Videogames are in a rare position where the industry is developed enough to have a recognizable history, but still new enough so that the people who made the history are still alive.  And yet despite these advantages, the current historical scholarship varies greatly.  Many authors of traditional histories have been unable to accurately capture the subtle nuances of gaming culture, including the silly memes and often fickle tastes of gamers.  Unfortunately, many of those who are involved enough to accurately capture these subtleties end up mired in their own personal opinions, and the scholastic value suffers.

Phoenix, by Leonard Herman, is a fairly prominent entry into the realm of videogame history literature.   Herman is an engineer by trade who, in some way or another, became a press contact and received industry literature for several decades.  During an interview with Gamespot’s Brendan Sinclair for the Hotspot Podcast, Herman simply stated that he had collected a lot of press materials, and so figured he would write a history.

That simple, straightforward approach categorizes much of Herman’s book.  The book is organized through strict chronology, with each year being a chapter of the book.  From there, he systematically goes through each major player in the industry and describes major events from that year.  The timeline moves fairly logically, although there are times when the narrative suffers.  For example, multi-year litigation tends to come in, then fade away, then abruptly reappear when the case settles the next year.

The writing itself lends towards the simple and straightforward.  Herman is an engineer by trade, and this shows through.  The sentence structure is simple and repetitive.  This is not a bad thing; the information is conveyed clearly and accurately.  However, at times the book is incredibly dry reading.  Herman lays out the year (covering 1970-2000), the company, what they did, and how they did it.  Although he does add some commentary, it is very reserved and Herman never takes a controversial position. 

Adding to the dry flavor is the nature of the topics Herman relates.  He spends a lot of time discussing the investment reports issued, the market share percentages, and the legal battles.  Rather than describing the back and forth between two companies, Herman tends towards a final distillation of the argument and the outcome.  His analysis of each situation is also rather surface level, the surprising success of this new title left the company with more money to invest in advertising, which they did at E3, etc, etc.

While the book is not a very entertaining read, it does have some major strengths.  First of all, the information is fairly detailed and thoroughly unique.  Herman’s lack of analysis and commentary means that he is able to focus on areas that are often overlooked.  While many gaming histories will trace the beginnings of Sega or Nintendo at the expense of some other companies because they know they will be the winners in the end, Herman reports dutifully on all of the losers as well.  This means that Phoenix contains information that you will not find anywhere else.  It therefore lends itself to use as a reference book more than a readable history.  Fortunately, there is an index for those who do not want to slog through the entire 324 pages.

The book itself also warrants some quick discussion.  It is clearly self-published, which lends it an air of authenticity.  However, there are some editing issues, the occasional misspelling or missing period sneaks in.  Also, rather than worrying about copyright issues, Herman simply photographed his own systems, games, and peripherals.  Most of the pictures, therefore, are too grainy, dark, and small to be of much use.  Finally, there are odd “Focus On” sections that appear as boxes randomly interspersed in the text.  They provide a few lines of biography about significant people involved in the industry, but seem oddly out of place in a book, and would be more at home in a magazine or middle school text book.

Aside from the regular text, there are several appendices, some of which are interesting.  There is a great visual history of gaming magazines, as well as tons of other books.  Some, such as the website list, are really unnecessary in the current age of Google.  As mentioned before, the index is a phenomenal resource as well.  Also, on his HotSpot appearance during the Summer 2010, Herman mentioned that he was working on an updated 4th edition, which hopefully will go past 2000, and correct some of the formatting errors.  In the meantime, the excellent 3rd edition reviewed here can be had by clicking here through Amazon or through the publisher Rolenta Press (warning, site has certain geocities design aesthetic).   Amazon lists a price of $21.94, Rolenta $24.95.