How Sega Planned To Crush Nintendo, 24 Years Ago

I see where you're coming from.

I enjoyed actually reading the book -- it's a page-turner, at least -- but after I finished reading it I had a feeling of: "Great! Now I'm curious as to what really happened." Similar to how I feel after watching a film that purports to be "based on a true story."

And, yeah, it's really more about Sega's marketing efforts than anything. It's a story of the business side of things, with less detail about technology, game design itself, etc. And that's a shame, because there's a more interesting cultural tale there, I suspect.

Also, I believe this book was actually written at the behest of Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg. They also write the (god-awful) introduction. And they're apparently making a film based on the story. So treating it as one would treat a "based on a true story" film is probably fair.

I had many of the same feelings about this book. It's way too long and it has some major style issues. There are whole chapters covering single sales meetings in excruciating detail. The writing in the book often reads like cheesy narrator copy from a bad episode of "Behind the Music".

That said, there's still some really fun tidbits in the book. If you are interested in the video game industry from 1985-1995, there's enough in there to make it an interesting read. Just feel free to skip any chapters that seem boring because there are several that you could skip without losing anything.

Having just finished reading it a few days ago, I have to disagree with you.

I really enjoyed it, and as a programmer and gamer, found it really interesting to read about what goes on outside of just writing a great game and shipping it.

I didn't find the dialogue cheesy and I was quite immersed in the story. I felt sad once the book was over, and started playing through Sonic the hedgehog.

I do wish it had more about what was going on at Nintendo. It was much more about Sega, or really just Tom Kalinske.

I'm halfway through the book right now and I share your same thoughts on this. Most of the dramatizations on the marketing side of things are just cringeworthy. If you haven't already, you'd probably rather read http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20523933-service-games and definitely http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/68571.The_Ultimate_Histor... if you want to know the history of the entire industry from the very beginning.

Engineering stories are too hard for the general public to understand.

I listened to it on Audible... and found it enjoyable, but I think that would be down to the narrator.

If you do follow up with a new article you should cover why the Dreamcast failed in more detail. As I recall it failed for a variety of reasons but the one that stands out was it's high price but lack of DVD playback while the PS2 and XBOX were priced competitively but had that.

I had a dreamcast when they launched. Sega Bass Fishing, House of the Dead 2, Sonic, and Crazy Taxi were awesome.

Great read. I wish you did one on the Genesis :)