Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age 1971-1984

by Van Burnham

Book Overview

A gloriously illustrated history of the videogame and its legacy for both our mindscapes and video technology.

It was a time when technology was king, status was determined by your high score, and videogames were blitzing the world... From Pong to Pac-Man, Asteroids to Zaxxon--more than fifty million people around the world have come of age within the electronic flux of videogames, their subconscious forever etched with images projected from...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0262524201
• ISBN13: 9780262524209
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: MIT Press
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 4.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 9.6" x 10.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Highyl recommended!

If you have any love of video games beyond your couch, this book will make a great addition to your library. If you have a superiority complex and need to out-snob your friends about the history of Pong and where the name Donkey Kong comes from- buy this book now. Also recommended- Arcade Fever, I am 8-Bit, Everything Bad is Good for You.

A trip down memory lane

A really fun book ... and one that conjures memories of the old days of video gaming. I had forgotten some of the games and graphics of those early years, and it was fun and interesting to read and see them again. This book is as much about the photos and graphic layout as the text, but make sure to read it ... the text is insightful, well-researched, and thorough. I can relate to Van Burnham's personal recollections and her weaving of those experiences into the history of videogaming makes this book memorable and remarkable. Gotta go ... I've got to figure out how to get my Colecovision hooked up to a plasma for a round of Mr. Do!

Supercade SuperNostalgia

Whatever they say about poor snapshot graphics, this is definitively a great book. The shape, the colours, the weight itself..and obviously all what is written inside, is pure golden age videogames history. The most famous (and not so famous) arcades are reviewed, with lot of infos about. Absolutely recommended for arcade fans, I loved so much reading this book. The nice thing about it is that you will read it again and again and again. A whole era completely in your hand. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. A must have. A piece of modern history.

Tried the rest. This is the BEST coffee table book offered

In recent years, I had bought the other similar historical reference books on the subject and saved this one for last because I took the bad reviews about the photo quality seriously. I work in printing/graphic design and I avoided buying the book until the price came down. After thumbing through it for only five minutes, I knew I'd found the best one. Yes, it may be true that many of the images could have lifted from MAME screen shots but here's my take on that. I was looking for the best VISUAL record of the era. That's what this about isn't it? Walking into an arcade today may have the same visual appeal with all the lights and noises, but since the late 80's, our expectations obviously changed. No one can milk a quarter for more than 3 minutes anymore. My memories of the old arcades are the unique characters, the first time that we were able to play with multiple players and all those other "firsts" that influenced what we see today. This "found art" really takes me back in time. The images may only be low rez screen shots, but for the most part they are clean and made more fun by being enlarged to the point where you can see all the pixels. I think the word from art school I'm trying to remember is MACRO. Where you zoom IN to a particular piece of the image and crop it to make it more interesting visually. These photos are big and bleed beyond the edge of the page. It's funny now to how those huge pixels made us spend so much in the 80's in our era or super slick realism in current games. While THE FIRST QUARTER and THE ULTIMATE HISTORY OF VIDEO GAMES may be a "good read" for historical facts and funny stories, they lacked imagery. The book ARCADE FEVER is another strong visual book for it's sharp photography of actual game cabinets and more traditional screen shots. Supercade is an artsy (but not cheesy) way of showing the era. I was also happy to see arcade games featured that came along years after 1984. This book goes the extra mile visually.

Nice Photos, Informative Text

I thought that I would end up just browsing through this book looking at the pictures. Instead, I found a great deal of information in the easy-to-read text. The introductory material is interesting. After that, many games are covered in chronological order. Boy, did it bring back memories. I recall encountering a lot of the same information at the time, lending some credibility to the material. Great history of arcade and home games during a formative decade of the genre. Recommended.