Summary of a Zotero Source: Steven Kent’s “The First Quarter”

So history is a favorite subject of mine, almost personal to me (though i’m still not really sure why - it’s just always i’ve liked, i guess).  Anyway, combine that with video games and you have a whole mess of awesome.  Thus comes into play Steven L. Kent’s The First Quarter: A 25-year History of Video Games. 

    The name pretty much says it all.  Though he touches on the “pre-history” of video games, namely the time of the pinball, the mainstay of this book (written in 2000) is the early history of video games from the 1970’s to (what was then) today.  Starting with Space War and Pong, he moves along into the era of Atari, the crash of the early 80’s, the rise of Nintendo, the 16-bit wars, then into the Playstation era, and finally ending with what was then the upcoming “Next Gen.” 

What makes this an interesting read and not simply a linear dialogue is the inclusion of quotes and commentary from industry players – indeed, a full third (i’d say) of the book is devoted to these quotations (not to say that the first third or what not is simply block quoted text, but rather there’s so much of it).  This acts as both a blessing and a bane.  It’s cool to know what these people were thinking at the time or what they think about it now, but at the same time there’s a story to tell and it’s not always necessary for them to be in it.  In general I liked their presence in it (first-hand accounts really sold it for me), but overall this might not be a book for everyone.  If you’re really into cool little facts and details about gaming culture, this is your place.  If you’re looking for a more casual read, this probably isn’t the best place.

 Overall I liked the book and I’d reccomend it, but if you’re not interested in a sizeable read (its 400 pages) or a detailed account of gaming history i would go somewhere else.

So yeah, that’s my account of The First Quarter.  Catch you later!

 -Z

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