Versions, Prints, and Editions

  I've been thinking about different versions of video games a lot lately. In this stage of gaming we are no strangers to re-releases, HD improvements, package deals, DLC, and of course patches. It is a fact of life at this point but I've been thinking about it especially hard. A friend of mine collects books and one thing in particular he tries to do is collect every print of a book. He finds it interesting to see the different forewords, translations, and cover art on each edition.

I took this concept and applied it games. I now believe it is a bigger rabbit hole in games than books. At first I applied the logic to a single game. Let's say Final Fantasy V. Originally made in Japanese and produced for the Super-Famicom system, this game has seen several iterations for multiple consoles. It has been ported to the Playstation (with two new full motion vidoes) in Japan, Ported to the Playstation in English (which received changes like accents for characters and different names), Ported to the GameBoy Advance (new Jobs, graphics, and a new boss) and released on iOS. 

All of that is just counting definite hard differences, changes in the code. None of this discusses differences in hardware like sound output or the feel of an Super-Famicom controller over a Playstation.

For something we don't think about often it runs very deep. I'm trying to write a more in depth piece on it, mostly for fun and because I like to contribute to the community, but it is not a frequently discussed topic. I don't really have a thesis or topic yet besides this generic idea, I'm just gathering information for now. If anyone has thoughts, ideas, particular games I should look into, or links talking about this kind of thing I would appreciate it.

Console Wars Book

Video game literature recently had an addition to its ranks, a book titled Console Wars by Blake Harris. It was mentioned briefly on the Bombcast, but you may also know of it because Seth Rogen purchased the movie rights to it. The latter has given the book a modest amount of publicity in circles beyond the diehard game players. The book itself is a historical outlook on the competition created by Sega and Nintendo during the formative years of the industry. Console Wars does its best to recreate conversations and memos through hundreds of interviews with employees who were there. Overall it is a very scholarly outlook on the industry and is clearly one of the best researched books in the field.

The field of video game history needed this book frankly. I do my best to study the history of video games but the literature is very limited. In fact I have learned more from listening to Jeff Gerstmann talk than most of the books I have read. If you are lucky enough to find a book about the topic, it might not be the most well written piece out there.

We are at a point now that the industry is bursting open with stories. Stories of programming games on the C64 are up for grabs in several special interest magazines and soon valuable employees will be retiring and willing to tell all without fear of being fired. We can fill shelves about the history of the industry but there seems to be a lack of interest in doing it. I'm not a writer (look at this post for example) so I don't understand everything it takes to craft a proper book, but I don't think the problem lies with authors. I think it lies in an old stereotype. Why write a book about video games when the people who care are busy playing games? Would you pay twenty dollars for a book or a used game if they were next to each other? If you don't believe this stereotype exists look at Barnes and Noble. Console Wars, a legitimate book about the biggest entertainment industry in the world, is shelved between the game guides for Dark Souls II and Minecraft. People who aren't gamers were excited about this book, I saw it on the news even, and it still cannot get out of the game guide section.

Regardless of how the world treats the history of video games, I think it is interesting. I'm enjoying the book so far and highly recommend it if you are interested. You can still get the First Edition Hardcovers at stores for no extra charge, it is worth it.