Best books about video games?

On the most recent podcast, the guys mentioned a couple of books about the history of video games - I think Game Over was one of them .

Are there any other books about the video games industry (or video games in general) that you would recommend reading?

I really enjoyed the following ones:

"Power Up" by Chris Kohler

"SMARTBOMB" by Heather Chaplin & Aaron Ruby

"Masters of Doom" by David Kushner

"Trigger Happy" by Steven Poole

Sorry for not providing any links, but I am to lazy to search for them at the moment... But you should find them at the usual online book stores, though "Power Up" can be quite expensive if you consider buying it new instead of a used copy...

@theplatypus: What the hell am I watching?

@Vegsen: Did you play video games in the 1980s? Do you like coolart? Thenthisbooksforyou!

oh Chris Kohler wrote a book? nice!

I read The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon from cover to cover. It is a great video game history book with lots of really cool interviews and insights, especially at the beginnings of the medium. I mean, the book actually starts with pinball and parlor games so it's really extensive and pretty awesome:

Amazon link(I read the Kindle version which was fine)

D'oh... Shame on me for not mentioning Steven L. Kent's "The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon". After browsing through my bookshelves I found a few more...

"Game On -The History and Culture of Videogames" edited by Lucien King

"Porn & Pong" by Damon Brown

"Arcade Fever" by John Sellers

"Supercade - a visual history of the videogame age 1971-1984-" van burnham

And also worth a mentioning are the "Gamespite Quarterly" books, although you can read most of the articles for free on their website but you might support them by buying the books as well...

I have a few more books about video games, but they are all in German language and afaik there is no translation for them, but if some people are interested in those titles anyway, I could post a list of them as well...

I read Game Over by David Scheff a decade or so ago. I remember it being quite entertaining. 
The whole story about how Nintendo finagled Tetris for the Game Boy out of the USSR is great. 
 
Man, I kinda wanna re-read it now.

@theplatypus said:

LOL Awesome.

Hey guys, thought this kickstarter "Boss Fights" might interest some of you.

From their kickstarter:

"A new press for great books on classic video games. Our launch titles: Earthbound, Galaga, Super Mario Bros 2, ZZT, Jagged Alliance 2."

"Each of our books will take a critical, creative, historical, and personal look at a single classic video game.

Some books will be about the history of the game's creation, some will focus on particular elements like level design, story, and music, some will investigate the subculture that has formed around a game, some will bring in outside art, science, and media, some will have a strong autobiographical element. Many books will be a combination of all these things."