vanityclear's review against another edition
3.0
Oh, this had so much promise! Chapter One was exquisite, with gamelife and reallife paralleled so beautifully. The dialogue was elliptical, the turns of phrase sharp, the questions astute:
Chapter One circles around an early video game, Suspended, that is entirely language based. Maybe the difference for later chapters is that Suspended is a much more interesting game to read about than the others that Clune describes, though I did enjoy some of his later analysis. Plus, in Chapter One the most important secondary character is Cousin James, whose mother's insanity ties into the game, too, which heightens the significance of both reallife and gamelife as the narrator tries to unpack meaning in both. Unfortunately after Chapter One, the magic disappears, the quality of writing wanes, and the observations become more forced. I grew up on computer games, too, but much of what Clune wrote didn't resonate with me and read like vaguely half-baked aphorisms and false dichotomies ("If the sky is the principle of reality in the computer game, isn't it also the principle of unreality in our world?"). Alas.
ETA: But this game version of the book is pretty cool (mostly because, I must say, it resembles Suspended Ha!)
"That night I imagined myself lying on my bed. Then I took away my hands. Okay, I thought, now I can't feel the bedsheet. But I'm still a person. Then I took away my mouth. I can't talk now, I'm still a person. Then I imagined my ears closing in on themselves like flowers at night. No sounds, but I'm still a person. I took away my eyes. Now I couldn't see myself lying there. I couldn't feel myself in the bed. I couldn't hear anything. I'm a person, I thought. I am a person who can die one trillion times."
Chapter One circles around an early video game, Suspended, that is entirely language based. Maybe the difference for later chapters is that Suspended is a much more interesting game to read about than the others that Clune describes, though I did enjoy some of his later analysis. Plus, in Chapter One the most important secondary character is Cousin James, whose mother's insanity ties into the game, too, which heightens the significance of both reallife and gamelife as the narrator tries to unpack meaning in both. Unfortunately after Chapter One, the magic disappears, the quality of writing wanes, and the observations become more forced. I grew up on computer games, too, but much of what Clune wrote didn't resonate with me and read like vaguely half-baked aphorisms and false dichotomies ("If the sky is the principle of reality in the computer game, isn't it also the principle of unreality in our world?"). Alas.
ETA: But this game version of the book is pretty cool (mostly because, I must say, it resembles Suspended Ha!)
theartolater's review against another edition
4.0
I definitely grew up with videogames. My father had an Intellivision, and I must have played hours of Night Stalker when I was much too young to figure it out. I grew up in a Nintendo family, and, while I still play games today, they're not nearly as important to the day to day as they once were.
Gamelife is a memoir, for sure, but surrounding a number of games during Clune's childhood and the situations that defined them. His experiences with Wolfenstein, with The Bard's Tale, with some of his less-than-savory ways of procuring the games, it's one of those books that would read well as fiction if it wasn't clearly real.
It's a real nostalgia trip, even though he was a little ahead of me time-wise. His memories of these games reminded me of summers with Quake or the really bizarre day job I did at age 13 that allowed me to buy Diablo later that night. Definitely worth reading if video games are a major part of your life or were a part of your childhood, but it's a fun read regardless as a different slice of 1970s/1980s life.
Gamelife is a memoir, for sure, but surrounding a number of games during Clune's childhood and the situations that defined them. His experiences with Wolfenstein, with The Bard's Tale, with some of his less-than-savory ways of procuring the games, it's one of those books that would read well as fiction if it wasn't clearly real.
It's a real nostalgia trip, even though he was a little ahead of me time-wise. His memories of these games reminded me of summers with Quake or the really bizarre day job I did at age 13 that allowed me to buy Diablo later that night. Definitely worth reading if video games are a major part of your life or were a part of your childhood, but it's a fun read regardless as a different slice of 1970s/1980s life.
mastertorgo's review against another edition
2.0
First the good. the author's descriptions of games that were very formative to me were certainly the highlights of the book. the rest of the book was a mishmash vignettes. but the main character was unlikable and inconsistent, as were those that surrounded him. Maybe that was the author's point. but it was so inconsistent that didn't care. Add to this, asides of faux-deep philosophy on the nature of 3D versus 2D, and other insipid thought bubbles. it's marketed as a memoir. I do believe the author played and love these games. I'm also sure that a few of the vignettes were inspired by real life situations. But by the end of the novel, I felt like I I had read someone's very first attempt at writing a book, poorly edited and throwing it on Amazon for a quick buck. it turns out that this was written by an English professor and it is his fourth book. so, I guess now I just have to seem this was just all pretentious bullshit. the fact that I finished it says more to my need of wanting to read about games that were formative to my growing up, otherwise I wouldn't have finished this at all. This is the first book in a long time that I could call a hateread. (one star, with an extra thrown in for the game choices.)
gregbutera's review
3.0
This is a nice series of short stories about the author's life and the video games that got him through middle school in the 80s. It is part fun reminiscing about the old school video games and a poignant take on how hard adolescence can be. The first few stories are I think more powerful, but the last one stuck with me the most. I just wish I knew why his friends stopped talking to him.
bibliocyclist's review
3.0
"We will not stand for error."
"Eliminate error."
"The error was in me."
“Human flesh is the quarry of worlds.”
“Inside every human face that crumples in sudden sorrow is a skull that grins. Unfeeling bone supports every hug.”
“When you’re almost twelve and you’ve played all the computer games you can play in a day, what can you do? You’re old enough to know about stealing, but too young to know about the things worth stealing. There’s basically nothing to do. So either you stay bored or you regress a little.”
"Eliminate error."
"The error was in me."
“Human flesh is the quarry of worlds.”
“Inside every human face that crumples in sudden sorrow is a skull that grins. Unfeeling bone supports every hug.”
“When you’re almost twelve and you’ve played all the computer games you can play in a day, what can you do? You’re old enough to know about stealing, but too young to know about the things worth stealing. There’s basically nothing to do. So either you stay bored or you regress a little.”
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