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daftman's Blog
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On 02/28/2020 at 05:11 PM,
by daftman
I've been a big fan of Jeremy Parish ever since the 1UP days when he was the guy that liked portable and retro games. He has always been very good about putting his content out as physical books, an extravegance in this digital age that weirdos like me greatly appreciate. I have quite a few of his Gamespite Quarterlies but here I wanted to highlight two books. First is Good Nintentions (the predecessor to his current NES Works youtube series, which has accompanying books), an exhaustive look at the NES library. How many times have I been through thorough information about the NES era of gaming and yet still I find it fascinating. The other is The Anatomy of Castlevania, a deep dive into the NES trilogy. Basically he walks through each level of the games—with pictures!—showing the underlying design and why it's so brilliant. As a long-time fan of Castlevania, this book was super interesting to read.
On 02/28/2020 at 05:09 PM,
by daftman
Hardcore Gaming 101 is a great resource covering a ridiculously wide range of games. Surely you're all familiar with them! They have collectively put out quite a few books, of which I have two. The Guide to Classic Graphic Adventures is HUGE and was a Christmas gift I received several years ago. Every now and then I pull it out and read a few entries, which sets me up to finish it sometime next decade, I think. It's especially interesting for me because I know so little about the genre. The other is about Treasure, the idiosyncratic Japanese action game developer—one of my all-time favorite developers. I've only scratched the surface on this one but I'm excited to dive deeper into it. Treasure still exists but is not actively developing new games anymore. I miss the days when we got new Treasure games.
On 02/26/2020 at 08:46 PM,
by daftman
Taking a step deeper into our beloved hobby passed history and the broader gaming scene leads us to how individual games are made. Blood, Sweat, and Pixels is a delightful read that covers an interesting spread of games, including The Witcher 3 and Stardew Valley. I am interested to see how Jason Schreier follows it up. Making Fun is a recent acquisition that I have not started yet. The author, David Craddock, is quite prolific in the game space and does not usually get his due, I feel. He does good work.
On 02/25/2020 at 11:26 PM,
by daftman
Tangentially related to yesterday's post, these two books deal more specifically with Japan. Chris Kohler's book Power-Up deals some with history but also the broader gaming scene in Japan, including interviews with well-known game creators. I have not had a chance to read this one yet. The other book here, which I have been slowly working through, is about hilariously bad game translations and, most interesting of all, the logic or cultural mores that lead to some of these seemingly brain dead decisions.
On 02/24/2020 at 08:40 AM,
by daftman
For those of us whose interest in games goes beyond just playing them, these two books are fascinating reads. Game Over chronicles the rise of Nintendo and its dominance of the 8-bit market (the tale of how Nintendo came to possess the Tetris license is particularly interesting) whereas Console Wars covers Sega's assault on that dominance with the Genesis. The book adopts an odd narative style, as if it were a novel rather than a historical account, but the information it purveys is great stuff. Neither book is perfect—Game Over, published in 1993, is colored by the Japanophobia of the time and Console Wars has a little hero worship going for Tom Kalinski, Sega of America's president during the majority of the Genesis era—but together they provide a great starting point for the amateur game historian.
On 02/21/2020 at 02:32 PM,
by daftman
The game Song of the Deep holds a special place in my heart. I picked it up right before the birth of my first daughter (#3 in the overall line up) and my memories of it are tied to that stressful but happy time. For Christmas that year my wife got me the novelization and later I found the Pop figure and vehicle for way under market value and grabbed that too (game, novel, and Pop make a nice display). The novel (which I have read!) is aimed at a younger age set and is certainly not as strong as the game but I enjoyed it all the same, swimming again through those memories of when our family first became five people.
