Looking for a good coffee table book

[vidmouse]

Looking for a good coffee table book on arcades and/or pinball machines,
something to browse when I'm not playing or building, or online.
Preferably something akin to a portable MAWS with photos if such
a thing exists...

[tba]

there is only one book worth leaving on the coffee table:

Project Arcade: Build Your Own Arcade Machine

of course.

[nukedawg]

I recently purchased a nice book on arcades and gaming called "Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age, 1971-1984". http://www.supercade.com/

There are 2 versions, 1 hardcover (439pages) and the other is softcover (448pages). I grabbed the softcover one. It is in interesting mix of cool stories and great in your face graphics from some of the best known and some lesser known games. There are TONS of full color images in there! Check out the index here http://www.supercade.com/content/index.html



Hardcover
Best Price: $55.12
List Price: $55.00
http://product.half.ebay.com/Supercade_W0QQprZ1836828QQtgZinfo

Softcover
Best Price: $16.07
List Price: $32.95
http://product.half.ebay.com/Supercade_W0QQprZ5906974QQtgZinfo

[BrentRadio]

ARCADE FEVER The Fan's Guide to The Golden Age of Video Games

This is a great book for a coffee table. Easy reading, as it only has one game per page. All the classics in it as well. I think it would be perfect. I have this one.

Brent

[vidmouse]

there is only one book worth leaving on the coffee table:

Project Arcade: Build Your Own Arcade Machine

of course.

This one never leaves my cab. 

[xmenxmen]

there is only one book worth leaving on the coffee table:

Project Arcade: Build Your Own Arcade Machine

of course.

This one never leaves my cab. 

I also too learned everything from this one.  Reading enough guides on here and looking thru the varies project has give me endless knowledge.

[CheffoJeffo]

Supercade is a great coffee table book, although ifI had it to do again, I would get the hardcover over the softcover (binding has come apart).

I don't think it is as good a read as Arcade Fever, but it is a pretty coffee table book.

[MameMaster!]

try Gameroommagazine.com. Kevin has a nice web store with neat books---

http://tinyurl.com/3d885l

[vidmouse]

Great finds, thanks!  I think both Supercade and Arcade Fever sound close to what I"m looking for.  I did read one review off Amazon that said Supercade looked like it over-borrowed from MAME though...  I guess I was hoping for something more like KLOV (vs MAWS) in that regard, would like to see the original cabs.  Are there photos of these in there too?

Anyone read/seen the Encyclopedia of Arcade Games book that's on the Gameroommagazine.com site?  Wondering if that's any good...

[ChicagoDave]

Great finds, thanks!  I think both Supercade and Arcade Fever sound close to what I"m looking for.  I did read one review off Amazon that said Supercade looked like it over-borrowed from MAME though...  I guess I was hoping for something more like KLOV (vs MAWS) in that regard, would like to see the original cabs.  Are there photos of these in there too?

Anyone read/seen the Encyclopedia of Arcade Games book that's on the Gameroommagazine.com site?  Wondering if that's any good...

Yep, I have this one.  It's pretty good.  It's has a lot more pictures than text.  It has pictures of almost every video game with a short description of each.  It also has esitmated values of each game.

I like it a lot.

[Q*Bert_OP]

I suggest this one:

It's mostly pictures, with some history

[RayB]

I'd recommend Arcade Fever. Lots of photos and some humor.
The photos in it are sometimes disappointing (some of them are of old beat up versions of the machine rather than a good condition one).

[Joystick Jerk]

While not specifically about arcade/pinball, High Score! is an excellent coffee table book about the rise of videogames. It's got tons of great info and trivia, and it's packed with loads of images of games, manual, ads, game boxes, etc etc.

[Havok]

Another good read is the story about the inventor of home videogames:

Videogames: In the Beginning

[Green Giant]

Forget about that one, what you need is a coffee table book about coffee tables.   

[BrentRadio]

Arcade Fever has lots of great pics and descriptions of each of the games. It basically talks about the top 50 classic games of all time with each page dedicated to each game. Very colorful, insightful, funny and just a great book. Just buy it, you will not regret it.

Brent

[Texasmame]

I recently purchased a nice book on arcades and gaming called "Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age, 1971-1984". http://www.supercade.com/

There are 2 versions, 1 hardcover (439pages) and the other is softcover (448pages). I grabbed the softcover one. It is in interesting mix of cool stories and great in your face graphics from some of the best known and some lesser known games. There are TONS of full color images in there! Check out the index here http://www.supercade.com/content/index.html



Hardcover
Best Price: $55.12
List Price: $55.00
http://product.half.ebay.com/Supercade_W0QQprZ1836828QQtgZinfo

Softcover
Best Price: $16.07
List Price: $32.95
http://product.half.ebay.com/Supercade_W0QQprZ5906974QQtgZinfo

I have that one fur just that purpose.   

[vidmouse]

Ended up getting Supercade and Arcade Fever.
From the looks of them, I think Arcade Fever was
what I was originally looking for, but after reading
parts of Supercade  I am equally pleased w/ both,
although the typesetting/format of Supercade
could've been better (the writing makes up for it).

Awesome.  Never had such an interest in Crazy
Climber before I read the description of it
in Supercade...

Q-bert (or anyone else)... does that encyclopedia have
pictures of cabs and screenshots or just cabs?

[DefJam]

The encylopedia does have pictures of the cabs and screenshots.  I think it leans more heavily to the cabs though.  Good book.

Other books for your consideration:
There is an encyclopedia of game machines (consoles) that is really good.  Amazing how many console machines are out there.

Some nice Pinball books out there.

I am 8 bit.

And finally, there was a book of poetry.... I think it was called Blue Wizard must die.  That is very cool.   No pics...

[Smack]

I just bring my laptop in with me when I go to the crapper...

[fixedpigs]

I just bring my laptop in with me when I go to the crapper...

remind me to never come over to your house...

a coffee table does _not_ equal a crapper...!

[Organic Jerk]

I was actually considering buying Arcade Fever but a really horrible review of the book turned me off.. I bought Supercade and was very pleased..

I think I might pick up that Encyclopedia as well..

http://www.amazon.com/ARCADE-FEVER-Guide-Golden-Video/dp/0762409371/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-0188747-5660159?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1186340613&sr=8-1

John Sellers' Arcade Fever finds its focus early on--and unfortunately, that focus is not classic coin-ops--it seems to be the author himself. It's one man's egotistical "memoircade," offering little to arcade fans who are not named John Sellers.

There are several things going wrong at once. Sellers, an ex-game show writer and the author of a book on pop-culture, sprinkles snippets about bad television and junk food liberally throughout--so liberally that you almost forget that the point here is video games. The reader cares about Crazy Climber, not Cookie Crisp--and since no meaningful connection between the two is ever drawn, the entire book ends up feeling forced, an excercise in "look at what I remember that you do not" false cleverness. It's not that he has chosen bad games to spotlight--he's got the best of the best, including obvious biggies like Galaga and Ms. Pac-Man through to underappreciated gems like Time Pilot and Rally-X--he simply doesn't seem to be able to discuss them on their own merits. Yet when Sellers does discuss the games, it's in the past tense, as if none of these games exist any more (clearly, they do--he used pictures of the Videotopia collection). Plus, it's simply not very interesting to hear the author describe what playing these 50 games was like (on Dig Dug: "To get maximum pointage, you had to dig a deep tunnel underneath a rock and wait for multiple bad guys to come to papa"). It would be far more enjoyable to seek them out yourself and experience them first hand--and if the book has any positive effect, perhaps this is it.

The book is repeatedly disrupted by a juvenile and distracting ribald sense of humor (introducing Asteroids: "If Pong was heavy petting and Space Invaders was getting to third base...") that feels out of place. Yes, Dragon's Lair's Princess Daphne was hot. Yes, the joystick is phallic. Get over it. There are too many pages of forced, corny jokes and pointless sidebars, such as Ms. Pac-Man's fashion critique (in lieu of the real and very interesting story of how the game went from illicit bootleg to official sequel), unfunny fake game-to-movie adaptations, and an odd, ongoing vendetta against/fetish for the obscure game Pooyan. Good interviews with Nolan Bushnell, Eugene Jarvis, preservationist Keith Feinstein, and "Pac-Man Fever" creators Buckner & Garcia are nearly swallowed up by the pointless asides.

Unfortunately, there's not much evidence of research here, merely memories. Things are described (rare game television commercials, hard-to-find sequels, bonus stages) that should have and could have been illustrated. Some facts are wrong and others are simply clouded by poor design--screenshots of sequels are mixed in with those of the original game without noting which is which. The blame for that, along with sloppy cropping of screenshots, photo pages that are clearly filler, and the lackluster, whatever-came-with-Windows font selection for game titles (why not run the original logos for all the games?) is shared with designer Corinda Cook. However, Steve Belkowitz's numerous photos of arcade machines are clear and vivid and save an otherwise ugly layout.

Arcade Fever could have been an excellent blend of history and nostalgia; instead, it reads like the work of a frustrated stand-up comedian--self-indulgent, and ultimately, a waste for arcade fans. John Sellers is not a video game historian--he's merely an observer, and therefore can offer no more insight or detail than you or I.

[1cal]

I love Arcade Fever! It's  well written, funny and  with an appealing layout.

Although I'm a Brit and didn't get all of the US pop culture references, I got enough of them to get a feel for what else was happening when the game came out.

I can't believe the book is criticised for being juvenile, surely it's about remembering the great times we had in our youth as well as playing the games themselves. I think the reviewer had a rather po-faced attitude to arcade games.

The only criticism I have is the binding as some of the pages have come loose, and needed taping up,  after much thumbing through.

[vidmouse]

The binding on Supercade was worse... probably b/c it's heavier (more pages, thicker, bigger paper).  I cheapened out and got the PB version.  Still, am happy w/ it.

OJ-  the Arcade Fever book isn't as bad as all that.  I found the stories in it pretty good and the humor made me laugh in some cases.  It didn't feel like the author was all over himself but that he did like to hear himself talk.  Lucky thing is, most of what he had to say was accurate and funny.

The page layout is WAYYYY better than Supercade too.  Supercade seems more comprehensive, covers things like home consoles (Atari, Odyessey, etc) in more detail.

I think I might still end up getting the Encyclopedia's and probably some pinball books too eventually, will post some reviews of all of this when I'm done reading.