What Are Some Good Video Game Books?

Anyone else collect these? And no, I'm not talking about strategy guides, cheat code books, or gaming magazines. I'm talking about real books, or at the very least specials that are published outside of the regular magazine issues.

What are some of your favorites? Share them with us, tell us about them.

Some of my favorites:

2007 Video Game Price Guide

Let me start off by saying, yeah, it's woefully out-of-date. And the prices were questionable to begin with. Unfortunately, there's not a newer edition out there, that I know of (if there is, PLEASE point me in the right direction). But what makes this book so cool, is that it has a very large listing of games over a large number of systems. So for collector's out there, it's a fantastic resource for tracking down games and using it as a wantlist and check-off list as your hunting down those coveted games.

High Score! The Illustrated History of Electronic Games

This book is just freaking awesome. It covers the history of the gaming industry as a whole as opposed to just focusing on one company or generation like many other books do. This quite an ambitious goal, and surprisingly they do a pretty good job at it. They get interviews and direct-quotes from programmers and management from various hardware and software developers from years past. They do their research, and it shows. I learned a ton from this book, and I'm pretty knowledgable about the gaming industry in the 70s-90s. It's got a great print quality to it, as well, with large glossy pages, and full color photos and screenshots throughout it. If you ever come across this pick, get it, it's a MUST-HAVE for cIassic gamers.

There's a few books in particular I'm looking at on Amazon, that I was wondering if anyone has read and could tell me if they're any good:

• 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die
• Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America
• The Ultimate History of Video Games

Do you have any favorites you want to share?

Sorry man no, I do like to collect strategy guides though.

Vintage Games by Matt Barton & Bill Loguidice is a good one.

The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon--The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World, which is by Steven L. Kent.

I recently finished reading it, and I enjoyed the book a lot. It was interesting and I learned some things about the video game industry's past. It starts with like pinball and works its way up to the launch of the PS2, GC, Dreamcast. I got my copy on amazon.

Ultimate History of Video Games

Replay (another history)

Masters of DOOM (Carmack & Romero make History)

Agreed, i own guiness book of world records "gamers edition 2008" and its great! ive read it many times.

The Guinness Book of World Records: Gamer's Edition 2012 is FULL of gamer-pleasing content. Bought it a couple days ago. It's a mixed bag for me seeing as it's CoD and WoW-type game crap mixed with the nostalgic bits.

Oh, I thought you wanted video game novels.

The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon--The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World, which is by Steven L. Kent.

I recently finished reading it, and I enjoyed the book a lot. It was interesting and I learned some things about the video game industry's past. It starts with like pinball and works its way up to the launch of the PS2, GC, Dreamcast. I got my copy on amazon.

lazyhoboguy

this book is awesome

I'd be interested in the 1001 Games Before You Die as I've read a few others in the "1001 Before You Die" series and they were good.

I want the Guiness Gamers Edition but I flipped through it in a store and there were more than a few mistakes that I noticed which irritated me. The only one I can remember off the top of my head was listing Leon Kennedy as having been around since Resident Evil 1. It bothers me that they would overlook that and makes me question everything else in the book. Maybe it's trivial but it bothered me enough not to buy it.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyi82hDCF6M

But in all seriousness, this book analyzes the philosophical meanings of the Zelda series, it's characters, stories, and timeline. It's a great read.