Review:
This is a beautiful book filled with photographs of game consoles (many of which I'd never even heard of), their controllers, and occasional accessories. In many instances, consoles and/or controllers include an exploded view that shows off their inner components. Each console includes information (when available) about its launch price, year it was released, how many systems sold, RAM, processor/CPU, colors (for earlier generations)/GPU (later generations), and number of games released.
Each console is accompanied by a little bit of information about it - what made it special (or not), how successful it was, and what factors played into its success or lack thereof.
At the beginning of the book, the author includes a bit of info about how certain info was determined for the consoles. The book ends with a section on playing retro games today - issues with certain console components failing over time and the difficulty with getting them fixed, mini and classic consoles, emulators, and more.
It's a lovely book, and I could appreciate the time and effort that went into getting these consoles, photographing them, and compiling information about them. That said, I realized while reading this that I'm more interested in video games than I am in the systems that play them. I wish that there had been screenshots/photographs, where possible, of what gameplay on the various consoles looked like. I understand that this likely would have been impossible for a lot of the earlier systems, but it would have made it easier for me to connect with the information and understand the various consoles' capabilities more.
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