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        <h1><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><i><a href="../../index.html">loonygames</a><br>
          <font size="1">a <a href="http://www.bluesnews.com">blue's news</a> 
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<p>&nbsp;</p>Vol. 
                2, Issue 11<br>
                February 10, 1999<br>
                </b>
              <b> 
                </b>
              
                <b><i>Pad 

                  Happy:</i></b></p>
                <b><i> 
                  Amazon-sponsored (not) Bookshelf Edition</i></b></p>
                by 
                  Nick Ferguson</p>
              
              

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              <i>Nick 
                F goes all literary. Well, kinda...</i> 
               Well, 
                I had this week's column down as a review of <b>Crazy Taxi</b> 
                on Dreamcast, but thanks to Her Majesty's Customs &amp; Excise 
                department, it looks like that isn't going to happen... my apologies 

                in advance for another &quot;divergent&quot; edition of Pad Happy. 
                I feel kind of at a loose end, so I think I'll use my space this 
                week to recommend a number of industry-related books I own (or 
                have read recently) that regular loonygames readers might appreciate.</p>
              <i>[Editor's 
                note: in the interest of full-disclosure, it should be pointed 
                out, that while loonygames does not in <b>any</b> way benefit 
                from the sales of these books (the links to Amazon.com are not 
                part of any affiliates program) the site is mentioned in one book, 
                and one book has a chapter written by one of our editors. With 
                that in mind, I return you to your regularly scheduled Pad Happy.] 
                </i></p>
              </p>
              When I 
                wrote my 
                column on game testing a while back, I received quite a lot 
                of feedback from people keen to get into the games industry. It's 
                difficult to know what to say to people when you don't really 
                know much about them or their situation, but I think that one 
                quality that will help anyone is knowing about the history of 
                the the games industry (especially as it's now old enough that 
                a large number of gamers - myself included - don't really remember 
                the advent of classic games like <b>Pong</b>, <b>Space Invaders 
                </b>and <b>Pac-Man</b>). Someone much wiser than me (although 
                I'm confident I could whup his ass at <b>Goldeneye</b>) once said, 
                &quot;Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it&quot;. 
                I think this is increasingly applicable to the games industry, 
                where we see the same old battles being fought over increasingly 
                faster generations of hardware, year after year. With that thought 
                in mind, let's see how we can learn from others' mistakes...</p>
              </p>
              Probably 
                the most famous and widely-read book written about the games industry 
                is &quot;Game 
                Over&quot; by David Sheff. Sheff was a successful freelance 
                journalist who decided to investigate the Nintendo phenomenon 
                after his son (like so many of us) became addicted to NES games. 
                Although first published in 1993, the book remains an essential 
                read for anyone interested in games because it successfully brings 
                to life the many personalities that contributed to the success 
                of Nintendo (including design deity Shigeru Miyamoto) in the early 
                90's. Whereas the original edition ends with the impending US 
                launch of the SNES, a recent re-release has several additional 
                chapters (by a different author) which bring the story much more 
                up-to-date.</p>
              </p>
              If you're 
                not a Nintendo fan (get out!) or if you want a broader overview 
                of the games industry, J.C. 
                Herz's &quot;Joystick Nation&quot; (1997) is an entertaining 
                book, focusing mainly on the Golden Age of videogaming (the late 
                70's and early 80's). Although you may get the impression J.C. 
                isn't totally clued-in on the games of today (a section on first-person 
                shooters doesn't get beyond <b>Doom II</b>), her passion for the 
                titles of her youth really shines through. The book also takes 
                an interesting sociological slant by asking what the broader effect 
                of video games on our society will be (and, for a welcome change, 
                tends to focus on the positive).</p>
              </p>
              </p>
              
              <br>
              
              For a 
                more practical look at the games industry, &quot;Game 
                Design: Secrets of the Sages&quot; (1998), edited by Marc 
                Saltzman, is a great book which pools together a lot of information 
                and advice from numerous big names about many different aspects 
                of game production. There are chapters devoted to every field 
                you could imagine, from programming and art to GUI and level design 
                - and the book is still very up-to-date! It's also refreshing 
                to read a book which acknowledges there are often multiple solutions 
                to the same problem, rather than just advocating one person's 
                opinion. My only gripe would be that the focus tends to be on 
                PC-style games, but then what do you expect from me!? A more serious, 
                technical book is &quot;Game 
                Architecture and Design&quot; (Rollings &amp; Morris, 1999). 
                Less user-friendly and more practical than Saltzman's book, this 
                is a better buy for those of you already working in the industry, 
                or those who want to know more about the realities of game planning 
                and production and less about the theories of design (it's also 
                pretty much hot off the presses, so you're guaranteed up-to-date 
                info).</p>
              </p>
              For the 
                more affluent gamer, the pretty-boy coffee table book of choice 
                has to be &quot;re:play&quot; 
                by Liz Faber. Subtitled 'Computer Game Graphics', this book 
                is essentially a graphic design portfolio using game graphics 
                as source material. Blown up and presented on high-quality paper, 
                many of the in-game images are quite striking. Personal highlights 
                include full-page screens from various vector graphic coin-ops, 
                a montage of (quite beautiful) explosion frames from<b> R-Type</b>, 
                and an overblown version of the original <b>Sonic</b> sprite. 
                Some of the accompanying text is a tad banal, and the more &quot;experimental&quot; 
                design work often obscures the beauty of the original image, but 
                - minor niggles aside - re:play is probably the strongest validation 
                of the videogame as an art form available.</p>
              </p>
              With all 
                the flak the games industry is getting right now about violence, 
                you might want to read something which takes a more objective 
                look at the situation than the various defensive, ranting posts 
                and editorials you'll find online. &quot;From 
                Barbie to Mortal Kombat&quot; (Cassell &amp; Jenkins, 1998) 
                makes a point of examining the gender imbalance still very present 
                in the gaming demographic (with a chapter by our very own Stephanie 
                &quot;Bobbi&quot; Bergman, natch). &quot;Video 
                Kids&quot; (1991) by E.F. Provenzo is a dated (but still interesting) 
                analysis of the possible psychological effects of game-playing 
                on children, paying particular attention to aspects such as sadistic 
                imagery, stereotypes and gender roles. Finally, &quot;Stop 
                Teaching Our Kids to Kill&quot; (1999) is Colonel Dave Grossman's 
                treatise on the role videogames play in the behaviour of America's 
                violent youth. Seeing as this guy is the most high-profile critic 
                of the games industry in the world, describing first-person shooter 
                titles as &quot;murder simulators&quot;, you might want to read 
                what he has to say and make up your own mind.</p>
              </p>
              Finally, 
                if you want to read about games and be told a good story at the 
                same time, I highly recommend &quot;The 
                Beach&quot; (1998) by Alex Garland. If you haven't heard of 
                the book, you've probably heard of the film (which stars Leonardo 
                DiCaprio). Suffice to say, the story features a Gameboy-playing 
                backpacker who makes various game-related references throughout 
                the course of the novel (an element that features prominently 
                in the film, apparently).</p>
              </p>
              Well, 
                I hope you found the above enlightening. If you check these books 
                out on Amazon, you'll find that there are a lot of good links 
                to similar titles in the &quot;Customers who bought this book 
                also bought...&quot; sections. I find most of the customer reviews 
                on Amazon helpful in making my decisions, but if you want some 
                more tips on good books visit Lionhead's site (http://www.lionhead.co.uk) 
                - they have a section where various staff members have recommended 
                a wide range of titles, from books on programming methodology 
                to their favorite graphic novels!</p>
              </p>
              
              <i>- 
                Nick Ferguson will write about consoles next time. Hey, go read 
                &quot;Game Over&quot;...</i></p>
              </p>
              </p>
              
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<p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Credits: Print CGI is 
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