Video Games Books

Good book for those who are video-game challenged, like me. Helps me survive in the game.

A fantastic price for a very stylish and well-written action game. A variety of missions with humourous opponents and rewarding smart play make this game a joy to complete.

West shahrak,4 faz,north falamak,derakhshan street,forth alliy,
number 1493,second bell.

If you're delving into ancient oddworld history by playing the first two (great) oddworld games for the PS2, then you have to have this book. In Abe's exodus you can spot 'hidden' areas because there are clusters of bottles somewhere on the screen. Not so in Abe's oddysee - the hidden areas are very hidden, and without this guide at least a few will always remain that way. Pick it up.

Oddworld is very hard and there are so much monsters and such.This tells you secrets,and how to get through the hard parts.If you're going to play Oddworld or buy it, don't play without this guide right by your side cause you're going to need it.

Well, to begin the game is great!Talk about good graphics it suprised me for being a 2D game!It could knock the socks off most 3D games!Can't wait till Munch's Oddysee(Oddworld)for PlayStation2.Now,about the guide.The guide is the best you can find,neatly organized,very well written and quite funny in some parts.A very good,well made guide and you will find that in no time at all you will have beaten the game.Also it's published by Brady Games(and one should remember that is done by Brady is top-notch(look at other Brady Guides)).Well it's your choice I would buy it if I were you.You could get the Official guide by Prima but it is full of errors and not as neat.I would choose this guide for ODDWORLD:ABE'S ODDYSEE.NOW BUY IT!

A lot of parents remember the 'the old school' of gaming, even if they don't play any now. This book has some good examples of similarities between the 'then and now' and how things are different as well. It has some great references on how games today can be a small area where we can connect with our children even if we are not gamers our selves. As well as some information about the games that are attracting our kids today.

Most books about video games that are aimed at parents pick a side. Either video games are good for your child or they will warp your child forever. Not so with Play The Game. Play the game is the most balanced guide I've seen for parents.

Play The Game is a fantastic guide book for parents who know nothing about video games, going over very basic things such as 'what's a controller' and 'what's it mean when my child says he's playing an "FPS"'. Simultaneously it also makes a excellent reference book for parents who play games themselves, offering insights into how to maximize your play time with your child.

Play The Game's strength lies in not judging video games. The book seems to accept that games can be either a positive or negative force in a child's life and really focuses on helping parents ensure that games are positive for their child and their family.

James Portnow
Next-Gen

When it comes to parents and games, there is definitely a "disconnect;" it seems that there are two completely different cultures, that of the parents and that of the children. However, with the video game industry being over 35 years old now, it's worth noting that some of these parents were avid video game players back in the day. And while there are a lot of differences between the Pac-Man's and Defender's of yesterday and the nearly photo-realistic three dimensional games of today, there are also a lot of similarities. Furthermore, with a little bit of reference, it's possible to bring your knowledge of video games up to date. This is one of the things that Play The Game: The Parent's Guide to Video Games strives to do. I must admit that I hadn't expected that, but it makes perfect sense. Parents are used to talking to their children from an authoritative stance, which is hard to do when you have no clue what you're talking about. Play The Game can help with this by placing you on a more level playing field, if not giving you a bit of an leg up on the history of video games. Chapter One, "Where It All Begins," is devoted to delivering a crash-course in the history of video games, from "Tennis for Two," a game built using lab equipment and meant as a technology demonstration, to the advent of LAN parties, where a large number of computers are networked in order to play games.

Chapter Two, "Games 101," continues the history lesson with more recent history, specifically, the most recent consoles, from the PlayStation 2 to the Wii. This chapter provides an explanation of a lot of basics that have become foundations of console gaming, such as Analog sticks, D-pads and Shoulder buttons. Chapter Two also explains the various modern videogame genres, the rating system, the market for the different types of games and what benefits some games have to offer. (Benefits from playing videogames? Gasp!? Yes, benefits.)

Chapter Three, "You and Your Kids," is the point where Play The Game gets serious about its title and, having set the necessary infrastructure for understanding games, explores how parents and children can interact favorably and share the living room, as well as looking at different stages of development (specifically, Erik Erikson's stages of psychosocial development) and what games are appropriate for these stages. This chapter also looks at approaches to playing games if you've never played games before or if you haven't played since you were a kid, yourself. One interesting item explained in "You and Your Kids" is how, even when you're not playing, simply being in the room with your kids (when they're playing videogames) can help to open lines of communication, since children often communicate more freely when they're playing.

Chapter Four, "The Social Game," addresses issues with social interaction of local players (such as your family members) and also social interaction with others via the Internet in online games, including Massively Multiplayer Online games (or, "MMO"s). Topics such as dealing with competition and aggression are discussed, as well as relationships with other (remote) players. One thing I found to be quite nice was the "Best N00b Survival Practices" list. It offers some good suggestions for surviving you first (and most vulnerable) time in a MMO game. A short inset section called, "Basic FPS Vocabulary" explains four frequently used FPS terms, specifically, "Owned," "Camping," "Spawn Killing" and "Teabagging." And, of course, a book like this couldn't be complete without including Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Chapter Four also points out some of the useful aspects of the social anonymity provided by online games. Interesting stuff.

There are things to be learned by playing games. Actual, valuable lessons. Chapter Five, "Playing to Learn" discusses these. I am an advocate for games as learning tools, but Play the Game: The Parent's Guide to Video Games actually points out some that I hadn't previously considered. Some of these seem to be applying literary analysis techniques to video games, but then again, they seem to make valid points, even if these skills are learned without the players realizing it. Then again, I've heard that some videogame playing related skills, such as management skills from managing MMORPG guilds, should be included on resumes. Imagine.

In addition to being a great leisure activity and actually being able to teach people skills, there are real-life careers to be had in the video game development industry. Chapter Six, "Game Makers" and Chapter Seven, "Playing to Work," detail the history of this young industry and offer a glimpse at the tools of the trade and the positions that are involved in creating modern videogames, as well as pointing out the skills and education that are sought after for these positions. Chapter Seven has a particularly informative section on "Ports of Entry," or different ways to get into videogame development and how they compare with each other. This is a useful chapter for anyone interested in game development but unsure of their best approach into the industry.

The final chapter, "Know Your Game," is a summary chapter that recaps some lingo and covers some important hardware information that will help those unfamiliar with consoles to find their way around hooking up a console and preparing to play some games.

Initially, I thought the book was a bit far-reaching for its topic, but as I read and saw how everything would be useful to those who weren't familiar with the material already, it started to make sense. One particular aspect of Play The Game: The Parent's Guide to Video Games that will help the book to hit home with parents is the multitudes of "Parent Snapshot" inset sections. Several appear in each chapter of the book and provide observations and insights that actual parents have concerning playing games with their children. I believe that Play The Game: The Parent's Guide to Video Games goes a long way to closing the culture gap between today's gaming children and their parents. It provides useful information, new insight and testimonials that show how games can be a positive dynamic in your kids' lives and in your relationship with them.

Play The Game: The Parent's Guide to Video Games was written by Jeannie Novak, Lead Author and Series Editor of Thomson's Game Development Essentials series, and by Luis Levy, an engineer at Treyarch who overcame a learning difficulty involving his motor skills by playing videogames, at the suggestion of his mother. These two authors each bring knowledge and unique experiences which help to make this book a good read. I highly suggest it for any parents out there who want to have a better idea of what videogames are all about or want to use videogames as a tool to increase the quantity and quality of their communication with their children.

By: Robert Perkins AKA Geck0 - original review can be found at www.gamevortex.com

this zine has the most information on games you'll every read man... check it out you'll probably even beat all the games you got!!!

This book has it all. And when YOU need the help, Prima has the answers. Stuck on Tree Tops in Spyro the Dragon? Prima can solve that. Don't know wheter or not to buy a Toyota Supra in Gran Turismo? Prima has it solved. Don't know if a Nuclear power plant in SimCity 3000 is good or bad? Prima has the Answer

y need your tips of dragonbal

This really helped me figure out how (including tips and hints) to play the game.

Before, I was stuck in the Poke Cup Master Ball stage and needed help to get past this psychic trainer. Grrrrr! No matter how hard I try, even if I use my mew from Gold, I can't get by this psychic trainer! His espeon beats me every time and he always always brings the espeon into battle with him! I got Mew from a Pokemon Gold and Silver mall tour my mom took me to and the super duper nice guy installed mew onto my Pokemon Gold cartidge for Game Boy and it is level 100 and I can beat almost any enemy I encounter except this aggravating psychic trainer! Grrrr! This book was the answer and it tells stats on all the trainers from all the cups including the new ones and it tells about the school and the lab and the mini games and that kind of stuff. It also tells about all the Pokemon and attacks. I don't like how you can't use items in the game and also your uploaded Pokemon don't gain experience on this game while battling. I also don't like that you can't use an uploaded Pokemon in the mini games. You have to play with the preset Pokemon for each game. Thanks a lot for this book! Now I'm finally past that grueling psychic trainer!

This book is surprizingly good, it has tips and strategy to help you with all the different cups. This book tells you how to beat everything in the game, what all the "secrets" are... and teams that they think you should use, they even have their "unbeatable" teams... but over all this book is very helpful, i should be through the game in no time at all.

this guide gives you a great insight into the latest pokemon card expansion-team rocket.it gives you tips on how to build decks. it also shows you twelve decks that you can make using the team rocket expansion. wether you are interested in collecting the cards or just battling with them this is the guide for you.

Has all the things you learn about being a Pokemon Master!

This book features everything you could possibly want to know about Team Rocket Pokemon cards. It features everything from the top 10 Team Rocket cards to amazing decks you can build using Team Rocket cards to a complete encyclopedia of everything about every Team Rocket card! This book is a must-read for all collectors and players.

Before the present days of "All-In-One MCSE Exam Cram", there were those computer professionals who knew about the construction of their computer hardware on a micro level and how to write programs that would control that hardware. This book is from those times. Using Basic, C, Pascal, and assembly language the reader is shown how to do such tasks as play a sequence of tones in the foreground, draw individual pixels in various graphics modes, print graphics on a laserjet printer, and intercept keystrokes without displaying them. Granted, there are much easier ways to do the things talked about in this book than assembly language programs, but you get a very good lesson on the inner workings of your computer to boot. Things have not changed so much over the years that basic computer architecture is not the same and therefore some of the information is still useful. The table of contents for the second edition is as follows:

1. Program Organization
2. Equipment Determination - Shows you how to inventory and assess various system resources.
3. Managing Memory - Shows how to inventory conventional and expanded memory. Shows how to manipulate expanded memory.
4. Programming Interrupts - After a brief tutorial on PC interrupts, you are shown how to program an interrupt controller chip, enable and disable particular interrupts, write your own ISR, and finally chain into existing interrupts.
5. Clocks and Timers - Shows how to control time, date, the real-time clock, and control real-time operations.
6. Programming Sound - Takes you from merely beeping the speaker to playing one or more tones to making sound effects.
7. Intercepting keystrokes - After intercepting keystrokes you may want to display them, intercept conditionally, and write a general purpose keyboard input routine.
8. Interpreting Keystrokes - How to look up various codes, use the numeric keypad and cursor keys, and use special purpose keys.
9. Using a Mouse - Setting the characteristics of the mouse, define the mouse's relationship to the screen, and inputting both analog and digital data from a game port.
10. Managing Disk Drives - This is all about how to manipulate and determine disk space and recover from disk errors.
11. Directory Access - How to manipulate directories and files.
12. Reading and Writing Files - The basics of file IO.
13. Controlling Video Hardware - How to control the screen display mode, background, border color, find and manipulate the cursor, and scroll a text screen.
14. Displaying text - How to write individual characters and strings.
15. Displaying Graphics - How to write pixels for the various graphics formats including EGA and VGA and how to find a color at a particular
point on the screen.
16. Controlling a printer - How to control and print on an HP LaserJet.

The examples in this book will tell you how to control most of the basic hardware on your computer at a low level. Controlling the head and motors on the floppy drive, activating and using XMS, and many more are all explained and include a code example in 4 languages. In addition, each section includes tutorial and background information on that area of computer hardware that explains some of the background that might affect results.

This is basically a cookbook for doing all kinds of neat things with your computer. Has code snippets in c, basic, asm, and pascal.

I love this book!

My son was thrilled to learn the secrets of this game and be able to finally win. I think these type of guides are good so that the kids playing the game don't get discouraged and upset that they cannot get past an area, or know what to do.

i got it as a gift and they havn't complained and it was shipped really fast so yay party

This guide doesn't just help you beat the game, but gives you tips, maps, weapon description, armour description, a ship accessory list, and, of course, a whole behind the scences look at how the game was made. I actually got the stragety after I beat the game, and when I used it, I discovered all the secret unlocks and places that i did'nt even know exisited. This guide is defenitly worth the money!

As a newbie to PSP - this was a definite MUST HAVE - really shows you what the PSP is capable of, and how to do it. Clear, concise, easy to understand. I feel like this $$ was well spent.

I bought my PSP a while ago and love it, but never explored beyond the basics. I've bought a couple other Rough Guides in the past and liked them, so I thought I'd check this one out, and I highly recommend it. It feels like I have a whole new PSP. I spent all day yesterday loading movies and music onto my PSP, and now know how to really use it for wireless web browsing. Lots of stuff. If you have a PSP, check it out.

I am new to the PSP and was looking for a guide which goes beyond the instruction manual which comes with the unit. The Rough Guide to the PSP fits the bill, it is a great reference guide and explains how to use the PSP in a easy to understand way, it also goes beyond the basic operation of the PSP. The authors give plenty of ideas of where to get additional inforamtion, I can highly recommend this book.

My third grader loves to read this book! It has really encouraged his reading! He finds it easy to use and helpful with his games. Our book was almost warn out so I was looking for another copy. It's his favorite book. ~mom

The Secret Codes Pocket Guide 2001 is an excellent codebook that I think just about any video gamer can make good use of. There have been countless books of this style. Most codebooks try to provide an easy quick reference but end up not being any use at all since many codebooks are too specific but I strongly recommend this product out of all the code books that have been published because this book covers more than one system, just about any video gamer can utilize its help. Also, there are tons and tons of codes like the cover states. In my opinion this guide should be favored over general strategy guides which completely give away every secret. For the price of one guide, you should get a lot of help for any video games and it is brand new for 2001 and it definitly won't be outdated for many months to come.

The Secret Codes Pocket Guide 2001 is an excellent codebook that I think just about any video gamer can make good use of. There have been countless books of this style. Most codebooks try to provide an easy quick reference but end up not being any use at all since many codebooks are too specific but I strongly recommend this product out of all the code books that have been published because this book covers more than one system, just about any video gamer can utilize its help. Also, there are tons and tons of codes like the cover states. In my opinion this guide should be favored over general strategy guides which completely give away every secret. For the price of one guide, you should get a lot of help for any video games and it is brand new for 2001 and it definitly won't be outdated for many months to come.