Reddit reviews The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers: Gold
We found 5 Reddit comments about The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers: Gold. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Sorry, it's part of a book by John Szczepaniak, The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers. Please buy a copy if you are interested; the man worked extremely hard to make this book and did it out of passion for an incredible niche.
https://www.amazon.com/Untold-History-Japanese-Game-Developers/dp/0992926025
I've already posted the part of ZUN's interview relevant to this conversation.
The Granstream Saga is kinda obscure (i don't really have context but I think it qualifies). I discovered it when reading The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers. It's an action RPG for the PlayStation that has a solid story, cool visuals, and a decent combat system. I really, really, hate comparing things to Dark Souls because it's so overdone, but the battle system in this game is kind of a primitive version of that general Souls idea. I.E., battles where you have to dodge enemies and have a few different type of attacks you can deal out. Interesting to see that kind of gameplay in the PS1 era.
I dropped the game a while ago because I got busy, but I definitely can't wait to go back finish it.
It really depends on what kind of subject matter and presentation you're looking for. For my money, the gold standard of all video game history books remains David Sheff's ["Game Over: How Nintendo Conquered the World"] (https://www.amazon.com/Game-Over-Nintendo-Conquered-World/dp/0679736220/) which, despite the ominous title, is a phenomenally well-researched and compellingly written account of how Nintendo came out of nowhere in the early 80s to resurrect and dominate the home gaming industry worldwide.
The more recent Console Wars is also a good one, covering in great detail the 90's era 16-bit rivalry between Nintendo and Sega in the US.
These are both fairly well known books; my favorite "off the beaten path" books are all 3 volumes of the "Untold History of Japanese Game Developers" series, which are giant tomes full of lengthy, staggeringly in-depth interviews with dozens and dozens of largely unknown developers behind very well known Japanese classics of the 80s and 90s. Pure treasure for anyone particularly interested in Japan's golden age output.
Not sure if this fits your criteria as I haven't read them myself. But some of the Hardcore Gaming 101 books look interesting:
http://www.amazon.com/Hardcore-Gaming-101-Presents-Castlevania/dp/1482742187/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1457027467&sr=8-4&keywords=hardcore+gaming+101
http://www.amazon.com/Untold-History-Japanese-Game-Developers/dp/0992926025/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1457027467&sr=8-10&keywords=hardcore+gaming+101
What you want are the Untold History of Japanese Game Developers books. There are 3 volumes. All almost exclusively about the era between the Famicom and Playstation 1.