Masters of Doom

Author: David Kushner
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ISBN: 0812972155
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 361

Book Description
Masters of Doom is the amazing true story of the Lennon and McCartney of video games: John Carmack and John Romero. Together, they ruled big business. They transformed popular culture. And they provoked a national controversy. More than anything, they lived a unique and rollicking American Dream, escaping the broken homes of their youth to co-create the most notoriously successful game franchises in history—Doom and Quake—until the games they made tore them apart. Americans spend more money on video games than on movie tickets. Masters of Doom is the first book to chronicle this industry’s greatest story, written by one of the medium’s leading observers. David Kushner takes readers inside the rags-to-riches adventure of two rebellious entrepreneurs who came of age to shape a generation. The vivid portrait reveals why their games are so violent and why their immersion in their brilliantly designed fantasy worlds offered them solace. And it shows how they channeled their fury and imagination into products that are a formative influence on our culture, from MTV to the Internet to Columbine. This is a story of friendship and betrayal, commerce and artistry—a powerful and compassionate account of what it’s like to be young, driven, and wildly creative. “To my taste, the greatest American myth of cosmogenesis features the maladjusted, antisocial, genius teenage boy who, in the insular laboratory of his own bedroom, invents the universe from scratch. Masters of Doom is a particularly inspired rendition. Dave Kushner chronicles the saga of video game virtuosi Carmack and Romero with terrific brio. This is a page-turning, mythopoeic cyber-soap opera about two glamorous geek geniuses—and it should be read while scarfing down pepperoni pizza and swilling Diet Coke, with Queens of the Stone Age cranked up all the way.”—Mark Leyner, author of I Smell Esther Williams

Doctor Doom and the Masters of Evil

Author:
Publisher: Marvel
ISBN: 9780785138440
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
"Bring on the bad guys! You've gotta ask yourself: If Doctor Doom's the most evil guy ever, how much more evil is it gonna get when he puts a whole team of villains to work? It's the series where the bad guys get their say, and they're letting their actions do the talking. Featuring the Sinister Six; the Circus of Crime; Blastaar, the Living Bomb-Burst; Selene, the Black Queen; Princess Python; Magneto, Master of Magnetism; a platoon of Sentinels; and more!"--Page 4 of cover

Game Engine Black Book: DOOM

Author: Fabien Sanglard
Publisher: Software Wizards
ISBN:
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 432

Book Description
It was early 1993 and id Software was at the top of the PC gaming industry. Wolfenstein 3D had established the First Person Shooter genre and sales of its sequel Spear of Destiny were skyrocketing. The technology and tools id had taken years to develop were no match for their many competitors. It would have been easy for id to coast on their success, but instead they made the audacious decision to throw away everything they had built and start from scratch. Game Engine Black Book: Doom is the story of how they did it. This is a book about history and engineering. Don’t expect much prose (the author’s English has improved since the first book but is still broken). Instead you will find inside extensive descriptions and drawings to better understand all the challenges id Software had to overcome. From the hardware -- the Intel 486 CPU, the Motorola 68040 CPU, and the NeXT workstations -- to the game engine’s revolutionary design, open up to learn how DOOM changed the gaming industry and became a legend among video games.

I Smell Esther Williams

Author: Mark Leyner
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0679750452
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 209

Book Description
A community theater's production of Special Yearnings triggers a string of underground nuclear explosions from St. Louis to Worcester, Massachusetts. A man frantically swats at the blaze that his girlfriend has ignited in his trousers, while her family tries to figure out whether his agonized sign language means "Under the Volcano" or "No Time for Sergeants." Charo, Marianne Faithfull, and Napoleon's sister swap glittering witticisms and pornographic come-ons with languid aesthetes and unhinged suburbanites. Such scenarios are just par for the course in this gloriously disorienting volume by Mark Leyner, author of My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist and Et Tu, Babe, and a writer who plays the English language the way Jimi Hendrix played the guitar: at blinding speed, dangerous volume, and with a perfect mixture of lyricism and sheer menace.

Shadows of Ivory

Author: T. L. Greylock
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780999192047
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description
By day, Eska de Caraval digs for ancient treasure in the dust and dirt and sweltering sun. By night, she dons the embroidered silks and jewels that are the markings of her family's success. Spurred by a relentless thirst to lay bare the world's secrets, Eska has led Firenzia Company to renown across the Seven Cities of Bellara, and far beyond. But when she comes into possession of a priceless reliquary with a harrowing history-one of six lost to the centuries-and the treacherous artifact within, Eska unwittingly sets off a race to uncover the other five and the powers they contain. Bankrupt and bitter, Manon Barca supports a brother and a failing company on loans she cannot repay, all while her disgraced father rots in prison. Determined to drag her family name out of oblivion, Manon does not fear to take on the might of Eska de Caraval and Firenzia Company, even if it means sabotaging an excavation and endangering innocent lives. When her reckless decisions put her at the mercy of one of the most powerful men in the Seven Cities, Manon finds herself caught in a storm beyond her making, one that will see the sundering of alliances that have stood for three hundred years.As the de Caraval and Barca rivalry surges, Eska must wield intellect and steel against a web of enemies and deceit, all while Manon battles tirelessly to preserve the final remnants of her family and its legacy.Neither, however, is prepared to contend with the rising tide of an ancient menace unleashed upon the world once more?.

He-Man and the Asteroid of Doom

Author: John Grant
Publisher: Ladybird Books
ISBN: 9780721409825
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 43

Book Description

Rise of the Dungeon Master

Author: David Kushner
Publisher: Bold Type Books
ISBN: 1568585608
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 146

Book Description
Now a scripted-thriller podcast series starring Emmy-nominated actor, Jon Hamm, Rise of the Dungeon Master is a graphic narrative of the life of Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, one of the world’s most influential role-playing games. Rise of the Dungeon Master tells, in graphic form, the story of Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, one of the most influential games ever made. Like the game itself, the narrative casts the reader into the adventure from a first person point of view, taking on the roles of the different characters in the story. Gygax was the son of immigrants who grew up in Lake Geneva, WI, in the 1950s. An imaginative misfit, he escaped into a virtual world based on science fiction novels, military history and strategic games like chess. In the mid-1970s, he co-created the wildly popular Dungeons & Dragons game. Starting out in the basement of his home, he was soon struggling to keep up with the demand. Gygax was a purist, in the sense that he was adamant that players use their imaginations and that the rules of the game remain flexible. A creative mind with no real knowledge of business, he made some strategic errors and had a falling out with the game's co-creator, his close friend and partner, David Arneson. By the late 1970s the game had become so popular among kids that parents started to worry -- so much so that a mom's group was formed to alert parents to the dangers of role play and fantasy. The backlash only fueled the fires of the young fans who continued to play the game, escaping into imaginary worlds. Before long, D&D conventions were set up around the country and the game inspired everything from movies to the first video games. With D&D, Gygax created the kind of role playing fantasy that would fuel the multibillion dollar video game industry, and become a foundation of contemporary geek culture.

Fantastic Four

Author:
Publisher: Marvel
ISBN: 9780785129677
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
"Contains material originally published in magazine form as Fantastic Four #562-569"--P. [2] of cover.

Jacked

Author: David Kushner
Publisher: Wiley
ISBN: 9780470936375
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Book Description
Inside the making of a videogame that defined a generation: Grand Theft Auto Grand Theft Auto is one of the biggest and most controversial videogame franchises of all time. Since its first release in 1997, GTA has pioneered the use of everything from 3D graphics to the voices of top Hollywood actors and repeatedly transformed the world of gaming. Despite its incredible innovations in the $75 billion game industry, it has also been a lightning rod of debate, spawning accusations of ethnic and sexual discrimination, glamorizing violence, and inciting real-life crimes. Jacked tells the turbulent and mostly unknown story of GTA's wildly ambitious creators, Rockstar Games, the invention and evolution of the franchise, and the cultural and political backlash it has provoked. Explains how British prep school brothers Sam and Dan Houser took their dream of fame, fortune, and the glamor of American pop culture and transformed it into a worldwide videogame blockbuster Written by David Kushner, author of Masters of Doom and a top journalist on gaming, and drawn from over ten years of interviews and research, including firsthand knowledge of Grand Theft Auto's creators and detractors Offers inside details on key episodes in the development of the series, including the financial turmoil of Rockstar games, the infamous "Hot Coffee" sex mini-game incident, and more Whether you love Grand Theft Auto or hate it, or just want to understand the defining entertainment product of a generation, you'll want to read Jacked and get the real story behind this boundary-pushing game.

Masters of the Dew

Author: Jacques Roumain
Publisher: Heinemann
ISBN: 9780435987459
Category : Africa
Languages : en
Pages : 196

Book Description
This outstanding Haitian novel tells of Manuel's struggle to keep his little community from starvation during drought.