It was with great relief that the Slashdot review of our Vintage Games book went up on Wednesday. With the continued expansion of the World Wide Web and the vast quantity of high quality information resources available, Slashdot doesn't quite have the impact it once had, but it's certainly still an important and valuable site to have in your corner, particularly when you're trying to bring a higher profile to something like this book (in fact, it helped push the book to a sales ranking high of 3,282 on Amazon.com out of millions of products). With minimal qualification, the review was a positive one, rating the book a very high (for Slashdot) 8 out of 10, with the main criticism of our work being some of the images included in the book and their value in illustrating some of the text. Unfortunately in drawing attention to the images the reviewer failed to mention how nice the images are throughout the full color glossy production, and that - certainly in my opinion - it was important in our limited space to use the images as an opportunity to add to the text rather than merely illustrate what was already discussed. And of course I'm particularly proud of including images and the related history not found in any other work of this type.

Anyway, with all of that said, there are over 150 comments to the review (and by extension the book) and counting, and I'd just like to take this opportunity to clarify what "Vintage Games" the book is and isn't.

GameSetWatch has posted a fascinating look at the aftermath of the posting of our fifth (of nine) online-only bonus chapter from earlier this month, Rogue: Have @ You, You Deadly Z's, from our book, Vintage Games: An Insider Look at the History of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, and the Most Influential Games of All Time. The best part is is that two of the original developers have participated in the discussion to shed additional light on the fascinating history of Rogue. As always, be sure to check out the book's official Website at Armchair Arcade, and don't forget to pick up your copy at Amazon or other fine retailers!

Well, it wasn't Slashdot after all, but Gamer's Intuition that got out the first formal review of Vintage Games: An Insider Look at Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, and the Most Influential Games of All Time. The verdict? It's a hit! The review is available here, so be sure to check it out and all the other great content at Gamer's Intuition.

Gamasutra has released the fourth of nine bonus chapters not found in our book, Vintage Games: An Insider Look at the History of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario and the Most Influential Games of All Time. The new bonus chapter is called, Elite: Space, The Endless Frontier, and like the other bonus and in-book chapters covers not only the title game, but discusses those games that influenced it, what it influenced, and the genre in general. You can read more about the book at its main page, where you'll also find links to the other online bonus chapters and well over 100 online bonus images not found anywhere else. The next bonus chapter will be on Rogue and will be released May 2009. Enjoy!

Our latest book, "Vintage Games: An Insider Look at the History of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, and the Most Influential Games of All Time", is now available from retailers worldwide. "Vintage Games" is a full color, illustrated book, that explores the greatest and most influential videogames of all time, including Super Mario Bros., Grand Theft Auto III, Doom, The Sims, and many more. While each chapter's focus revolves around the game title in question, precursors, clones, sequels, gameplay and mechanics, and the genre itself are discussed, along with plenty of quotes, references and amazing full color photos.

The book is available from fine retailers everywhere, including Amazon.com. You can check out either Amazon.com or the book's main page for more information, which also contains a full table of contents, links to the online bonus chapters and images not found in the book. Not counting what's contained in the online bonus chapters, there are presently 123 bonus images (and captions) not available anywhere else!

Let us know in the comments of any "Vintage Games" sightings, particularly in regards to reviews. Thanks, everyone!

Our publisher, Focal Press, which is part of Elsevier, is presently running a contest for you to win a free copy of our book, "Vintage Games: An Insider Look at the History of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, and the Most Influential Games of All Time", as well as a $25 gift card. All you have to do is fill out their short survey on which game YOU think is the most influential, here.

Let us know what you put down and if you win!

Gamasutra has released the third in a series of nine bonus chapters not included in our book, "Vintage Games: An Insider Look at the History of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, and the Most Influential Games of All Time". The third entry is "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater: Videogame Ollies, Grabs and Grinds".

Let us know what you think!

Well, after I put a considerable amount of work into getting all of this stuff uploaded and captioned on and off for the past month or so, I'm happy to say that the bonus images for our book, Vintage Games: An Insider Look at the History of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, and the Most Influential Games of All Time, are now available. That's 117 images - just like the nine bonus chapters and their images - not found in the full color book (we reserve the right to add more images in the future). You can enjoy the images and their captions now or wait for the full experience after your copy of the book arrives. You did order already, right? ;-)

Go to the book's official page at http://www.armchairarcade.com/vintagegames and click on "BONUS IMAGES" for a selectable chapter-by-chapter listing. The next major update will come in early March after Gamasutra posts bonus chapter number three of nine, that one on "Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (1999): Videogame Ollies, Grabs and Grinds", followed by the book's actual worldwide release later that month. Enjoy and comments are always welcome!

Gamasutra has released the second in a series of nine bonus chapters not included in our book, "Vintage Games: An Insider Look at the History of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, and the Most Influential Games of All Time". The second entry is "Pinball Construction Set: Launching Millions of Creative Possibilities". Let us know what you think!