Tetris

Tetris by Box Brown, 253 pages

Tetris, that staple of the 1980s video gaming, has a long and interesting history that takes it from Soviet computer programmers to Japan and the U.S. by way of years of litigation and arguing between the USSR and various gaming giants, including Nintendo, Atari, and Sega. Box Brown recounts this fascinating history in Tetris, telling the story in a black, white, and yellow comic format. He had quite the monumental task in distilling the legal history and all of the players into something palatable for the masses, and for the most part he succeeds, though there are scattered instances where I had to backtrack to figure out which guy was on which side of the argument. On the whole, I like what he did with the book, particularly his discussion of the design of the game. Worth a read, if you're interested in video game history (or at least had a Game Boy back in the day).