daiya's review
5.0
It was the golden age of self-taught programmers, when the border between hobby and profession were vague. A group of school teachers made a game to teach their local history, which turned to be Oregon Trail, the first edutainment game brilliant in game history. Richard Garriott, Lord British, an originator of Ultima, the legendary RPG which made the way for the later games to Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior was writing a code to render 3D maze on the screen with mathematical advice given by his creative mother.
It was very exciting to read their success stories of ingenuity and entrepreneurship. Seeing them, I deplored a bit about the fact that I was born a little late to join this movement.
I found a great achievement of Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple. Thanks to his decision to bundle an assembler and instructive "red book" he wrote with Apple II. Therefore, many initial users were able to start their programming life somehow. Unlike Steve Jobs, a marketing genius, Woz was a hacker himself and he wanted to leave rooms for users to infiltrate inside the machine.
With many interesting anecdotes and color pictures, the author stories what happened during the Big ban period of game universe. I as one of the first generation of PC gamers, couldn't read this book without tears. The Oregon Trail, Choplifter, Wizardry, Ultima, Karateka, Prince of Persia and so on, if you feel something about the names, you must read it.
It was very exciting to read their success stories of ingenuity and entrepreneurship. Seeing them, I deplored a bit about the fact that I was born a little late to join this movement.
I found a great achievement of Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple. Thanks to his decision to bundle an assembler and instructive "red book" he wrote with Apple II. Therefore, many initial users were able to start their programming life somehow. Unlike Steve Jobs, a marketing genius, Woz was a hacker himself and he wanted to leave rooms for users to infiltrate inside the machine.
With many interesting anecdotes and color pictures, the author stories what happened during the Big ban period of game universe. I as one of the first generation of PC gamers, couldn't read this book without tears. The Oregon Trail, Choplifter, Wizardry, Ultima, Karateka, Prince of Persia and so on, if you feel something about the names, you must read it.
snowcrash's review
4.0
I have many a fond memory sitting in front of an Apple ][ and playing games. Most of the games in the book I played. Just like _Secret History of Macintosh Gaming_, the theme here is to learn about the people who wrote the games and the times they were written. In all of these cases, it is a singular person or a handful that did their own thing, not following rules or convention. As the author points out in each chapter, the games he covers each gave ideas that are still in use today.
Things I didn't know: Karateka & Prince of Persia used rotoscoped video & hand plotted images to come up with the fluid motion of the characters. Ultima I used Basic. Wizardry was multi character so that if someone died while in the dungeon the party as a whole could come back (no saving in the dungeon). Or how Bard's Tale grew out of wanting to add a character class & having it become what players sought (singing bolsters the party, like magic spells). The story of Lord British and how he got his name is in here too, as told by Lord British himself. Plus... Brian Fargo met up with other coders at warez parties, including the guy who started Activision.
There is a lot of neat history here. Most of it is with first person accounts, though fuzzy after 30 years. I can tell that the book was a labor of love, where each of the game authors was happy to tell the tales of their games. It is amazing how much was done with so little. Code size (140k per floppy, 48-64k RAM), knowledge (not easy to share techniques, lots of hacks to make things happen, etc), or support (financial or otherwise). As with the initial Mac gaming authors, each person here did it for fun and to push the edges with little thought towards what boundaries should have been.
Take a trip through the history of Apple ][ games & learn about a small group that made a huge impact on game developers today. At the very least delight in how they made the Apple ][ make magic.
Things I didn't know: Karateka & Prince of Persia used rotoscoped video & hand plotted images to come up with the fluid motion of the characters. Ultima I used Basic. Wizardry was multi character so that if someone died while in the dungeon the party as a whole could come back (no saving in the dungeon). Or how Bard's Tale grew out of wanting to add a character class & having it become what players sought (singing bolsters the party, like magic spells). The story of Lord British and how he got his name is in here too, as told by Lord British himself. Plus... Brian Fargo met up with other coders at warez parties, including the guy who started Activision.
There is a lot of neat history here. Most of it is with first person accounts, though fuzzy after 30 years. I can tell that the book was a labor of love, where each of the game authors was happy to tell the tales of their games. It is amazing how much was done with so little. Code size (140k per floppy, 48-64k RAM), knowledge (not easy to share techniques, lots of hacks to make things happen, etc), or support (financial or otherwise). As with the initial Mac gaming authors, each person here did it for fun and to push the edges with little thought towards what boundaries should have been.
Take a trip through the history of Apple ][ games & learn about a small group that made a huge impact on game developers today. At the very least delight in how they made the Apple ][ make magic.
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