I have read The Ultimate History Of Video Games by Steven L. Kent. It's essentially a textbook spanning from Mechanical Handheld Games (or M.H.G.) to the current generation of consoles.
The book is about 600 large pages long but I will try to summarize. The book is about how video game culture and technology changed. The book starts at pinball and ends at the 6th generation with the Xbox and the Playstation 2, and it includes a description of almost every main console.
Something that Steven has done that I quite enjoy is that he has no bias in any entry of the book. This is an incredible feat as I can see from the type style on the front cover (Burgertime, Centipede, Pac man, Zaxxon, Donkey Kong, etc.) that he is a huge fan of these games. Another thing that is amazing about him is that he has extended stories about scandals and problems that were incredibly important in shaping the industry. He also has done a lot of research as you can see from the quotes at the beginning of every chapter.
Just to name one example, he goes incredibly in-depth about how Mortal Kombat was such a big problem with parents that they got incredibly sensitive to game designers who were just doing their job and even put a notice on the machine that explained how the game contained violence and gore. A part of this was incredibly important seeing as it was the start of video game demonization.
I think the claim of the author is that video games are an ever expanding culture and should be accepted as an important medium. I agree with this statement and hold this message deeply. One thing he talks about in his book is that games can have important messages that can really affect a player. One example of this is in bioshock 2 where your actions directly influence whether your daughter becomes good or evil. This shows just how video games can be just as thoughtful and original as any other medium.
