The Nostalgia Nerd's Retro Tech: Computer, Consoles and Games

I felt compelled to write a quick review of this book, which I proudly added to my collection of books about retro gaming. I am shocked to see some very negative reviews; this book is actually one of my favorite in this genre because it is comprehensive, concise, and has some nice photography. The book is physically a little smaller than a "full sized" coffee table book, but the binding, printing, and paper stock quality is top notch. If you want a detailed history of each of these systems, sure, there are better guides (and honestly you can find more details of these systems online more than in physical print), but if you want a nice bookshelf piece for yourself or a great gift for anyone who appreciates retro gaming and computing technology, then I highly recommend this book.

The media could not be loaded. Peter Leigh has done a great job at describing all of the major gaming consoles and computers from the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. For each system he gives a detailed description, basic stats, pictures, and three representative games - the "must see", "must play", and "must avoid". Peter's descriptions are funny and spot on. He also brings a unique UK perspective, and describes gaming systems that were widespread not just in North America but also in Europe and Asia.As other have noted, the book did suffer from a few spelling mistakes, missing words, a duplicated paragraph (p.70), and a misplaced photo (p. 130). It feels like a second pass by an editor could have caught all of these. Perhaps a second printing could be done that corrects these boo boos. But aside from these, the book is an excellent reference that I'm sure I'll be using over and over again.

Zoom through the history of gaming, with pictures. Has some good technical details, and fun highlights and lowlights of gaming on the major consoles and computers from a gaming perspective.

So, this is a well done and written book. For the quality, I felt the price was acceptable. My only gripe, which shouldn't effect the score, I was hoping to get an entire systems list. For example, Sega Saturn has general American and Asian versions of their console, then they have versions that were manufactured by Hitachi. I would've wanted to see All known versions of all of the systems mentioned. Other then that, it's a great book. Way better for collectors or people with a lack of video game system knowledge. For someone like me who's in between, it's a hit or miss.

First impressions: great, solid, colorful little tome nails the aesthetics. Content strikes me as an excellent swath of the market for the beginner, and for anyone who has a passing interest in history, tech, or business, there is a lot to learn here. Obviously a labor of love and surprisingly heavy on content; easily could have taken up a solid 60+ pages with no images and tight literary formatting. A bargain for hardcover at this price, and well packed.One does get the feeling with the font size and layout that a large format coffee table treatment was the original intent and would be the best fit. Perhaps if it sells well, we can get that along with the usual editing fixes etc.

Peter(The author) did an excellent job listing specs and highlights for systems detailed in this book. Solidly interesting and an excellent reference source! Buy this one with confidence!

I've followed the Nastalgia Nerd YouTube channel so I was keen on getting his book. In general it's a light fluffy read with pretty pictures to ooo and ahh at.However there a several glaring mistakes in the book that I noticed within the first few minutes of skimming the pages. There are two misspelled page headings "TurboDrafx" and "Nintento". The ZX Spectrum section has a picture of a ZX-81.But the biggest mistake is the section on the TRS-80 Color Computer (CoCo): none of the pictures are of the CoCo, they are of the various models of the original monochrome TRS-80 from an earlier section.Mistakes aside I think the book is a fun read.

Really nice photos and a good back-story provided on each computer or console included. Good narrative. A great walk down memory lane.