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1. Excellent value
   Nice historic overview of video gaming systems and games. Tells the story of how we got to where we are with today’s technology. Recommend to the casual/beginner gaming fan as a nice coffee book/light read if interested in this subject material.

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2. Quick Enjoyable Read
   Having lived through the growth of gaming era, this was a fun walk through the past. My first gaming experiences came from playing the arcade game Space Invaders and a first time two-and-a-half-hour binge on Pac-Man, where a buddy of mine and I played so long and hard we rubbed the skin off our pointing fingers and developed blisters. Fanatics aren’t born, they are created.Author Charlie Fish’s book starts way before my initial experiences, opening the door to a time when games were birthed in companies and at universities. The book is nicely split into sensible chapters, which include platforms, the most important creators, companies and marketing, gender representation, and the games themselves. His choice to break the games discussion into decades was a good idea, as the gamer universe is huge and recent games would have dwarfed their ancestors. This enabled a balanced view of the games most popular in the 80s, 90s, etc. I also enjoyed the numerous colored pictures of the various consoles and games.There is a nice Reference section at the end for those who wish to explore further (although noting the specific articles a publication offered would have been more helpful). The book doesn’t go so deep in depth that the reader becomes bored. It constantly moves forward in a whimsical sort of way, making it a book one could easily read in a day or less. While I might have wished for more, what I got was good enough to more than satisfy. Five stars.

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3. A Truly Informative and Enjoyable Trip Down Memory Lane
   If you have even the slightest interest in the evolution of the video games that you now enjoy, or if you want an engaging journey through the past, renewing the memories of those games that captivated you in your youth ‘The History of Video Games’ by Charlie Fish is a must.Beyond a fascinating exploration of the companies that arose as the gaming industry evolved, you get an in depth look into the personalities of the entrepreneurial pioneers who created this industry… the competition, costs and profits leading to the winners and losers. In addition, the cultural issues continuing to impact the video gaming genre including violence and sexism are addressed as well as video games as an art form in and of itself. And there is more.Within its colorful hard cover, every page of this scholarly volume is packed with color photos documenting the progression of the hardware (the handhelds and those monolithic consoles you stood in front of) and software creations that challenged your mental and digital acumen along with endless screen shots of your favorite characters and challenging dilemmas from Pong and Pac-Man to Temple Run and Red Dead Redemption 2 and everything in between (including my favorites Space Invaders and Donkey Kong).Thank you, Charlie for a fun and fascinating read.

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