Terrible Old Games You've Probably Never Heard Of is nonfiction. I bought my copy new.
Review:
This covers 19 terrible games originally released between 1980 and 1995, in alphabetical order, with occasional interruptions for interviews in which Ashen asked folks to talk about the game that most disappointed them. Ste Pickford, a game designer, got a longer section that went over some of the games he worked on, as well as what the industry was like at the time.
I really appreciated that each of the games included screenshots and detailed descriptions of what gameplay was like. I have played (and rage-quit) some games that included game-breaking bugs, and I've played games that have deeply disappointed me. Thankfully, I don't think I've ever played games quite as bad as most of the ones in this book. SQIJ! in particular would have had me wondering if it was meant to be some kind of weird modern art piece.
While I enjoyed reading about the games, I found the author's humor to be a bit bland.
I was surprised to see that the book had an index, until I actually looked at it and realized that it was just an extension of Ashen's jokes, and a kind of lazy one at that. I'm pretty sure that "Occasional fart noises" was mentioned on more than just page 109, for example.
