Download or read book Thunder Bunny written by Rodney Alan Greenblat and published by . This book was released on 1997-01-30 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Once upon a time, an extra large Easter egg fell gently to Earth. Three friends found the egg and watched in amazement as—with a puff of steam—an extra-large baby bunny popped out. The baby bunny grew and grew and grew until he was the size of a big friendly house, and the three friends named him Thunder Bunny because of the sound he made when he bounced. Thunder Bunny loved playing with his human friends, but he missed his big fluffy cloud family in the sky. In his fourth book for children, Rodney Alan Greenblat takes readers on an amazing, high-bouncing journey through strange and spectacular lands in search of a place called Cloudland.

Download or read book 100 Greatest Video Game Characters written by Jaime Banks and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2017-06-23 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Though in existence for only a few decades, video games are now firmly established in mainstream culture all around the planet. Every year new games are produced, and every year new favorites emerge. But certain characters have become so iconic that they withstand both time and the shifting interests of players. Such creations permeate other elements of popular culture—from graphic novels to film—and are known not only to dedicated gamers but to the general public as well. In 100 Greatest Video Game Characters, readers can learn about some of the most popular and influential figures that have leapt from computer monitors and television screens and into the public consciousness. The entries in this volume provide general facts about the characters as well as explore their cultural significance. The entries include the following information: Game developer Year character was established Video game franchise In addition, the book examines the commonalities of various video game characters to help readers better understand their popularity and how they operate within the video games and the industry itself. Whether casually looking up information on video game characters or researching what these icons says about society, readers will enjoy this entertaining and informative volume. Comprehensive and engaging, 100 Greatest Video Game Characters will appeal to fans and scholars alike.

Download or read book Red Dead Redemption written by Matt Margini and published by Boss Fight Books. This book was released on 2020-07-07 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First garnering both dismissal and intrigue as “Grand Theft Horse,” Rockstar Games’ 2010 action-adventure Red Dead Redemption was met on its release with critical acclaim for its open-world gameplay, its immersive environments, and its authenticity to the experience of the Wild West. Well, the simulated Wild West, that is. Boss Fight invites you to find out how the West was created, sold, and marketed to readers, moviegoers, and gamers as a space where “freedom” and “progress” duel for control of the dry, punishing frontier. Join writer and scholar Matt Margini as he journeys across the broad and expansive genre known as the Western, tracing the lineage of the familiar self-sufficient loner cowboy from prototypes like Buffalo Bill, through golden age icons like John Wayne and antiheroes like Clint Eastwood’s “Man with No Name,” up to Red Dead’s John Marston. With a critical reading of Red Dead’s narrative, setting, and gameplay through the lens of the rich and ever-shifting genre of the Western, Margini reveals its connections to a long legacy of mythmaking that has colored not only the stories we love to consume, but the histories we tell about America.

Download or read book Power Up written by Chris Kohler and published by Courier Dover Publications. This book was released on 2016-10-10 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Enjoyable and informative examination of how Japanese video game developers raised the medium to an art form. Includes interviews, anecdotes, and accounts of industry giants behind Donkey Kong, Mario, Pokémon, and other games.

Download or read book Spelunky written by Derek Yu and published by Boss Fight Books. This book was released on 2016 with total page 147 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A game's creation as told by its creator, perhaps the best rpimer on game design.

Download or read book Final Fantasy VI written by Sebastian Deken and published by Boss Fight Books. This book was released on 2021-06-01 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Terra the magical half-human. Shadow the mysterious assassin. Celes the tough, tender general. Kefka the fool who would be god. Each of the many unforgettable characters in Final Fantasy VI has made a huge impression on a generation of players, but why do we feel such affection for these 16-bit heroes and villains as so many others fade? The credit goes to the game’s score, composed by the legendary Nobuo Uematsu. Armed with newly translated interviews and an expert ear for sound, writer and musician Sebastian Deken conducts a critical analysis of the musical structures of FF6, the game that pushed the Super Nintendo’s sound capabilities to their absolute limits and launched Uematsu’s reputation as the “Beethoven of video game music.” Deken ventures deep into the game’s lush soundscape—from its expertly crafted leitmotifs to its unforgettable opera sequence—exploring the soundtrack’s lasting influence and how it helped clear space for game music on classical stages around the world.

Download or read book Silent Hill 2 written by Mike Drucker and published by Boss Fight Books. This book was released on 2021-01-26 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A troubled man travels to a mysterious town from his past after receiving a letter from his wife... who's been dead for years. And while our "hero" explores dark corridors and battles countless disturbing enemies, his journey offers more psychological horror than survival horror. Welcome to Silent Hill, where the monster is you. Silent Hill 2 doubles down on what made the first game so compelling: The feeling of being lost in a foggy, upside-down town as unsettling as it is familiar. Nearly two decades after first experiencing Silent Hill 2, writer and comedian Mike Drucker returns to its dark depths to explore how this bold video game delivers an experience that is tense, nightmarish, and anything but fun. With an in-depth and highly personal study of its tragic cast of characters, and a critical examination of developer Konami’s world design and uneven marketing strategy, Drucker examines how Silent Hill 2 forces its players to grapple with the fact that very real-world terrors of trauma, abuse, shame, and guilt are far more threatening than any pyramid-headed monster could ever be.

Download or read book Postal written by Brock Wilbur and published by Boss Fight Books. This book was released on 2020-04-07 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1997, game studio Running With Scissors released its debut title, Postal, an isometric shooter aimed at shocking an imagined pearl-clutching public. The game was crass, gory, and dumb—all of which might have been forgivable if the game had been any fun to play. Postal gained enough notoriety from riding the wave of public outrage to warrant a sequel. And DLC. And a remake. And, perhaps most surprising of all, a Golden-Raspberry-winning feature film adaptation directed by the infamous Uwe Boll. In this thoughtful and hilarious tag-team performance, Brock Wilbur & Nathan Rabin probe the fascinatingly troubled game and film for what each can tell us about shock culture & mass shootings, interviewing the RWS team and even Boll himself for answers. Like it or not, Postal is the franchise that won't die—no matter how many molotov cocktails you throw at it.

Download or read book Dharma Delight written by Rodney Alan Greenblat and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2016-05-10 with total page 131 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Dharma Delight, abstract artist and Zen practitioner Rodney Greenblat uses lighthearted narrative and vivid pop art paintings to celebrate the joys of living life from the inside out. Part graphic guide, part personal testimony, part art book, Dharma Delight illustrates how seeking the path of compassion and acceptance can be as zany and exuberant as it is profound. It is a happy exploration of Buddhist Enlightenment--what it is, where to seek it--and how to recognize the perfection in ourselves. A great option for Zen beginners and experienced practitioners alike, sutras (teachings), Bodhisattvas (enlightened beings) and jataka tales (parables) are presented in a way that's simple, upbeat and fun to read. The original paintings--some new, some already known on the New York art scene and elsewhere--are an imaginative and affirming mind's-eye view of Buddhist teaching. Together, the words and illustrations are a warm and cheerful invitation to newcomers and a cool splash of refreshment to any traveler on the road to enlightenment.

Download or read book Shovel Knight written by David L. Craddock and published by Boss Fight Books. This book was released on 2018 with total page 135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on extensive original interviews with the Yacht Club Games team, writer David L. Craddock unearths the story of a fledgling group of game developers who worked so well together at WayForward Games that they decided to start their own studio.

Download or read book Soft Cuddly written by Jarett Kobek and published by Boss Fight Books. This book was released on 2017-01-24 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A computer game so nauseatingly gory that it came with a barf bag. Bright druggy graphics that sickened scores of proper English parents. Gameplay so violent that it inspired one of Britain's most infamous killing sprees. Soft & Cuddly, released for the ZX Spectrum in 1987, wasn't quite any of these things. But in an age of manufactured moral panics, John George Jones's fluorescent punk manifesto sure pissed off a lot of people. Featuring new interviews with the the game's creator, Jarett Kobek's book dives deep into the gritty world of British yellow journalism, snarky computer fanzines, DIY home programming, and Soviet bootleg mixtapes. If Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party was right that "video nasties" like Soft & Cuddly were the epitome of 80s depravity, then this book is headed straight to Hell.

Download or read book How to Play Video Games written by Matthew Thomas Payne and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2019-03-26 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Forty original contributions on games and gaming culture What does Pokémon Go tell us about globalization? What does Tetris teach us about rules? Is feminism boosted or bashed by Kim Kardashian: Hollywood? How does BioShock Infinite help us navigate world-building? From arcades to Atari, and phone apps to virtual reality headsets, video games have been at the epicenter of our ever-evolving technological reality. Unlike other media technologies, video games demand engagement like no other, which begs the question—what is the role that video games play in our lives, from our homes, to our phones, and on global culture writ large? How to Play Video Games brings together forty original essays from today’s leading scholars on video game culture, writing about the games they know best and what they mean in broader social and cultural contexts. Read about avatars in Grand Theft Auto V, or music in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. See how Age of Empires taught a generation about postcolonialism, and how Borderlands exposes the seedy underbelly of capitalism. These essays suggest that understanding video games in a critical context provides a new way to engage in contemporary culture. They are a must read for fans and students of the medium.

Download or read book Super Mario Bros 2 written by Jon Irwin and published by Boss Fight Books. This book was released on 2014 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In perhaps the most famous switcheroo in all of game history, the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 was declared "too hard" by Nintendo of America and replaced with a Mario-ified port of the Famicom hit, Yume Kōjō Doki Doki Panic. The new game (dubbed Super Mario USA in Japan) was a huge success for its four playable characters, improved graphics, immersive levels, and catchy music, and eventually became the 3rd bestselling game for the NES. And yet. Because of its strange new villains, its wild gameplay, and its mysterious touches, SMB2 has for years been regarded as the Odd Mario Out, even as it has seen popular updates on the Super NES and Game Boy Advance. Irwin's Mario is not a simple retelling of a 25-year-old story, but instead an examination of the game with fresh eyes: both as a product of its time and as a welcome change from the larger Super Mario franchise. Along the way he searches for clues, pulling up a few vegetables of his own. What he finds is not at all what he expected.

Download or read book Resident Evil written by Philip J Reed and published by Boss Fight Books. This book was released on 2020-08-25 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now a sprawling video game franchise, Resident Evil has kept us on the edge of our seats for decades with its tried-and-true brand of jump scares, zombie action, and biological horror. But even decades after its release, we can’t stop revisiting the original’s thrills, chills, and sometimes unintentional spills. Pop culture writer and horror cinephile Philip J Reed takes dead aim at 1996’s Resident Evil, the game that named and defined the genre we now call “survival horror.” While examining Resident Evil’s influences from the worlds of film, literature, and video games alike, Reed’s love letter to horror examines how the game’s groundbreaking design and its atmospheric fixed-cam cinematography work to thrill and terrify players—and why that terror may even be good for you. Featuring a foreword from Troma Entertainment legend Lloyd Kaufman and new interviews with the game’s voice actors and its live-action cast, the book serves as the master of unlocking the behind-the-scenes secrets of Resident Evil, and shows how even a game filled with the most laughable dialogue can still scare the pants off of you.

Download or read book Well Played 1 0 written by Drew Davidson and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2009-01-01 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Video games can be "well played" in two senses. On the one hand, well played is to games as well read is to books. On the other hand, well played as in well done. This book is full of in-depth close readings of video games that parse out the various meanings to be found in the experience of playing a game. 22 contributors (developers, scholars, reviewers and bloggers) look at video games through both senses of "well played." The goal is to help develop and define a literacy of games as well as a sense of their value as an experience. Video games are a complex medium that merits careful interpretation and insightful analysis

Download or read book Video Game Audio written by Christopher Hopkins and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2022-08-17 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the one-bit beeps of Pong to the 3D audio of PlayStation 5, this book examines historical trends in video game sound and music. A range of game systems sold in North America, Europe and Japan are evaluated by their audio capabilities and industry competition. Technical fine points are explored, including synthesized v. sampled sound, pre-recorded v. dynamic audio, backward compatibility, discrete and multifunctional soundchips, storage media, audio programming documentation, and analog v. digital outputs. A timeline chronicles significant developments in video game sound for PC, NES, Dreamcast, Xbox, Wii, Game Boy, PSP, iOS and Android devices and many others.

Download or read book Free Lunch written by Vivian Walsh and published by Viking Juvenile. This book was released on 1996 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Have you ever wanted to create your own embroidery and crewel designs but have given up the idea just because you can't draw? This book contains over 500 patterns and designs from the finest Victorian source: just transfer the designs to cloth, select a color scheme, use your favorite stitches, and soon your very own personal "needle painting" will begin to form.The designs are classified according to type, from large motifs to borders, centers, corners, scenes, and more. A wide variety of flowers, sprays, and greenery is included, usually in various combinations: daisies, tulips, peonies, dahlias, cornflowers, poppy, wheat, and more. There are also butterflies, bluebirds, bumblebees, owls, dragonflies, and insects of all sorts. Plus, you'll find geometric designs, dramatic sunbursts, and unusual beasts.