Doing a VG research paper - Need HELP!

[Mr. NEStalgia]

Hey guys, I'm in the 10th grade and my Honors English II teacher gave us a research assignment on anything that interested us...so naturally I chose video games.

My topic is The History of Home Video Games.

I need to give her my sources by Monday, so please list any vg websites or books or anything else that may help. I need at least 5 different sources and so far I have www.digitpress.com and the DP Guide.

Also, Joe, would it be ok to ask you a few questions?

Thanks in advance,

-=Mr. NEStalgia=-

[Eternal Champion]

Hey--

Now THAT is a fun paper! Check out:
www.classicgaming.com,

There are lots of articles, most recently a 3-part history of arcade gaming and a 5-part history of computer gaming.
They also have a "museum":
http://www.classicgaming.com/museum/

Here's a review of the book The First Quarter: A 25-Year History of Video Games:

http://www.classicgaming.com/features/articles/quarter/

Another site is
http://www.videotopia.com/control.htm
--it's a traveling museum, of all things, and this is their site, giving a good timeline on home (console) gaming and arcades.

www.classicgaming.com is a good start, I think. There are others out there, I've seen other "histories" of video games, can't think of 'em now...hope this helps!

[Achika]

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0761536434/qid=1049842368/sr=2-2/ref=sr_2_2/102-3664928-6012923

The Ultimate History of Videogames by Steven Kent was great. You'll most likely be able to find it in Barnes & Noble or Borders since it's a pretty common book.

And you can never go wrong with Phoenix:

http://www.rolentapress.com/

Whatever you do, since this is a research paper, DO NOT base your work soley in websites. Our teachers usually limit us to two internet sources out of five total sources.

Oh, and um, I'd like to offer up my site (see sig)

[Mr. NEStalgia]

You're right that I shouldn't base it soley on websites, but my teacher isn't giving us a limit on websites.


Thanks for the replies so far, very helpful :-D

Keep 'em comin'

-=Mr. NEStalgia=-

[kevincure]

As for web research, of course as much research as possible should be done off the web; however, this isn't because books are inherently better than websites, but simply because most topics have more information offline than on (although now that all you acad. journals are online, a lot more can be done without the library). The thing with this topic, though, is that there is probably more info online than off, being that it's not really a "formal" field of study ("ludology" is the academic term for videogame studies, and it's just getting started at a lot of universities).

All the above sources are great, and of course, check out Burnham's "Supercade" - it's sorta expensive, but most libraries should have it (or else you can do the ol' "Barnes and Noble in-store research"

[Cheese]

The Steven Kent book (first called The First Quarter, now called Ultimate History...) is a great read, as is Game Over, which focuses on Nintendo, and Trigger Happy which is more anaylitical. Has Nolan Bushnell ever writen a book? I seem to remember hearing about one at some point.

[Jorpho]

How about Halcyon Days (http://www.dadgum.com/halcyon/)?

David Sheff's Game Over might also be good. Anyone remember the subtitle of the original hardcover edition from ten years ago? "How Nintendo Zapped an American Industry, Captured Your Dollars, & Enslaved Your Children"! (The newer version has a much friendlier title.)
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