The first volume of Supercade wasn't exactly a shrinking violet when it came to its page count, but volume two goes even further, adding seventy pages for a total of over 520! And with fold outs too! We haven't been this spoiled this that waiter dude handed out those choccies at the ambassador's shindig! (One for older British readers there...)
It should go without saying that the period covered by this tome was a tad busier than that by the first book, encompassing as it does the rise of the NES in America, the 16-bit computer and console generations, and then the true breakout of the 32-bit (and successor) machines up to the turn of the century.
Being a US-centred tome, the starting point has to begin with the fallout from the Great Video Games Crash. A defining moment in the US market, it pretty much had naff-all effect anywhere else. Indeed, whilst US home consoles became something of a taboo subject as far as retailers were concerned, here in the UK, we were seeing a sorting out of the 8-bit home computer market, leaving the three main formats (Sinclair Spectrum - soon to be owned by Amstrad, Amstrad's CPC range and the Commodore C64). There were others (Acorn's BBC Micro and Electron being the most common of the rest) but of consoles, Britain seemed to care little at the time...
So here we are, 1985, and it's the NES that kicks off the timeline, which is as it should be considering its impact. There are brief mentions of the Amiga 1000 (two pages), Atari ST and Commodore C128 (a half page each). That sums up the computer angle of the book and whereas the mainstream consoles are featured as the years pass, there is no mention of the PC. I get why as you face the choice of what manufacturer to pick, and when from. Was it the 286 processor and EGA graphics? 386 and VGA? The introduction of 3D graphical acceleration? Tough call, but maybe a couple of pages wouldn't have gone amiss, especially as there are more than a few PC titles covered.
That is nit-picking to the extreme, however, as Supercade is all about the games and, as you'd expect, they receive the proper attention they deserve. Presentation is once again top notch and this truly is a delight for the eyes. Each game gets a write up too, and these are informative, informed and entertaining. A series of VIP Gallery entries add extra sauce to the content, and as befits a tome with scholarly leanings, the bibliography and webography offer plenty of sources to peruse.
Really, there is not much I can add other than to say that this volume is a perfect follow up to the first and does justice to a period of video games history that proved formative for many. My first console was a Sega MegaDrive back in 1990, and from there came the Game Gear, SNES, N64, PlayStation and pretty much everything since. Many of the games given full treatment here were defining experiences for my console gaming education, so that added warming glow of nostalgia was a cherry on top whilst devouring the pages.
I picked my copy of Supercade Volume 2 up from the local Waterstones, but a quick search can find you a new copy for under £30 from the usual online sources. As with the best of coffee table tomes, the Supercade duo will remain highly valued reading material on my shelves for many years to come. Once again, congratulations to Van Burnham and team.
No comments:
Post a Comment