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Hi Andrew,<div><br></div><div>I can recommend a few books on the subject of video games that I've read over the years. AFAIK, none are available as a free download ... but they do provide a great sense of game history:</div><div><br></div><div>Dungeons and Desktops, by Matt Barton</div><div><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Desktops-History-Computer-Role-playing/dp/1568814119">http://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Desktops-History-Computer-Role-playing/dp/1568814119</a></div><div>(probably the most comprehensive history of role playing games ever written - he literally reviews a huge number of games, talks about their design, style, etc)</div><div><br></div><div>Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture, by David Kushner</div><div><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Culture/dp/0375505245">http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Culture/dp/0375505245</a></div><div>(the history of id software - very good storytelling, and insights into the personalities of the two Johns)</div><div><br></div><div>The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon, by Steven L. Kent</div><div><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-History-Video-Games-Pokemon/dp/0761536434">http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-History-Video-Games-Pokemon/dp/0761536434</a></div><div>(more of a referential history of video games)</div><div><br></div><div>Dungeons and Dreamers: The Rise of Computer Game Culture from Geek to Chic, by Brad King & John Borland</div><div><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dreamers-Rise-Computer-Culture/dp/0072228881">http://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dreamers-Rise-Computer-Culture/dp/0072228881</a></div><div>(some good storytelling that follows the life of Richard Garriott among others - it gave me a good sense for how Ultima was conceived in relation to his personal life)</div><div><br></div><div>Halcyon Days: Interviews with Classic Computer and Video Game Programmers, by James Hague</div><div><a href="http://www.dadgum.com/halcyon/">http://www.dadgum.com/halcyon/</a></div><div>(free, interesting, interviews with some of the big names of the 80s and early 90s - it gave me a sense for the development challenges that developers face)</div><div><br></div><div>And although these are only tangentially related, books on the development of the Commodore 64 and Apple //e are extremely important for understanding the history of video games as they helped to create the possibility for mass-market computer games:</div><div><br></div><div>Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, Steven Levy</div><div><a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/729">http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/729</a></div><div><br></div><div>On The Edge: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore, by Brian Bagnall</div><div><a href="http://www.variantpress.com/books/on-the-edge">http://www.variantpress.com/books/on-the-edge</a></div><div>(seems to be temporarily Out of Stock)</div><div><br></div><div>Hope that helps.</div><div><br></div><div>- Chris</div><div><br></div><div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>---</div><div>The Artful Gamer: In Search of the Lyrical and Poetic in Video Games</div><div><a href="http://www.artfulgamer.com">http://www.artfulgamer.com</a></div><div><br></div></div></div></span></div><div><blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: -1; ">Date: Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:44:36 +0000</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">From: Andrew Armstrong <<a href="mailto:andrew@aarmstrong.org">andrew@aarmstrong.org</a>></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Subject: [game_preservation] Calling for resources! Books! Websites!</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Whatever!</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">To: IGDA Game Preservation SIG <<a href="mailto:game_preservation@igda.org">game_preservation@igda.org</a>></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Message-ID: <<a href="mailto:49669DF4.4070907@aarmstrong.org">49669DF4.4070907@aarmstrong.org</a>></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I'm now board of not updating the resources and projects pages:</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://www.igda.org/wiki/Game_Preservation_SIG/Resources">http://www.igda.org/wiki/Game_Preservation_SIG/Resources</a></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://www.igda.org/wiki/Game_Preservation_SIG/Projects">http://www.igda.org/wiki/Game_Preservation_SIG/Projects</a></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I need your links, books, website and whatever you think is historically<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">related to videogames. I'm more aiming at broader sites with videogame<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">knowledge (so I'll be adding <a href="http://www.wikia.com">http://www.wikia.com</a>/ and <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://www.magweasel.com">http://www.magweasel.com</a>/ for instance). However, if you can provide a<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">specific article, great! (better if it covers more then one game however).</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I will be trying (in between getting a job, grr, and doing some other<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">bits) sorting out the page at least filling it with random links for<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">now. In the future I hope to get the domains I've had for a while for<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">the Digital Game Canon project online and with a quick and dirty<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">PHP/MySQL solution so I can add these links in much better ways (so I<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">can tag them, have source lines generated, have boxes for the URL or<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">item name, page references, etc.).</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">ALL HELP IS APPRECIATED! Honestly, there are a LOT of sites I've visited<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I need to add now, but also there are a lot I have not! One of them may<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">be yours! Post it!</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">And if there is any other site which helps list game<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">history/preservation projects, resources and links, please, I'd love to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">know of it :)</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Thanks,</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Andrew</div></blockquote></div></body></html>