Download or read book Games Authors Play written by Peter Hutchinson and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 1983 with total page 131 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Seven Games A Human History written by Oliver Roeder and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2022-01-25 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A group biography of seven enduring and beloved games, and the story of why—and how—we play them. Checkers, backgammon, chess, and Go. Poker, Scrabble, and bridge. These seven games, ancient and modern, fascinate millions of people worldwide. In Seven Games, Oliver Roeder charts their origins and historical importance, the delightful arcana of their rules, and the ways their design makes them pleasurable. Roeder introduces thrilling competitors, such as evangelical minister Marion Tinsley, who across forty years lost only three games of checkers; Shusai, the Master, the last Go champion of imperial Japan, defending tradition against “modern rationalism”; and an IBM engineer who created a backgammon program so capable at self-learning that NASA used it on the space shuttle. He delves into the history and lore of each game: backgammon boards in ancient Egypt, the Indian origins of chess, how certain shells from a particular beach in Japan make the finest white Go stones. Beyond the cultural and personal stories, Roeder explores why games, seemingly trivial pastimes, speak so deeply to the human soul. He introduces an early philosopher of games, the aptly named Bernard Suits, and visits an Oxford cosmologist who has perfected a computer that can effectively play bridge, a game as complicated as human language itself. Throughout, Roeder tells the compelling story of how humans, pursuing scientific glory and competitive advantage, have invented AI programs better than any human player, and what that means for the games—and for us. Funny, fascinating, and profound, Seven Games is a story of obsession, psychology, history, and how play makes us human.

Download or read book The Lost Art of Reading written by David L. Ulin and published by Sasquatch Books. This book was released on 2010-06-01 with total page 89 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reading is a revolutionary act, an act of engagement in a culture that wants us to disengage. In The Lost Art of Reading, David L. Ulin asks a number of timely questions - why is literature important? What does it offer, especially now? Blending commentary with memoir, Ulin addresses the importance of the simple act of reading in an increasingly digital culture. Reading a book, flipping through hard pages, or shuffling them on screen - it doesn't matter. The key is the act of reading, and it's seriousness and depth. Ulin emphasizes the importance of reflection and pause allowed by stopping to read a book, and the accompanying focus required to let the mind run free in a world that is not one's own. Are we willing to risk our collective interest in contemplation, nuanced thinking, and empathy? Far from preaching to the choir, The Lost Art of Reading is a call to arms, or rather, to pages.

Download or read book Quag Keep written by Andre Norton and published by Tor Books. This book was released on 2007-04-01 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Quag Keep was the first novel based on the world of Dungeons & Dragons by the legendary grand mistress of SF/Fantasy, Andre Norton. Once, they were role-playing gamers in our world. They came from different places and different backgrounds. Now they're summoned together by some magical force...to a land that mirrors the games they used to play. Quag Keep Can they band together to unlock the secret of their summoning--and rescue from the legendary Quag Keep the person who may be able to return them home? At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Download or read book The Game of Authors Compendium written by Stuart R Kaplan and published by . This book was released on 2021-09 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This massive compendium reproduces in full color the graphics that appear on over 300 American editions of Authors Card Game dating from 1861 to the present. The collection by U.S. Games Systems also presents selected poems and popular phrases from forty 18th and 19th century authors. The Authors Compendium book is divided into five sections, starting with the Dr. Busby card games dating from 1843. The next section presents four different editions of the 1861 Authors Card Game. A selection of published writings from 19th century authors are included for the readers' enjoyment. The main section of the book reproduces the cards fronts and backs, portraits of the authors, and the charming box covers. The book also includes Authors Card Games from foreign language publishers, and other card games that employ the Authors method of game play. This historical book is for everyone interested in card games in general, and especially about the Authors Card Game. It is an invaluable reference work for researchers and libraries. Collectors will enjoy the opportunity to see so many Authors Card Games from a private collection never seen before in one location.

Download or read book Games to Play After Dark written by Sarah Gardner Borden and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2011-05-03 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Kate and Colin meet at a party in Manhattan their connection is electric. They marry quickly, moving to the suburbs, and in the light of day they seem like any young couple, but the games they play after dark are far from routine.

Download or read book Fantastic Tales of Nothing written by Alejandra Green and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2020-11-17 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the first book of this full-color fantasy graphic novel series filled with humor and hijinks, the fate of the land of Nothing hinges on Nathan and an unlikely team of magical beings to save the day—perfect for fans of Amulet and Estranged. Welcome to Nothing! Despite its name, this is a fantastic land where humans and magical volken coexist peacefully—at least they try . . . This is the tale of Nathan, an ordinary human (or so he thinks) living an ordinary life (or so he wishes). Everything changes when he meets Haven, a mysterious creature who is neither human nor volken. Oh, and the two of them are being chased by volken mercenaries—a grumpy wolf named Bardou and a delightful crow named Sina. Nathan soon learns he has mysterious powers, even though humans aren’t supposed to have magic. But there’s no time to dwell on that because this discovery sets the group on a perilous quest across windswept terrain, through haunted forests, and in ancient tombs. Nathan and his unlikely friends must prevent an impending war and defeat a dark evil to save their land. No pressure, of course. If they fail, everything will turn into, well . . . nothing.

Download or read book Extra Lives written by Tom Bissell and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2011-06-14 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Extra Lives, acclaimed writer and life-long video game enthusiast Tom Bissell takes the reader on an insightful and entertaining tour of the art and meaning of video games. In just a few decades, video games have grown increasingly complex and sophisticated, and the companies that produce them are now among the most profitable in the entertainment industry. Yet few outside this world have thought deeply about how these games work, why they are so appealing, and what they are capable of artistically. Blending memoir, criticism, and first-rate reportage, Extra Lives is a milestone work about what might be the dominant popular art form of our time.

Download or read book Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow written by Gabrielle Zevin and published by Random House. This book was released on 2024-06-25 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • Sam and Sadie—two college friends, often in love, but never lovers—become creative partners in a dazzling and intricately imagined world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality. It is a love story, but not one you have read before. "Delightful and absorbing." —The New York Times • "Utterly brilliant." —John Green One of the Best Books of the Year: The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, TIME, GoodReads, Oprah Daily From the best-selling author of The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry: On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn’t heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won’t protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts. Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love.

Download or read book Tetris written by Box Brown and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2016-10-11 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Documents the history of the video game Tetris and looks at the role games play in art, culture, and commerce.

Download or read book Ragis written by Donna Migliaccio and published by . This book was released on 2018-08-28 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kristan Gemeta is teetering on the brink of madness. His sister Melissa has defied him. His friend Olaf has betrayed him. The Wichelord Daazna's ghostly laughter mocks him when he's awake and robs him of his sleep at night. Even the protective powers of his legendary Stone are turning against him. And now his companions, his ship and its precious cargo have been taken hostage. Kristan must give chase, in an unseaworthy vessel manned by an angry centaur crew. Ahead lie unfriendly waters, an ominous destination and a confrontation Kristan dreads. In his despair, Kristan longs for the one person he has always trusted: his beloved Heather. But she's far away, about to step into a trap that will endanger not just her command, but Kristan's life.

Download or read book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die written by Tony Mott and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2011-12-05 with total page 1773 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In fewer than fifty years videogames have become one of the most popular forms of entertainment, but which are the best games, the ones you must play? This action packed book presents the best videogames from around the world - from 80's classic Donkey Kong to Doom, Frogger and Final Fantasy. Covering everything from old favourites to those breaking new ground, these are the games that should not be missed. Video game expert Tony Mott presents 1001 of the best video games from around the world and on all formats, from primitive pioneering consoles like Atari's VCS to modern-day home entertainment platforms such as Sony's PlayStation 3. 1001 VIDEO GAMES defines arcade experiences that first turned video gaming into a worldwide phenomenon such as Space Invaders, Asteroids, and Pac-Man - games that made the likes of Atari, Sinclair and Commadore household names. It also includes the games that have taken the console era by storm from Nintendo Wii to Sony Playstation and beyond - games of the modern era that have become cultural reference points in their own right including multi-million selling series such as Halo, Grand Theft Auto and Resident Evil. For aficionados this is a keepsake - charting the highlights of the past fifty years giving them key information for games they must play. For those just discovering the appeal of gaming this extensive volume will provide everything they need to ensure they don't miss out on the games that revolutionized this overwhelmingly popular medium.

Download or read book The State of Play written by Daniel Goldberg and published by Seven Stories Press. This book was released on 2015-10-20 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: FEATURING: IAN BOGOST - LEIGH ALEXANDER - ZOE QUINN - ANITA SARKEESIAN & KATHERINE CROSS - IAN SHANAHAN - ANNA ANTHROPY - EVAN NARCISSE - HUSSEIN IBRAHIM - CARA ELLISON & BRENDAN KEOGH - DAN GOLDING - DAVID JOHNSTON - WILLIAM KNOBLAUCH - MERRITT KOPAS - OLA WIKANDER The State of Play is a call to consider the high stakes of video game culture and how our digital and real lives collide. Here, video games are not hobbies or pure recreation; they are vehicles for art, sex, and race and class politics. The sixteen contributors are entrenched—they are the video game creators themselves, media critics, and Internet celebrities. They share one thing: they are all players at heart, handpicked to form a superstar roster by Daniel Goldberg and Linus Larsson, the authors of the bestselling Minecraft: The Unlikely Tale of Markus "Notch" Persson and the Game that Changed Everything. The State of Play is essential reading for anyone interested in what may well be the defining form of cultural expression of our time. "If you want to explain to anyone why videogames are worth caring about, this is a single volume primer on where we are, how we got here and where we're going next. In every way, this is the state of play." —Kieron Gillen, author of The Wicked + the Divine, co-founder of Rock Paper Shotgun

Download or read book The Savage Detectives Reread written by David Kurnick and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2022-02-01 with total page 151 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Savage Detectives elicits mixed feelings. An instant classic in the Spanish-speaking world upon its 1998 publication, a critical and commercial smash on its 2007 translation into English, Roberto Bolaño’s novel has also been called an exercise in 1970s nostalgia, an escapist fantasy of a romanticized Latin America, and a publicity event propped up by the myth of the bad-boy artist. David Kurnick argues that the controversies surrounding Bolaño’s life and work have obscured his achievements—and that The Savage Detectives is still underappreciated for the subtlety and vitality of its portrait of collective life. Kurnick explores The Savage Detectives as an epic of social structure and its decomposition, a novel that restlessly moves between the big configurations—of states, continents, and generations—and the everyday stuff—parties, jobs, moods, sex, conversation—of which they’re made. For Kurnick, Bolaño’s book is a necromantic invocation of life in history, one that demands surrender as much as analysis. Kurnick alternates literary-critical arguments with explorations of the novel’s microclimates and neighborhoods—the little atmospheric zones where some of Bolaño’s most interesting rethinking of sexuality, politics, and literature takes place. He also claims that The Savage Detectives holds particular interest for U.S. readers: not because it panders to them but because it heralds the exhilarating prospect of a world in which American culture has lost its presumptive centrality.

Download or read book 24 Games You Can Play on a Checker Board written by Carol Lynch Williams and published by Gibbs Smith. This book was released on 2007 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Directions for twenty-four games that can be played on a checkerboard.

Download or read book Death Stranding Death Stranding The Official Novelization Volume 1 written by Hitori Nojima and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2021-02-23 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first volume of the official novelization of the best-selling and award-winning videogame Death Stranding, created by legendary game-creator Hideo Kojima. Mysterious explosions have rocked the planet, setting off a series of supernatural phenomena known as the Death Stranding. Spectral creatures that devour the living have pushed humanity to the brink of extinction, causing countries to fall and survivors to scatter and live in pockets of isolation. Sam Porter Bridges, the legendary porter with the ability to return from the world of the dead, has been entrusted with a critical mission by the President of the United Cities of America. He must journey across this ravaged landscape crawling with otherworldly threats to reconnect cities and people and rebuild America one step at a time.

Download or read book Journals 1952 2000 written by Arthur Meier Schlesinger (Jr.) and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2007 with total page 920 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The distinguished political historian's journals provide an intimate history of post-war America, the writer's contributions to multiple presidential administrations, and his relationships with numerous cultural and intellectual figures.