LudoScience

History of videogames (focused book)

Author(s) : Fabien Mellado & collectif
Editor : Retro Playing
Publication date : 04-20-2014
Language : french

A 260 pages book dedicated to the history of the Genesis / Megadrive, the famous 16 bits Sega home console. The book is divided in 4 sections. The first one details the birth of the machine, while the second one is focused on the ads used by Sega to promote it ("Genesis Does!"). The third section presents a selection of emblematic Genesis titles. Each game is described over a single page with a short text and several screenshots. As this section is organized chronologically, it's a great way to realize how the game releases quality improved over time, 1992 and 1993 clearly being the best years of this console! Finally, the fourth section tackles the "legacy" of the console, by exploring the evolution of its two main series, namely Sonic and Streets of Rage, and by analyzing the influence of Genesis in pop culture. While some of its aspects are quite amateurish (layout errors, some low-quality pictures, and some texts lacking a bit of depth), this book is very pleasant to read, and its authors are clearly passionate about the subject. While it's not an as in-depth a book as Service Games: The Rise & Fall of SEGA, it's also way easier to read and richly illustrated, making it accessible to a larger audience. Last but not least, this book is sold upon a "free pricing" model, as Retro Playing editions is a non-profit organization. An original move that must be rewarded by reading this book!