Bitmap Books

Oh man, what a trip down memory lane. I grew up on point-and-click adventure games in the 80's and 90's. My friends all had Nintendos and Segas, and those were great fun, but I had an IBM PC. Maybe it's because I was 9-years-old and high impressionable, but it still feels like those old adventure games packed more story and imagination into their seemingly limited format than most games now. Even to this day I'll go looking for the soundtracks to those games and it takes me right back.

This beautiful book should easily find a home on any coffee table. Don't hide it away on a shelf somewhere. Leave it out to be leafed through and admired. The interviews with the who's who of the point-and-click era are enlightening and highly entertaining, but the art screenshots themselves is what makes this whole collection a true treasure.… (meer)

It's probably not the kind of book you're supposed to read cover to cover, but this is an amazing encyclopedia of Japanese Role Playing Games. I thought I knew about them all and I was beyond mistaken - I've only played about 10% of the games in this book and only heard about maybe 50%. The discovery of series never brought over to Japan and the history behind them was really interesting. The artwork and quality of the book is seriously impressive. Not for everybody, but essential for a weebo nerd like me.… (meer)

I will never get tired of collections like these. It's such a nostalgia trip going back and looking at the artwork from the games I grew up playing. It's shocking how well they've aged in some regards, and hearing all the stories from the creators was heartwarming. They seemed to love the games just as much as the players did! Hearing about the technological limitations, stories about working on George Lucas' ranch, Steven Spielberg calling the developers wanting tips and how modern point and click games still have a wide appeal was all fascinating to me. As the zeitgeist of games and history evolve, I'm happy to add another book like this to my collection to help me remember the roots and think about the future.… (meer)