All Your Base Are Belong to Us

How Fifty Years of Videogames Conquered Pop Culture

By: Harold Goldberg

Narrated by: Eric Martin

Through the stories of gaming's greatest innovations and most-beloved creations, journalist Harold Goldberg captures the creativity, controversy - and passion - behind the videogame's meteoric rise to the top of the pop-culture pantheon.

Over the last 50 years, video games have grown from curiosities to fads to trends to one of the world's most popular forms of mass entertainment. But as the gaming industry grows in numerous directions, and everyone talks about the advance of the moment, few explore and seek to understand the forces behind this profound evolution. How did we get from Space Invaders to Grand Theft Auto? How exactly did gaming become a $50 billion industry and a dominant pop culture form? What are the stories, the people, the innovations, and the fascinations behind this incredible growth?

Through extensive interviews with gaming's greatest innovators, both its icons and those unfairly forgotten by history, All Your Base Are Belong to Us sets out to answer these questions, exposing the creativity, odd theories - and passion - behind the 21st century's fastest-growing medium.

Go inside the creation of:

• Grand Theft Auto
• World of Warcraft
• Bioshock
• King's Quest
• Bejeweled
• Madden Football
• Super Mario Brothers
• Myst
• Pong
• Donkey Kong
• Crash Bandicoot
• The 7th Guest
• Tetris
• Shadow Complex
• Everquest
• The Sims
• And many more!

©2011 Harold Goldberg (P)2015 Harold Goldberg

Great listen for those interested in the stories behind the greatest innovations in gaming

Well put together story although I would’ve liked more chapters for some of the larger companies that have changed so much. Also like everyone was saying that narrator is very slow but I listened in 1.1x speed and didn’t even notice, other than that it was a good performance!

Very good history and stories of the video games.

Little slow for me before and during the Atari generation, but after that very good and interesting stories.

good history

great history of gaming.. hang in there through the old 70s stuff that has been told dozens of times the views on modern gaming are superb . nice transitions and even an opinion of where games can go.. (an opinion I agree with)

All your base are belong to us is awwsome

A very well thought out book. Foes into sextreme detail of the motives and key players of gaming history.

A fun listen, but drops towards the end

The book is pretty entertaining to listen to, but the last quarter feels opinionated, incorrect, and rushed. It also dates itself with such opinions and makes a failed attempt to forcast success. There is also little mention of Id software and epic games engine technology and the modding scene they helped create, before the Indie boom. Overall I enjoyed most of it and recommend.

Some noticable flaws and incorrect information.

Pretty good but got noticable things wrong including calling the twisted metal clown calypso in stead of Sweet Tooth which is the characters name. Also it states that from the get go the Xbox 360 had simple wifi connection when in reality, the first generation required a separate add on to access wifi. The last issue was small but he mistook the name of South Park's character Kyle for Lyle. Proofreading is important.

Very low quality recording

Could hardly listen due to low quality. Ruined the whole experience for me. I wish it was available in higher quality.

Great book

Well worth a listen. You can tell a lot of research went into this, like tidbits of information only a conversation with the people mentioned can bring forth. Covers enough ground that you're sure to learn something interesting no matter how much you already know. Hints & Tips - I sped it up to 1.25 speed. Caveat - Spoiler alerts. If like me you haven't yet played Final Fantasy 7, you might want to skip that part. There were others.

Great for anyone who cares about games

I bought this awhile ago but while it seemed like it would be interesting, I find myself wondering what took me so long to start it. I have been involved with Video games for over 30, and have even worked for a few publishers. while I thought I knew most of the inside stories this book took it to the next level and dove into the stories of how the ideas came to fruition and the back stories from the amazing minds that helped change the industry. I loved this book, and hope there will be a update for the last decade of changes

Won't be for everyone

Pretty inside baseball of Gaming industry but since I have been there for everything mentioned in the book it was cool for the extra details