Over the last decade, there has been an explosion of interest in the history of video games. This shouldn't be surprising as although the mainstream market is barely passed its fiftieth birthday, it's certainly been eventful, even if it does become a little tiresome when (mainly) US based writers/content creators et al bang on about the Great Video Game Crash of '83 - in the UK and elsewhere, that was a fart in the wind. My point is that many stories have been told about the early days of mass market video games, so is it reasonable to wonder what Lewis Packwood can bring to the discussion with this new release from the White Owl imprint of Pen and Sword Books?
As you peruse the contents page below, you may be thinking, maybe not. After all, the Enterprise 8-bit micro has received a bit of historical interest (from UK retro gaming people at least) so its inclusion here might just be a rinse and repeat chapter.
But did you know what happened to the Enterprise after it bombed in the UK? Or the second life of the Amiga CD32? Or that the Casio Loopy was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to specifically targeted gaming hardware? And what fresh hell was the Avatar Machine? You'll know exactly what by the time you've finished this book.
And that's the thing, whereas the subjects covered may be familiar (to a degree) to some, the author's research expands those stories far beyond what you may have already read, seen or heard. It gets better though, as Mr Packwood covers kit that has had little to no mainstream coverage.
A prime example is the Galaksija, Yugoslavia's home built micro that still has a following to this day. Everything in that chapter was a wonder - here is a machine the story of which deserves to be told, and it is told extremely well, as are the stories of the people behind it. Another chapter features the Kimtanktics, an ingenious and highly specialised way to bring the table top war gaming into the high tech of the 1970's. Their inclusion in this book meant that this was the first time I was introduced to either machine.
There are some real gems in here and the author has done a fantastic job in bringing the various computers to life. There are plenty of photographs and screenshots, and yeah, I did head off to YouTube to see some of the games in action - the VHS flight games are... well, of their time... Another bonus was that the chapter on the Barcode Battler not only (belatedly) justified my decision not to ask for one for Christmas thirty years ago, and it also clearly explains the concept of the hardware and of barcodes themselves.
From the foreword provided by Time Extension's Editor-in-Cheif, , to the section on recommended reading and the nine pages of endnotes, Curious Video Game Machines is a highly entertaining read. The author has succeeded brilliantly in shining a light on some of the most obscure gaming machines from the earliest days of the hobby. Some were technical dead ends, others quick money grabs. Yet still more were simply unheard of due to either their country of origin or pure niche appeal. But here, in yet another worthy White Owl publication, you will learn about these, either for the first time or in expanding your understanding of what they achieved. Put simply, if the history of video games interests you in the slightest, you need to pick up a copy of this book.
Speaking of which you can do so directly from the publisher's website, as well as the usual physical and online bookstores. You can also follow the author on X (@LewisPackwood).
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