Book Review: Dreamcast Worlds, by Zoya Street

by Darius Kazemi on July 31, 2013

in books

I recently read Zoya Street’s book Dreamcast Worlds, a “design history” of the Dreamcast. I really like it and started writing a review for this blog. But I felt more people needed to hear about it than my own meager readership, so I pitched the review to Kotaku and they are running the full review there. Here’s the opening of my piece:

As E3 made abundantly clear, we are on the cusp of the transition to a new console generation. What consoles can do, how they are made, and what they are used for are topics of constant discussion. But the machinations of how a console is put together are unclear to the public.

People often conflate the head of a division with a console: “Don Mattrick oversaw the development of the Xbox One, so it must be an extension of his vision.” Or they abstract things to the corporate level: “Have you heard about Sony’s plans for the PS4?”

Having been a game developer myself, I find these kinds of statements laughably reductive. I have often found myself wanting to find a book where I can say: “You, with the opinions about consoles! Read this and educate yourself.”

I’m happy to report that Zoya Street’s Dreamcast Worlds (available now as an ebook and coming soon as a physical edition) is that book.

Read the full review at Kotaku!

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