Product Description
Between 1976 and 1994, Commodore had astounding success in the nascent personal computer business. Amid the chaos and infighting, Commodore was able to achieve some remarkable industry firsts. They were the first major company to show a personal computer, even before Apple and Radio Shack. They sold a million computers before anyone else. No single computer has sold more than the Commodore 64. The first true multimedia computer, the Amiga, came from Commodore. Yet with all these milestones, Commodore receives almost no credit as a pioneer. Commodore was one of the only companies with the ability to make silicon, and the results were obvious. They had more creativity, more color, and more character than the competition. While Apple and IBM charged exorbitant prices, Commodore was able to reach the masses with affordable computers while remaining profitable. The Commodore 64 cut a path of destruction through the early industry, knocking Tandy, Texas Instruments, Sinclair, and Atari out of the computer business and badly hurting Apple and even IBM. While other companies received more press, Commodore sold more computers. Yet Commodore never reached a comfortable position. They were always on the verge of blinding success or abysmal failure. Commodores volatile founder, Jack Tramiel, lived on the edge, and he made sure his employees lived there too. On the Edge: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore tells the story through over 44 hours of interviews with former engineers and managers: Chuck Peddle, the digital God who created a revolution with the 6502 chip and designed the PET computer. Al Charpentier, the chain smoking architect of Commodores revolutionary graphics chips. Bob Yannes, the frustrated musician and synthesizer aficionado who designed the Commodore 64 and the SID sound chip. Bil Herd, the unruly engineer who created the maligned Plus/4 and later sought redemption with the C128. The Amiga engineers, who created the first true multimedia system even before the word multimedia existed. Irving Gould, financier and majority shareholder who rescued Commodore in the sixties, then allowed it to wither.
Customer Reviews:
Quite literally the best book I have ever read and I'm not even finished yet........2007-09-22
This book is beyond great. I am a huge fan of business/computer history and this book delivers both.
Very informative.
~cbmeeks
Commodore Computers Get Their Due.......2007-08-01
The expression "back in the day" loses meaning when it comes to computers. For some, "back in the day" means Java 1.3, or Perl 4, or a PC running at less than 1 GHz. For me, "back in the day" means a world without personal computers. "On the Edge", the story of Commodore, is a great telling of how the personal computer got built "back in the day."
Probably the most thoroughly enjoyable part about "On the Edge" is the unvarnished portrayal of the engineers and executives. Chuck Peddle, Bil Herd, Irv Gould, and Jack Tramiel are profane, urgent men, men who wanted to build machines, to build empires. Their story is told with great candor and detail. It's astounding to think that computer chips and machines were once built quite literally by hand. It's astounding to think that Commodore could have become today's personal computer, were it not for the harsh and self-destructive business practices of Gould and Tramiel.
Along the way of Commodore's great rise and fall were the famous companies that stand before us today: Microsoft, IBM, and Apple. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are in this book too, playing minor roles as the personal computer market began to shake itself out. Commodore was tantalizing close to being one of those companies, and in the end, this book makes a strong case for their important role in helping found the personal computer industry.
Brian Bagnall's style is very accessible, and it's easy to read the 500-plus pages very quickly. He deserves high praise for telling the story, and positioning the Commodore as one of computers that ushered in the personal computer.
An Enlightening and Entertaining Book! Commodore Revealed! A+++.......2007-07-24
I just read the hardbound (2nd) edition of this book while on vacation. Wow, what a wonderful and informative book! It's a real gem for Commodore enthusiasts and admirers of 80's 8-bit computing. My favorite computer company has at last been given the recognition it deserves! Commodore had many, many firsts in the industry and it's great to see credit finally given where credit is due. This book is written in an entertaining fashion and the personal stories are great! It's also interesting to note how some companies and individuals have tried to rewrite the history of the birth of the personal computer. Commodore was a leader in the field and the record is set straight in this book. FANTASTIC!
From the Other Side.......2007-07-19
As someone growing up in the 70's/80's with Atari this and Atari that I was on the side of the fence that hated Commodore. An irrational hate, but a hate nonetheless... hey, I was 14. That said I never really knew much about Commodore as a company and the many people behind it. I recall the 'thrill' if you can call it that of Jack's defection and how he was going to turn Atari around (little did I know) and knowledge of Jay Miner being the brain behind both the Atari 8-bit and Commodore Amiga chip set, but nothing more.
Consequently this book has been one great read full of information that I never knew. It didn't feel biased as it had some of Jack Tramiel's good points in it too and it now has me pronouncing his last name correctly. If you have any interest in computer history then this is a must get title. It covers all the way from the design of the Pet and Commodore's move into the computer marketplace all the way to the end after the Amiga and it touches on the various other companies they did business with such as an early Microsoft for licensing Basic, Radio Shack and Apple as competitors, IBM, Atari, ...etc.
My only disappointment is to see that there's now an updated edition coming out with more photos, interviews, ...etc and I've already shelled out my cash for this one.
Connecting the Dots.......2007-07-13
I really enjoyed this book. I enjoyed it so much that I have recently purchase a (2) Vic 20's,(2) Commodore 64's and one C-128 on ebay. I set them all up and I am really having fun with them. I am starting with the vic and re discovering machine language. I know this sounds like a little too much, but I cant help but think there was some huge loss of technology we are missing out on today when Commodore went under. I feel like it was when the Libray of Alexandria was destroyed, we could be on Mars today if Commodore had succeded. The only thing I think was left out was the awesome mathematics chips that came in the vic and the 64.
Thank You to Brian Bagnall for writing and all the great people at Commodore for all the inovative hard work they did! =D
Book Description
"In this ninth installment in the Hornblower series, the incomparable Horatio Hornblower, recently knighted and settled in as squire of the village of Smallbridge, has been designated commodore of his own squadron of ships, led by the two-decker Nonsuch and bound for the Baltic. It is 1812, and Hornblower has been ordered to do anything and everything possible, diplomatically and militarily, to protect the Baltic trade and to stop the spread of Napoleon's empire into Sweden and Russia. Though he has set sail a hero, one misstep may ruin his chances of ever becoming an admiral. Hostile armies, seductive Russian royalty, nautical perils such as ice-bound bays, assassins in the imperial palace--Hornblower must conquer all before he can return home to his beloved new wife and son, as his instructions are to sacrifice every man and ship under his command rather than surrender ground to Napoleon."
Customer Reviews:
A Wonderful Friendship .......2006-09-09
This is the next Hornblower chronologically, it was not the next one written. Now that the series is completed it makes sense to read it as Hornblower's career progresses in the Royal Navy.
The whole series is a pleasure to read full of action and adventure; with enough time for a little romance.
Get acquainted with one of the most popular characters in modern literature.
After reading this you will be back for more. And that is a wonderful thing.
The destiny of the world.......2006-08-04
This was my first introduction to Horatio Hornblower, and I'm hooked...couldn't put this down, or any of the next two either.
Hornblower is made a commodore and given a small fleet, and sent to the Baltic to ensure the safety of maritime trade. The local threat to British shipping is dealt with in short order, but the diplomatic situation quickly becomes complicated as the neutrality of Sweden and Russia are threatened. Will the Sweden be dragged into the war on the side of Napoleon, will Russia submit to French mastery of Europe?
Hornblower has the opportunity to dine with the czar and participate in the seige of Riga. By the end of the novel, his health is spent, the tide of the war is turned, and you care intensely about the next chapter of the saga.
Russian politics and naval strategy.......2004-02-29
In Commodore, Forester takes our hero to the Baltic Sea to intervene in the war between the Russians and Napoleon. Now on the top half of the Captains list, Hornblower is given command of a small squadron of ships and sent north in as much of a political gambit as a naval one. There are no real naval threats to Hornblower's fleet, a few coastal raiders on British shipping, but the one they find is easily dispatched. Forester spends time detailing the use of bomb vessels, ungainly ships with large mortars in the center. They are used to shell and destroy a ship in a harbor and enemy positions on shore. When Napoleon attacks Russia he sends one army north towards St. Petersburg along the eastern most end of the Baltic, and of course Commodore Hornblower is there to save the day and negotiate a switch of sides by the Prussians. It's a little short on naval lore and a little long on period politics. A contrived dalliance with a Russian lady gives Hornblower flees, and then typhus. At the time it was written it was pretty unusual to have an adulterous affair in a fiction of this kind. It gives more variety to our understanding of British Naval operations in another area of the world.
Good adventure reading.......2003-10-06
I am sad to see that I am close to the end of Forester's Horatio Hornblower series. I am greatly enjoying this series of novels.
Buy the whole package.......2003-09-18
Start with Midshipman Hornblower and take a vacation. You won't put any book in the series down until you finish them all.
Average customer rating:
- The Aubrey-Maturin series is simply the best fiction ever written
- Another wonderful O'Brian novel
- A more somber and reflective Aubrey & Maturin novel.
- Home Again To Become Commodore.
- O'Brian's Exceptionaly Imagined Seagoing Tale Continues
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The Commodore (Aubrey-Maturin Series)
Patrick O'Brian
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
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ASIN: 0393314596 |
Amazon.com
After several installments of gallivanting around the South Seas, Aubrey and Maturin return home to England, where the surgeon-cum-intelligence-agent discovers that his wife has disappeared. As if such a domestic crisis weren't enough, the intrepid pair are also dispatched to the Gulf of Guinea (to suppress the slave trade) and to Ireland (to rebuff an impending French invasion.) O'Brian's stunning range, coupled with his mind-bending command of minutiae, explain why James Hamilton-Paterson has called him "the Homer of the Napoleonic Wars."
Customer Reviews:
The Aubrey-Maturin series is simply the best fiction ever written.......2007-09-19
Patrick O'Brian's "The Commodore" is the seventeenth book in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series. The Aubrey-Maturin books are quite simply the best fiction I've ever read. I enjoy them so much that I find it difficult to read any other fiction now.
Although there are twenty (completed) Aubrey-Maturin novels, in a sense they are one long, unending story. O'Brian tells the story of an unlikely pair of friends in early 19th century Britain: a hard-charging Royal Navy captain and an Irish physician and naturalist (and British spy). Both are devoted, for different reasons, to the fight against Napoleonic France. Captain Jack Aubrey and Doctor Stephen Maturin are dedicated friends, and the interplay between this unlikely pair is ranges from deep philosophical discussions to intended and unintended humor.
But what really makes these novels is Patrick O'Brian's writing style. Through his words, he paints wonderful pictures and creates real characters in brilliant narratives; which is good, because Aubrey and many of his exploits are based on real-life adventures during the Napoleonic Wars.
In "The Commodore," Aubrey leads a fleet of Royal Navy ships to the coast of Africa to interdict the slave trade. Aubrey has to deal with the internal problems of his fleet while also leading a successful campaign against African traders. Finally, Aubrey leads the fleet north to stop a French invasion of Ireland. This is a fabulous book, but I recommend that everyone with any interest in historical fiction or the Royal Navy read the entire series in order.
Another wonderful O'Brian novel.......2007-07-31
I am slowly reading my way through the entire set of Aubrey-Maturin novels. It has been one of the most enjoyable reading experiences of my life. The stories are compelling, the characters are extremely well developed, and the prose is vivid. Recommended to anyone who likes to read.
A more somber and reflective Aubrey & Maturin novel........2006-01-21
The seventeenth installment of the Aubrey/Maturin series is vintage O'Brian. Those who seek mere relentless thrills and action will be disappointed. By contrast, those who enjoy a novel that flawlessly fuses historically accurate fleet actions in the Age of Sail with meditations on the nature of friendship, love, fine music, literature, wine and all that makes life worth living will come away as fulfilled as could be expected from any book in this wonderful series.
"The Commodore" finds Captain Jack Aubrey, R.N., and his friend Stephen Maturin, back in England after a prolonged, around-the-world voyage. For both, their respective home-comings are, at best bittersweet. Though substantially enriched from their last expedition, the two friends must confront personal and family challenges that are awkward at best, and, in Stephen's case, painful at worst. Over a decade has passed since the naval officer and the medical doctor/naturalist/intelligence agent had met in Port Mahon just before the Peace of Amiens. Sixteen novels later, in the waning months of the Napoleonic wars, we find them not only older, but more reflective and serious. Jack is now a Commodore, commanding a powerful squadron and charged with a complicated dual mission that will take him from England to the coast of West Africa and later, to the shores of Ireland. Stephen, his private life as complicated as ever, finds himself enmeshed in intelligence-related intrigues that threaten to reach far, far too close to home. For all that, the novel's dominant ambiance is never opressive. True to form, O'Brian provides his readers with plenty of flashes of humor and levity that pierce the somber clouds that now and again gather over the heads of the protagonists. There is a happy ending -- of sorts. As is always the case in the Aubrey/Maturin novels, the nature of happiness is always somewhat ambivalent, perhaps fleeting. But, then again, is that not true in real life?
Home Again To Become Commodore........2005-09-23
This is the continuing sea-faring heroes' tale as they venture to Ireland after their last assignment to the Gulf of Guinea to suppress the slave trade. The two central characters are Captain Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, the ship's surgeon, who uses his resourcefulness as a secret intelligence agent as a second profession. Alas, his little girl, Brigid, appears to be autistic, incapable of speech or contact, but it could be caused by the disiappearance of her mother -- as was the case of the child in the movie, The Patriot.'
In this one, Jack has been promoted; "I shall be a 'first-class' commodore" promised by Melville. This is about early 19th century naval life filled with varied characters on the ships with all the quirks and dialects possible. This adventure is "one of those great fleet actions on which the supremacy of the British Navy was founded." They have a direct confrontation with the French navy. It is an imagined world you don't want to leave, like Terry Webber's performance of both Booth and Lincoln in the one-man performance of 'Killing Lincoln,' I told him "I didn't want you to stop; I wanted you to go on and on and on."
'New York Times Book Review' calls this series "the best historical novel ever written." That may be stretching it some as I feel that way about Jack Finney's stories. American Navy had its own Admiral Farragut after whom a building in Knoxville is named, also a suburb which is becoming a town of its own.
John Ferguson calls O'Brian "a lyric poet working in epic form" which is an adequate comparison with Homer's "Odyssey." James Hamilton wrote in 'New Republic' that Patric O'Brian is 'the Homer of the Napoleonic wars." He has seventeen sequential novels about these two seamen pals, which are brilliantly written. I am wondering, will there be a number eighteen?
O'Brian's Exceptionaly Imagined Seagoing Tale Continues.......2004-12-22
After finishing this seventeenth installation in the Aubrey/Maturin series, I found myself wishing that there were still another seventeen novels to read. Patrick O'Brien's weaves a wonderful tale - one so vivid and magical that it is so very difficult to put any of the irresistible Aubrey/Maturin novels down. The seagoing tale that Patrick O'Brien has crafted is filled with interesting characters and a consistently compelling story-line. It is also replete with accurate historical detail and fully captures the political intrigue of the British Navy's involvement in the Napoleonic wars of the nineteenth-century.
Even though Commodore Aubrey's mission is to suppress the slave trade off the west coast of Africa and later onto a secret mission on the Irish coast to prevent a French invasion, `The Commodore' is not filled with seagoing adventure. In fact, the main components of the tale take place ashore. Maturin and Aubrey find themselves home after a long and successful adventure. While Lucky Jack is promoted to Commodore of the First Class, not all is well at home. Both he and his wife suspect the other of infidelity. Dianne has run away leaving Stephen's autistic child with the widow Clarissa Oakes. Political intrigue forces Stephen to slip some of his fortune and his child to Spain.
At sea, Stephen battles his addition to coca leaves and a severe bout with Yellow Fever. Commodore Aubrey's leadership and seamanship are tested by two Captains under his command. One is more interested in polished brass and drives his crew hard with the whip. The other is a sodomite, whose favoritism to those young men among his crew that he beds disrupts discipline and the fighting efficacy of his vessel.
This is one of the more magnificent books in the series and I heartily recommend it, as I do with the rest of the books in the Aubrey/Maturin series.
Book Description
"
Commodore Perry's Minstrel Show is world-class historical fiction. It takes us to a place, mid-nineteenth-century Japan, that's long ago and far away, and makes it contemporary and intimately familiar. It's a wryly told tale, full of wonders and surprises, written with grace and authority. Richard Wiley is one of the few American novelists with the will and the ability to penetrate a culture not his own with the requisite alacrity and intelligent respect. If there is such a thing as global fiction, Richard Wiley is writing it."
—Russell Banks
In 1854, Commodore Matthew Perry steamed into Edo Bay and "opened" Japan to trade with America. As entertainment for the treaty-signing ceremony, Perry brought a white-men-in-black-face minstrel show—and thereby confirmed the widely whispered Japanese belief that trade with the American "barbarians" could only lead to cultural ruin. Yet the pawns in this clash of cultures—the minstrels, Ace Bledsoe and Ned Clark, and the Japanese interpreter, Manjiro Okubo—are just slightly more curious than cautious. Within the minstrels Manjiro sensed "the subtleties of spirit that reside in all good men." When Ace and Ned are unwittingly made part of a Japanese plot to undermine the American presence, Manjiro helps them escape into the countryside. Pursued by samurai, torn between treachery and loyalty, Manjiro and the minstrels (along with family, friends, and lovers) make their way across Japan, fleeing a showdown with the samurai that gradually becomes inevitable.
Commodore Perry's Minstrel Show is the long-awaited prequel—more than a decade in the making—to Richard Wiley's PEN/Faulkner Award-winning novel,
Soldiers in Hiding. A sword-swinging page-turner infused with a heady mix of Japanese etiquette, American ideals, and Machiavellian philosophy, Wiley's latest novel sparkles as it shapes history into an enlightened drama of the earliest moments of globalization.
Customer Reviews:
A Strange and Wonderful Delight.......2007-04-21
I've read all of Richard Wiley's books, and like anyone else, I have my favorites. Soldiers in Hiding is, of course, a fine book. Fool's Gold is a beauty, and Festival for 3,000 Maidens is a great little Peace Corps Novel. I have to ask myself whether Commodore Perry's Minstrel Show is now my favorite because I've just finished it, but it's a strange and wonderful delight.
Who else would write about such an unusual subject? And what makes the book such a pleasure? It has to do with the beauty of the characters and the language, both light as a feather and yet capable of great and sudden strength. I've rarely seen a book with such a texture, bright and dark, comic and serious, distant and close, ridiculous and urgent.
At times I found myself wondering why I became so involved with this odd bunch of characters from the mid 1800's Japan, but generally I was too involved to ask the question. Of course, it's no wonder, since Richard Wiley has lived in, visited, and obviously loved Japan over the years. But what surprised me the most was the book's ability to make me gasp now and again. And to curse the writer for having received, worked for, and developed such a gift.
Clear sailing with Commodore Perry.......2007-04-02
The novelist Richard Bausch once remarked that a reader is always guaranteed to learn something new in any novel written by Richard Wiley. Wiley shepherds us into a foreign landscape and introduces us to a culture that is strikingly remote from our own yet is so intimately and recognizably human that we close the book with the realization that not only are we more savvy about the workings of the world at large, but we have a rich new insight into ourselves as well. These two feats can be achieved only by a literary master capable of topnotch entertainment who also has his thumb firmly on the pulse of humanity. In Commodore Perry's Minstrel Show, Richard Wiley outdoes himself. The novel abounds in characters who will live in the reader's mind long after finishing that last page; a plot that is riveting in terms of tragedy, comedy, and samurai action; if that's not enough, this novel is one of the most poetically rendered achievements I've read in the past year. Each sentence is carefully crafted and is in full service to a compelling story about the cultural clashes, tribal rivalries, and familial conflicts that occur when Commodore Perry and his unlikely crew sail into Japan's Edo Bay in 1854 to open trade with the United States. Along the way we are treated to sex, romance, swordplay, deapitation, high and low comedy, and a sense of history whose heartbeat resounds through the ages to make it all feel insistently modern. I recommend this book without reservation to anyone who cares about excellent storytelling.
Average customer rating:
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AMIGA ROM Kernel Reference Manual: Libraries Devices
Manufacturer: Addison-Wesley (C)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Book Description
Maybe it was the recent Atari 2600 milestone anniversary that fueled nostalgia for the golden days of computer and console gaming. Every Game Boy must ponder his roots from time to time. But whatever is driving the current retro gaming craze, one thing is certain: classic games are back for a big second act, and they're being played in both old and new ways.
Whether you've just been attacked by Space Invaders for the first time or you've been a Pong junkie since puberty, Chris Kohler's Retro Gaming Hacks is the indispensable new guide to playing and hacking classic games. Kohler has complied tons of how-to information on retro gaming that used to take days or weeks of web surfing to track down and sort through, and he presents it in the popular and highly readable Hacks style.
Retro Gaming Hacks serves up 85 hard-nosed hacks for reviving the classic games. Want to game on an original system? Kohler shows you how to hack ancient hardware, and includes a primer for home-brewing classic software. Rather adapt today's equipment to run retro games? Kohler provides emulation techniques, complete with instructions for hacking a classic joystick that's compatible with a contemporary computer. This book also teaches readers to revive old machines for the original gaming experience: hook up an Apple II or a Commodore 64, for example, and play it like you played before.
A video game journalist and author of Power Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life, Kohler has taught the history of video games at Tufts University. In Retro Gaming Hacks, he locates the convergence of classic games and contemporary software, revealing not only how to retrofit classic games for today's systems, but how to find the golden oldies hidden in contemporary programs as well.
Whether you're looking to recreate the magic of a Robotron marathon or simply crave a little handheld Donkey Kong, Retro Gaming Hacks shows you how to set the way-back dial.
Customer Reviews:
A good fun read and great projects.......2006-11-13
A great reference for those who like to tinker with the hardware side of retro games. I found this book to be a very good reference, well thought out and very applicable to the hobby of retro gaming and will appeal to the enthusiast at all levels.
HACKING YOUR WAY TO FUN!!.......2006-05-26
Are you an avid game player, programmer or video game journalist? If you are, then this book is for you! Author Chris Kohler, has done an outstanding job of writing a book that shows you everything you need to know to get your retro game on.
Kohler, begins by showing you how to play the real thing, setting up classic game systems, fixing broken hardware, and getting good deals on buying games. Then, the author covers new hardware and software that plays old games, whether on an all-in-one joystick or on the PalyStation 2. He continues by covering MAME from all the angles, learning how to play classic arcade games on the PC and other platforms. Next, the author shows you how to play classic console games. Then, the author brings back those classic computers, showing you how to set them up or emulate them. He also shows you how to play with text adventures. Then, he shows you how to get DOS games to work properly under modern operating systems, or even get DOS up and running again. The author continues by showing you how to play at game design. Finally, the author shows you how to hack around inside games, exploring glitches and bugs to your advantage.
The author of this most excellent book shows you how to emulate classic games on everything from cell phones to computers. More importantly, after reading this book, you will have everything you need to have to rediscover classic games in style.
Write and use retro-style games.......2006-03-17
Chris Kohler's RETRO GAMING HACKS: TIPS & TOOLS FOR PLAYING THE CLASSICS tells how to emulate classic games on cell phones to computers, how to locate vintage game hardware, how to convert gaming tools, and how to write your own retro-style games in various programs. From playing old games on original hardware or making conversions, RETRO GAMING HACKS is for avid gamers who want to tweak the experience.
How cool is this!.......2006-02-02
Some of these 'hacks' I knew about, many i did not. But every 'hack' in here offered some level of detail that made my retro gaming experience just that much better.
The bulk of the hacks are focused on emulators - how to get them, how to use them, etc. Which means that you will be Retro-gaming on your PC. Before I nabbed this book, I thought that would be a slightly less than awesome experience. Mainly because the controls leave a lot to be desired (who wants to use a keyboard to play Satan's Hollow.) But thanks to one of the hacks, I now know where to go to get retro game controllers that fit right into your PC.
While retro-gaming on the PC is the the focus of the book, it by no means describes all the content. There is tunds of cruncy goodness in here on obtaining old platforms and cartridges, to hacking your old cartidges / games into your modern platform.
All in all a joy to read, and even more fun to implement. Pick it up! Its a good 'un.
Relive The Classic Games Of Yesteryear.......2005-11-24
Ever miss the days of old when the Atari 2600 and the original Nintendo ruled the land? Wish you could relive the old days of Pac Man and Super Mario Brothers but you don't have your classic systems any more?
If you answered yes to any of these questions and still have a hunger to play or at least learn about the classic games of the past, then Chris Kohler's 'Retro Gaming Hacks' is for you!!
While it's called a "Hacks" book, this book is mainly comprised of talking about emulators and how to play these classics on your PC, Macintosh, or another gaming machine. While the book goes into detail about buying classic games and systems online and/or buying vertical JAMMA machines, the easiest and most economical way is to run emulators. Since the games of old all use the most basic of graphics engines and memory relative to the computers of today, the best way you can experience said games is via the home computer route.
With over 400 pages of material, Mr. Kohler talks about systems such as the Atari 2600, 5200, and 7800. The Colecovision, Commodore 64, and the Amiga. The original Nintendo, SNES, Sega Master System, Genesis and Dreamcast are not forgotten either. Basically if there is an emulator available for a gaming system, this book covers it all.
After discussing a myriad of ways to find and run emulators, Chris talks about some basic programming and how to write your own DOS based games, and also discusses how even Dreamcasts and XBOXs can serve as great emulator machines to play these stapled of the video game world.
If you collect, play, or just want to learn more about the classic games of the past, this book is for you. If you already know how to use emulators for the PC but want to branch out and learn to emulate on other operating systems, this book is for you. If you just want to take a stroll down memory lane and relive part of your childhood, this book is for you.
A very entertaining read, and great for hobbyists that love to tinker with old game systems and don't mind getting their wire cutters out or sautering iron hot and ready to go.
***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Book Description
In 1853, few Japanese people
knew that a country
called America even existed.
For centuries, Japan had isolated itself from the outside world by refusing to trade with other countries and even refusing to help shipwrecked sailors, foreign or Japanese. The country's people still lived under a feudal system like that of Europe in the Middle Ages. But everything began to change when American Commodore Perry and his troops sailed to the Land of the Rising Sun, bringing with them new science and technology, and a new way of life.
Customer Reviews:
Fascinating, thorough!.......1999-10-07
We lived in Japan and I homeschooled when I first read this book. Much more interesting way to learn about the opening of Japan than through a text. Another excellent book that is a great companion to this one is "Born in the Year of Courage."
Its a very good and stuning book...!!!!!.......1998-06-02
Its a very good book!!!It has alot of detail on the Japanes life in the very old days of the world.Its the best you can get!!!!
Book Description
On July 14, 1853, the four warships of America's East Asia Squadron made for Kurihama, 30 miles south of the Japanese capital, then called Edo. It had come to pry open Japan after her two and a half centuries of isolation and nearly a decade of intense planning by Matthew Perry, the squadron commander. The spoils of the recent Mexican Spanish–American War had whetted a powerful American appetite for using her soaring wealth and power for commercial and political advantage.
Perry's cloaking of imperial impulse in humanitarian purpose was fully matched by Japanese self–deception. High among the country's articles of faith was certainty of its protection by heavenly power. A distinguished Japanese scholar argued in 1811 that "Japanese differ completely from and are superior to the peoples of...all other countries of the world."
So began one of history's greatest political and cultural clashes.
In BREAKING OPEN JAPAN, George Feifer makes this drama new and relevant for today. At its heart were two formidable men: Perry and Lord Masahiro Abe, the political mastermind and real authority behind the Emperor and the Shogun. Feifer gives us a fascinating account of "sealed off" Japan and shows that Perry's aggressive handling of his mission had far reaching consequences for Japan – and the United States – well into the twentieth if not twenty–first century.
Customer Reviews:
Good Story. Difficult Prose........2007-07-28
This is a fascinating story and the author presents substantive research. There is some good prose in parts, such as the character development of Commodore Perry and descriptions of Okinawa, but on the whole it is not a smooth read. The 4 stars I'm giving it are for its importance as a contribution to our understanding of this period, the author's discussion on the impact of the attitude with which Perry's mission was accomplished, and the research that has been brought together.
Had there not been such good material and insight, the text was so choppy that I would have not finished the book. The dangling ideas, that is, concepts introduced but not previously explained or later followed up on, were frustrating. Then there are a lot of tortured sentences and then some grammar that had to be ignored to get the meaning.
One example of a dangling idea was the paragraph that ended by saying that Abe Mashihiro had won an important victory in the appointment of his recommended defense advisor followed by a paragraph saying that the appointee was "his (Abe's) the most vocal critic." What did I miss? By this time in the book, I no longer flipped back. The concept of a victory for Abe getting a critic an influential position isn't ever clear. It could be that the author meant it in the wider context that through this appointment there was no war, but that isn't clear either.
An example of the tortured prose, on p. 190 regarding Perry's son in law and grandson:
"New York's high society made him "King of Fifth Avenue". (New York Belmont Race Track and the Belmont Stakes are named after him, while in Newport, Rhode Island one of the sumptuous "cottages" was built by Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, the son of "King" and Perry's daughter, together with Alva Vanderbilt previously married to William K. Vanderbilt)".
A grammar example (while you know it's Abe, there are two antecedents for him, not one) is on p. 243 "More than ever, Abe and the roju made the important decisions; with the senior counselors increasinly deferring to him about those concerning Perry..."
While the text was a real drawback (for me), there is a lot of food for thought in the analysis of what it Perry's actions meant for US-Japanese relations for the next 100 years, the unequal treaties, the symbolism of the USS Missouri receiving the Japanese surrender in Uraga Bay and the comparison of China's attitude and policies toward western trade and intervention.
For general readers interested in the seclusion period I recommend Samurai William: The Englishman Who Opened Japan and Native American in the Land of the Shogun: Ranald Macdonald and the Opening of Japan.
a radically different view of American history.......2007-01-11
If you think you knew and understood American history this brilliant book will make you think again.The author sets out to show that America arrogantly decided to force Japan to open its doors to foreigners and trade, a decision that turned out to be the first step along the path that was to lead to Pearl Harbor. He succeeds admirably. This is readable, controversial history with a lesson for what is going on in Iraq today. A must book for serious thinkers.
Essential Reading.......2006-12-05
On one level this remarkable book will provide invaluable background for anyone interested in understanding why Japan's love-hate relationship with the United States continues to this day. It should also serve to underline the dangers of imposing one nation's views on another.
But the book will also appeal to readers simply interested in a rich historical tour of Japan at the dawn of its modern era. The skillful weaving of the descriptions of the personalities, prejudices and political backgrounds of Commodore Perry and his Japanese counterpart Lord Abe brings to life and keeps in focus a story that might otherwise have drifted into an academic dissertation.
Breaking Open Japan will now be added to my list of must-reads for friends and acquaintances interested in peeling away the layers of a society that remains the most complex and conflicted of the modern era.
EERIE ECHOES TODAY.......2006-11-24
This marvelous book is a model study of the unintended consequences of American self-righteousness and imperial arrogance -- with eerie echoes today in the Bush/Cheney invasion of Iraq. It is a work of superb scholarship, and in spots it requires keen concentration, but the total effect is most rewarding, and the concluding sections -- with their lessons for the present and,one hopes,for the future -- are brilliant.
Amidst the present disasters of our militarized foreign policy, Mr Feifer's observation (in Chapter 17) that American "fervor and ignorance, especially of other cultures, sometimes caused grave damage" rings with bitter irony today in Iraq. "The Japan that [Commodore Perry] left was boiling in despairing confusion ... bloody plots and counterplots ... full of episodes that seem not to belong to waking life, but have ... the unearthly logic of events in a dream."
And yet, even in his harsh conclusions, Mr Feifer is scholarly, moderate, nuanced, and scrupulous, never overstating his case as the ironies for today abound. This is an incisive and most admirable book.
A revelation about our use of power.......2006-11-18
This challenging and deeply researched book on Perry's "opening up" of Japan
has the most painful relevance possible to our current government's colossal
misadventure in allegedly trying to bring "Freedom and Democracy" to a land
of darker-skinned people about whose history we are -- not willfully mis-
informed, which would be bad enough, but wildly, tragically ignorant. And
what kind of reverberations can we expect, decades and even a century down
the road of history? What Pearl Harbors, what Okinawas, what Hiroshimas are
there to come?
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