LudoScience

History of videogames (focused book)

Author(s) : Olivier Richard, Alain Kahn
Editor : Pika Edition
Publication date : 02-17-2010
Language : french

This books tells the history of Player One, a French magazine dedicated to home videogames and manga, alongside with its various spin-offs such as Nintendo Player, Ultra Player, Manga Player and Player Station. Thanks to the interviews with most of the journalists who wrote for it, this 300 pages books gathers a lot of unique information. It starts with an introduction detailing the arrival of Manga and Anime in France, a context in which a company called Média Système Edition first launched Amstrad CPC magazine. It continued in September 1990 with the release of Player One, that will host journalists like Crevette, Matt Murdock, Wonder Fra, El Didou, Goombas... Besides a detailed history of the magazine life, that greatly helped videogames and manga to be recognized in France, this captivating book achieves to share the unique working environment of Player One editorial board: reviewers playing games all night long to write walkthroughs; homemade techniques to capture screenshot from CRT television sets; the fight for exclusive news; the first TV game shows in France; the videogames conventions; and of course the various journalist feuds! The books also explores the way videogames and manga went, from 1990 to 2010, to being an unknown leisure for freaks to a popular and nationwide culture in France. More than the history of one of the most important French videogaming magazine, this excellent book delivers a testimony of the long quest for recognition of videogames and manga in the French society.