Today, video games can be played anywhere and everywhere. Yet they still rely on some form of power, be it plugged into a socket, or through batteries. The days of the Game Gear eating 6 AAs in four hours are gone, but the newer devices don’t offer much more time before needing a recharge. It might be worth reading a book while they’re charging up.
The best books can make the longest journeys can feel like a flicker. But while there are plenty of classic novels, how-to guides, non-fiction accounts, and more, what if video game enthusiasts want to learn more about their hobby? Here are some strong contenders for thebest books on video games.
Updated May 18, 2025, by David Heath:Even if instruction manuals and strategy guides have all but disappeared, there’s still a place for books about video games. If anything, they’ve only gotten broader in their scope. Among the tomes on company histories, the legacy of famous consoles, and how famous games are made, there are ones on weird European games, virtual tourism, virtual reality, and what it ‘means’ to play a video game.
Thus, this list has been tweaked a bit to feature more of the best gaming books around, and add more details on the original entries. If they catch anyone’s interest, then they’re just a webpage away. So, take a look at more of the best video game books around.
15Terrible Old Games You’ve Probably Never Heard Of; and Attack of the Flickering Skeletons
A Double Dose of Microcomputing’s Most Notorious Games
People enjoy good games, but they can also find bad games appealing. The likes ofSuperman 64,Bubsy 3D, and the CD-IZeldagames are as famous asSuper Mario 64,Duke Nukem 3D, and the N64Zeldagames. That’s why author Stuart ‘Ashens’ Ashen purposefully sought out lesser-known roughs among the gems released for microcomputers, and why they turned out so badly.
Terrible Old Games You’ve Probably Never Heard OffeaturesSQIJ!,a ZX Spectrum game that couldn’t be played until players edited the code themselves. Meanwhile,Attack of the Flickering Skeletonsgoes into the shady history ofHareraiser,the notorious UK equivalent of the AtariSwordquestgames. It also features contributions from the likes of Jeff Minter, Larry Bundy Jr, and James Stephanie Sterling on the games that really got their goat.
14Blood, Sweat, and Pixels
A Comprehensive History of Game Development
Blood, Sweat and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Madepretty much does what it says on the cover. It goes into the background of how games have been made through the past decades, from the big hits of the past to the indie darlings today.
The book goes into the crunch hours, bugs, burnout, tight schedules, and more that almost keptDragon Age: Inquisition,Stardew Valley,Destiny, and more off the store shelves. As far as games design and creation goes,Blood, Sweat and Pixelsis the first book to crack open.
13Game Over: Press Start To Continue
The Rise of Nintendo
When the book was originally published in 1993, it was calledGame Over: How Nintendo Zapped a Generation, Captured Your Dollars, and Enslaved Your Children. As sensationalist as it sounds, the book is actually a neutral take on Nintendo’s rise from a card and toy company in the 1960s to the world’s top video game company in the 1990s.
Despite stopping short of the 21st century, it’s a detailed look at Nintendo’s recent past, with interviews with Shigeru Miyamoto andTetriscreator Alexey Pajitnov among others. The 1999 re-release got a more neutral title,Game Over: Press Start to Continue.This version featured additional chapters by Andy Eddy to cover the post-SNES years, alongside new photos and error corrections. As such, it’s the best edition to hunt down for any Nintendo fan.
12Service Games: The Rise And Fall Of Sega
How Sega Lost Its Groove, Then Got it Back
But what if the reader preferred a system that could do what Nintendo couldn’t?Service Games: The Rise and Fall of Segagoes into the company’s history from their early days as Service Games in the 1950s, then changing the video game landscape with their consoles in the 1990s, before ending up as a software developer followingthe end of the Dreamcast.
It’s more up to date, originally published in 2012. Plus, it has an Enhanced Edition with additional content by other authors. In addition to some error corrections, it contains more photos, additional facts, and coverage on Sega’s rosier start in Europe compared to its uphill struggle in America and Japan.
11Console Wars
How Sega Fired the First Shot
Most of the books here are nonfiction, focusing on investigative details rather than fantasy stories. That’s because popular novels (graphic and otherwise) likeScott Pilgrim,Ready Player One, andSlayare more stories involving games or game tropes. But that doesn’t mean there’s no room for a novel or two here.
Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle That Defined a Generationfollows how Sega rivaled Nintendo from the perspective of then-Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske. Although it’s a novel, it uses real events to form its story, like when Kalinske pitchedSonic the Hedgehogas a Genesis pack-in game overAltered Beast. There’s also a TV miniseries adaptation of the book currently in the works with Seth Rogen as executive producer, and Jordan Vogt-Roberts as director.
10The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers
The Inside Scoop on How Japanese Developers Worked
Nintendo and Sega may be big household names, but they still needed third party support to get their machines off the ground. Japanese companies like Capcom, Konami, Squaresoft, Enix, and more made their names on the NES, Genesis, the arcades, and other machines. But what was it truly like to work within these companies during their heyday? John Sczepaniak goes been intoThe Untold History of Japanese Game Developers.
He spoke to 36 interviewees, including Keiji Inafune (Mega Man) and Yuzo Koshiro (Streets of Rage), to cover a range of behind-the-scenes topics. Like how Konami almost released their own video games console, the politics behind Enix’s secret programming contests, how games are preserved, and what Japanese gaming culture is like. It has everything people wanted to know about Japanese game development and more.
9Masters Of Doom
How Hell Broke Loose
Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culturesounds like author David Kushner is promising a lot. Yet that’s exactly what happened when Johns Romero and Carmack met, founded id Software, and createdDoom. The book has a novel-like approach a laConsole Wars, yet is ultimately a journalistic look at Romero, Carmack, andDoom.
The game’s influence on first-person shooters is well-known, along with the craze of people getting it torun on any tech available. However,Masters of Doomitself is also famous for inspiring the formation of Oculus VR and Reddit, as their founders were inspired by its coverage of Carmack and Romero’s rise to give their goals a shot. The book received an audiobook followup in 2016 calledPrepare to Meet Thy Doomthat continues where the first book left off.
8Jacked: The Outlaw Story Of Grand Theft Auto
Rockstar’s Gaming Revolution
There is also a miniseries ofMasters of Doomin the works, though it won’t be the first such adaptation of a Kushner work. The BBC beat them to the punch in 2015 withThe Gamechangers, which was largely inspired by Kushner’sJacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto. Both went into how Sam and Dan Houser founded Rockstar Games and dealt with the highs and lows ofGTA’s fame.
It’s a strong book, going in-depth into how the company got the game series and took it to new heights. The only drawback is that it feels more limited, since Rockstar are less willing to provide direct insight than Romero, Carmack, and id Software are. The company ended up suing the BBC for makingThe Gamechangerswithout their involvement, so the chances of Kushner providing a follow-up toJackedaren’t likely.
7The History of the Future
How Virtual Reality Became Reality
Blake J. Harris returns fromConsole Warsto writeThe History of the Future: Oculus, Facebook, and the Revolution That Swept Virtual Reality. Like his prior book, it’s a novel-like approach to how Palmer Luckey founded Oculus VR, got Facebook’s attention, and brought VR back into the spotlight.
Aside from Luckey’s own inspirations and rise through the ranks, it also goes into the tech, and how it improved over prior attempts to make virtual reality liable. That’s not to mention legal trouble. The book goes into the lawsuit that Oculus received from ZeniMax Media, and Luckey’s own polarizing positions. People looking for a book on VR may get more than they bargained for.
6The Games That Weren’t
How Some Games Never Made It to Stores
For every game that makes it onto shelves and hard drives, there are many more that wereabandoned mid-production. Back in the day, an issue of UK-based magCommodore Forcewent into unreleased Commodore 64 games in a feature called “That Was The Game That Wasn’t.” One reader, Fred Gasking, found it interesting enough to track down these unfinished entries.
In 1999, he set up a website, GamesThatWerent.com, dedicated to these MIA entries. Then he turned it into a book,The Games That Weren’t, in 2020. It covers abandoned games for all systems from the Atari 2600 to the PS4. What happened to the Game Boy Color port ofResident Evil? Or Opa-Opa’sSpace Harrier-inspired pseudo-3D sequelSuper Fantasy Zone? The book has their stories and more.
