I'm very curious what the response will be to this one. My guess is that some will object to the fact that we don't get to the actual game until the 2nd page. :) I submitted it to slashdot, so we can see how it goes.
Here are my thoughts. They may not be representative of the overall consensus, but here it is.
The chapter was.... different. This seemed to be the most heavily philosophical of all the "Vintage Games" chapters, both the book and the online chapters included. The tone was unexpected, but...
I liked it! The opening general philosophical tone nicely segued into a treatise on "Star Raiders" from a philosophical/historical perspective. There were hints of "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution" in the chapter's treatment of Mr. Neubauer. The philosophical bent nicely created a sense that "Star Raiders" was truly extraordinary for it's time, so the chapter was thus a very fitting tribute for a largely forgotten game.
The PLATO-related information was surprising. While many of the "old hardcore" gamers could see the connection to the text-based "Star Trek" game, very few (myself included) would have known of the connection to PLATO "Spasim" game until now.
The chapter then nicely summarized the games (or the entire genre, for that matter) that were direct offspring of Star Raiders, and the accompanying photos were excellently chosen.
My main criticism of the chapter: TOO SHORT! Only three pages? There's so much more to talk about when it comes to Star Raiders! But all the bases were excellently touched upon: the origin, the innovation, the thrill, the nostalgia, the technology, and the lasting influence of "Star Raiders." Whatever criticisms you might receive over this chapter will probably be due to the fact "you left this or that out!" Of course, I know that was because of your limited page count, but probably the majority of your readers won't, and will therefore feel like some key point was missed, or wasn't expounded upon enough.
This is definitely among the best, if not arguably THE BEST, of the Vintage Games chapters, in my opinion. Because the tone struck me as noticably different than the other chapters, this might fuel the critics' fire that "Vintage Games" was tonally inconsistent. For the record, the lack of rigid structure throughout the book (and the bonus chapters) actually worked in the book's favor, in my opinion, because a rigid tone might have become stale after 400+ pages. As for this chapter on it's own, I suspect that the reception on "Slashdot" will generally be favorable, due to the intellectual crowd that hangs out there.
The philosophical tone of the chapter made it both a great tribute to "Star Raiders" as well as an excellent epilogue to the whole Vintage Games project. So, overall, the chapter gets a very big thumbs-up from me!
I thanked you with my dollars when I bought "Vintage Games," but I must say I'm actually sad to see it end. Even after the book and all the bonus chapters, I'm left wanting more! It's been very intriguing to follow the whole project through AA from the beginning to the end. Thanks for your efforts... it's been a great ride!
I'm very curious what the response will be to this one. My guess is that some will object to the fact that we don't get to the actual game until the 2nd page. :) I submitted it to slashdot, so we can see how it goes.
Here are my thoughts. They may not be representative of the overall consensus, but here it is.
The chapter was.... different. This seemed to be the most heavily philosophical of all the "Vintage Games" chapters, both the book and the online chapters included. The tone was unexpected, but...
I liked it! The opening general philosophical tone nicely segued into a treatise on "Star Raiders" from a philosophical/historical perspective. There were hints of "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution" in the chapter's treatment of Mr. Neubauer. The philosophical bent nicely created a sense that "Star Raiders" was truly extraordinary for it's time, so the chapter was thus a very fitting tribute for a largely forgotten game.
The PLATO-related information was surprising. While many of the "old hardcore" gamers could see the connection to the text-based "Star Trek" game, very few (myself included) would have known of the connection to PLATO "Spasim" game until now.
The chapter then nicely summarized the games (or the entire genre, for that matter) that were direct offspring of Star Raiders, and the accompanying photos were excellently chosen.
My main criticism of the chapter: TOO SHORT! Only three pages? There's so much more to talk about when it comes to Star Raiders! But all the bases were excellently touched upon: the origin, the innovation, the thrill, the nostalgia, the technology, and the lasting influence of "Star Raiders." Whatever criticisms you might receive over this chapter will probably be due to the fact "you left this or that out!" Of course, I know that was because of your limited page count, but probably the majority of your readers won't, and will therefore feel like some key point was missed, or wasn't expounded upon enough.
This is definitely among the best, if not arguably THE BEST, of the Vintage Games chapters, in my opinion. Because the tone struck me as noticably different than the other chapters, this might fuel the critics' fire that "Vintage Games" was tonally inconsistent. For the record, the lack of rigid structure throughout the book (and the bonus chapters) actually worked in the book's favor, in my opinion, because a rigid tone might have become stale after 400+ pages. As for this chapter on it's own, I suspect that the reception on "Slashdot" will generally be favorable, due to the intellectual crowd that hangs out there.
The philosophical tone of the chapter made it both a great tribute to "Star Raiders" as well as an excellent epilogue to the whole Vintage Games project. So, overall, the chapter gets a very big thumbs-up from me!
I thanked you with my dollars when I bought "Vintage Games," but I must say I'm actually sad to see it end. Even after the book and all the bonus chapters, I'm left wanting more! It's been very intriguing to follow the whole project through AA from the beginning to the end. Thanks for your efforts... it's been a great ride!
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