Four years!?! Where has the time gone? The answer is to working on a variety of projects that required me to step away from this blog.
First, the big one: The first volume of my literally years in the planning history of the video game industry has been published! They Create Worlds: The Story of the People and Companies That Shaped the Video Game Industry, Vol. I 1971-1982 is now available from CRC Press. It can be found on the publisher’s website and major online retailers such as Amazon.
Fair warning: its a bit pricey. A mainstream publisher was never going to tolerate three 500-600 page volumes of in-depth video game industry examination, so going into the academic world was really the only option. I also wanted to avoid self-publishing, as I see my books as important foundation works for more research into the industry, and self-published tomes by unknown authors lack credibility. This meant I had to engage an academic publisher, but going that route does mean the final product ain’t cheap. I certainly understand if that makes anybody think twice. What I will promise is that if the price is not an obstacle, this is the most in-depth examination of the early industry ever written with many stories that have never been told before in print.
I have also continued the They Create Worlds podcast with my friend and collaborator Jeffrey Daum. We have been posting two episodes a month every month without fail since late 2015. We strive to provide deep dives into all facets of video game history backed up by thorough research, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in the history of the video game industry. More information is available from our website.
So where does that leave the blog? Well, it started as a way to just get me writing as a motivator to get my books finished. It certainly served that purpose. But I still have two more books to write over the next four years, so I have no time to continue updating this beast (not that I have for five years at this point anyway). I may at some point do a final entry on the creation of Pong, which will make this a nice set chronicling all the technological developments that led to the birth of the industry. After that, I may return from time to time to write about specific topics of interest, or to explain why I choose to interpret the sources the way I do to draw particular conclusions, some of which are out of step with previous narrative histories of the industry.
Regardless of the fate of the blog, video game history remains my passion, and I expect I will be studying it and commenting on it for decades to come. I appreciate all of you coming along for the ride.
They Create Worlds 