LudoScience

History of videogames (focused book)

Author(s) : Damien Djaouti, Régis Monterrin, Collectif
Editor : Editions Pix'n Love
Publication date : 01-07-2016
Language : french

This book details the history of two legendary game consoles, both released in 1994. The 300 pages are divided in two parts. The first part tells with great details the history of the PlayStation, and the making of its 10 most popular games (Wipeout, Tekken, Gran Turismo, Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid…). The second half is dedicated to the history of the Saturn and 10 of its best titles (Nights, Guardian Heroes, Grandia, Panzer Dragoon, Daytona USA…). Despite already abundant writings on this topic, this book delivers a lot of unique and previously unknown information, obtained through many interviews with the people who created these games and these consoles. Among others, we can read how Sony managed to "steal" third party studios from Nintendo and Sega, alongside with the first steps of Sony in the video game world, before the PlayStation. On the SEGA side, we discover how a 2D console project, called "Gigadrive", evolved to the 3D Saturn console we all know. Developer interviews and an analysis of their development kits allow us to understand why the Saturn was supposedly "harder to develop for" than the PlayStation.
N.B.: This book was co-written by a member of Ludoscience.