“The Game Console 2.0: A History of Consoles from Atari to Xbox” by Evan Amos

This book has collected many enthusiastic reviews online, and our recommendation will be no less enthusiastic. What's more, the author himself is a gaming enthusiast to the core. It is impossible to remain indifferent when reading this book and looking at the illustrations.

Evan Amos is called a console historian and archivist. And also a photographer and writer. Having once started photographing consoles for free distribution on the Internet, he filled the visual gaps in Wikipedia articles. His intellectual property flew away on the wings of the gaming wind and ended up everywhere: in the press, specialized magazines and even videos. It was obvious: this world was in dire need of a hero who would save from oblivion everything that geeks grew up with back in the 80s. And, hurray, we have not yet managed to get closer to the end of the world, and a talented and passionate collector has already collected everything in his colorful encyclopedia and, by the way, in his home too. His apartment in Brooklyn is filled with hardware and consoles of all kinds.

The book is divided into nine semantic blocks — by console generations. If you look at the table of contents, you get the impression that this is a real reference book — you can find a historical summary by the name of the model. Here you have duck shooting, console games before the advent of cartridges, quasi-tennis, which you can play not with a real opponent, but with a TV (but the racket-controller is like a real one!), and familiar modern devices. Evan Amos arranged the stories in chronological order and included in the book all the systems “that he could get his hands on.”

The book was born thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign. There is no doubt that this is a real treasure. For those who witnessed the console dawn with their own eyes, reading it may cause a surge of nostalgia. The generation born in the same wave as the last Xbox may be surprised by inventions like the console with its textile overlays for the TV – they could be attached to the screen using static electricity and diversify the gameplay. In fact, this was the first generation of consoles: this was how people entertained themselves before the video game industry turned into a multi-billion dollar business with a multitude of technological possibilities.

The book's pages trace the evolution of devices. The advent of cartridges, which gave gamers the joy of launching an almost unlimited number of games, the subsequent market crash in 1983, and the triumphant entry of Japanese Nintendo into the arena. Get out your handkerchiefs, this is the episode about Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. The author then writes about 16-bit processors, portable devices and pocket Game Boys, and, no less, the transition from 2D to 3D.

The book also tells us when such elephants as Atari, NEC, 3DO and Commodore had to give way to Sony and Sega, and later to Microsoft. The author also writes a lot about how in this competitive cycle Nintendo managed to choose its own path and play the long game. Using clear examples, Evan Amos explains how technology has influenced the video game market: where there are Apple smartphones, there are microconsoles (even if in the end mobile games were never adapted for playback on TVs).

Compared to the first edition, the second is the most complete. It includes a description of the consoles that gamers used to escape boredom during the pandemic. By the way, it also includes information about Oculus Quest glasses. We also recently published a book about the history of this VR startup recommended.

Looking at some of the devices featured in the book, you can recall the clicking sound of plastic buttons or the softness of silicone ones. Or fall into that loop of memories that automatically starts the soundtrack from Crazy Taxi in your head. And no, those aren't tears. That's a Sega Dreamcast in your eye.

We sincerely recommend reading it.

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