This book is basically a history of Nintendo during the presidency of Hiroshi Yamauchi, when it dramatically expanded from a manufacturer of playing cards into video games (via simple electronic games). Basically a business book, it details the tactics used by Nintendo and its competitors in their quest to control the video game world after the collapse of Atari and others.

Even if you don’t appreciate Nintendo’s strong-arm tactics (which it could well afford as it was the dominant player after Atari’s demise) you have to agree that they were good at what they did. They made wise and careful business decisions and didn’t accept stupid industry rules just because they were “rules”. Most importantly, they made great hires and let them create great things, in both hardware and software (the combination of which made Nintendo unbeatable for a long while).

Some caveats about the book. First of all, after a few introductory chapters in Japan, it moves almost exclusively to Nintendo of America and its fights, legal and otherwise, against Atari, Sega, etc. There’s a little bit at the end, almost an afterthought, about Nintendo of Europe. I would’ve wanted to find out more about the development of the actual game consoles and Nintendo’s games, but once past the first few chapters they seem to spring fully-formed out of Nintendo in Japan, to be imported and distributed as NOA sees fit.

Second, this version of the book is hopelessly outdated. It published in 1993 and it’s still speculating about Nintendo’s own computer network (the internet was rapidly growing by then and moved into the mainstream ~1994, at least by my reckoning). Also, it speculates about Minoru Arakawa, head of Nintendo of America, taking over the presidency of his father-in-law, Hiroshi Yamauchi. In reality, both retired in 2002, with Yamauchi handing over to Satoru Iwata, the first Nintendo president not related to the Yamauchi family by blood or marriage – and in fact, who only came into Nintendo in 2000. And, of course, it doesn’t cover the recent resurgence of Nintendo with the Wii and DS.

There is an updated edition of the book, called Game Over: Press Start to Continue with new chapters. I recommend looking for that – apparently it’s more tightly written (this edition tends to repeat information, scatter it about the place and drone a bit) and of course it brings all the Nintendo story up to date. Good luck finding it though – copies routinely go for $100 and my entire library network doesn’t have a single copy.