LudoScience

History of videogames (overall history)

Author(s) : Frédéric Sanchez
Editor : Editions RétroLand
Publication date : 11-05-2014
Language : french

This book is based on a unique idea: reviewing the history of video games in France between 1974 and 2013 through the "news" briefs published in video games magazines. This first volume is solely focused to news related to video games consoles. The author has selected many news related to the most interesting or odd stories from the last 40 years: release of a console, an accessory, a special issue of magazine, a tv show, public drama, games collector editions, etc. Each chapter of the book is dedicated to one year, and gathers many small texts (4-10 lines) written by the author. These texts allow us to live or remember a wild and rich history. The book is easy and pleasant to read, and also features many beautiful pictures. Almost each piece of news is illustrated with a colored picture, and each page of the book also offers a "column" of screenshots from games released at the time. The overall page layout is very well done. While I would complain about the author sometimes relying too much on his own biased opinion regarding some pieces of news, overall the book is very instructive. Although it's not an "in-depth" book, it makes us rediscover some forgotten piece of history (anyone remembers the "French Video Game Federation" ?), while remaining accessible to the casual reader. It's an excellent introduction the history of video game in France.