Replay cover art

Replay

The History of Video Games

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Replay

By: Tristan Donovan, Richard Garriott
Narrated by: Gary Furlong
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £23.99

Buy Now for £23.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

A riveting account of the birth and remarkable evolution of the most important development in entertainment since television, Replay is the ultimate history of video games. From its origins in the research labs of the 1940s to the groundbreaking success of the Wii, Replay sheds new light on gaming's past. Along the way it takes in the spectacular rise and fall of Atari, the crazed cottage industry spawned by the computers of Sir Clive Sinclair, Japan's rapid ascent to the top of the gaming tree, and the seismic impact of Doom. Replay tells the sensational story of how the creative vision of game designers across the globe gave rise to one of the world's most popular and dynamic art forms. Based on extensive research and more than 140 interviews, Replay includes insights from video game legends such as Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, Will Wright - the creator of The Sims , Doom designer John Romero, and Hironobu Sakaguchi of Final Fantasy fame. Replay also includes a foreword by Richard Garriott (AKA Lord British).

©2010 Tristan Donovan (P)2017 Tantor Art History History & Culture Social Sciences Technology Video Game Imperial Japan Game Computer History

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Blood, Sweat, and Pixels cover art
Press Reset cover art
Sid Meier's Memoir! cover art
Masters of Doom cover art
The Ultimate History of Video Games, Volume 1 cover art
Electronic Dreams cover art
All Your Base Are Belong to Us cover art
Doom Guy cover art
Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution cover art
Guns, Germs and Steel cover art
Itchy, Tasty cover art
Not All Fairy Tales Have Happy Endings cover art
The Book of Esports cover art
Video Game Storytelling cover art
Monster Kids cover art
Prepare to Meet Thy Doom cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
I really enjoyed this book. It takes you on a journey through the evolution of video games with lots of very interesting facts.

A great book for both gamers and game devs alike and can see this being invaluable to any one studying game development.

I found the narrator really good and kept the pace of enthusiasm throughout the book. I wasn’t bothered by his pronunciation of the letter Z. Some people have commented he is using the American pronunciation, I believe Zee is in fact also the Irish pronunciation.

A divinities history of video games

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Tristan’s book is magisterial: a truly comprehensive study of video games globally from the early 50s to 2010 (with an update/second edition coming?). At least I assume it’s comprehensive as I can’t think of a game, genre, country, issue or theme he misses. Given he covers technology (inc a little on console wars etc), culture, the personalities and company ‘family trees’, genres and social and political aspects, he does a great job of weaving all these into a broadly chronological history. I haven’t seen anything close to this as an industry history. Well read too. Highly recommended for a thorough listen.

Comprehensive, thoughtful and interesting

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Very informative with many unique points I was unaware of even as someone with interest in the subject. Narration was very good but a bit dry at times. I could have done without the chapter or segment about Japan's more unsavoury tastes. Not what I signed up for to listen to in bed.

Informative but dry

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A real Gem of a Book.

Encompassing both Hardware and Software developments from way back when, through the fledgling 70’s of Arcades and early Home Consoles, to the Creative Expansion of the 1980’s into the PlayStation and Nintendo consoles of the 90’s and into the second decade of the 21st Century.

And as a European gamer, it was great to hear how the UK, Spain, France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy and even Russia brought colour and creativity to all platforms of gaming through this timescale.
And of course, the Japanese and American markets are also included.

Just a really good listen.
But…. Zee X Spectrum? Really?

Recommended and a fine light Irish Narration helps it along nicely. 5 Stars

A Fascinating History

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Overall I enjoyed this, I have many retro consoles so it appeals to my collection :)

If you like retro then you will like this

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved this because the book covers things like the games scene outside of the USA, (such as UK gamers using the Spectrum, the Amiga etc. It also goes into each topic thoroughly, I learned loads of new stuff about every major game and platform and the memories came flooding back. Well written, well performed. 5 Stars all round.

At Last A Comprehensive History of Video Games

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I've enjoyed many others, as they've drilled down into the personal stories of companies and their individual employees - but this is different.

Aim of this book is "gaming" - and it does its best to cover it all. All genres, all companies, all platforms and what I appreciated especially is all countries. When it covers the UK I can remember it as a consumer - but now I get the global context that caused it (with maybe some bonus Russian and French content which is initially interesting, but then culminates in explaining personal recollections).

What I really appreciated was how this book stitches together so many other stories I was aware of into a coherent whole.
Of course it can't be definitive - but closest I've seen anybody come so far.

Best "history of gaming" I've heard.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
must listen if you love the history of video games. fascinating and well presented - an enjoyable read for people of all ages.

must listen if you love the history of video games

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book is wonderful, no hyperbole. It would be easy for a lesser author to get bogged down into technical jargon and industrial buzzwords. Tristan Donovan does not let all that cloud his narrative and alienate his readers. I imagine that even if one knew nothing about video games, they would come away not only with all the pertaining knowledge, but a thrilling story aswell. if like me, you already knew a thing or two about the subject going in. Well then you will come away with some interesting insights and the same very entertaining narrative that a newcomer to the subject would get. so it's basically a win win.

A brilliant ride through the pixilated past.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This being the 5th book I listened to on the subject, it's nice to have a different perspective. since the topic is vast, it is not easy to provide a good summary, only if you focus on a niche area, which this book does well.
The reading is nice and enjoyable, though the accent can sometimes be misleading to a not native speaker, like myself, but it is not the reader's fault.
IMHO, this book is to those who have a general knowledge about video game history but need to have certain milestones to hold on to in order to have a better structure of the truly rich history of video games.

I really liked it and recommend it to all gamers out there who need that extra bit of wisdom.

Game history focusing on innivations and outliers

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews