Friday, September 16, 2016

Digital Retro by Gordon Laing


This book provides short histories of various old computers and videogame systems from 1975 to 1988. There is a history and description for all of them with large photos. I was really fun to look and read through. Some I had heard about from family, one was the Apple computer I first remember using at school, I remember playing a few things NES, and the Sega Master System I’ve recently come to know is also included. One thing I learned is how Sega was named. The company originally made games for military units in Japan in the early 1950s and was called Service Games of Japan; later on the name was shorted to Sega. I also enjoyed reading about the ZX Spectrum, a micro-computer that was very common in Britain at the time, which had a lot of games in its library. The book really has more history to it than computer specs, so I think it’d appeal to people who used the computers or are interested in the history, not just techies. If you are interested in older computers, videogames and video game consoles that were before your time or not common in the part of world you are from, then I think you’d like this. Also it’s free of all the differing options you’d get online about which system is better. It’s definitely worth picking up for a trip down memory lane.

[You might also like the website Worldoflongplays.org which has a large selection of videos of someone playing entire games start to finish. They can be fun watch to get a feel for a game or game system that you never had the chance to play, or are considering getting.] [ official Gordon Laing web site ]

Recommended by Kristen A.
Gere Branch Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

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