The History of the Stealth Game by Kirk McKeand - Book Review

Sshhhhh! Be vewy, vewy quiet. I'm hunting wabbits... if wabbits were a) weal real and b) appeared in any one of the twelve genre defining stealth titles featured in this book. As they aren't, and they don't, instead of continuing the hunt for said non-existent bunnies, I'll talk about Kirk McKeand's excellent study of the stealth video game genre. 

The History of the Stealth Game is not a complete history of games of stealth (that would more than likely fill several volumes and forced the author to wade through some absolute pap in the process), but what it does do is focus on a dozen examples and gives you the in-depth skinny on how they were created.

After an introduction by Arkane's Harvey Smith, the author takes over and explains the ground rules, detailing why the book takes 1998 as its starting point. Sure, there were plenty of stealth games around before then, but Tenchu, Thief and Metal Gear Solid are the bedrock upon which he launches the reader on a rollercoaster ride of developmental tales and personal journeys. As well as the aforementioned trio, you'll learn more about titles such as The Last of Us Part II, Assassin's Creed and Deus Ex.

This isn't a dry retrospective on the topic. Indeed, the author steps back and lets those interviewed lead the reader, adding context as and when appropriate. It is this respect for the people, their work and the results of said effort that stands out in this book. For example, it is hard not to feel for Jeremy Blaustein, whose contribution to Metal Gear Solid seemed not only lost to history, but without which would have resulted in a much different experience for the Western players. And that's what I like about this book - it sometimes features the more recognisable names, but as far as MGS goes, Blaustein's story was far more interesting that anything I have read from Kojima in many a year. 

Oh, and about MGS4. Loved it when I first played it (and had loved each game prior to it since the PlayStation MGS). Only ever played 4 once. It was those cutscenes lasting up to 71 minutes that did it for me. I don't care how brilliant the guy is as a developer and producer, I just can't justify using so much of my limited games playing time to watching an f-ing movie! Even back then, when it seemed like I had more time to play games, it often felt like a race between the end of the cutscene and the heat death of the universe... There is only so much difference between being a profound genius and a pretentious wan... thing that needs to be remembered is that these are games and they are meant to be interactive. You may disagree about MGS4, but each to their own.

Anyhoo...

This is yet another book where the experience of developing games comes across as a labour of love, dedication and self abuse (not that, you dirty minded sods!). The long hours, the missed family events, and the physical and mental toll are all too real once again. Maybe things are changing, but where passionate people get involved in creating art (and video games are art!), there is sadly a dose of suffering too. As with other books I have read on the subject, The History of the Stealth Game very much displays the warts and all of video game development and how dedicated/exploited people can be in the industry. As it is, when people speak of their experiences in this book, you immediately hear 'their' voice in the writing.

Where the author gives us his own voice, his easy charm and humour shine through, and on the basis of that alone, I look forward to any future tomes on gaming he cares to write about. There is warmth too, and this makes this book an easy read when you can easily see the author's enthusiasm for the subject. 

The History of the Stealth Game is an excellent addition to my video games library and another must-buy from the White Owl imprint from Pen and Sword Books. Even if you are not a fan of the stealth genre, you will learn much about video games creation and the industry, albeit from the viewpoint of stealth titles. If you are a fan, then the decision to buy this book is a no-brainer. You can pick this up from the publisher directly here, or from the usual online and physical bookstores. You can also follow the author on Twitter here. 

The First Atomic Bomb by Jim Mangi - Book Review

I have always enjoyed a good counter-factual story and, when it comes to military history, there have been some corkers - although I leave "For Want of a Nail" out of that list just because it is simply too dry for me. In one sense though, that is a good example to pick (along with Third World War by General Sir John Hackett) in that both books position themselves as historical works published after the events they portray. The First Atomic Bomb does the same thing here, pivoting from actual history at the point of the first nuclear bomb test.

What follows is a well told tale (if sometimes a little dryly - maybe the author is a fan of For Want of a Nail?) where events may or may not diverge as far as you think they would. Here, the Soviets invade Japan, Korea is not divided and, well, you'll need to read the book to find out the rest. The Cold War still plays out, but with different locations and sometimes different players, and certainly with different outcomes, given what we know happened in South East Asia following the end of the Second World War. 

It is sometimes just a case of changing the name of the country affected by a specific political dogma yet the results seems to be awfully familiar. There again, certain political processes lend themselves to failure (certainly when combined with human nature) and more than a few recognisable names pop up here and there to move things along.

Of course, the main question raised by any counter-factual should be "is it realistically possible for these events to have occurred?" and it's a good question to ask. Given the scale of the narration and the more strategic level of detail, I would say yes, it's quite plausible. After all, whilst events may hinge upon the decision of an individual or two at very specific moments, situations tend to develop at a rate often takes that decision making process (and effect) away from those concerned. I think the author here has taken a valid approach and as he has written a previous book (that one asking what if the atomic bomb had been developed early), I think I will have to pick that book up in the future. 

Whoops, SPOILERS!

It is clear that a lot of research has taken place to give the right level of authenticity to the alternate past despite what seems to be the almost inevitable status quo at the turn of the 21st Century having been achieved in this timeline too. There are plenty of photographs which are re-purposed to fit the narrative, but in a nice touch, they are also described in detail for what they actually show. Kudos for that.

For me, this was an entertaining read, and one that put a spotlight on an area that I hadn't seen covered in much detail before in counter-factual history. If this sounds like something for you, The First Atomic Bomb can pick this up at all of the usual physical and online book retailers. 

Retro Format and Eight Bit Magazine - Review

After a bit of a break away from the laptop, here is the first of three posts this week that will allow me to have a bit of a catch up on the growing backlog. These two, small publisher magazines were part of the heads up I received about Cool Sh*t Magazine back in the summer. Intrigued, I ordered the then latest issues of each and waited for their arrival. 

We'll start off with Retro Format and this is an A4 stapled magazine coming in at 64 pages including the covers. Paper quality is good and has a nice glossy finish that also helps with the imagery and artwork inside. The cover itself highlights the formats covered, ranging from the venerable 8-bit MSX, CPC and C64, to the more modern (in relative terms) Amiga and Dreamcast. The Spectrum Next gets a mention too, and that's important as it's good to see new hardware come out that mimics older formats. What about the magazine's contents?

The primary feature of this issue is coverage of every Burnout title released, providing a good overview of the various titles in that much-beloved series and taking up six pages. After that, you can see there is a good mix of coverage for the NES, Amiga, ZX Spectrum, C64, CPC, Mega Drive, Super Nintendo and the PC, with an arcade title thrown in for good measure. Fans of first person shooters will appreciate the attention given to E1M1 Magazine, with a review and an interview, whilst film fans get a piece on the Original Trilogy of the Star Wars Saga. 

This is a well laid out magazine, with plenty of spacing and text just the right size to read easily and without eyestrain. The review scores seem quite fair (given for the couple of titles here I have played), although I do question if Quake Remastered is that good, but that's a discussion for another time. What is important is that the quality of the writing is high and there is passion behind the words, so maybe I will go easy on that Quake score... 

Eight Bit is a smaller proposition, a stapled A5 booklet with 56 pages in total. This one is a bit more focussed in its content and that is no bad thing. After all, there were more eight-bit formats back in the 80's than you could shake a stick at and the tighter focus of each article actually permits greater coverage between the formats.

Issue 10 begins with the first part of a console/computer comparison, initially looking at several console titles (Pole Position, Road Rash and Operation Wolf to name but three) to see how they stack up compared to their computer counterparts. Part two will look at games from the computer perspective, and part three will feature the final showdown and results. A neat idea and something that I look forward to seeing the final results of.

Sports Games seems to be another on-going feature series, this issue with part three and looking at tennis games. A few of these I have actually played and, whilst the genre reached a pinnacle (for me anyway) with the Dreamcast's Virtua Tennis, there were some cracking examples of the genre back in the day. 

Coding a Game in NextBASIC reaches parts two and three in this issue, and is something of mild interest given that I keep dabbling with coding, but for those of you with a Spectrum NEXT (or the extension in Visual Studio), these are a handy few pages. 

The last four pages contain an article on the EUROPA Computer Club, a label I had never heard of before (being from Germany), as well as an interview with Arved Pohl, a programmer who worked with the company during its eight bit heydays. Very interesting and a lovely window into an area of home computing that I knew little about. 

As with Retro Format, the layout is good and the production quality is high. The stock is a little thinner but to be honest, it fits the feel of the A5 booklet format better. Issue 11 has been published since I received my copy of number 10, and I shall order this one in the next few days, so that will perhaps tell you my feelings on this publication.

Indeed, these are two cracking magazines and if you're a fan of retro video gaming or computers, you should head on over to their website here and have a gander. In the freebies section, there are pdf's of issues one to six of Eight Bit, so that's definitely a good place to start. As for me, these join the quite numerous small scale independent magazines that continue to thrive in the computing/gaming arena. It's good to see such variety and long may it continue. 

Sierra Collector's Quest by Stephen Emond - Book Review

First of all, an apology. I received these back in July and promised a review within a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, that didn't happen, so better late than never...

Sierra On-Line was one of the biggest computer and video games companies in the 1980's and early 90's. Although it didn't end well for Sierra (see my review of Not All Fairy Tales Have Happy Endings), the sheer number of games that were developed and/or published by the company over the years is staggering and Stephen Emond decided to take it upon himself to present the ultimate guide to Sierra's gaming legacy.

Back of Quest for Glory volume.

Funded by Kickstarter, this led to three volumes at present, with plans for further releases in the future. The initial funding covered Volumes 0, 1 and Quest for Glory, and these arrived after a short delay (nothing unexpected in the current world of crowd-funding projects). As with many of the Kickstarters I have backed, there was always a steady flow of updates and news, which is always a good thing.

Let's take each volume in turn, starting with volume 0 (780 pages). What you'll get is as complete a list as is possible of the games, collections, books, clothing and the like for Sierra and it's diverse range of brands: Dynamix, Coktel Vision, SubLogic, Swordfish and others. The back of the book shows the full list and there has been a ton of effort put in here to pull this all together. 

Back of Collector's Quest volume 0.

There is a foreword by Ken Williams, which is a nice touch, then a brief description of the Sierra multiverse followed by a guide to the format of the entries. 

From a presentation perspective, there is really only one way to include all of that information and yes, it's like a telephone directory (kids, ask your parents or Google that...). That means tiny but perfectly legible text and whilst my own failing eyesight struggled, I didn't have to resort to a magnifying glass. Colour is also present but kept to the title pages for each of the companies. All told, if you're a fan of Sierra or a video game historian, this volume will be of immense value. 

Typical page for Volume 0

Volume 1(780 pages) is the Sierra Adventures book, this time with a foreword by Roberta Williams. There's more text in this volume, as each of Sierra's adventure series gets the full monty - history of the games, the various versions released (and those that never made it to market), along with details of all of the swag that was given away with the various editions. If you wanted to know about Hi-Res Adventures, the three Quest series or Leisure Suit Larry, then this volume has you covered. From collectors to those who might want to write about these games, there is a wealth of information presented in a clean and highly professional manner. 

Back of Collector's Quest volume 1.

The final book from this Kickstarter is set around the Quest for Glory games (190 pages). This is mostly presented in the same manner as volume one, with a volume zero style listing at the back Once again, the amount of information and depth of detail is immense, even if it is the smallest volume of the set.

Page from Volume 1

The Sierra Collector's Quest should be considered the reference for Sierra's games history. You're not going to get a behind the scenes look at the company (see Ken Williams' book for that), but you will learn about the sheer enormity of their published titles and merchandise. I honestly cannot find anything to fault this collection and whilst there were not exactly cheap, the contents are more than worth it. Two more volumes are planned and I fully intend to support their publication too. Well done to Stephen Emond and the team who helped him with this project.

Page from Quest for Glory

You can follow the author on Twitter here, and visit his website here where you can purchase copies of the various volumes and view his other work. I've added some more imagery below so you can see what the books are like in general.

Evercade Evolution - Magazine Review

Long time readers will know that I've been a fan of the Evercade handheld since it was first released. The idea of a portable console using cartridges is both suitably nostalgic and well implemented in the Evercade and it has grown a steady following. This inspired several people to get together and publish an unofficial magazine for the machine: Evercade Evolution.

Starting off as a free pdf file, you can also buy physical copies produced via Amazon, and it was these I purchased a couple of weeks ago. Issue five is being talked about online so hopefully we'll see that soon, and it was pleasing to see that issue 4 has a lovely note stating that all profits from that issue in April 2022 were being donated to charity. 

As I have said above, these issues are printed on demand by Amazon, which offers high quality binding, good colour reproduction and a decent feel to the magazines. Issue one comes in at 50 pages including the covers, with later issues coming in at the mid-sixties range. 

What is apparent from a general read through is that the team behind the magazine believe in the meaning of the title, as each issue amends and improves the formula. Layouts and content balances change and it's a positive thing to see them alter their approach as the nature of the Evercade market changes too, especially with the addition of the TV-connected VS machine and the Arcade collections. 

Issue one sets the tone with a short news section which is followed by a game-by-game review of the Atari Collection 1 cart. Each game gets looked at and marked (out of five stars) for Graphics, Audio, Gameplay and Fun Factor. A final score out of ten is then awarded, and some games even get a second opinion. After that, we get a "traditional" review of the cart, taking in all the games in a two page piece (by a different reviewer to the individual game section), before finally putting the cart to bed by having a page dedicated to three of the crew scoring it for Game Variety, Game Quality, Play Time and Replay Value - then giving the whole thing a score out of ten. Now I quite like this approach, as you get one person's views on each game, another's of the cart as a whole, then the round up. It makes sense given that this cart alone contains 20 titles and whilst some play reasonably well, others (with their 40-year plus age) most definitely do not, and the team is not scared to say so where needed. 

A small high score section appears before an article on the type of Winter/Christmas titles the team would like to see on the Evercade. James Pond 2 seems to be the popular choice, and I am not one to disagree with that. The next four pages are dedicated to the background of the magazine and the creation of the physical edition, a further page delves further back in to the history of the magazine, and then there's a look at the Fairchild Channel F console. I really did like the approach that last one took too.

Two pages are dedicated to a (then) new TV show based on the game Frogger (I know, but hey, the trailer looks fun), before the last article proper,  a one page interview with Classy Gaming Fun (aka Pete, aka, OEB Pete) of YouTube renown, leads us to the sign off.

Issue two ramps things up with more news pages, and expanded high score section and an interview with Blaze Entertainment's Andrew Byatt. The Namco Collection 2 gets the full review treatment and there are a good few features that a worthy your time (you'll need to read the mag yourself to find out - and remember, it's a free pdf online if you don't want a physical copy...).

EE The Third covers the Evercade, the home console variant of the format, the Data East Collection 1 is the review cart of choice and, once again, the features are a good mix and well written. The most recent issue (as of this post) doubles down on the reviews, with two carts (both of the Interplay Collections) as well as a review of the new Technos Arcade collection. 

I really like this magazine. It's a fan-based publication that not only hit the ground running but also dared to improve itself over the issues produced so far. They've nailed the design and it reads very well. If you're an owner of any of either the Evercade or VS (or have pre-ordered the new EXP handheld (so tempting it is too...), then this mag will have you covered for your reading needs. I know I will be picking up issue 5 when it's available and add it to the other issues in my collection. You can check out the magazine for free here, and buy the physical copies from Amazon here, as well as the Kindle version too. Also check out their Twitter feed for news and announcements.