The NEW Build Your Own Arcade Controls
Main => Everything Else => Topic started by: aristotle on August 14, 2004, 01:28:03 pm
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I found this old book on my bookshelf while rearranging my small collection of Terry Pratchett novels ^_^ It is titled How to Master the Video Games by Tom Hirschfeld. It is an old strategy guide from 1981 that covers thirty of the most popular old school games: Armor Attack, Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, Astro Blaster, Astro Fighter, Battlezone, Berzerk, Centipede, Crazy Climber, Defender, Galaxian, Gorf, Missile Command, Monaco GP, Moon Cresta, Pac-Man, Phoenix, Pleiades, Rally-X, Scramble, Sky Raider, Space Invaders, Space Invaders: Part Two, Space Fury, Space Odyssey, Space Zap, Star Castle, Targ, Venture and Wizard of Wor. I am a great fan of reading so I was surprisingly overjoyed when I found this. I am not sure how it got there, but I am glad it is! Then an idea hit me, which is why I am now overly tempted to start looking around used bookstores for Strategy Guides with old school games being the fundamental topic for exploration. I got the idea of possibly scanning oldschool strategy guides to pdf format and archiving them, countervailing their descension into the lost depths of time. Anyone think this would be a good idea? I don't think Copyrights would be a problem as I am doing it for educational purposes (Video Game history). Not to mention that most of these books are totally obsolete. Any suggestions or advice?
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The books themsleves are for "educational purposes" so I don't think that excuse will fly. Not that I thing anyone's going to come after you, but you may want to look into the copyrights on books of this nature because I'm pretty sure all copyrights expire eventually. I could be wrong on that though... :-\ I don't know.
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...any advice
Don't ever mention it again, do it, and upload them to a newsgroup. ;)
By the way...you may check around some news groups...someone may have already done it.
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This would be Historical Documentation more so. That is educational purposes. I was reading through it and found it to be very amazing how the book talked about video games and its impact on society. It discussed how video games were creating an even more social atmosphere amongst local arcades (a fore-shadowing of technology and its progress made in Socializing and social interaction). The book takes a very serious tone about video games. It recommends having a friend watch you play and take notes to better improve tactics. Chapter 9 consists of exercises on how to improve one's hand-eye coordination, periphrial vision, and dexterity. It is like reading the beginnings of the serious gamer. It is also interesting to note how games have progressed from their primitive beginnings (Donkey-Kong, GORF) to where they are today. Alot of the fundamental aspects of modern gameplay, like predictable patterns in a bosses movement, or the memorizing of coming events, are still used today. Games that have been successful, from I what I have noticed, seem to adhere to their ancestoral principles and add to them. It is very interesting indeed :D
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This would be Historical Documentation more so. That is educational purposes. I was reading through it and found it to be very amazing how the book talked about video games and its impact on society. It discussed how video games were creating an even more social atmosphere...
This all sounds very interesting. I'd certainly be excited to find a PDF of this floating around (as mentioned above)...let us know if you ever see it posted anywhere. :P
mrC
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Yeah I think this would very school to see--if only for the nostalgia value involved! Please post updates if you decide to go ahead with it!
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I bought a similar book "Winner's Guide to Video Games" for 20 cents at a little book shop a few years ago. Probably released around the same time, it gave strategies to arcade games, a history, and more. A great and funny read. Best part of the book is a prediction on what the future of video games had to offer. More monsters on screen, better sound, and much higher scores!
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I bought 6 or 7 of such books for about $2 each. Indeed they should cost a lot less if you buy em in a second hand bookstore (in fact many had prices written in them which were far lower), but hey I don't have such stores around. Anyway, the best book I got is by Paul Kordestani, but that one cost a fortune (IIRC around $50).
The books I have are rather hard to scan though. They don't fold open all the way.
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I used to own this book.
(http://my.execpc.com/~krieg/IMAGES/mastervgb.jpg)
And somewhere I've got this one as well:
(http://my.execpc.com/~krieg/IMAGES/mpmseb.jpg)
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go for it...the worst they could do is send you a cease and desist order so then you appologize and take them down....
keep us updated on what you decide.........
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Quarterback, I used to have the same book, the one with the guy playing Space Invaders on the cover when I was a kid. Now I own a real Space Invaders machine (and I still suck at that game) ;)
-S
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I own both of those books.
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There was a book I picked up in elementery scholl from book orders on how to beat Dragons Lair. I don't know why I bought it back then because it was a frickin dollar to play that game.
I wish I still had that book.
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Quarterback, I used to have the same book, the one with the guy playing Space Invaders on the cover when I was a kid. Now I own a real Space Invaders machine (and I still suck at that game) ;)
LOL
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OMG! That's it! I looked all over the web today loking for it. :)