Mini Review: 'All Your Base Are Belong To Us'

Know this going in: All Your Base Are Belong To Us: How Fifty Years of Video Games Conquered Pop Culture resembles a collection of passionately written, diligently researched, loosely tied together essays, rather than being a true exploration of the video game industry's impact on pop culture. It's alluded to repeatedly – and it's in the book's subtitle – but not explored as deeply as I expected.

And Goldberg's occasional reconstruction of the historical dialogue that transpired (based on his 200+ interviews) sounds stilted, not natural.

Still, it's packed with fascinating facts concerning the origin stories of the pioneers and creatives who paved the way. I'm someone who's loved video games since Pong, and I've covered the industry for nearly two decades. Goldberg still managed to surprise me with a ton of interesting tidbits that had never crossed my radar.

Beyond that, I have a new appreciation for the early days of PopCap, Rockstar, and Sierra among many others.

This is an easy-reading page-turner for video game enthusiasts. Come for the origin stories, the history lessons, and the insights gained from Goldberg's treasure chest of interviews (I'd love to see the unedited transcripts of these), just don't expect a deep analysis of gaming's conquest of pop culture.

GREAT COMPANION BOOK: Console Wars by Blake Harris.

All Your Base Are Belong to Us: How Fifty Years of Videogames Conquered Pop Culture

Author: Harold Goldberg

Official blurb: 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 fifty 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 twenty-first century's fastest-growing medium.