In 1982, famed author Martin Amis published a book about arcade games: Invasion of the Space Invaders. He's since become reluctant to discuss this curiosity, which poses the question--why? Was it rendered silly by gaming's progression from the cutting-edge to mass entertainment? Was it written only for a quick buck? Alas, the right answer is the obvious one: the book is mostly a mere strategy guide with "sickly" literary affectations. [The Millions via Metafilter]

  • http://imcravingpresidency.tumblr.com/ SedanChair

    “Mere strategy guides” were a little less common in 1982, ones with full-color photo spreads less common still. Isn’t this the sort of thing we’re supposed to get nostalgic about?

  • Martin Smith

    I’m fairly sure I had a copy of that. I must have a look in my parents attic sometime and see if it survived the great cull of 1989 where I sold 50% of my book collection to buy a Commodore Amiga.

    Or maybe I read it from the library.

  • DeargDoom

    Alas? This is one of the best posts Ive ever read here. 

  • Jolyon Hogarth-Scott

    Have you actually read the book?

    It’s a collection of short stories. Some about Nuclear War, some about America (the invaders part), pretty much nothing about computer games….. Like seriously none. I have a copy. Are you judging a book by it’s cover in a literal and not a figurative way?

    • DeargDoom

      I had never even heard of this book before reading this post so I am not disagreeing with you but the following extract reads much more like a guide than a short story:

      The phalanx of enemy invaders moves laterally across a grid not much wider than itself. When it reaches the edge of the grid, the whole army lowers a notch. Rule one: narrow that phalanx. Before you do anything else, take out at least three enemy columns either on the left-hand side or the right (for Waves 1 and 2, the left is recommended). Thereafter the aliens will take much longer to cross their grid and slip down another rung. Keep on working from the sides: you’ll find that the invaders take forever to trudge and shuffle back and forth, and you can pick them off in your own sweet time.

      Assuming you have the book at hand would you mind giving an outline of the short story it is taken from?

      Was it the same short story which had the Pacman strategy guide?

    • Jonathan Badger

       Not computer games. Arcade games. As in things you put coins in. It’s very much about those.

    • http://twitter.com/andrewjskatz Andrew Katz

       I have the book. It is a guide to arcade games: not a book of short stories.

      Are you confusing it with something else?

  • Scurra

    A couple of years ago you featured some sweaters knitted by my mother for me (
    http://boingboing.net/2010/01/14/mom-made-vintage-gam.html )  Well, it’s only because of this book that they exist, because the big full page “not quite screenshots” made it possible to map something onto graph paper.
    I’m not surprised Amis likes to forget it exists though…

  • http://twitter.com/EvilPRGuy Michael Dolan

     I truly can’t think of a more bizarre combination of author and subject matter. It would be like “The George W. Bush Guide to World Peace”. The fact that he “disowned” the book is truly odd as well. That’s something that authors rarely do, no matter how poor the work actually is. This is the first moment so far where I’m missing Hitchens. His commentary on this would be hysterical no doubt.

  • Edamame

    Douglas Coupland was happy to embrace this subject whilst in the prime of his career:
    http://www.amazon.com/Laras-Book-Douglas-Coupland/dp/0761515801
    Sadly, John Updike’s “Pong” trilogy remains lost to a generation of readers.

    • Jonathan Badger

      Yeah, but Tomb Raider is the kind of thing you’d *expect* Coupland to write about; his whole shtick was Gen X geekery. Amis’ book is almost as uncharacteristic as your hypothetical Updike one.

    • http://bensix.wordpress.com/ BenSix

       There’s a certain pong to a lot of John Updike’s books…

  • http://twitter.com/andrewjskatz Andrew Katz

    This book is also pretty valuable. I got my copy a few years ago for around £45. It’s now worth £120 odd, allegedly.

  • http://twitter.com/ablufia PabloAblufiaBodente

    whilst on the subject of arcade oddities – it’d be the right time to mention curtis hoard’s l.p. “conquer the video craze” - available for free download from the internet archive;

    http://www.archive.org/details/conquer-videogame-craze-album