Over at Insert Credit, fellow GSW editor BrandonS has posted a mini-review of 'The Encyclopedia of Game Machines' book, a spectacularly complete history of video game devices subtitled 'Consoles, Handhelds & Home Computers 1972-2005', originally written in German and recently translated into English.

Brandon comments contentedly of the textbook, which has an official website with more information: "This book was written by a German, so there is a heavy bent towards gaming computers. This will be a good thing or a vaguely non-exciting thing, depending on your taste. For me, who didn’t grow up with these things, and didn’t have a computer of my own until 1999, it’s interesting to see where Europe is coming from."

Although relatively little promoted to date, the conclusion from the IC folks for 'The Encyclopedia of Game Machines' is decidedly positive: "One thing that the book does remarkably well is tone. The tone is consistent throughout, and number of pages aside, you’ll see the GP32 and the Wonderswan spoken of as true valued members of our video game community. It truly shows that this was written by a hardware fetishist who appreciates each console based on its unique merits."