The Book Shelf – Video Game Canon

Boss Fight Books to Get a New Look for Richard Moss’s “Age of Empires”

The Boss Fight Books series will be getting a bit of an aesthetic refresh with its next book, Age of Empires: How Ensemble Studios Made History.

The iconic stock images have been retired in favor of fully-illustrated covers from “real, human artists.” As you can see, the publisher will also be adding subtitles to all future books in the series, as well as employing a bigger title font.

But don’t worry, the design on the spines will remain the same. So all your previous Boss Fight Books purchases will continue to line up nicely with all of your future Boss Fight Books.

Age of Empires will be written by Richard Moss (who previously authored The Secret History of Mac Gaming and A Tale of Two Halves: The History of Football Video Games), and it’ll feature interviews with more than 25 people who helped bring the strategy game to life (including the Goodman brothers, the Rippy brothers, Ed Fries, and many more).

“Tony came in one day, out of the blue, and said to everybody in the room, ‘Hey, would any of you rather be programming games than databases?'”

Upon its release in 1997, the real-time strategy game Age of Empires turned heads with its varied campaigns, competitive online play, “Hollywood” approach to history, and its bright and colorful aesthetic.

Helmed by brothers Tony and Rick Goodman, Age of Empires was a game about bringing thousands of years of human history to life—and making it fun and accessible. Over the course of its three-year development, the game shifted from an ancient-world twist on SimCity to a historical real-time strategy game, but through all its iterations Age never strayed from that core vision.

Based on interviews with 29 former Ensemble and Microsoft executives and staff, documentarian Richard Moss tells the story of how a scrappy team of first-time developers partnered with the biggest tech company in the world on a game that would test the brothers’ relationship like nothing before.

Boss Fight Books is currently accepting pre-orders for Age of Empires: How Ensemble Studios Made History through Kickstarter. The book will be published in ebook format this June, with the paperback to follow in July.

“Animal Crossing” and Undertale” Lead the Way for New Book Series About Games at University of Chicago Press

Boss Fight Books might have some competition thanks to the recent launch of a similar, though more academically-inclined, series from University of Chicago Press. Books from the publisher’s Replay series will attempt to connect the personal experiences of the author with “gameplay with insights into a game’s development, reception, and implications for contemporary social life.”

Replay is a series of short general interest books, each about a single game. Accessible and engaging, the books connect authors’ personal experiences of gameplay with insights into a game’s development, reception, and implications for contemporary social life. A book about Animal Crossing: New Horizons might explore how the game offered safety and social connection during the COVID-19 pandemic; another, about the location-based Pokémon GO, might investigate urban gentrification; yet another, about Windows Solitaire, might probe the relationship between preinstalled desktop software and computer literacy. We invite any author who has a deep connection to a game and can express both relatable and surprising observations to a wide audience. Our first proposals have come from journalists and scholars with expertise in queer and feminist game criticism, Black studies, and Native American studies.

Replay launched this month with two books, Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Can a Game Take Care of Us? and Undertale – Can a Game Give Hope?. Future volumes are expected to focus on Pokemon Go, Windows Solitaire, and other games.

You can learn more about both books after the break.

[Continue Reading…]

“Life is Strange”, “Dragon Age II”, and “Legend of the River King” Coming Soon to Boss Fight Books Season 8

Like a fish trying to stealthily peek its face out of the water (this intro will make sense in a minute), Boss Fight Books is back with an announcement for their next slate of books.

Boss Fight Books: Season 8 will include a trio of new books, all focusing on titles that had their own unique impact on the world video games.

First up is a travelogue-style approach to the world’s first portable fishing RPG, Legend of the River King, by Alexander B. Joy. Closely connected to the Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons series, more than a dozen River King games have been released in Japan, but Legend of the River King was the first to make its way to North America. Launching just before Pokemon, it built up a cult following among Game Boy players and Joy will plumb the depths of what Legend of the River King has to say about “the fields of art, culture, philosophy, and ecology.”

Next is Kaitlin Tremblay’s Life is Strange, which will explore the adventure game’s relationship to “personal history, YA fantasy, identity formation, grief, and most of all, choice.” Life is Strange was something of an unexpected blockbuster, possibly because of its ability to give players the chance to make choices that “[say] something about who we are and who we want to be.”

Finally, Charlotte Reber will unpack exactly what happened during the notoriously short development cycle of Dragon Age II. Hoping to capitalize on the massive popularity of Dragon Age: Origins, BioWare rushed a sequel into production that ultimately divided fans and critics alike. Was it a flop? Was it a secret success? New interviews with the game’s narrative team (David Gaider, Jennifer Hepler, Lukas Kristjanson, and Karin Weekes) will attempt to get to the bottom of it.

Boss Fight Books is currently seeking funding for Season 8 through Kickstarter until August 5th, and they’ve promised that a fourth book in the season will make its debut in a separate campaign later this year.

But in the meantime, you can learn more about Legend of the River King, Life is Strange, and Dragon Age II after the break.

[Continue Reading…]

Aidan Moher Will Write “Suikoden 1 & 2” for Boss Fight Books in 2026

The Suikoden I & II HD Remaster was first announced in 2022, and after three long years of waiting, it is finally available on store shelves. This is the first modern re-release for any of the games in the franchise, and fans are absolutely giddy at the chance to play it again.

Aidan Moher (the author of the RPG-centric Fight, Magic, Items) decided to piggyback on the launch date with an announcement (via Astrolabe) that he’ll be teaming up with Boss Fight Books to publish a history of the creation of Suikoden 1 & 2 in book form:

After doing a deep dive into the history of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and the rise of Japanese RPGs in the west with Fight, Magic, Items, I was left with several stories that felt unfulfilled—games and series that had more to say than I was able to fit into that book. Chief among those was Suikoden, which has seen a recent and surprising revival after the success of its creators’s kickstarted spiritual successor Eiyuden Chronicle. […] I couldn’t imagine telling one story without the other, and the end result is a rich, reported and personal look at the first two games, the people who made them, and the impact they’ve had on their genre and beyond.

From the early days when a green Yoshitaka Murayama accidentally agreed to make an RPG (a genre he didn’t play) about The Water Margin, to Miki Higashino’s revolutionary soundtrack and Junko Kawano’s timeless designs, to a lengthy interview with Suikoden II’s localization team, and the road to the 2025 remasters, Suikoden 1 & 2 runs the gamut.

Suikoden 1 & 2 will be published in 2026 as part of Boss Fight’s upcoming (and as yet unannounced) Season 8. More details about the rest of the books in that lineup will be announced at a later date.

Boss Fight Books Season 7 Announced: “EverQuest”, “Untitled Goose Game”, “Outer Wilds”, “Dance Dance Revolution”

Boss Fight Books celebrated its tenth anniversary earlier this year, and now they’re back with a brand new batch of books. A Kickstarter campaign for Boss Fight Books: Season 7 promising four new volumes in the series began on August 20th.

If you’re unfamiliar with Boss Fight Books, the publisher produces “documentary-style books about classic video games” that tackle the “history, meaning, and legacy of a single video game”. Would you like to know which titles will be included in Season 7? Drumroll please…

[Continue Reading…]

David Wolinsky’s Oral History of Gamergate, “The Hivemind Swarmed”, is Now Available in Bookstores

We’re ten years out from the online harassment campaign that came to be known as “Gamergate” and I’ve still never been able to wrap my head around the idea that some people thought a torrential barrage of death and rape threats was an appropriate response to writing about video games in a way they didn’t like. The creator of the Don’t Die interview series, David Wolinsky, was similarly baffled by Gamergate, and he recently spoke to a number of “major figures in gaming, tech, media, and politics” to get the real story behind the hashtag.

Wolinsky’s The Hivemind Swarmed: Conversations on Gamergate, the Aftermath, and the Quest for a Safer Internet is an oral history of Gamergate, but it’s also an examination into how the harassment campaign later influenced the alt-right movement:

An incisive oral history that brings together the voices of major figures in gaming, tech, media, and politics to reflect on the long shadow of Gamergate

With The Hivemind Swarmed, oral historian and documentary researcher David Wolinsky invites readers to sit in on a series of urgent, intimate conversations between some of the most distinguished voices across entertainment industries and media as they reflect on the longstanding impact of Gamergate. What went wrong, and what can we learn from Gamergate to help us build a more equitable online world?

The backstory: 10 years ago, a disgruntled software developer named Eron Gjoni posted online to accuse his ex-girlfriend, game developer Zoë Quinn, of sleeping with game critics in exchange for positive reviews. He offered no evidence to back up his claims. However, his posts were picked up by extremists in the gaming community who built a vicious online movement targeting women, minorities, and progressive voices. Rallying under the hashtag #gamergate, they sent their victims round-the-clock death and rape threats. Game companies, for the most part, declined to take action as their female employees were harassed out of their jobs. The FBI launched an investigation but found “no true threat.”

Gamergate holds the grim distinction of being the first modern online harassment campaign. It arguably served as a model for the alt-right movement that would help propel Donald Trump to the White House. And it highlighted a toxic media culture—not just in gaming, but in film, TV, journalism, and more—in which leaders, through their passivity, took the side of the oppressor. Now, 10 years later—in the wake of #MeToo, Charlottesville, the Trump years, and the January 6 insurrection—the questions discussed here are more important than ever.

The Hivemind Swarmed: Conversations on Gamergate, the Aftermath, and the Quest for a Safer Internet was recently published by Beacon Press and it’s available in bookstores now.

“The Oral History of Guitar Hero, Rock Band and the Music Game Boom” is Getting Ready to Rock in Winter 2025

Blake Hester put together a sprawling Oral History of ‘Guitar Hero’ in 2021 for Waypoint after sitting down with all the key players from Harmonix, RedOctane, and Activision.

But rather than leave the stage, Hester’s coming back for an encore with an expanded version of the original article, The Oral History of Guitar Hero, Rock Band and the Music Game Boom, now in a book-length special edition package featuring die-cut tabbed pages and an amplifier-esque textured slipcase.

Altogether, he spent roughly a year tracking down and interviewing more than 30 people involved in the development of the game, the selection of the music, and the creation of all those plastic instruments. What followed was a tale worthy of the best of Behind the Music. A story of towering success followed by a crash back down to Earth… with redemption possibly existing just over the horizon.

Guitar Hero never taught anyone to play the guitar… but it sure felt like it. Game nights became head-banging parties that all your friends were invited to. As the fanbase grew, so did the setlist, with A-listers Aerosmith, Van Halen and Metallica all lending their unforgettable back catalogues. As the craze spread, so too did the play-along opportunities, with 2007’s Rock Band adding plastic drums, bass and vocals to the mix. It seemed like the party would never end… until it suddenly did.

The Oral History of Guitar Hero, Rock Band and the Music Game Boom is the definitive story of a game that, entirely fittingly, lived fast and died young. Building upon Blake Hester’s celebrated 2021 history of Guitar Hero for Vice, it widens its gaze to cover the evolution of the Rock Band series, from its first tentative press of the red fret button to its insane overblown crescendo of songs, hype and impossible-to-pack-into-the-loft plastic peripherals.

The Oral History of Guitar Hero, Rock Band and the Music Game Boom is currently seeking funding through Volume, and will be published by Read-Only Memory in Winter 2025 if it reaches its goal by July 19th.

UPDATE (7/3/24): The crowdfunding campaign for The Oral History of Guitar Hero, Rock Band and the Music Game Boom has added another option for those interested in learning more about the birth (and quick death) of a new game genre. In addition to the Deluxe Edition ($80) and the Harmonix Signed Edition ($100), prospective buyers will also be able to pick a less-deluxe Standard Edition that’s been priced at $60.

John Romero’s “Doom Guy” is Getting a Documentary and a Dramatic Adaptation

If you’ve ever seen him give an interview, you know that John Romero, one of the co-founders of id Software and the co-creator of both Doom and Quake, is one of the all-time great talkers. No matter what the question is, he’ll give you a story that you’ll remember for the rest of your life.

Romero’s wordsmithing was definitely one of the big reasons why his recently-published memoir, Doom Guy: Life in First Person, was so well-received by readers.

According to Deadline, the famed developer will get another chance to tell his story in an upcoming documentary adaptation of Doom Guy. The project will be directed by Rob McCallum, who is probably best known as the creator of a few other game-themed documentaries, including 2015’s Nintendo Quest.

Speaking about Doom Guy, [McCallum] said: “John Romero’s journey is the missing antidote for all of us misfit toys looking for hope and kindred spirits in the darkness of the world. It’s an unbelievable rock n’ roll, boundary-shattering, thrill ride grounded in humanity, integrity, patience and clever chess moves slathered in innocence, tenacity and pure coolness.”

In addition to the documentary, Golden Possum Productions and Naomi Harvey will produce a dramatic adaptation of Doom Guy as well. We don’t know which actor will step into Romero’s well-coifed mane, nor do we know if this adaptation is planned for cable or theaters or streaming. But hopefully it doesn’t suffer the same fate as the USA Network’s planned adaptation of David Kushner’s Masters of Doom, which fell apart shortly after it was announced in 2019.

MIT Press Will Add “Seeing Red: Nintendo’s Virtual Boy” to its Platform Studies Series on May 14

MIT Press‘s long-running Platform Studies series has used an academic lens to explore the technical aspects and cultural impact of a diverse array of video game consoles since it began in 2012. But after covering successful platforms such as the NES, the Super NES, the Wii, and the Atari 2600, the next book in the series will definitely surprise a few readers.

Jose Zagal and Benj Edwards have made the unconventional choice to focus on… wait for it… the Virtual Boy in Seeing Red: Nintendo’s Virtual Boy. More than just an infamous failure, the Virtual Boy offered a unique experience that still has people talking about it today:

With glowing red stereoscopic 3D graphics, the Virtual Boy cast a prophetic hue: Shortly after its release in 1995, Nintendo’s balance sheet for the product was “in the red” as well. Of all the innovative long shots the game industry has witnessed over the years, perhaps the most infamous and least understood was the Virtual Boy. Why the Virtual Boy failed, and where it succeeded, are questions that video game experts Jose Zagal and Benj Edwards explore in Seeing Red, but even more interesting to the authors is what the platform actually was: what it promised, how it worked, and where it fits into the story of gaming.

Nintendo released the Virtual Boy as a standalone table-top device in 1995—and quickly discontinued it after lackluster sales and a lukewarm critical reception. In Seeing Red, Zagal and Edwards examine the device’s technical capabilities, its games, and the cultural context in the US in the 1990s when Nintendo developed and released the unusual console. The Virtual Boy, in their account, built upon and extended an often-forgotten historical tradition of immersive layered dioramas going back 100 years that was largely unexplored in video games at the time. The authors also show how the platform’s library of games conveyed a distinct visual aesthetic style that has not been significantly explored since the Virtual Boy’s release, having been superseded by polygonal 3D graphics. The platform’s meaning, they contend, lies as much in its design and technical capabilities and affordances as it does in an audience’s perception of those capabilities.

Offering rare insight into how we think about video game platforms, Seeing Red illustrates where perception and context come, quite literally, into play.

Seeing Red: Nintendo’s Virtual Boy will be available in bookstores on May 14.

Jordan Mechner’s “Replay: Memoir of an Uprooted Family” is Now Available

Jordan Mechner previously chronicled the early portions of his career in The Making of Karateka: Journals 1982-1985 and The Making of Prince of Persia: Journals 1985-1993, but more recently he’s turned his illustrator’s eye to his own family history.

Replay: Memoir of an Uprooted Family is now available in bookstores in hardcover and as a downloadable ebook via First Second Books, and it tells the story of “his family’s journey through war, Nazi occupation, and everyday marital strife.”

Writing on his official website, Mechner describes Replay as “a very special [and] personal work for me” and explains that the graphic novel memoir “interweaves the story of my life as a game developer (making Prince of Persia, Karateka and The Last Express) with my dad’s flight from Vienna as a child refugee in 1938-41 through Nazi-occupied France, and my grandfather’s back story as an Austrian teenage soldier in World War I”:

In this intergenerational graphic memoir, renowned video game designer Jordan Mechner traces his family’s journey through war, Nazi occupation, and everyday marital strife.

1914. A teenage romantic heads to the enlistment office when his idyllic life in a Jewish enclave of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is shattered by World War I.

1938. A seven-year-old refugee begins a desperate odyssey through France, struggling to outrun the rapidly expanding Nazi regime and reunite with his family on the other side of the Atlantic.

2015. The creator of a world-famous video game franchise weighs the costs of uprooting his family and moving to France as the cracks in his marriage begin to grow.

Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner calls on the voices of his father and grandfather to weave a powerful story about the enduring challenge of holding a family together in the face of an ever-changing world.

The Internet Archive will be hosting a virtual Book Talk event for Replay with Mechner on March 27 at 1:00 PM (Eastern Time). It’ll be hosted by Chris Kohler of Digital Eclipse (coincidentally, the developer behind The Making of Karateka compilation for the PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S), and tickets are currently available for free.