Phoenix IV: The History of the Videogame Industry

Great book but why are some British consoles missing? No Sinclair ZX spectrum or BBC Micro mentioned!? seems starnge with everything else in there which was a bit annoying when I was showing my Dad the book and the 2 consoles he mentioned owning/knowing about from the 1980's are not in the book.

This is exactly what it says on the tin: a history of the videogame *industry*, where “videogame” is defined as “played on a game console in the home”. We get a history, year by year, of which company produced which console, how much it cost, how soon it was sold at a discount, and who sued who over patent infringement, lost sales, or broken marriage promises.It feels a bit strange that games played on computers, arcade machines or mobile phones are only mentioned when they happen to affect the sales of consoles.The games themselves are usually just mentioned by name, if at all. Some do get mentions of the gameplay, if it caused legislation proposals at the time. The technical details of the platforms seem not completely understood by the author, judging by some confusing descriptions.There is an appendix going through the story of licensing for Tetris.As I’ve long argued, endnotes are of the devil, and in a 800+ page volume flipping back and forth between the main text and the endnotes, just to discover that the note is an explanation of an acronym that would well have fit in parentheses, made me skip the notes altogether. From the ones I read, none seemed to be concerned with citing sources.The typography could have been better, headings just before a page break, or conversely, widow lines, are all too frequent. Occasionally lines of text have been jumbled out of order. “Ironically” is overused in instances that are not obviously ironical at all.

It has been a long wait and way over a decade later: Phoenix IV continues where previous versions left off.Long considered the "de facto" book on videogames history, Phoenix IV is a straight history/year in review of videogames history from the Odyssey/Atari era till 2015 without the bias opinions that has been plaguing videogames journalism for most of its history.Every year/chapter are complimented by pictures of videogames and consoles many of which are taken from Herman's own extensive collection. The book can be considered an impressive "tour de force" of Herman's impressive videogames collection.Further materials includes: Focus On, The Tetris Story and End Notes which provides additional color on the matter being covered.What makes the Phoenix series stands out is how it gives both the big and small players their spotlight within the year they're being covered in. Every chapter is loaded with fun as a videogame lover relives a particular year in what feels like a play by play of what happened that said year.The book handles the new retro systems quite nicely as everything comes full circle in chapter 42/year 2014 as the Flashback systems help re-introduce today's gamers to a past most gamers probably only experienced in pieces (meaning at best today's gamers were probably able to play only a handful of games from the 70s & 80s until the Flashback consoles provided them with a complete feel).Full circle is also how chapter 42/year 2014 covers the passing of "The Father of the Videogames Console": Mr. Ralph Baer, a man that was also a mentor and close friend of the book's author. Fittingly the book starts with Ralph Baer and his death is covered near one of the final sections of the next to last chapters.What is surprising is that an Odyssey Flashback console is still not yet available at the time of this book review.In all, Phoenix IV is a must own in the collection of every videogame lover and does not let the reader down even after so many years of waiting for the new chapters. Obviously history continues to be made and we all cannot wait for Phoenix V!

Absolutely loved this Book! Great history with info & pictures of dome old, obscure systems that I have never even heard of. Highly recommended!

DAS Buch zur Videospielgeschichte, sehr zu empfehlen! Nach Jahren gegledert mit sehr vielen ungewöhnlichen Geräten. Einzelne Spiele werden nur sporadisch erwähnt, da wäre wohleine einzelne Historie zu erinzelnen Systemen wünschenswert!

I have read the previous two versions of this book and really enjoyed them. It has taken sometime, but now the fourth edition is out. I was happy to see you could get it on the kindle, and saved $20.00 dollars over the softcover. I really enjoyed this book. You truly get an view of the videogame industry from beginning to now. You will see items that even the most avid collector may not know about. The pictures probably look better in the books, but usually you get a good view on the kindle version. I have read a number of videogame books and this is by far the best!

"Phoenix IV" gilt als Standardwerk der Videospielgeschichte. Wurde mir so von vielen Seiten mitgeteilt. Also habe ich das Buch geordert und sogleich wissbegierig zu lesen begonnen. Der Schreibstil ist angenehm, die Jahreseinteilung macht Sinn, der Autor hat viele Illustrationen - so weit das Positive. Jedoch strotzt das Werk vor vielen kleinen Fehlern, insbesondere Zahlen, Daten und Fakten werden ganz gerne ohne Beleg ins Feld geführt. Das fängt auf Seite eins an (etwa das Datum der Präsentation des Nimrod auf der Berliner Industrieausstellung) und zieht sich wie ein roter Faden durchs Buch. Deshalb nur bedingt geeignet, um eigene wissenschaftliche Arbeiten zu unterlegen.