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Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview: #1 Romero, who was 11 at the time, jumped onto his dirt bike and went to the local arcade. He knew he wasn’t supposed to be there, but he couldn’t help himself. That was where the games were. He tapped the control buttons as the rocks flew toward his triangular ship and the Jawsstyle theme music blipped in suspense. #2 John Romero was born in 1967 in Arizona. His parents had married only a few months before, and his father had taken a job in the copper mines. The work was hard, and his father often came home drunk. But Romero loved going to the arcade with his stepfather. #3Dungeons and Dragons, a penandpaper roleplaying game, was the hottest thing going in 1972. It was like a computergame version of the game, and it attracted many adults who lazily dismissed it as geeky escapism. But for a boy like Romero, it was much more than that. #4 The computer gaming industry was dominated by arcade machines and home consoles like the Atari 2600. But computer games were accessible, and the people who had the keys were not authoritarian monsters, but dudes.
The illustrated, inside story of the legendary hacktivist group's origins and most daring exploits. A for Anonymous shows how a leaderless band of volunteers successfully used hacktivism to fight for the underdog, embarrass their rich and powerful targets--from Sony and Paypal to the Church of Scientology and Ferguson Police Department--all in the name of freedom of speech and information. Their exploits blurred the distinction between "online" and "reality," and help shape our contemporary world.
Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 Romero, who was 11 at the time, jumped onto his dirt bike and went to the local arcade. He knew he wasn’t supposed to be there, but he couldn’t help himself. That was where the games were. He tapped the control buttons as the rocks flew toward his triangular ship and the Jaws-style theme music blipped in suspense. #2 John Romero was born in 1967 in Arizona. His parents had married only a few months before, and his father had taken a job in the copper mines. The work was hard, and his father often came home drunk. But Romero loved going to the arcade with his stepfather. #3 Dungeons and Dragons, a pen-and-paper role-playing game, was the hottest thing going in 1972. It was like a computer-game version of the game, and it attracted many adults who lazily dismissed it as geeky escapism. But for a boy like Romero, it was much more than that. #4 The computer gaming industry was dominated by arcade machines and home consoles like the Atari 2600. But computer games were accessible, and the people who had the keys were not authoritarian monsters, but dudes.
Masters of Doom is the amazing true story of the Lennon and McCartney of video games: John Carmack and John Romero. Together, they ruled big business. They transformed popular culture. And they provoked a national controversy. More than anything, they lived a unique and rollicking American Dream, escaping the broken homes of their youth to co-create the most notoriously successful game franchises in history—Doom and Quake—until the games they made tore them apart. Americans spend more money on video games than on movie tickets. Masters of Doom is the first book to chronicle this industry’s greatest story, written by one of the medium’s leading observers. David Kushner takes readers i...
The gripping origin story of Pong, Atari, and the digital icons who defined the world of video games. A deep, nostalgic dive into the advent of gaming, Easy to Learn, Difficult to Master returns us to the emerging culture of Silicon Valley. At the center of this graphic history, dynamically drawn in colors inspired by old computer screens, is the epic feud that raged between Atari founder Nolan Bushnell and inventor Ralph Baer for the title of “father of the video game.” While Baer, a Jewish immigrant whose family fled Germany for America, developed the first TV video-game console and ping-pong game in the 1960s, Bushnell, a self-taught whiz kid from Utah, put out Atari’s pioneering table-tennis arcade game, Pong, in 1972. Thus, a prolonged battle began over who truly spearheaded the multibillion-dollar gaming industry, and around it a sweeping narrative about invention, inspiration, and the seeds of digital revolution.
In the decade after World War II , real estate developer Levitt & Sons helped thousands of people buy into the American dream of owning a home. They laid out the welcome mat, but not to everyone. Levittown had a whites-only policy. The events that unfolded in Levittown, Pennsylvania, in the unseasonably hot summer of 1957 would rock the community. There, a white Jewish family secretly arranged for a black family to buy the pink house next door. The explosive reaction would transform their lives, and the nation, leading to the downfall of a titan and the integration of the most famous suburb in the world.
Inside the making of a videogame that defined a generation: Grand Theft Auto Grand Theft Auto is one of the biggest and most controversial videogame franchises of all time. Since its first release in 1997, GTA has pioneered the use of everything from 3D graphics to the voices of top Hollywood actors and repeatedly transformed the world of gaming. Despite its incredible innovations in the $75 billion game industry, it has also been a lightning rod of debate, spawning accusations of ethnic and sexual discrimination, glamorizing violence, and inciting real-life crimes. Jacked tells the turbulent and mostly unknown story of GTA's wildly ambitious creators, Rockstar Games, the invention and evolu...
A magnet for bullies at school, Jon Finkel grew up heckled and hazed until he discovered the trading-card game Magic: The Gathering. As Magic exploded from nerdy obsession into the mainstream, the teenage Finkel emerged as its first world champion. The young shark - now known to his friends and rivals as Jonny Magic - moved on to storm poker rooms, from the underground clubs of New York City to high-stakes tables online, until he landed on the largest card counting blackjack team in the country, taking Vegas for millions and becoming one of the biggest players in town. Finally, they took on the biggest game of all - the World Series of Poker...
The evolution of Ernest Bloch's music is traced throughout his travels in Europe and America. A complete picture of Bloch emerges from this integrated study of his life and his music. The opening biographical chapter provides a brief, personal history from which Bloch's career and many interests follow, including his pursuits in photography. The biographical information provides the framework for addressing the Jewish Question, a common focus of Bloch's work. Bloch emerges, from this multifaceted study, as a composer whose music must be examined within both its Jewish heritage and in a larger, universal context. Musicians, scholars, and Bloch enthusiasts will welcome this volume examining Ernest Bloch's life, career and major works which are enhanced throughout by musical examples. Bloch's professional development is easily traced through the chronological organization of the book.
* Selected as ONE of the BEST BOOKS of the 21st CENTURY by The New York Times * NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST * New York magazine’s #1 Book of the Year * Best Book of the Year by: The Wall Street Journal; Vogue; O, The Oprah Magazine; Los Angeles Times; The San Francisco Chronicle; The New Yorker; Time; Flavorwire; Salon; Slate; The Daily Beast “Superb…Scintillatingly alive…A pure explosion of now.”—The New Yorker Reno, so-called because of the place of her birth, comes to New York intent on turning her fascination with motorcycles and speed into art. Her arrival coincides with an explosion of activity—artists colonize a deserted and industrial SoHo, stage actions in the East Village, blur the line between life and art. Reno is submitted to a sentimental education of sorts—by dreamers, poseurs, and raconteurs in New York and by radicals in Italy, where she goes with her lover to meet his estranged and formidable family. Ardent, vulnerable, and bold, Reno is a fiercely memorable observer, superbly realized by Rachel Kushner.