Chris Melissinos, founder of Past Pixels, is the curator for the exhibition The Art of Video Games, at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. Melissinos has been engaged in the ongoing dialogue about video game technology, social trends, and the application of technology for more than a decade. He is a frequent speaker at game and technology conferences. Melissinos is currently vice president of corporate marketing for Verisign. Previously, he served as chief gaming officer and chief evangelist at Sun Microsystems. During his 15-year tenure with the company, he contributed to and led numerous technology developments, including the formation of the company's GameTechnology Group, which developed Java Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) focused on media and entertainment markets and mobile technologies.
This is a lushly illustrated coffee-table book that offers readers full-page, color photographs and succinct summaries of video games, descriptions of their significance, and interviews with many of their creators. Slick and gorgeous, the book offers an important permanent, widely distributable, inexpensive complement to the exhibition. - Ian Bogost, American Journal of Play, Fall 2012 If Ready Player One was a fictional love song to video games, The Art of Video Games is the visual poem to gaming--simply a beautiful book filled with gaming nostalgia, inspired innovation and flat-out fun...Every gamer needs to have The Art of Video Games just like every English major needs to have the collected works of Shakespeare. - J. Jay Franco, Bookrastination, 3/9/12 This book belongs on the shelf of every highbrow gaming geek, but it's also an important read for anyone interested in media studies or human expression. I want to hand this book to every naysayer who sees games as nothing more than cheap, violent, meaningless entertainment. With its engaging pictures, rich interviews, and neatly bundled history lessons, The Art of Video Games makes a solid case not just for the validity of games as an art form, but for its rightful place as one of the defining storytelling mediums of our time. - Becky Chambers, Themarysue.com, 3/16/12 I heartily recommend The Art of Video Games, not only to every gamer, but also to anyone interested in technology, and especially to those who feel games are harmful and childish...it's a fascinating journey through time, showing how this incredible industry has become one of the most lucrative and fastest growing in the world. When next your parents ask why you play video games, just give them a copy of this book and I'm sure they'll apologize for ever questioning your love for this truly special and important medium. - Benjy Ikimi, Avault.com, 3/16/12. The Art of Video Games: From Pac-Man to Mass Effect is a worthy companion piece to the Smithsonian American Art Museum's exhibit. Melissinos and O'Rourke do an excellent job of laying a foundation for any reader to educate themselves on video games and their place as a modern artform. Video game enthusiasts have a lot to enjoy here, too. Besides the first-rate production values, it is a lovingly crafted narrative of the industry's evolution from its most rudimentary beginnings to the multi-billion dollar cultural powerhouse it is today. Any fan of video games will enjoy the opportunity to pick this book up from the coffee table, flip to a random page, and immediately begin to "remember when..." - Paul Marzagalli, NAVGTR (National Academy of Video Game Testers and Reviewers), appeared in Eclipse Magazine, 3/16/12 Filled with illuminating insights and insider perspectives, these interviews will speak volumes to teens considering careers in the video game industry. In addition to YA readers, the book may also be of interest to educators looking to examine media trends, or launch a classroom discussion about viewing video games as an art form. - Joy Fleishhacker, School Library Journal, 3/21/12. Designed for us short attention span readers, the well-paced, large format, $40 hardback from Welcome Books features big image screen grabs and short blocks of history and insight on 80 noteworthy games, arranged historically and by console format eras....Also rallying for the cause are short essays in the book from industry innovators like "father of Atari" Nolan Bushnell - who "knows for a fact"that gaming doesn't just keeps you sharp, but "delays the onset of Alzheimer's." So go do something artful and important - buy the book, visit the exhibit and go play a video game! - Jonathan Takiff, The Philadelphia Inquirer/Daily News/philly.com, 3/15/12. Widely syndicated. In Chris Melissinos and Patrick O'Rourke's book The Art of Video Games: From Pac-Man to Mass Effect -- the accompanying book to the Smithsonian exhibit of the same name on display starting in March 2012 - the authors offer a compelling read, intriguing to both the gaming nerd and pretentious art student in me, that reads like a warm meet-and-greet without being too casual or too stuffy... the full-page screen-shots will have any reader enthralled...They have the capacity to capture us, for an instant, and draw us into an experience that is more than simply wasting time -- that is potentially transformative. -- Kaitlin Tremblay, MediumDifficulty.com, 3/27/12. You cant' go wrong with this book. It makes fo a fun read and you might learn something...coffee table worthy...fascinating...it screams "I'm smart, I like to play video games and I appreciate ART!" - Classic Game Room: Retro Video Games Book Club, video book review on YouTube Channel (201,000+ subscribers), 4/2/12. http: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIyV87h6x9I ...the book is a really great piece for retro video game lovers. It mixes art with nostalgia as it caries you though the different ages of gaming, showcasing classic video games in stunning layouts, drawing attention to the creative and cultural impact, all in one very classy, and affordable package. - D.S. Cohen, About.com: Classic Video Games, April 1, 2012 The Art of Video Games exhibit was base on the book written by Chris Melissinos and Patrick O'Rourke. The book is amazing. I highly recommend it to any gamer or fan of games. - Fan, RPGMachine86, 4/4/12 In the end, The Art of Video Games puts in a very admirable effort. They get the list (in my humble opinion) mostly right, and they fill out a lot of interesting history about each game, often from the perspective of the developer themselves. The interviews are top-notch, giving two full pages of insight into the past of your favorite developers, how they make their games, and what they were thinking when they did so. Want to know just what Ron Gilbert was thinking when he made Maniac Mansion (also not on this list) or Monkey Island? Here is your chance. - Ron Burke,
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