[mister_tee]

Appreciate the suggestions in this thread. Adding recommendations for Blake Harris's "Console Wars" on 90s Sega vs. Nintendo competition, and Jason Schreier's "Blood, Sweat, and Pixels" for more of the development angle. It looks like he has a new book out just last week, "Press Reset" -- seems to be on studios/projects that shut down and the aftermath. Adding that one to my reading list.

For the link to Boss Fight books: FYI the selector defaults to paperback; ebooks are a very reasonable $5 if anyone prefers digital. They're that price at Amazon for Kindle, too. But IIRC and based on reviews out there, they vary quite a bit in style and quality. Supposedly the Spelunky one is great and written by the creator himself. I bounced off the series because one book was mostly personal anecdotes from the author, a random person who just liked the game, rather than anything about the topic you wouldn't get from playing it or even reading wikipedia. Some of the books do have more research and interviews.

[otachack]

Right, Boss Fight books are a mixed bag IMO but I suggest to anyone, especially HN, to read Spelunky. It's a well balanced account straight from the Spelunky dev himself, Derek Yu. Only con about it is it's so short!

[gxqoz]

Console Wars has some interesting reporting in it, but it's otherwise a terrible book. Absolutely filled with cliches, invented dialogue and business speak. It's also very clear that this book emerged from getting access to Sega of America chief Tom Kalinske and cannot solve the problem of getting anything meaningful out of Nintendo.

[brandnewlow]

And perhaps unintentionally the Nintendo folks come out looking cool, authentic and passionate about making great games while the Sega folks seem like a bunch of cargo cult marketers who happen to be trying to sell games.

[mdbauman]

While I enjoyed what I've read of the series so far, I think it's a valid criticism that some books read more like a love letter from a fan than a history or notes from the developers.

If you're considering reading some of these but are specifically interested in the developer's point of view, I suggest reading some reviews and/or a bit about the [author] so you know what you're getting into.

For example: I liked the ZZT book very much, but that may be because I was briefly involved in the ZZT community in the early 2000s; it feels good to have a part of my history written down. If you've just read the Spelunky book (written by the developer Derek Yu) and are hoping the ZZT book is something similar from Tim Sweeney, you [may] be disappointed.

[fmoralesc]

I had no connection to the ZZT community, and I loved the ZZT book. I think it captures very well the feeling of being a sort of outcast and trying to express oneself through art. I always remember the bit about being excited about a project and then waking up to the next day and feeling just so... inadequate to the task.

[PostOnce]

Blake Harris's "Console Wars" documentary...

I was hyped going into it and it opened strong, but then it devolves into being a bunch of clips of Tom Kalinske & friends talking smack about a dead Japanese guy (head of Sega Japan) with no one to speak on the dead guy's behalf.

It felt super dishonest and one-sided, less a documentary than a PR piece to rehabilitate Kalinske's reputation, to the detriment of everyone at Sega Japan.

It only covers the good things SOA did and only the bad things SOJ supposedly did, and none of the opposite.

[gryson]

Small correction: Hayao Nakayama, the long-time president of Sega Enterprises who is made out to be incompetent in Console Wars, is still alive.

He, along with Sega co-founder David Rosen, were interviewed in the excellent 2014 book Sega Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works, and their accounts don't really go along with Kalinske's. Rosen flat out rejects the (absurd) idea that the Japanese parent company was trying to sabotage Kalinske (a claim Kalinske has made many times in recent years). Rosen says Kalinske just had a hard time understanding why the Japanese side had to make the decisions they did.

As someone who is currently writing a book tangentially related to the Japanese history of Sega (plug: https://rasterscroll.com/product/legends/ ), I feel the need to say that Console Wars (however entertaining it might be) is not very accurate.

For one, it omits what I consider to be one of the biggest factors in Sega's decision-making from 1993 on--the massive drop in revenue that occurred in the U.S. and European markets. I've written about this recently with some interesting data on export revenues:

https://mdshock.com/2021/04/14/segas-financial-troubles-an-a...

[PostOnce]

Wow, thank you for the correction, the movie made it sound like he was gone.

The ending to the console wars movie was basically "Sega failed, Nintendo was runner up, and Sony won", but didn't cover the almost-made-it Dreamcast comeback -- best selling launch of all time at that point. They almost made it, and it fixed pretty much everything the Saturn did wrong.

Hey by the way, your book looks cool, reminds me of "The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers" by John Szczepaniak