Breakout: Pilgrim in the Microworld

by David Sudnow

Book Overview

Just as the video game console market was about to crash into the New Mexico desert in 1983, professor and sociologist David Sudnow was unearthing the secrets of "eye, mind, and the essence of video skill" through an exploration of Atari's Breakout, one of the earliest hits of the arcade world. Originally released under the title Pilgrim in the Microworld, Sudnow's groundbreaking longform criticism of a single game predates the rise of game studies...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B07YMFZ115
• ISBN13: 9781940535234
• Release Date: February 2020
• Publisher: Boss Fight Books
• Length: 44 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

David Sudnow was a talented writer...

I stumbled upon this book back in 1992 while visiting a library near where I worked during my lunch break. I took it home and read it in one sitting, I enjoyed it very much. I enjoyed it so much that I eventually bought the book for myself. As the years passed I imagined what a nice intelligent man the author of this book, David Sudnow, must be. After all, Mr. Sudnow is somewhat of a pioneer in many fields. A PhD having earned his degree at Berkeley he published an instructional book on how to self teach the Piano. I took him to be something of a renaissance man having also published a book on care for the dying. His aforementioned book, Ways Of The Hand, awarded him the Guggenheim Fellowship. After the Internet became commercially established I decided to do a search for Mr. Sudnow around the year 2002. It was my plan to thank him for such a wonderfully written book as well as to take the opportunity to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with him. I imagined becoming friends with this learned and intelligent man, discussing the frivolity and fun of video gaming along with the more deeper and meaningful things of God. Only a day passed before I received a response. "F - YOU! I'm an avowed Atheist". Except he had spelled the word out. I was really taken aback by it. So much so that I simply couldn't accept that such a response would come from so scholarly a man. I wrote back again to confirm if I was in fact corresponding with the Mr. David Sudnow, Author. "Yes you are, I find you offensive". So ended my corresponding with Mr. Sudnow. Sadly I found out recently that David Sudnow passed away suddenly during the summer of 2007. If only I had tried harder, if only I had written to him again, and again even... I'm sorry Mr. Sudnow, I should have tried harder.