TUHOVG is a long and intriguing book that covers the earliest interactive computer experiments and progresses pseudo-chronologically through each major movement up to the start of the new millennium. The account provided for the early years of gaming is particularly detailed and well crafted while the details on gaming history post-80's lacks the same luster. Kent's "History" is more a history of the business decisions and financial climates under which the gaming industry thrived and suffered and much less an account of the particular games, game designers, and technological breakthroughs that marked the milestones in the progression of the art form. Ultimately, Kent provides the reader with a wealth of research and interviews, warranting the 4-star rating given by this reviewer. While Kent steers clear of pandering to the hardcore gamer crowd in this volume, he also proves to lack deep or unique insights into the nature of the Video Game form.

great reading I would have given this 5 stars but there were hardly any pics of any of the retro game machines ,and I think more could have been written about atari I mean it was the company that started it all.
It kind of seemed geared more to nintendo in my opinion with chapter after chapter devoted to them .but all in all a good read .

I think this book should be renamed to "The Ultimate History of ME!" cause it pretty much tells the story of my life growing up with consoles and trips to the arcade.

It's a wealth of knowledge, the most concise history of video games you'll find out there - and best of all it's a fun, exciting read. The size can be a bit intimidating, but any fans of video games will fly right through this.

Highly recommended for any former video game addicts from the 80's like myself!

Having been playing games since 1989, when I was four years old, I feel like video game history is a part of my own personal history. I picked this book up to satisfy my nostalgic needs, but I do have a few problems with it that left me wanting more. First off, I want to say that this book is a quick and easy read, and it is incredibly informative about the history of console and arcade games, ranging from the origins of company histories, to the Atari, all the way to the Playstation 2. I learned a lot of interesting little tidbits of information packed away in video game history that I've never even heard working at a game store for the last year.

Now on to my problems with the book...the biggest one is that I've been more into computer games than consoles since Doom came out in 1993, and this book is severely lacking in any PC Gaming storyline. The book does talk about DOOM revolutionizing the 3d graphics in computer games, and details a little bit about "Doom clones" such as Duke 3D and Quake, then says nothing about PC games for the rest of the book. What the heck! As if Age of Empires, Warcraft, Diablo, Everquest, Ultima Online, or any other '90s computer game wasn't as important as the countless Mario and Sonic sequels!

Another problem with the book: It's seven years old! A lot has happened since then. Update, please!

All in all, this book is a must-have for anyone that grew up on Mario and Sonic. The book focuses more on the successes and failures of the companies involved (Atari, Activision, Nintendo, Sega, etc.) than the evolution of gameplay, but not so much that it loses the average sitting-in-front-of-the-TV gamer. I just wish out of 624 pages the author could've dedicated more to PC games, and that an update would come out soon.

Very Sad I wasted the money on this book.

It has some good factual material and seems to be complete...but comparing against other video game history books...this one is dry.

Very few black and white pictures...

This book will put you to sleep...sorry just not happy with this one.

As others have stated, this book truly lives up to its name. Jam-packed with more information than you can imagine, all written in a lively, entertaining style. Set aside plenty of time though - you won't be able to put it down!

Bottom Line: An absolute must-own for any gamer. Period.

The book is really good, although I think at the beginning it focuses only in the Atari point of view, a lil incomplete but hey, you could write an entire encyclopedia about gaming and it would still be short.

But still if you are a gamer or a businessman, this is a must have, must read and must memorize.

I'm a vintage game geek. I loved video games from my first Magnavox home system, through my Atari, NES, up to my PS2. I grew up in an arcade at my local shopping mall. I've not moved on to the current systems because life (mainly job and wife) kind of make growing up a necessity. However I've always had fond memories for those early gaming years. Now that you know where I'm coming from, it'll give a little background to my review.

This is a very well researched and written account of the birth and growth of the video game industry. I've read this book cover to cover and truly did enjoy the in-depth history and annectdotes that is put forth in the book. But I can't say enough how much I was really wanting this book to be THE definitive book on the video/arcade game culture. That should include far more photos and captures from the games themselves. This book lacks severely for photos at all! The book reads a lot like a text book, but I think some re-formatting to something even like Jon Stewart's "America" text would actually benefit this book. In fact, I'd be willing to pay the increased cost to have such a book.

That said, you will certainly come away from this book with a cool understanding of how the industry ebbed and flowed over the years. If you are prone to setting down a book that is pretty wordy, you may want to think twice about this book, but know that you will be missing a lot of the inside story that connects so much from the past to the present.

Hope that gives you some good information to make an informed purchase.

The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon--The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World This book is brilliant,
It tells you everything you want to know about how the videogame industry started, and how it grew to become what it is today.

Awesome book and is fun to read.

This book is absolutely great. The author clearly loves the golden age of the arcade era. Very well written, a lot of neat insights especially regarding Atari. I simply could not put this book down. The best video game/arcade retrospective ever written.

This is a pacy and enjoyable book that takes the reader on a journey from the earliest days of the games industry to the arrival of the Xbox (around 2001). It's mostly written from a business perspective and you get a good sense of the wheeling and dealing that went on behind the scenes. References are made to certain games but really if that's what you're after then you'd be far better of with The Video Games Guide. The writer clearly conducted a lot of interviews to help enliven the history and although he devotes an inordinate number of pages to Nolan Bushnell and Atari some of the anecdotes are priceless (love to hear about the execs who passed on Pole Position).

The final impression left on me by "The Ultimate History of Video Games" is that I was actually reading two different books--one on the early history of video games (up to about the time the NES was released) and one on the late 80s to turn of the century era. The first half or so of this book is obviously a labor of love, and though it does have its limitations the narrative is both smooth and engaging. The book is not exceptionally well written, but throughout the pre-video game era and all through the Atari years Kent manages to weave a narrative that is entertaining and reads well.

A host of quotes from firsthand sources is peppered throughout the narrative, and most of them serve to add to rather than detract from the overall quality of the book. Nolan Bushnell, Al Alcorn, and many others provide anecdotes and relate the early history of video games from the point of view of those who made it happen. The pre-video game era, the rise of Atari, the coin-op arcade business, and the advent of home console gaming is all chronicled here.

But then something happens to the narrative. Around the time Nintendo breaks into the console market with the Famicom the details become more sparse. Short blurbs about the Super NES pop up before the NES has even hit American shores, and entire chapters on litigation, with very little narrative and mostly lifted from transcripts, bog the story down. It seemed to me that I could almost feel Kent losing interest in the project, and my own interest tapered and then almost completely left as well.

The quotes are still there, but the overall feel of the book goes from a man telling the story through the eyes of the people who lived it to that of a high school book report. That may seem harsh, but the "and then this happened, and then this happened..." quality of the mid 80s through mid 2001 years left a great deal to be desired. Some of the most significant developments in gaming are glossed over with surprising indifference, and anyone who hoped to relive their glory days of gaming will be disappointed if those days occurred in the days of Nintendo, Sega, or Sony consoles.

It's hard to blame this entirely on Kent, of course, since the industry expanded so much during the late 80s and 90s that it's difficult to imagine being able to cover things with the level of detail and attention given to the 70s and first half of the 80s. Still, many of the omissions are glaring and, in my mind, inexcusable. While Sega's war with Nintendo during the Genesis/Super NES days is covered, very few games for those systems receive any attention whatsoever. Sonic, Mario, and Donkey Kong are covered, of course, but most everything else is either given scant treatment or is omitted entirely. Golden Axe is mentioned in passing, the Final Fantasy series is eventually given a couple pages (but not until he mentioned Squaresoft's defection from Nintendo to Sony). Kent leaves out the fact that there were Zelda games for both the Super NES and the N64 and forgets to mention Super Mario Kart as one of Nintendo's titles for the Super NES (he does mention Mario Kart 64 without pointing out that it was a sequel). Starfox is mentioned in passing or in a caption somewhere, and I think I saw the name 'Megaman' twice.

In addition, "Ultimate History" does not deign to discuss PC gaming with anything but a passing nod in the PC's direction. Myst and 7th Guest are mentioned, and Wolfenstein and later Doom are brought up a few times (mostly in conjunction with video game violence), but that's about it. Fans of such enormously popular franchises such as Civilization, Quake, Command and Conquer, anything made by Blizzard (Diablo, Warcraft, Starcraft, etc), Age of Empires, or the Star Wars universe will no doubt wonder why their games are not considered part of the 'Ultimate History' of the video game industry, but this question will go unanswered. Online gaming, which was already very popular when this book was published in 2001, is ignored entirely.

In short, "The Ultimate History of Video Games" is anything but ultimate. I realize that the title was the idea of the publisher, but in my mind the author, who is very familiar with the industry, should never have conceded to label the book an 'ultimate history.' In fact, I think Kent should have ended his narrative when the NES console burst onto the scene and billed it as the ultimate history of pre NES video games. To that I would have conceded, and would have given the first part of the book 4 stars if I could have. The second half deserves no more than 2 (and I'm being fairly generous) and in my opinion drags this book down from something worth owning to something barely worth finishing. It's obvious the passion infused in the early part of the book is gone, which is a shame--the first few hundred pages of this book are a great source of video gaming history.

This book is very detailed and well done. It is 600 pages. I think a minor typo (p561) is that Playstation DVD hold 8GB or 17GB dual layer, I believe it is half that (4.7 GB and 9 GB). I also think a fun "fact" that wasn't mentioned in the book is that Donkey Kong Country on the SNES was thought to be the Ultra64 (N64) demo at the show. Otherwise, very in depth, lots of insights into the beginning of pre-pong games, creation of companies like Atari, etc., up to PS2 and Xbox timeframe. This took me a little over 8 hours to read cover-to-cover, but I was always very interested since I grew up playing a lot of arcade games, and enjoy home consoles too.

Not for the casual retro fan. This book goes deep - deep into the personal ins and outs of the early video game history. Would be better if there are more photos spread over the book. In all, a good read about the people rather than the actual games.

This is a very in-depth and comprehensive look at the development and boom of video games from their beginnings in the 70's to the rise of Playstation in the 90's. It focuses a lot on the stories of game creators and briefly hits on a lot of great games from all across the board. It does a good job of giving behind the scenes stories of video companies and game desigeners. If you want an interesting history of the personalities that shaped the video game industry this is it. If you want more info about individual games, more pictures, and more focus, this book will probably wear you out or bore you.

It starts a little bit slow, but if you bear with Mr. Kent this book will eventually grow on you and you won't be able to let go until the bitter end.
I just would have liked a little more information on the more recent consoles and game designers/programmers, as it focuses heavily on the pioneers of the industry, and the arcade side of the business (thus the "falling star", from 5 to 4...).

A great book, though, and an easy recommendation to anyone interested not only in videogames but in the "videogame's culture".

I found this book very easy to read and entertaining. It gives a wonderful insight into the video game industry circa early 1970's through around 2000. Wonderful interviews with the "big hitters" of the industry including the creator of Atari, the person who headed up Nintendo of America, etc. Well worth the price.

Video games have been an industry that has gotten more than it's fair share of flack. "They cause lazyness, truency, they are violent, etc." The thing people forget though is that video games are FUN. The industry itself has become a mammoth, racking in millions and joining the film and music industries as one of the big players in the entertainment business. The book is a big, retrospective analysis of the history of electronic games, from there humble beginnings at M.I.T. to the contributions by the "video pioneers" Nolan Bushnell and Ralph Baer. The book highlights some of notable points in the ride, such as:
-The pinball business and how the success of pinball in the 70's made way to the transition of video arcades.
-"Pong" and how it's success broke the initial game installed at a bar in California due to coin overflow by the games popularity.
-The yen shortage in Japan caused by "Space Invaders"
-Atari, how it was the fatest growing company in the world, and became an arcade giant and the first successful home system company despite Nolan Bushnells liberal views on running a business (whirlpool board meetings, pot-smoking employees, a beer keg in his office)
-The food that inspired Pac-Man, the greatest video game of all time.
-The Golden Age of video games in the 80's, followed by the "video game depression" in 1983.
-PC computers and the games created for them (Commodore, Apple, Amiga, etc.)
-Nintendo, the game that saved the company, and how it brought back video games in the mid 80's with the NES, a robot, a toy gun, and a game with the main character named after the company landlord.
-The Nintendo/Sega war during the 90's
-The creation of the ratings board for video games due to games such as "Mortal Kombat".
-The new generation of video game systems with the X-box and Playstation systems.
-Many of the lawsuits and influential court cases caused by video games (ex. Tetris, Game Genie, etc.)

This book is a ton of fun to read, and with many interviews with some of the best in the business, it's a book that is also informative. Bravo Steve Kent on a job well done!

In many ways, this book may be misrepresented to people. Its not simply "hey, remember how awesome this game was?" type of book, nor does it look at games from a technical side (though technology is featured at times). This is more to do with the social impact of games. As such, it does not spend excessive time on the failed consoles, or failed games (though the exception can be made for the Atari-buster known as E.T.).
Its a very useful book, I'm using it for a college class! Its probably the first 'text book' i'll actually look forward to keeping! The book is about as comprehinsive as one volume can be (and obviously, books like High Score and Game Over will complement this book). It is comprehensive, and exhaustive, as there are many excerpts from the people that made the games, and changed the world of home entertainment. A great book, when teamed up with a personal history of video games, this can shed some light on the people and events behind the games.

This book covers over 600 pages of entertainment history, starting at the beginning of the previous century up until the year 2001. It tells about the development of the entertainment business from the early novelty games and the development of the pinball machine, through the invention of the first computer and television games to the rise and fall (and rise again) of the coin-operated video game arcades which eventually lead to the development of game consoles and hand held computer games. Many of the well known and lesser known companies are present: Atari, CapCom, Sega, Nintendo, Namco, Activision, Electronic Arts, Coleco, Commodore, Mattel, Rare, etc.

The book reads as a novel and the story is told by the people who made video gaming history, through interviews held by the author. There are many anecdotes and quotes that really paint the picture of this colorful history, which will coincide with the history of many of this book's readers, making the book that more interesting to read.

There is a small section of 9 pages with black-and-white pictures showing some of the people who played a significant role in video gaming history. Also there are enticing pictures of a "centipede" assembly hall and a storage facility full of "donkey kong" games; cabinets that are now very hard to find in good condition.

Less glamourous but certainly part of history are the chapters about court cases and congressional investigations into violence, and the reactions of the game mannufacturing community.

Towards the end the book is more about the business than the actual games, listing the numbers consoles sold and the amount of money earned by some of the leading companies. This gets boring and while offering insight into the relative successes, it does not hold much historic value.

American and Japanese readers will probably not notice, but Europe is hardly mentioned in this book, leaving readers from this part of the world feeling underappreciated. While Europe played an important part in video gaming history, especially when America's video game business was failing, almost of none of this information is contained in this book. Even events, like the following, that played a major role aren't even hinted at:

"By 1980, Magnavox had become a subsidiary of North American Philips (NAP), a Dutch electronics conglomerate. As a result, Philips released the European equivalent of the Odyssey² (the Videopac G7000) under its own company name. The Phillips Videopac G7000 was more successful than its American counterpart. There were many different versions of the system around the world, and one version (the G7200) even had a built-in monitor.

"The G7000 inspired a larger following and enjoyed a longer life span in Europe than the Odyssey² ever had in the U.S. As a result, more games were created for the European market. If anything, the console enjoyed an even greater following when it was released in Brazil, where it was called simply the Odyssey. Brazil was treated to practically the entire release library of both the U.S. and Europe, and received a couple of exclusive titles (Clay Pigeon! and Comando Noturno!) as well.

(quote from www.classicgaming.com, 2004)

The lack of complete information is compensated by a strong focus on Atari and Nintendo. Although these companies obviously played an important part in the history of computer games, it appears to be a slightly skewed representation of the entire playing field.

Apart from that I give the book a big thumbs up for detailing a very important part of history and being so well written.