Playing With Super Power: Nintendo Super NES Classics (29 Sep 2017)
The Console: A nostalgic celebration and exploration of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in all its 16-bit glory.
The Games: Discover everything you’ve always wanted to know about some of the most beloved SNES games, including the previously unrealised Star Fox 2!
The History: Learn about the SNES development and the visionaries behind this groundbreaking console.
The Legacy: An in-depth look at how the SNES has left its mark on the gaming industry, and how its legacy continues.
The Memories: Featuring a plethora of fan art, music, and more, this book is a love letter to playing with Super Power!
Speedrunning Tips: Some of the best speedrunners around share their tiups and strategies for getting the best times in these beloved classic games.
Exclusive Foreword: Written by Reggie Fils-Aimé, President and COO of Nintendo of America.
The Playstation Dreamworld by Alfie Bown (27 Oct 2017)
From mobile phones to consoles, tablets and PCs, we are now a generation of gamers. The PlayStation Dreamworld is to borrow a phrase from Slavoj i ek the pervert’s guide to videogames. It argues that we can only understand the world of videogames via Lacanian dream analysis. It also argues that the Left needs to work inside this dreamspace a powerful arena for constructing our desires or else the dreamworld will fall entirely into the hands of dominant and reactionary forces.
While cyberspace is increasingly dominated by corporate organization, gaming, at its most subversive, can nevertheless produce radical forms of enjoyment which threaten the capitalist norms that are created and endlessly repeated in our daily relationships with mobile phones, videogames, computers and other forms of technological entertainment. Far from being a book solely for dedicated gamers, this book dissects the structure of our relationships to all technological entertainment at a time when entertainment has become ubiquitous. We can no longer escape our fantasies but rather live inside their digital reality.
Digital Love: Romance and Sexuality in Games by Heidi McDonald (31 Oct 2017)
Scholars and professionals from all over the world, across experience levels and the gender and sexuality spectrum, share experiences and analysis of romance and sexuality in video games.
Whether discussing casual sex in the Star Wars universe; analyzing various Otome games; examining “the gaze” in various games; player romance behavior in games; or exploring the ethical ramifications of sexuality in virtual reality and other emerging technologies, this book discusses what players want in video game romance, and how developers can best deliver it.
Attack of the Flickering Skeletons: More Terrible Old Games You’ve Probably Never Heard Of by Stuart Ashen (2 Nov 2017)
Welcome to a world of games you never knew existed. You will probably wish you still didn’t.
YouTube sensation Stuart Ashen is back with his second instalment of terrible old computer games you’ve probably never heard of… because what the world needs right now is to know exactly how bad Domain of the Undead for the Atari 8-bit computers was.
Attack of the Flickering Skeletons is even bigger than the original Terrible Old Games You’ve Probably Never Heard Of – this second excavation of gaming’s buried past will not only unearth more appalling excuses for digital entertainment, but also feature guest contributors and several special interest chapters not based around single specific games.
These are NOT the games you’ve heard of a million times in YouTube videos. This is a compilation of truly obscure and dreadful games. Dripping with wry humour and featuring the best, worst graphics from the games themselves, this book encapsulates the atrocities produced in the days of tight budgets and low quality controls.
These are even more appalling games that leaked from the industry’s tear ducts, taken down from the dusty shelves of history by the man who has somehow made a living by sticking rubbish on a sofa and talking about it.
Undisputed Street Fighter: A 30th Anniversary Retrospective by Steve Hendershot (14 Nov 2017)
Since its inception 30 years ago, the Street Fighter™ video game series from Capcom has thrived based on a lethal combination of innovation, style and technique. From first-of-their-kind advances such as selectable characters and secret combo moves, to imagination-capturing characters such as Ryu, Chun-Li, and Akuma, Street Fighter has stayed a step ahead of the competition en route to becoming one of the most enduring and influential franchises in video game history. Undisputed Street Fighter™ features in-depth interviews and exclusive, behind-the-scenes looks into the making of the Street Fighter games, and the iconic art, design, and imagery from across the Street Fighter universe.
Storytelling in Video Games: The Art of the Digital Narrative by Amy M. Green (24 Nov 2017)
This book explores video games as important cultural artifacts and as sources of powerful, compelling storytelling. It begins by considering the fundamental structures of video games-including immersion and player agency-and deepens the exploration of such elements by considering how each plays a role in storytelling. The book moves from the theoretical to the practical by considering numerous modern games and the stories they tell through careful, considered analysis of each title’s story. Games considered at length include the Mass Effect series, BioShock, The Last of Us and many more. The book also explores genres like the visual novel, which are less frequently considered in video game study. What emerges from this book, which appeals to academics, game enthusiasts, and the general public, is the importance of considering video games as serious and important sources of storytelling exploring complex thematic subjects like identity, morality, and the impact of player choice.
South Dublin Reads 