In 2018, Evan Amos released his first book, “The Game Console: A Photographic History from Atari To Xbox”. In this book, Amos photographs the exteriors and interiors of every game console ever made up to that point and details five decades of gaming. The book went on to be nominated for non-fiction book awards and became a favorite among gaming enthusiasts.  I was able to talk to Amos about his book and his process creating it.

What made you want to write this book?

To be honest, I never had aspirations to write a book. The project came about when I was working for Wikipedia. I worked for them by taking pictures of disassembled game consoles that I would send to them for uploading. Eventually, I ran out of consoles that I owned to take pictures from, so I ended up starting a Kickstarter campaign to finance purchases of older consoles. As with all Kickstarter gigs, I had to create a write up of why I needed money. The story I wrote caught traction, and eventually got the attention of a woman from No Starch Press who asked for a pitch.

Did you have any prior experience with writing? 

No. I am a terrible writer. It’s a skill that has never come naturally to me. This made the process of making the book tedious at times because I had to rewrite numerous paragraphs again and again and again. To help with this, I tried to make the descriptions similar to the ones you would see on a museum plaque. Very blunt and  to-the-point in how they deliver their information. My experience editing at Wikipedia also gave me some inspiration in how to handle very flat prose. Originally, I intended to make the boom more focused on essays about each era of gaming but that fell apart quickly.

How long did the book take to write?

Due to very long periods of radio silence from the publisher No Starch Press, the book took around 4 to 5 years to complete. It was a frustrating process so I was glad to finally get the book out there.

What was the most difficult period of gaming to research?

The Atari 2600 generation was very challenging. Due to scarce information on the web, I had to resort to tearing through old magazines to find information and what I did find was very market driven. Nowadays, publications will occasionally write articles that treat games as a serious medium but back then they were advertised and written about  like toys. Thanks to the conversation surrounding games treating them as novelties,  insightful information about how things like processors worked inside the console were difficult to come by. This limit in available information was omnipresent throughout my research.  Figuring out what the Atari’s launch price was at the time, was exhausting. Launches back then were opaque because of rollouts moving at different speeds due to individual game stores receiving these consoles on different weeks depending on a store’s location. 

What were the most interesting facts you dug up?

Sadly, surprising information wasn’t very common. The frustrating thing about doing this research was continually finding stories about the gaming industry that hardly differed from one another. A company tries to launch a console when video games are starting to become mainstream. The console fails due to a dominant brand looming over the market like Atari or Nintendo. Then the company abandons their pursuits in the video game market. Rinse and repeat. The one fact I learned that did interest me was that multiple companies attempted to integrate keyboards into their gaming consoles by using them as remotes. They failed, but it made for a good detail in my book.

What demographic were you trying to reach in the gaming community?

I didn’t really have a target audience in mind. I wrote the book for myself. This is what I was interested in and I assumed that if I was into this kind of book, then other people would be as well.

What was your first console you owned?

The first console that I played was a ColecoVision because my father had bought one for himself. However the first console I really got into was the NES which my father got me for Christmas in 1987. I have very fond memories of the console and it’s probably  what instilled a love of games within me.

Would you go through this experience again?

I think I would. It depends. I found writing a book to be very difficult if you don’t know what you’re doing. For the first edition, I didn’t have a very good idea of the book’s layout and writing. This combined with issues with my publisher made the writing process very stressful. However, on the second edition of the book, I was more assured of what I wanted which made it much easier. I could write a book again but it would have to be something worth the time, money and effort.

What’s it like seeing your  work in a Bull Moose, when it’s all said and done?

It’s  truly surreal seeing it out in stores. It was a very isolating experience making this book. I had no concept of people discovering the book because of this. It was so personal to me because of how long I worked on it, so having it find an audience is something I’m still not quite sure how to process. 

Amos is a talented creator and hopefully he will create a new book soon on the vast history of gaming soon enough.