Fan Letter About My Book: The 100 Greatest Console Video Games: 1977-1987

I received an email recently from a reader named Kevin Moon. He wanted to express his appreciation for and enjoyment of my "100 Greatest" book. It's a thoughtful email and very well written, so, with his permission, I figured I would share it with you guys. You can read a portion of the email below.

Hi Brett,

I’ve been wanting to contact you for a while now. I own and have read two of your books (Classic Home Video Games 1972-1984 and The 100 Greatest Console Video Games 1977-1987), both of which are excellent and thoroughly written.

I wanted to comment specifically on The 100 Greatest Console Video Games 1977-1987.  I absolutely love this book.  I feel that it’s just about the most perfect video game book out there, and felt compelled to reach out and to let you know that.  There are two major aspects that I really like.  One thing is the overall look, design, and feel of the book.  The design is very appealing.  I love how each entry has a big bold number with a picture of the game box, and how half of the page is devoted to it.  The fonts are perfect; the big, bold, sans serif fonts that introduce each game and give quick stats, and the wonderful serif font (Garamond?) for the text of each entry.  My undergraduate background was in graphic design (a lifetime ago), so this kind of thing appeals to me.  I love how you included not only screenshots, but also box art and pictures of instruction manuals and the cartridges themselves.  I will say that I do wish every single entry would have included a screenshot (in addition to box, cartridge, and instruction manual art).  For example, I absolutely love how you included the box art and shots of the instruction manual and two different cartridge types for Mr. Do!’s Castle on pages 152-153, but I also would have liked a screenshot as well.

The second appealing feature, and the thing that makes this book so perfect, is the selection of included games itself.  Your choices are inspired and genius.  It’s a great variety of games for a range of systems.  You don’t neglect any system and don’t focus too much on any one system, and even managed to include a game each for the more obscure systems Arcadia 2001 (Cat Trax) and APF-MP1000 (Space Destroyers, in the “Next 100” section).  Your choices are utterly inspired and are precisely the kind of selections I myself would have included in such a book.  I get rather tired of seeing the same old choices for “Top 25” or “Top 50” lists again and again, and your choices resonated with me. - Kevin Moon