After more than forty years of collecting, and many months of photographing, researching and fact-checking, The Glow of the Game goes on sale from this website at 12 noon (UK time) on Monday 23 November 2026.
It is a collector’s guide to the handheld and tabletop electronic games of 1972 to 1985 and beyond: the red LED blips, glowing vacuum fluorescent screens and early LCD games that came before the Game Boy and the home computer. Every game is photographed from my own collection and given two full pages, with the photograph on the left and the story on the right.
Two volumes
- Volume One, 1972–1980: 138 games, from dice that roll themselves to Mattel’s Auto Race, Parker Brothers’ Merlin and Milton Bradley’s Simon. A4 case-bound hardback, 316 full-colour pages. ISBN 978-1-83749-047-9.
- Volume Two, 1981–1985 and beyond: 114 games from the golden age of the handheld, including Epoch’s Astro Wars, Coleco’s tabletop Pac-Man and Donkey Kong, Nintendo’s Game & Watch and Tomy’s Tomytronic 3-D. A4 case-bound full-colour hardback. ISBN 978-1-83749-048-6.
Each entry covers the maker, year, country, display and power, the setup and controls, how to play, and three interesting facts. The books also include a timeline of the industry from Texas to Shenzhen, a chapter introduction for every year and, in Volume Two, a glossary of every manufacturer named across both books.
What you get when you order
- An instant PDF, included in the price. Download your copy straight away while the printed books are made and posted.
- Save 10% when you buy both volumes together.
- Worldwide delivery. Each book is printed to order and posted to you; see the shipping page for times and costs.
Until launch day you can browse every game in both books on The Games page, read sample entries in From the Book and see full spreads in Look Inside.
If you would like a reminder when the books go on sale, join the mailing list. I’ll email you on launch day.
Thank you for all the interest so far. I hope these books bring back the glow for you as much as these games still do for me.
Gordon Stevenson