Reddit reviews Game Over: How Nintendo Conquered The World

I've read many video game history books, they all have this anecdote in them but none have any real proof. However, the NES originally launched in New York City and Nintendo had to make the promise to stores they'd buy back all unsold stock. So that does help support the claim a little.

btw, Game Over is an awesome read.

I second this recommendation. It’s also worth noting that it has been revised and updated.

There are at least three books published about the History of Nintendo. I'd say start with Game Over by David Sheff. Here's one listing of an apparently out of print version, any decent sized library should have a copy.

https://www.amazon.com/Game-Over-Nintendo-Conquered-World-ebook/dp/B0060AY98I/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1503836937&sr=8-2&keywords=game+over+book

It is. Really good book. Long, super detailed. I got my copy back in the early 2000s but never finished it. After Hiroshi Yamauchi passed away, I dug it up and re-read it in full. Really glad I did.

It's long out of print, but there might be some used copies floating around. I did notice it's on Kindle:

http://www.amazon.com/Game-Over-Nintendo-Conquered-World-ebook/dp/B0060AY98I/

Totally worth $10, a must read for any Nintendo fan.

Thanks for your insight and wisdom, that is really what makes reddit great and internet forums in general. Someone like me being able to learn and discuss with someone like you. And hopefully the other way too, so that we all are enriched and the community benefits.

Kevin was around back in those years, with his nose to scene, but I wasn't. Do you feel there was anything good that came out of all that sega experimentation, even if it didn't directly benefit sega? Maybe it helped other companies, other tech in the industry, or just certain people who got good ideas or knowledge off of sega's mistakes? Was there anything positive that came of it in anyway?

I used to work at IBM, I was told to read some books, http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Magic-Politics-Personal-Computer/dp/0816013918 , and game over, http://www.amazon.com/Game-Over-Nintendo-Conquered-World-ebook/dp/B0060AY98I/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426550681&sr=1-7&keywords=game+over and many other books, to learn the history of companies from various perspectives, I always like to read and learn more, can reco any books on sega history?

Losing the money badly, do you think if they had say, a 2 billion dollar cushion like Oculus supposedly does today, to just test all kinds of hardwares, softwares, just burn through zuckers money at free abandon kinda, could they have kept squandering it to a point where they began to make money? If so, speculating of course, how much money do you think Sega should have needed back then to turn it around? Do you think that 2 billion oculus has today, can keep them competitive to the likes of steam, msft, apple, google, etc, is 2 billion all that much against such competition? Carmack had strongly suggested he wanted minecraft for oculus, well now MSFT bought that IP, steam has Half Life 3d more than likely, so just from a computer historian point of view, I am interested in learning all this history, even as it is happening, and peoples view points on it.

I never bought any of the systems you mentioned, the dreamcast was the only one that interested me. What do you think sega could have done to not get developers to hate them, and again your speculation is useful, because maybe the ideas you have could be used by people/companies today, to not make those mistakes again. Could sega have been more supportive of developers? I will not name names, but I would like you to know some general stories I am hearing right now, about various solutions of many things. The developers have hardware in their hands, some of these KEY AAA developer types. And they see problems in various softwares, so they want to fix these problems, well one company has closed source the softwares, and wont share the code, so the developers had to go through this one key programmer that is the code master at the company to suggest changes, (lets call him carmack, but that is just a placeholder name, in no way am I saying it is oculus or carmack in this thought experiment) here is the problem though today, this carmack code master decided he wanted to get paid a higher salary for all the slave code work that was being heaped upon him by all these new issues, and he went to his bosses, give me raise! They are saying FU, we can get a billion coders from india and china to replace you for pennies on the dollar!! So what I am hearing is he is getting mad, and he is one of these code masters that believe in job security, so he didn't document code very well, in fact he may have done lots of tricks in his code to even make his job more secure, I understand the code masters reasons for doing things, I understand the companies reasons for doing things (closed source wise), I understand the developers frustrations that they can't make progress because of these things, but the rest of us, the consumers, are all being hurt by this apex of scenarios. What is the solution from the macro scale, to best benefit the most number of people?

As to reputation, I agree it is very important, people want to feel they are being treated somewhat with freedom, respect, dignity, decency, like a human being and a gentleman. They dont like to feel they are being dictated to by a tyrant, controlled, lied to, backstabbed, used, threatened. Kevin has tried to advise time and time again to certain companies NOT to make the mistakes of the past, the mistakes of previous cycles of VR, the mistakes of a Sega, and he sees them being made again, and so few will listen at sage advice like his, and yours, to consider the past, learn from it, or be doomed to fail from repeating it. I have tried my best to impart to many companies, and even certain people in those companies, how IMPORTANT it is to listen at people like you, people like Kevin, for just reputation affects alone, and they seem to not wish to do so.

I have often said, what does it gain a Padawan Palmer to own the whole neuromancer metaverse, if you snowcrash your soul? I guess the big takeaway, if people don't like your reputation, they will just stop working with you, and that could hurt the whole industry, where we could instead have bridges built and cooperation that does well for the whole industry to benefit us all. Thanks for your time, I appreciate it greatly.

Go read this book... it covers their business strategy very well including their approach to hardware. Yamauchi was a notorious hard ass about making the best use of inexpensive materials.

Game over: How Nintendo Conquered the World

I can't find a clear link with quotes at the moment though.

That's a weird one.

I've seen this version recommended; it doesn't have a Kindle version that I know of: https://www.amazon.com/Game-Over-Press-Start-Continue/dp/0966961706/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1481671222&sr=1-3&keywords=Game+over

I have the Kindle edition of this version that is still in print: https://www.amazon.com/Game-Over-Nintendo-Conquered-World-ebook/dp/B0060AY98I/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1481671157&sr=1-1&keywords=game+over+how+nintendo+conquered+the+world.

I'm not sure how similar the content is between the two. The version out of print was published in 1999 and has chapters added by a different author. I suspect it is an updated edition of the version that is still in print.