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The Art of Video Games: From Pac-Man to Mass Effect, by Chris Melissinos
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Review
This is a lushly illustrated coffee-table book that offers readers full-page, color photographs and succinct summaries of video games, descriptions of their significance, and interviews with many of their creators. Slick and gorgeous, the book offers an important permanent, widely distributable, inexpensive complement to the exhibition. – Ian Bogost, American Journal of Play, Fall 2012If Ready Player One was a fictional love song to video games, The Art of Video Games is the visual poem to gaming—simply a beautiful book filled with gaming nostalgia, inspired innovation and flat-out fun…Every gamer needs to have The Art of Video Games just like every English major needs to have the collected works of Shakespeare. – J. Jay Franco, Bookrastination, 3/9/12 This book belongs on the shelf of every highbrow gaming geek, but it’s also an important read for anyone interested in media studies or human expression. I want to hand this book to every naysayer who sees games as nothing more than cheap, violent, meaningless entertainment. With its engaging pictures, rich interviews, and neatly bundled history lessons, The Art of Video Games makes a solid case not just for the validity of games as an art form, but for its rightful place as one of the defining storytelling mediums of our time. – Becky Chambers, Themarysue.com, 3/16/12 I heartily recommend The Art of Video Games, not only to every gamer, but also to anyone interested in technology, and especially to those who feel games are harmful and childish…it’s a fascinating journey through time, showing how this incredible industry has become one of the most lucrative and fastest growing in the world. When next your parents ask why you play video games, just give them a copy of this book and I’m sure they’ll apologize for ever questioning your love for this truly special and important medium. – Benjy Ikimi, Avault.com, 3/16/12. The Art of Video Games: From Pac-Man to Mass Effect is a worthy companion piece to the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s exhibit. Melissinos and O’Rourke do an excellent job of laying a foundation for any reader to educate themselves on video games and their place as a modern artform. Video game enthusiasts have a lot to enjoy here, too. Besides the first-rate production values, it is a lovingly crafted narrative of the industry’s evolution from its most rudimentary beginnings to the multi-billion dollar cultural powerhouse it is today. Any fan of video games will enjoy the opportunity to pick this book up from the coffee table, flip to a random page, and immediately begin to “remember when…” – Paul Marzagalli, NAVGTR (National Academy of Video Game Testers and Reviewers), appeared in Eclipse Magazine, 3/16/12 Filled with illuminating insights and insider perspectives, these interviews will speak volumes to teens considering careers in the video game industry. In addition to YA readers, the book may also be of interest to educators looking to examine media trends, or launch a classroom discussion about viewing video games as an art form. – Joy Fleishhacker, School Library Journal, 3/21/12. Designed for us short attention span readers, the well-paced, large format, $40 hardback from Welcome Books features big image screen grabs and short blocks of history and insight on 80 noteworthy games, arranged historically and by console format eras….Also rallying for the cause are short essays in the book from industry innovators like "father of Atari" Nolan Bushnell - who "knows for a fact"that gaming doesn't just keeps you sharp, but "delays the onset of Alzheimer's." So go do something artful and important - buy the book, visit the exhibit and go play a video game! – Jonathan Takiff, The Philadelphia Inquirer/Daily News/philly.com, 3/15/12. Widely syndicated. In Chris Melissinos and Patrick O’Rourke’s book The Art of Video Games: From Pac-Man to Mass Effect — the accompanying book to the Smithsonian exhibit of the same name on display starting in March 2012 – the authors offer a compelling read, intriguing to both the gaming nerd and pretentious art student in me, that reads like a warm meet-and-greet without being too casual or too stuffy… the full-page screen-shots will have any reader enthralled…They have the capacity to capture us, for an instant, and draw us into an experience that is more than simply wasting time — that is potentially transformative. – Kaitlin Tremblay, MediumDifficulty.com, 3/27/12. You cant’ go wrong with this book. It makes fo a fun read and you might learn something…coffee table worthy…fascinating…it screams “I’m smart, I like to play video games and I appreciate ART!” – Classic Game Room: Retro Video Games Book Club, video book review on YouTube Channel (201,000+ subscribers), 4/2/12. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIyV87h6x9I…the book is a really great piece for retro video game lovers. It mixes art with nostalgia as it caries you though the different ages of gaming, showcasing classic video games in stunning layouts, drawing attention to the creative and cultural impact, all in one very classy, and affordable package. – D.S. Cohen, About.com: Classic Video Games, April 1, 2012 The Art of Video Games exhibit was base on the book written by Chris Melissinos and Patrick O'Rourke. The book is amazing. I highly recommend it to any gamer or fan of games. – Fan, RPGMachine86, 4/4/12 In the end, The Art of Video Games puts in a very admirable effort. They get the list (in my humble opinion) mostly right, and they fill out a lot of interesting history about each game, often from the perspective of the developer themselves. The interviews are top-notch, giving two full pages of insight into the past of your favorite developers, how they make their games, and what they were thinking when they did so. Want to know just what Ron Gilbert was thinking when he made Maniac Mansion (also not on this list) or Monkey Island? Here is your chance. – Ron Burke,
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About the Author
Chris Melissinos, former Chief Gaming Officer and Chief Evangelist for Sun Microsystems and founder of Past Pixels (www.pastpixels.com), is the curator for The Art of Video Games exhibition, which runs from March 16 to September 30, 2012, at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. Melissinos has been an active member of the video game development community for more than a decade and is best known for his role in web-based video game technology development, video game preservation, virtual world application, and lectures on the future of games and computer technology in society and education. An avid collector, he maintains a large personal collection of video game consoles, computers, and artifacts that span the 40 year history of the video game industry. He is a frequent speaker at game and technology conferences such as the Game Developers Conference, E3, Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Penny Arcade Expo, and JavaOne, and lectures at universities and computer industry events across the globe. Patrick O'Rourke and Chris Melissinos were connected by a passion for all things video games while co-workers at Sun Microsystems in the late 1990s. The friendship grew as careers diverged bringing O’Rourke to Los Angeles to produce photo shoots for Smashbox Studios. Now a freelance graphic designer, photographer, and video editor, O’Rourke continues his gaming ways and likes to deliver angry lectures on game strategy to pets and friends, both real and imagined, while maintaining his status as a frequent industry show attendee.Mike Mika is Chief Creative Officer for Other Ocean Interactive. He has been developing games for nearly twenty years, running the gamut from engineer and designer to animator and writer. Most of his career was spent at Foundation 9 where he was Studio Head for Backbone Entertainment - running day-to-day operations as well as spearheading creative and business development. Mika helped launch mobile game developer ngmoco:) with some of the industry's top talent, and is a prominent figure in the preservation of videogame history. He's professionally shipped games for every platform since the Game Boy, and still enjoys writing games in his spare time. In total, he's been involved in more than one hundred games during his prolific career.
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Product details
Hardcover: 216 pages
Publisher: Welcome Books; First Edition edition (March 5, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 159962110X
ISBN-13: 978-1599621104
Product Dimensions:
10.4 x 0.9 x 10.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
Average Customer Review:
4.1 out of 5 stars
41 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#139,299 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
This is the companion book for the exhibition of the same name, held at the American Art Museum from 16 March 2012 to 30 September 2012.The book title is quite broad, and maybe ambiguous. This isn't an art book with pretty pictures or concept art of video games. Rather, it's about the evolution of video game graphics, the artistry of making video games. All explained in a brief and simplified manner.Since this is an exhibition companion book, it's not surprising it's not that technical. I get the idea that the target audience are probably exhibition goers first and then gamers.I enjoy the sense of nostalgia from looking at the old games I used to play. As with any list that ranks games, there's always the surprise element when you see games you've never seen before. From the text, you get some brief insight into how the games came to be.I've several issues with the book though. The first is the selection criteria. Author Melissinos selected an initial group of 240 games based on criteria that included visual effects, use of technologies and how world events and popular culture influenced the games. Then, voters online were invited to to choose the most popular games. Finally, 80 games are picked.In general, I don't expect the gamers to know anything about how the graphics were created, nor the technologies used in the game making. The public voting element goes against the selection criteria. At times, it's difficult to tell whether the games are included because they are innovative or just fan favourites. There are peculiar inclusions as well as omissions. A search online for bestseller lists will yield results for fan favourites instantly.The games are sorted by eras, starting from Atari's first game Combat in 1997 to 2009 with Flower developed by thatgamecompany. In each era, the games are strangely not ordered strictly to chronological order. The most recent game featured is actually Heavy Rain from 2010, before Flower as it appears in the book.Each game has a writeup of around 3-4 paragraphs on one page. That is too brief to cover the game history, design concept, game play and technology. The criteria for the included titles are there, but they aren't justified in the text. Games released around the same time usually are similarly impressive in visuals. For example, not mentioned was Valkyria Chronicles which has an unique hand drawn art direction. Okami was included though. Because it sold better?Screenshots are too few to give enough context on why each game is so visually spectacular. The included ones are not the best representatives of the games. The really old games are redrawn to look sharp, such as that on the book cover. New game graphics are still alright. It's those games in between that are bad as they cannot be redrawn, and don't have enough resolution to look good. I don't think it can be helped because of the nature of game graphics at that time but at least more should have printed at smaller sizes. If this book is about the art, I want to see more art from each game.Also included are interviews with some game makers. Unless they introduce themselves, you won't know their role or the company they work for. A one-sentence short profile is missing. Sometimes I only get the context of what they are talking about after reading halfway in.There are many other things I was expecting but not found in the book. There's no mention of games on handheld game devices, art direction taken by big games, newer ways of creating realistic animation like using motion capture such as in Uncharted 2, etc. Visual effects are limited by hardware but the book does not have any commentary on the systems that run these games. So there's no context on what's possible and impossible with each new hardware releases. There's also nothing about creating game music. But I guess we're talking about visual arts rather than the art form of games.Gamers will expect more from the book. It lacks the breath and depth to cover a subject as vast as video games. It doesn't help when there are no compelling justification on why some game titles are included. Overall, a missed opportunity.
This is an excellent book, and a delightful visual guide to the progress of video game art through the last 40 or so years. It is written with passion and visually engaging. It's also very informative and includes interviews with many early video game programmers. It makes for a great coffee table book, and if you are someone who is amazed at the evolution of video game art like I am, this is a great addition to yor library.Overall I love it, but here are some things I was slightly disappointed with.• The book deals with home consoles only. It only references arcade games at times, in passing. I felt this was super relevant to the subject matter. The first chapter should have been on the huge arcade culture of the 70's & 80's.• Some gamers will be disappointed that certain groundbreaking or inspirational video games are not included, but with that being said, the book does a very good job picking out the gems from thousands of titles and fitting them cohesively into this book. There are a lot!• I felt some of the art deserved better arrangements and screenshots. Everything in here looks great, but some of the games have more iconic or impressive art in them than was selected. Also, there is no arcade cabinet art, cover art, and no concept art / game design sketches. Admittedly, this is a lot to ask, but I feel it all encompasses the big picture of video game art.With that being said, this book still outweighs those nitpicks as a stunning visual guide, and yes you will probably pick up a little nostalgia as you flip through the pages. Enjoy! :-)
I thought the title was a bit misleading, as others have mentioned. I felt the book didn't directly discuss the topic of the art of video games, but is more of another history of video games. While there is some passing mention here and there about how this or that game was pushing the technological boundaries of the visual medium at the time, I feel like the book could have stood out from the rest or the history books by actually focusing on the design ethic or ethos behind the visual and aural aspects of creating a video game, or telling a story with a video game. So all in all, I found the book a bit lackluster and disappointing.
My Husband and I saw this exhibit at the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, VA and it was spectacular. I knew I had to own the book. Having the book is almost like having the exhibit in your hands. Although the exhibit used screens, artifacts, and interactive pieces (i.e. games you could play), the book captures the written portion and the overall feeling of the exhibit. With glossy pages and a unique organization system, it is clear much thought went into this book. The authors did a good job of harnessing and expression the idea that video games are more than just games, but an art form that incorporates the best thing about books, films, and technology. I agree. I enjoyed reading the history of the video game. And although they left out several of my favorites (World of Warcraft and Mortal Kombat), I see why they chose the games they did. A must read for any video game fan!
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