Book arrived damaged. Emailed support several times with no response.

Good for casual readers, not for enthusiasts

So, I have quite a bit of gaming knowledge built up in my nearly 50 years - so maybe I'm not the target audience of this book. I was hoping for something more detailed with historical facts and deep dives; instead, just received mostly surface overviews that could have been grafted from Wikipedia. Good: print quality, image quality, layout, etc all great. Some really interesting entries (Zeebo!) and even a few systems that I hadn't heard of! Could be improved: the book has more focus on conjecture and less focus on technical content/historical facts; missing deeper dives into the actual history of some of these consoles. Pioneer Laseractive chapter could have had more detail on the various PACs; "Games To Play" sections aren't meaningful for all consoles (e.g. the Sega MegaJet just uses the MegaDrive library, which really looks out of place in a book about dead systems) While I don't regret buying this book - had I known about its content, I would not have purchased it. Overall: recommended for "starter" or "casual" gamers. Not recommended for hardcore/knowledgeable fans.

Great book

Great content and format, only issue is as am collecting these types of publications from retro Fusion the book came with a dented corner so packaging could be improved to stop damage for collectors. Otherwise a great publication and content.

Superbly Written History of Lesser Known Systems

The book is beautifully presented with good photos of all the systems covered. Plenty of facts and opinions on the systems and related games as you would expect but what I really liked about it was the way each system was introduced with historical context on the video gaming landscape at the time of release and the position the major players were in, particularly the rise and fall of Sega and Nintendo throughout. Finishing with coverage of the ZX Spectrum Next is a masterstroke, after all the stories of failures to end on a successful one is a real feelgood ending to the book, and reminds me why I love the video gaming world.