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A SELECTIVE HISTORY OF 'BAD' VIDEO GAMES

Michael Greenhut



 

Did you grow up playing video games when you had to wait online to get them? Do you remember the bad, weird, or otherwise underrated video games of your youth? Did you like a few of them more than your friends did? A Selective History of ‘Bad’ Video Games will walk you down memory lane and perform unholy excavations of games you remember, games you’ve forgotten, and games you never knew you wanted to read about during your lunch break. From a seemingly nude Atari 2600 karate referee to a basketball star doing martial arts to a tiger that speaks broken English and walks through walls, the book will try to uncover what the developers were thinking — and occasionally succeed. While there’s been some recent coverage of the most famously “bad” video game — E.T. — this book starts there and continues on to 40 other curiously (or unsurprisingly) unsuccessful video games during the first few decades of the industry’s lifespan. Written by a modern day video game developer, the book explores why these games failed, whether or not they truly deserved it, and what could have made them better. The covered games include screen shots that capture awkward moments, irreverent captions, and pages of tongue-in-cheek psychoanalysis.

 

PUBLICATION DETAILS

LANGUAGE

BINDING

EDITION

ISBN

YEAR

PAGES

English

Hardcover


9781399016179

2023

208

OTHER NAMES

  • A Selective History of 'Bad' Video Games: Unfulfilled Potential, Interesting Mistakes and Downright Clunkers

 

TAGS


Publishers: #PenAndSword (Pen & Sword Books) #WhiteOwl (White Owl)

Languages: #English

Format: #Hardcover

Accessibility: N/A

Year: #Year2023


Companies:

N/A


Public Figures:

N/A


Games:

#Atlantis (Cosmic Ark)

#BackToTheFuture (Back to the Future II & III)

#Ballz (Ballz)

#BeyondTheBeyond (Beyond the Beyond)

#BillLaimbeersCombatBasketball (Bill Laimbeer's Combat Basketball)

#Bubsy (Bubsy 3D)

#Crystalis (Crystalis)

#DoubleDragon (Double Dragon - NES, Double Dragon V)

#DragonsLair (Dragon's Lair - NES)

#DrJekyllAndMrHyde (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde)

#Dynowarz (Dynowarz: Destruction of Spondylus)

#ET (E.T. - The Extra Terrestrial)

#FinalFantasy (#FinalFantasyII [Final Fantasy 2, FF2, FFII, Final Fantasy II], #FinalFantasyIV [Final Fantasy 4: The After Years, FF4: The After Years, FFIV: The After Years, Final Fantasy IV: The After Years] #FinalFantasyMysticQuest [Final Fantasy Mystic Quest])

#Guardic (Guardic)

#Karate (Karate)

#LifeOfBlackTiger (Life of Black Tiger)

#MathFun (Math Fun)

#MegaMan (Mega Man's Soccer)

#MrBasicMeetsBitsNBytes (Mr. Basic Meets Bits 'n Bytes, Bats, Cannon, Mr. Basic)

#PacMan (Pac-Man 2600)

#PinballQuest (Pinball Quest)

#PitFighter (Pit Fighter - SNES)

#RiseOfTheRobots (Rise of the Robots)

#RiverRaid (River Raid 2)

#Saga (Saga Frontier)

#SecretOfEvermore (Secret of Evermore)

#ShaqFu (Shaq Fu)

#SpaceAce (Space Ace - SNES)

#StarWars (Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back - Intellivision)

#StreetFighter (Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight, Street Fighter)

#Suikoden (Suikoden IV)

#SuperChinese (Little Ninja Brothers)

#TaxAvoiders (Tax Avoiders)

#The7thSaga (The 7th Saga)

#TheWrap (The Wrap)

#TNMT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - NES)

#Tron (Tron Maze-a-Tron, Tron Solar Sailer)


Misc:

N/A

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