SEGA Kickstarter book

[Gryzor]

I was an early backer of this project and I was anxious to read it.


Well, today I finished it and... let's say I was quite disappointed. Here's my review on GoodReads:







Quite a bit of a disappointment. I was a Kickstarter backer for this book but I'd lie if I said that my anxious waiting was rewarded much, since this book is quite amateurish with lots of flaws.


Sure, it's not as disastrous as the garbage that was called "Atari Inc.: Business is Fun" but it continues a trend of self-published computer history books that don't quite fit the bill.


And it shows from the moment you open the book: put together in Microsoft Word with a totally wrong serif font (apologies the name eludes me) (and with captions in a totally different one), narrow borders and on rather cheap paper. The author has also used some strange quirks like underlining game titles when in italics or using...ellipses...when...listing...multiple...game...names. Weird stuff. Or, lists that are not lists but rather headlined paragraphs (though not throughout, sign of lack of editing).


Doesn't get much better from there as the text is extremely drawn out with lots and lots of boring flourishing, silly questions to the reader that supposedly advance the story, facts (heck, even quotes!) that are repeated, sometimes within the span of a couple of pages and lots of contradictions (for instance: on one page, the American buying public is the victim of an economic slump and therefore demands more for less; two pages on, the same public has money coming out their noses. Sales are good, but then are bad. The market is out of stock, on one page, but on the next units are sitting on the shelves). In most of the cases you get an idea of what the author is trying to say if you already have an idea of what's happening, but that's bad writing.


While lots of stuff is described to death, other details are mentioned en passant and you're left scratching your head as if you were supposed to know what the author is referring to.


Bibliography doesn't exist and sources are laughable. Only "The First Quarter : A 25-year History of Video Games" (a great book btw) is mentioned (again and again, rather suspiciously), but apart from that we're left with a few websites, online FAQs ("easily found on the internet" - seriously?) and quotes from random dudes from online communities and sites. When the author feels the need to quote himself then you know it's probably hopeless (and, hint: referring to yourself in the first person in a history book is always reserved for introductions and such).


The structure of the book is also awkward since, instead of taking things based on the chronology of Sega the author splits the book in machine-based chapters. This *could* have worked, but didn't since he's forced to repeat stuff again and again when pertaining to more than one machines, and gets awkward when he's got to fit in stuff that doesn't apply to a specific machine (for instance, the US videogames violence debacle).


Speaking of structure, Kaoru in his review points out correctly that the book is very US-centric to the point of ignoring Europe altogether throughout the book and just tacking in an extra chapter at the end to describe that market, inevitably leading to even more repetition. If that's not lazy, I don't know what is.


Ok, so what about the essence of the book - knowledge? I don't consider myself to be a Sega expert. I've got a SMD in my living room because my wife had one as a teenager and I love my DC to bits, but as far as SEGA-specific knowledge goes I only know what I've read in Retro Gamer, other general retro-gaming books or in random online articles. However, I don't feel I learned that much from the book after all, at least nothing significant. And what I missed most is the absence of the story of hardware development (but of course this would require real research).


All in all, it seems to me like the author just went online, read whatever he could find and then assembled the book. This, however, as anyone who has done online research knows, is not an easy task. Turning hundreds or thousands of tidbits/clippings into something coherent and distilling the essence of the quagmire is quite hard and in this the book fails.


The book should have been much tighter (and at least 100 pages shorter), much tidier, much deeper, and supervised by a professional editor. I'd like my money back, please...


PS "The word 'genesis' in Hebrew also means 'in the beginning' "... SERIOUSLY?





Thought I'd share in case anyone's interested in buying it.

[MaV]

PS "The word 'genesis' in Hebrew also means 'in the beginning' "... SERIOUSLY?

Not quite. Hebrew "bereshit" does mean "in the beginning", but the book of Genesis in Hebrew uses the first word of the text itself to name it. If the Greek would have done so, we'd call the first book "ἐν ἀρχῇ" instead of "γενεσις". Genesis is still a fitting title for the first book though.
"bereshit" itself contains the root R-SH like in "rosh", which means "head", so literally they say "at the head".

[MaV]

Many thanks for the warning, BTW!

[Gryzor]

No, my point was (actually after commenting about that to the author I looked into the Hebrew version and what is what) that "Genesis" means nothing in Hebrew, of course, not whether the meaning was correct or not. Really stupid. (but I love that in the Greek translation they opted for "Genesis", it's a lovely word).

...you're welcome

[MaV]

*lol* It seems my mind blinded out how he wrote it.

If that's any indicator of the rest of the book, I'd be less than impressed.

[Gryzor]

Heh

Well, the rest of the book is not as idiotic, but basically (like other books in the same vein - retrogaming, self-published) it sorely, badly, needed an editor to do some professional work and make a real book out of this draft. But event hen it wouldn't be that deep and exhaustive as it should. The rest is in my review

[Bryce]

Not quite. Hebrew "bereshit" does mean "in the beginning", but the book of Genesis in Hebrew uses the first word of the text itself to name it. If the Greek would have done so, we'd call the first book "ἐν ἀρχῇ" instead of "γενεσις". Genesis is still a fitting title for the first book though.
"bereshit" itself contains the root R-SH like in "rosh", which means "head", so literally they say "at the head".

After reading Gryzors review, Bear-shit probably describes the Sega book better than anything else

Bryce.

[Gryzor]

I loled.


(Oh, I forgot to add, in my review: at the end of the book there are some interviews with game developers. That'd be sweet, except these devs are not from Sega classics but rather modern-day releases (easier, right?). And they're sooo boring, the kind of interviews you'd see on website sidebars...)

[MaV]

Bear-shit! *lol*

Now that the Kickstarter-Phenomenon has a couple of years under its belt, it becomes obvious that the better ones are those that either are half-way through the progress and can show early results and need the money for finishing and polishing or are done by a renowned person or team that has delivered in the past.
From Gryzor's review, my guess is that this book has had neither.

[Gryzor]

Something like that indeed. The reason they sell is because they fill a niche of sorts and people will grab anything and everything (guilty as charged). One can only hope than eventually some professional will step in and create something real and substantial.

[EgoTrip]

Bear-shit! *lol*

Thats what I was thinking. They should have called the book that, cos the bible is bare shit