Consumer video games, as everyone knows, are spun from the original coin-op machines and are often targeted for the death of our industry’s golden age. But that business had its troubles as well and struggled through the early ’90s until Sony came along with their PlayStation and kicked home video into the high gear it still very much enjoys.
Author Steven Kent, who has written extensively about the sport over the years, has recently released his exhausting The Ultimate History of Video Games Vol. 2 on the Crown Publishing label. When we say “exhausting,” we aren’t kidding.
The 562-page tome is a brilliant, deeply researched piece that seems to leave no stone unturned for homevid geeks and others those who love that craft and the businesspeople and main events that brought it to its billion-dollar level.
For coin-op people, there’s even a 62-page chapter on the decline and return of arcades, albeit mostly at the FECs. Kent closes the chapter off, saying: “More arcades are opening than closing these days. The golden age of the eighties isn’t coming back, but a Renaissance may be in the offing.”
Interested? Check your local bookseller or visit crownpublishing.com.