Digital Press Collector's Guides
Santulli et. al.
Available from http://www.digitpress.com
review by Zube (zube@stat.colostate.edu)
Created:  Apr 8, 2005
Updated:  Mar 5, 2007
http://www.stat.colostate.edu/~zube/dpguides.txt

These are the best guides out there.  They are informative, comprehensive,
easy to refer to and fun to skim.  Both the Classic (early systems) and 
Advanced (later systems) versions are more than worth their $25 price.

About 90% of each book is excellent.  Of the other 10%,

* 2% consists of typos and hundreds of "its v. it's" mistakes.

* .01% consists of personal bon mots to other people who are either part of
the VG community or clubby with Digital Press.

* 7.99% consists of sub-entries titled _Santulli Slant_, wherein our
Editor opines at length at whatever pops into his head.  For example,
Mr. Santulli met Sid Meier and pitched a game called _CPU Rock_, a
sequel to _CPU Bach_, to him (if the 3DO _CPU Bach_ entry is accurate).  
Why I should care about the often ego-stroking ramblings of anyone is a 
question I continually ask myself while struggling through many of 
these passages.

In Mr. Santulli's defense, these entries are not a surprise.  From the 
introduction:

"Santulli Slant: this is my own, often-ignorant personal take on the game,
the genre, or anything else relevant (or not)."

Admittedly, some of these entries add, but most of the time they subtract.
Certainly, the book would be lighter without them.  Even better, instead of 
punting some sections:

"Lots of additional non-US releases that could not be squeezed into these
pages are on the Digital Press website."

why not punt the fluff and add more substance?

Still, it's hard to be too critical when the books are 90% spot on.  Highly
recommended.  

PS -- Someone desperately deserves a score of whiffle-bat whacks to the 
groin for the use of the phrase "the Barbster" in the game description of
Barbie by Hi-Tech Express for the NES.  A sock full of change, a saxophone
or any small diameter PVC pipe may be substituted if a whiffle-bat is not 
readily available.