Harold Goldberg’s breezy All Your Base Are Belong to Us: How 50 Years of Videogames Conquered Pop Culture delivers a history of video games and their mostly kooky designers. From Pong to Tennis for Two, Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Dungeons & Dragons, Myst, Sims, and Grand Theft Auto, Goldberg explores the growing game industry and the people who developed the astonishing products. Roberta Willaims, Ralph Baer, Nolan Bushnell, Hiroshi Yamauchi, William “Tripp” Hawkins, Dan and Sam Houser, Graeme Devine, and Jason Kapulka are the stars of Goldberg’s book. The video game industry is larger than the television and Hollywood movie industries combined. I found All Your Base Are Belong to Us informative and enlightening. GRADE: B+
Of those you list, I’ve played Pong and Pac-Man. Surprised Space Invaders wasn’t on your list, it was huge back in the day. Of course all the early games were arcade or bar machines… This is one I’ll skip, but thanks for reading it for me.
The stories of those early games like Pong and Pac-Man were fun to read, Rick.
I’ve played very few of them, and usually the slow ones, like golf. I’m glad they weren’t around when I was a kid. I loved playing ball, riding my bike, and messing around down at the crik.
You’re right, Bob. Today’s kids spend a major part of their time playing games. Most of my students are constantly playing ANGRY BIRDS on their cel phones.