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      <h5><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">//<a href="../../../index.html"><font color="#7C420E">loonygames</font></a>://<a href="../index.html"><font color="#7C420E">issue 
        2.11</font></a>://<a href="index.html"><font color="#7C420E">pad happy</font></a>://1, 
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              <h5 align="right"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#00025E"><img src="../../images/icons/ph_final.jpg" width="193" height="237" align="left"><loonystart>Vol. 
                2, Issue 11<br>
                February 10, 1999<br>
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              <h5 align="right"><font color="#00025E"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> 
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              <div align="center">
                <p align="center"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000FF"><i><font color="#904C10" size="3">Pad 

                  Happy:</font></i></font></b></p>
                <p align="center"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000FF"><i><font color="#904C10" size="6"> 
                  Amazon-sponsored (not) Bookshelf Edition</font></i></font></b></p>
                <p align="right"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">by 
                  <a href="mailto:nickf@writeme.com">Nick Ferguson</a></font></p>
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<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.13/ph/">Issue 2.13 (Choose Your Format)</option>
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<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.39/ph/">-----Volume 1-----</option>
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<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.23/ph/">Issue 1.23 (Mirror, Signal, Maneuver)</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.21/ph/">Issue 1.21 (Hardware Wars)</option>
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              <p align="right">&nbsp;</p>
              <div align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><i>Nick 
                F goes all literary. Well, kinda...</i></font> </div>
              <p align="left"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img src="../../images/letters_new/w.jpg" width="34" height="37" align="left">ell, 
                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.</font></p>
              <p align="left"><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">[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.] 
                </font></i></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">When I 
                wrote <a href="../../2.7/ph/index.html" target="_self">my 
                column on game testing</a> 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...</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Probably 
                the most famous and widely-read book written about the games industry 
                is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0966961706/o/qid=950153919/sr=8-1/104-2526302-6395657">&quot;Game 
                Over&quot; by David Sheff</a>. 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.</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">If you're 
                not a Nintendo fan (get out!) or if you want a broader overview 
                of the games industry, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0316360074/qid%3D950153960/104-2526302-6395657">J.C. 
                Herz's &quot;Joystick Nation&quot;</a> (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).</font></p>
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<p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Credits: Illustration 
  &copy; 2000 Dan Zalkus. Pad Happy is &copy; 2000 Niick Ferguson. All other content 
  is &copy; 2000 loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited, 
  so watch it - we know kung fu, gaijin.</font></i></p>
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