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naleagdeco's review against another edition
5.0
In the vein of Boss Fight Books Volume 1:[b:EarthBound|19386071|EarthBound (Boss Fight Books, #1)|Ken Baumann|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1386814390s/19386071.jpg|27457432], but is written in a tighter fashion and also has good insight into the creative process behind a lot of personal game development.
Whereas the first book was a beautifully sprawling mess of biography and description, this one is tighter. This befits the narrative architecture of each game.
[a:Anna Anthropy|5181019|Anna Anthropy|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1328825784p2/5181019.jpg] has shown a gift for embedding the autobiographical (esp. pertaining to her personal journey) into her work, and this book is no exception. It really captures the joy of what happens when a well-crafted (accidentally or purposefully) game engine allows someone who isn't a professional game developer (yet) to delve into the act of creation with no real clue to what they are doing.
Whereas the first book was a beautifully sprawling mess of biography and description, this one is tighter. This befits the narrative architecture of each game.
[a:Anna Anthropy|5181019|Anna Anthropy|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1328825784p2/5181019.jpg] has shown a gift for embedding the autobiographical (esp. pertaining to her personal journey) into her work, and this book is no exception. It really captures the joy of what happens when a well-crafted (accidentally or purposefully) game engine allows someone who isn't a professional game developer (yet) to delve into the act of creation with no real clue to what they are doing.
cortjstr's review against another edition
3.0
This is the best of the Boss Fight series I've read so far, but Earthbound and Galaga were both pretty weak. This was the closest to what I was expecting from the series, though with less about the game's origins. A decent read in a "hey, I remember that" kind of way.
helpfulsnowman's review against another edition
4.0
This book gives a pretty interesting look into the world of very early homebrew games. From what I read here, it sounds like the ZZT game creation options were some of the first home tools many, many gamers experimented with. And what's really fascinating, a lot of these creators also used the tools in their searches for personal identity.
It's kind of an amazing example of restriction breeding creativity. ZZT was, in a lot of ways, a very limited world. You only had a small number of possible icons to put on screen, the color palette was limited, and the sound? You get bip boop, and you'll be thankful you got that much!
I'm kind of a dummy. I just completed an hour of code event, and even that tested my brain. So there were portions of this book that went a bit over my head, and I felt a little lost. I don't think this is the writer's fault. She was pretty clear, and even when I was lost, the sections were short enough that I could latch on to something new after only a short wander.
That said, one of the things I want to talk about in reviewing Boss Fight Books is whether the book is best read BEFORE or AFTER playing the game. In this case, I think it'd be to great advantage to play a little ZZT first. Or, at the very least, check out a couple videos on YouTube and get a sense of what you're looking at.
Oh, and the author and I had a short introduction before I read this book. She put up a great little guide to Twine, the software that allows for players to create their own games in a Choose Your Own Adventure format. It's pretty cool, and it's free, and it's easy to learn. I highly recommend it. http://www.auntiepixelante.com/twine/
It's kind of an amazing example of restriction breeding creativity. ZZT was, in a lot of ways, a very limited world. You only had a small number of possible icons to put on screen, the color palette was limited, and the sound? You get bip boop, and you'll be thankful you got that much!
I'm kind of a dummy. I just completed an hour of code event, and even that tested my brain. So there were portions of this book that went a bit over my head, and I felt a little lost. I don't think this is the writer's fault. She was pretty clear, and even when I was lost, the sections were short enough that I could latch on to something new after only a short wander.
That said, one of the things I want to talk about in reviewing Boss Fight Books is whether the book is best read BEFORE or AFTER playing the game. In this case, I think it'd be to great advantage to play a little ZZT first. Or, at the very least, check out a couple videos on YouTube and get a sense of what you're looking at.
Oh, and the author and I had a short introduction before I read this book. She put up a great little guide to Twine, the software that allows for players to create their own games in a Choose Your Own Adventure format. It's pretty cool, and it's free, and it's easy to learn. I highly recommend it. http://www.auntiepixelante.com/twine/
gengelcox's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
The third Boss Fight Book and already the series is going places I didn’t expect. In this case, a love letter to text-based shareware DOS games, in particular the puzzle-oriented ZZT series that was the foundation for the creation of Epic MegaGames. Anthropy clearly loves the game; the attention to detail and description of these games sound much better in her words than they ever did when I played them, likely because my first computer was a Macintosh and thus my earliest games on the computer had actual graphics.
The other surprise here is how Anthropy interweaves her personal story with the history of the game. Not the interweaving, per se, as that was definitely a part of both Baumann’s Earthbound and Williams’ Chrono Trigger, but the particularly story of how ZZT assisted those who felt different from their society assigned gender. So, yeah, this book is about ZZT, but it’s also about X and Y, too.
Unlike the other two books, I had no urge to play ZZT during or after reading this book, partly because I didn’t play it in the past and have no nostalgia for the game or its type. However, I did enjoy learning more about shareware games and the culture behind them.
thirtytwobirds's review against another edition
4.0
A great nostalgia-filled romp through a game that was a key part of many folks lives.
ZZT is basically what got me into programming all those years ago. It managed to hide the fact that it was programming until you were already neck-deep in it and by then it was too late: you were hooked.
This book is pretty light on the technical side of things -- it's mostly about the culture around ZZT and the author's experiences with it. For anyone in the ZZT scene as a kid it's going to bring back fond memories. If you never played ZZT but want to know how it kick-started a generation of programmers' careers it's a pretty good overview.
ZZT is basically what got me into programming all those years ago. It managed to hide the fact that it was programming until you were already neck-deep in it and by then it was too late: you were hooked.
This book is pretty light on the technical side of things -- it's mostly about the culture around ZZT and the author's experiences with it. For anyone in the ZZT scene as a kid it's going to bring back fond memories. If you never played ZZT but want to know how it kick-started a generation of programmers' careers it's a pretty good overview.
shallowdepths's review against another edition
4.0
Lovely and insightful. Rise of the Videogame Zinesters was cool but generally felt comfortable and familiar. ZZT is a glimpse into another world I've never been part of. I'm glad this book exists.
jessrock's review
3.0
I supported the Boss Fight Books Kickstarter and have received each of the books they've published to date, but ZZT is the one I was most looking forward to and the first one I read. I never played around with ZZT to the extent that the author or any of the people featured in the book did, but I do remember having a few ZZT games and wasting reams of paper printing out instructions on how to build my own games in the editor.
The book is solidly written and well researched, but it focuses more on the culture around ZZT and specifically the author's own experiences as a trans individual in the ZZT community. It shouldn't have surprised me that the book went in such a personal direction (the 33 1/3 series, which seems to be the model for Boss Fight Books, also allows authors a lot of freedom in their approach to the subject matter), and I found the personal stories really interesting, but I think I expected just a little bit more ZZT - which in retrospect is silly as there's really only so much to say about an ASCII text adventure game while there's a whole lot to say about the people who invested so much of their adolescent time in building worlds there.
Overall I found this enjoyable enough to read, but didn't feel it was strongly written enough that I'd recommend it to anyone who didn't specifically have an interest in any of the topics covered in the book.
The book is solidly written and well researched, but it focuses more on the culture around ZZT and specifically the author's own experiences as a trans individual in the ZZT community. It shouldn't have surprised me that the book went in such a personal direction (the 33 1/3 series, which seems to be the model for Boss Fight Books, also allows authors a lot of freedom in their approach to the subject matter), and I found the personal stories really interesting, but I think I expected just a little bit more ZZT - which in retrospect is silly as there's really only so much to say about an ASCII text adventure game while there's a whole lot to say about the people who invested so much of their adolescent time in building worlds there.
Overall I found this enjoyable enough to read, but didn't feel it was strongly written enough that I'd recommend it to anyone who didn't specifically have an interest in any of the topics covered in the book.
_hanna's review against another edition
4.0
Anna Anthropy is doing a tremendous job of documenting what life was like growing up with computers. Along with Leigh Alexander's "Breathing Machine", I've been in nostalgia overload.
partypete's review against another edition
5.0
I’ve heard of Anna Anthropy and I figured it was worth checking out something she wrote. This is a very charming book on early internet culture that hits close to home. A very interesting documentation of an obscure video game
getglitchd's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
5.0
If you're in to making video games, weird relics of a bygone era of computing, or the trans experience then this book is for you.