ARCADE FEVER The Fan's Guide to The Golden Age of Video Games

Customer Reviews

Arcade fever = the good old days of video games

2008-04-11
I didn't realize how many memories of old video games I had! I bought this book for my husband's birthday as more of a "filler" present than a serious gift. It turned out to be his favorite! He's not a huge reader but he reads some of this book every day. He's read a lot of it out loud to me & it seems good. There are some great pictures in it, too! He's totally serious about his 80's video games & this book gives him lots of little facts he didn't know before & stirs up a million good memories. It's written in a more casual way that's easy & pleasant to follow.

Re-Live Classic Arcade Action

2008-03-03
This is an excellent picture book showing all the classic arcade games and giving you some neat and interesting side notes about each game.

LOTS and LOTS of pictures...its mostly a picture book with captions...and this is what I wanted...

DEFFINATELY a must if you are an ARCADE FAN.

Great photos mixed with slanted text

2008-02-08
This book is more a photo album of memories for the author, than it is a true historical look at the games of the arcade era.

"Arcade Fever" provides a nice visual layout with plenty of colorful photos and MAME screen shots, but the author's historical recounting of each arcade game remains tainted with his personal biases, jokes, and at times, factual errors.

For some, the book may capture the flavor of the early 1980s thanks to the excited ramblings of the author...but most readers can do that for themselves. Tip: when it comes to Encyclopedic-style books, careful research and factual information are critical components. Pretty pictures are a bonus.

Written from the heart.

2008-01-25
This book falls into the trap that many such books do which is basically that it's written from an extremely biased "I remember this sweet game..." breathless style.

Don't get me wrong, I too am a fan of arcade games and I'm sure it'd be difficult for me to keep from interjecting my personal anecdotes into the narrative, but I was hoping that this book would contain a little more in depth information regarding the machines. As it is this book has some decent (but not great) pictures and some anecdotal memories of the arcade era of the early 80s.

If like me you can't resist any book on this subject, then by all means pick it up and support the author. However if you are looking for the definitive encyclopedic retelling of arcade history this book is not it.

Disappointing Flashback - A Quick Review

2004-12-31
PROS: Enjoyed cabinet photos and art. Hit most major arcade games of the era. Contained interesting side notes on some games. Interviews were okay but more interesting subject matter could have been included. Some game memorabilia shown from the time was nice.

CONS: Lacked enough interesting content to be worth it for me. Did not understand the author's potty-mouth descriptions and lame jokes in the book. - a major negative. Too much irrelevant filler text that could have been used for more info on the games. Did not include notable people who you would expect to be mentioned. Book was printed in China.

FINAL CALL: Worth flipping thru twice or for a much-too-shallow overview. Those wanting to remember the era and arcade freaks should look elsewhere.

If you like video games, you'll love this book.

2004-09-26

Arcade Fever is a full-color illustrated history of video arcade games, with tributes to more than 50 classic games like Pong, Space Invaders, Pac Man, Q-Bert, Frogger, and TRON. Learn which game caused a yen shortage in Japan -- and which games inspired breakfast cereals, Saturday-morning cartoons, episodes of Seinfeld,and #1 pop-music singles. Meet the visionary musicians, writers, animators, cabinet artists, and other unsung heroes of the video game industry. The perfect gift for anyone who spent their childhood in video arcades, Arcade Fever is a pop-culture nostalgia trip you won't want to miss! John Sellers writes for Entertainment Weekly, Premiere, TV Guide, and other national magazines. He is also the author of Pop Culture Aptitude Test: Rad, 80s Version. He was the World Champion of Donkey Kong in 1983 and appeared on the television show "That's Incredible!"

Good for a quick trip back, but not much else...

2004-03-12
This book is OK, but not very deep. It's a decent "period" piece for you nostalgia buffs. Indeed, I found myself thinking back to those days at Kentwood Arena, Funway Freeway, and Someplace Else; banging away on those controls while battling alien invaders and climbing skyscrapers (Crazy Climber). I didn't care much for the sidebars and sprinkling of useless personal trivia from the author, and some of his comments are a bit juvenile and unnecessary. You get the impression that the author was trying to have fun while putting this book together, but the "fun" gets irritating after a few pages. The interviews, while short, are decent, and the pictures of the games are nice.

This book is good for a quick trip back to those halcyon days of youth and Pac-Man, but don't expect any deep historical record. For that, you need to check out The Ultimate History Of Video Games by Steven Kent.

A Trip Down Memory Lane 2004-01-03
Arcade Fever is not a perfect book, but it's still quite good. A number of reviewers have taken the author to task for the book's shortcomings. Lighten up! It's a fun book about a fun topic. Don't be so serious, you'll get an ulcer.

First off, the book is subtitled: The Fan's Guide to the Golden Age of Video Games. As a "fan's guide" it works well - it's less a doctoral thesis in the field of Arcadeology than a simple overview of games the casual 1980s arcade visitor would know and likely love. If you want obscure references and arcane knowledge, this is definitely not your book.

Second, whenever I get together with my brother and sisters I revert to the maturity of a late teenager (my wife hates this). It seems that Sellers has reverted to that same level of maturity in his commentary, and probably for the same reason: It's fun to go back in time and try and relive our favorite moments. Cut the guy a break and get in on the fun. If you can read the word "poopy" without grinning, you're not ready for this book. If the Beavis and Butthead voice in your head says "he wrote `poopy'...cool...heh heh eh heh," you're ready to dive right in.

Third, I like the year-by-year history snippets. It provides a context for what else we were doing when not playing the games. Was it necessary? No. Does "Who Shot J.R.?" have anything to do with video games? No. Does it help get you back in the mindset of The Golden Age? I think so.

Fourth, I like the mix of games in the book. There are games you loved, liked, and hated. There are the popular games and the sleepers. Are one or more of your favorites neglected? Probably (I'd have liked a page for Tailgunner or Omega Race, myself). I wish Sellers hadn't ragged on Bosconian (but I was an English major, so that's probably why I like it so much). I liked Cliff Hanger more than Dragon's Lair, but I can concede that DL deserves the full review, CH the snippet.

Finally, the sole purpose of a book like this is to kindle the feeling of nostalgia in its reader. I had forgotten some of the things in the book: some of the games, some of the trends - I had totally forgotten about putting quarters up on marquee lip to reserve the next game. I feel better for having remembered them. If you were born in the late-'60s/early-'70s, no longer live in your parents' basement, and enjoy a fun, light read, you'll probably like this book too.

At least there are some nice cab shots 2003-10-31
Like Supercade, this collection doesn't bring much new to the table for the retrogame fan. Just seems like another attempt to cash in on our age brackets' nostalgia. Assembled within are a number of games from the golden age of arcades. The choices themselves are safe, and look like they could have been compiled easily from Videotopia or Mame32's Golden Age folder. The authors irreverent commentary has been touched upon by other reviewers; I also found it off putting and juvenile. Really the only thing going for this book were the cabinet shots. The screen snaps were once again ripped from Mame without much credit, but at least they weren't run through Photoshop with a failing art students eye like Van Burnham did in Supercade. Any factual information the author provided, beyond his own hackneyed description of gameplay, could easily be found in Mame's history.dat file. First Quarter by Kent is still a benchmark for these types of retrospect even though that book didn't necessarily concentrate solely on the arcade market. For those interested in retrogaming who may not already know: Mame32, the Win32 GUI version of Mame, at version .76 [4499 arcade games supported] seeks to preserve these games through emulation, it also facilitates the creation and collection of marquees, screen shots, control panels, cabinets, flyers, and historical information about designers, stories, etc. in one place. The program itself, as a living documentation project, far exceeds written efforts like this. Just google on Mame32 to find it.

Pop down to Nostalgia Arcade!!! 2003-04-28
This book is not particularly in depth, but then again it has no intention of being so.
There is no attempt to be 'completist' about gaming history, and basically the author says it all in the title. He's enjoying a nostalgia trip through the games he's loved, and is inviting us along. And I enjoyed the visit.
It has some wonderful photographs of the early arcade hits of the '70s/80s, and the descriptions alongside do not go into huge depth, merely loving memory joggers in which the author tries to capture the flavour of the games, and time at which it was king. Some reviewers seem to think of this as 'self indulgent.' Perhaps it is, but I enjoyed the style.
Personally, I love this book for a light read. It highlights the obvious games from the past, and I was pleasantly surprised to find 'lesser' games and sleeper hits mentioned too. If you miss the arcades of the eighties, you'll enjoy this book. Just think of it as an enjoyable memory jogger, and coffee table photo book, and you won't be disappointed. Think of it as a complete arcade guide, and you will. Recommended.