read it several times and glad I never paid for it.

The Nintendo history book is nice but it really has nothing you cant find with three minutes of google searching as the Nintendo Game and Watch series is probably the most written about (even if most Nintendo handheld sites ignore the Nintendo Mahjong Yakuman game...).

Some of the older books are generally better at content then the newer books but they are rather thin with information, although I borrowed the Osborne book from my local library quite a few times.

I would like to see a decently researched book that has real information, Casio released a lot of games but there are still large gaps with information. Would also like to see a chapter with firsts, ie first watch game, first solar power game, first double screen game, first dual screen game, etc. Would like to see the book concentrate on the manufacteurs and not the OEMs or licencees as when it comes down to it CGL and Grandstand to name two did not release any original games, so should just be a footnote.

Books like this should not have price guides too, as it should be a history book.

Rik · Posted: Thu May 24, 2012 9:19 pm Post subject:

Some of that might be hard info to track down though... Especially the 'firsts'. First watch game, first double screen, etc... Most of them just have the year they were released, and in almost every case there's several released in the same year. Figuring out which one was truly the first might be hard... For some companies (the ones that still exist), there might be a route to follow by contacting the company and seeing if they have any historical records from years ago, but many of these companies no longer exist, and have likely purged anything from storage that's over 10 or 15 years old...

Not saying it wouldn't be a fun challenge. I've also wanted to contact some of the inventors of these games and get a personal history of the development of some of the games... That would be really cool...

I have a great historical presentation on Entex from one of the guys that was there from the beginning helping run the company... I know the inventor of the Microvision system, I can probably get ahold of the inventor of Mattel Football and Parker Bros Wildfire Pinball... I might have to see who else I can track down. Cool

BTW, can you give me a little info about what the article in this magazine is about?
http://www.handheldmuseum.com/BooksMagazines/Mag-Jap_DesignNews/index.html

Not sure if any of the info in that article would be interesting to collectors in general, or if it's just a study of artistic design in the marketplace or something...

Giving me a lot to think about though... Mr. Green

Jamtex · Posted: Fri May 25, 2012 3:46 am Post subject:

I know that some of the information would be hard to find out, but I think it could be simple to guess what games could have been first. It would be nice to read a nice history book that is not Nintendo based or an exercise to show off a collection or to inflate prices of ultra common games.

Be nice to read things about game designers too as well as prototypes and hardware of handhelds. I would love to read about the hardware challenges of using a 4 or 8 bit microcontroller to drive a bunch of LEDs or drive an LCD display.

Regarding the article, do you have a higher quality scan as it is impossible to read the Kanji. For the title for article 4, i read Emikkusu (?) electronic game machine. Exciting design (unreadable kanji) mete(?)

blanka · Posted: Fri May 25, 2012 9:35 am Post subject:

Emikkusu is EMIX, the company behind Bambino, you see it on the pcbs and mcus in the games too.

Rik · Posted: Sat May 26, 2012 12:54 pm Post subject: