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Back when The Gameroom Blitz was both a web site and a print fanzine, I used to publish a series of articles about video game literature, which mostly included books from the early 80's when the hobby was at its peak. Although the title of this column, El Libro, was a little generic (all the more so if you speak Spanish), I was still very proud of the idea and felt that it deserved a comeback. So here it is, folks... the online premiere of The Gameroom Blitz's book review section.
All right, let me get started by describing the rating system on this page. To the left of each review you'll notice a series of ratings in a blue column I call the Bookmark. The ratings run from zero to ten and are applied to four seperate categories.
The first, Design, determines how well the pages of a given publication are laid out as well as the quality of the book's printing. A hardbound book with a glossy color cover will receive a higher Design rating than a publication bound in construction paper and held together with staples (don't laugh... I can think of at least one time where this has actually happened).
Readability is the next category, and it illustrates the quality of the publication's writing. Is the book fun to read? Will you keep coming back to it, or is it headed straight to the cobweb section of your bookshelf, or even worse, the nearest garbage can? The Readability rating should give you some idea of the book's future if you choose to purchase it.
The third category, Coverage, indicates how complete the publication is, and how much room there is for improvement. If you bought a strategy guide to your favorite game and it doesn't tell you anything about the game that was already stupidly obvious, its Coverage rating would be very low. On the other hand, if it's so comprehensive that you triple your score at the game, the strategy guide's Coverage rating would be through the roof.
Finally, there's an Overall rating, which combines all three categories plus other less obvious qualities to determine whether the publication is worth reading. Collectors will probably want everything featured on these pages, but they won't necessarily want to take the time to leaf through their acquisitions. The Overall rating will give them a pretty good idea whether or not they should pull up a chair and spend a few hours with their books.
That's everything you'll need to know. Our first selection is the latest edition of the Digital Press Collector's Guide... we'll be adding more books, magazines, and newsletters to El Libro in the future.
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BOOKMARK DIGITAL PRESS COLLECTOR'S GUIDE VOLUME 7 EDITOR: CATEGORY: PAGES: RATINGS
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Just how good is the newest Digital Press
Collector's Guide? Well, let's put it this way. Even if
you're not interested in collecting games for the late great 8-bit
systems, you're still going to want a copy. DPCG7 includes
painstakingly comprehensive list of the games available for over two
dozen consoles, ranging from the obvious (Atari 2600) to the
surprising (Turbografx-16... this is considered a classic system
now?), making it a necessity for those of you still shaking down
your local pawn shops and thrift stores for cartridges.
However, those of you who don't find endless game lists especially
riveting will be happy to know that DPCG7 offers a whole lot
more. Many of the titles listed are either described or
reviewed, and in some instances the editors have supplied helpful
codes and even pictures of the software featured in the
guide. The best of these extras are the Santulli Slants, the
head editor's entertaining observations about the most memorable
games in the guide. Early readers of the Digital Press fanzine
will already be familiar with some of these rants, but they're
nevertheless quite funny and generally very accurate.