I’ll start by addressing the bad reviews concerning this book’s written language, with certain reviewers saying that it was unreadable, unpleasant, or child-like. While I agree that some sentences don’t flow when spoken aloud, it is barely noticeable when reading only to yourself, and not as detrimental as others would have you believe. However, I didn’t appreciate some of the references or similes, but this is really only a small complaint.
Each chapter mainly covers a specific game, console, company, designer, programmer, or concept, with references to the others, and is story-like in its presentation. It is hugely anecdotal, quite often following the day-to-day life of a particular person, who quite often is a “nobody” to the gaming world at the start, and showing us they came to be who they were. As a result, an unrecognised name might be covered, and you won’t realise that they are actually the founder of (insert major company here)!
The novel approach to the writing sets “All Your Base Are Belong To Us” apart from other gaming history anthologies, especially when combined with Goldberg’s investigative research side. There are interviews that he conducted himself and projects that he was part of that are technically exclusive to this book. It is almost semi-biographical in nature for a number of gaming pioneers.
Covered in this book are Ralph Baer’s “Let’s Play!” (cathode-ray-tube TV games, or TV games), Nolan Bushnell’s Pong, Atari and the failure of E.T., Shigeru Miyamoto and characters such as Jumpman (aka Mario), Tetris by Alexey Pajitnov, Trip Hawkins and the rise of EA (including the 3DO), the creation of Myst, 7th Guest and the popularisation of CD-ROMs, the changing nature of video games and the move away from full-motion video, Naughty Dog and Crash Bandicoot (the game that crashed the Playstation), the game-designing couple that is Roberta and Ken Williams (makers of Kings Quest), Everquest and the renewal of PC gaming, Blizzard and the ultimate MMO, Bioshock and a discussion of videogames as art, the potential of games as movies, the birth of Rockstar and GTA, Popcap and the casual gaming market, Will Wright and simulation games, and the introduction of the Wii and the backlash of the hard-core gaming market.
If you're interested in videogame history, don't let the negative comments put you off. This is a great addition to the niche that is the videogame history library, not only for its different, story central and almost biography-like approach, but for the exclusive content that is a direct result of the author's investigative reporter influence.
I would recommend this for gamers, or those just generally curious about technology and the rise of gaming, age twelve and up, due to the sometimes difficult sentence structure. It would make a great gift, and is a generally fantastic addition to your library (book or game based).
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