Leaps + Bounds: A Visual Guide to Nine Console Generations

Video games consoles changed the world. Leaps + Bounds: a Visual Guide to Nine Console Generations tells their story.

By making their way into millions of living rooms globally, games consoles shifted the way we share and use our homes. In time they would connect us remotely, building communities and forging bonds across the continents. And, of course, they shaped the ways games were designed and made, hosting titles that would have a profound impact on the culture that surrounds us, leaving an influence across entertainment and beyond.

Leaps + Bounds: a Visual Guide to Nine Console Generations takes you on a journey through the history of home gaming. Navigating nine generations of consoles, handhelds and hybrids that have defined the evolution of the video game form, the book considers everything from early machines that endeavoured to bring the arcade experience home, to the advanced powerhouses of the current era. On the way from start to finish you’ll also meet bold outsiders that challenged convention, underrated wonders that deserved more recognition, and obscure commercial failures – and get to understand how new technology and gameplay concepts have relentlessly driven the industry forwards, and shaped the games we all love.

Grab a copy of Leaps + Bounds: a Visual Guide to Nine Console Generations, and as well as a discovering a captivating history packed with facts, trivia, and expert insight, you’ll be treated to precise illustrations of each machine by the renowned artist Adam Rufino, carefully realised screenshots showing what the consoles were capable of, next-generation printing that brings every page to life, and the clean, vibrant design Bitmap Books is known for.

Leaps + Bounds: a Visual Guide to Nine Console Generations also includes a foreword by Christopher Taber, CEO of modern retro hardware specialist Analogue, and an eye-catching overview of the key milestones in the development of the console concept.

Whether you want to get nostalgic about the early days of gaming through systems like the Intellivision and Channel F, understand the lineage of iconic lines such as the NEOGEO or PlayStation machines, share memories of Super Nintendos and Mega Drives with friends and family, or uncover the stories behind curios, flops, and underrated masterpieces like the Zeebo, Pyuta Jr, Amiga CD32, and WonderSwan Color, Leaps + Bounds: a Visual Guide to Nine Console Generations is the book for you.

Perfect for gaming obsessives, retro collectors, tech historians, and product design obsessives, Leaps + Bounds: a Visual Guide to Nine Console Generations also makes for a perfect gift.