Let’s explore some nostalgia and summon up some geek envy. Push Start is a high production look back at the art of gaming.
How high is Push Start: The Art of Video Games on the production value scale? It has a vinyl record in a sleeve at the back of the heavyweight hardback with cult sounds from games remixed by Big Twice. Don’t have a record player any more? There’s a download code for the MP3. That’s starting at the end as the book itself is a gorgeous complication of high colour art, a wonderfully textured exterior and quality paper.
Roll on the geek envy. This is the book you leave by your gaming table to distract friends while you just need 5 minutes more to find a save point. This is the book that sits, facing forward, on your bookcase between your walkthroughs and RPGs.
The video above was made with Google Photos’s Auto Awesome. It uses filters and my poor photograph so consider is a visual tour of the book, a sample of the styles you’ll find inside, rather than a guide to the quality of the production.
As you can see there are a range of styles. You’re not buying a book packed with 8-bit art here – although there’s plenty of that. This is an evolution of computer gaming, a look at how the art of video games progressed in the early years.
Push Start: The Art of Video Games is impressive. I recommend it. This is a gift of awe or a way to make visitors shush with envy. The hardback is available from Ear Books and therefore from most bookstores as well as online.
My copy of Push Start: The Art of Video Games was provided for review
