In the autumn of 1988, in a New York City courtroom, two video game giants faced off over a question as simple as it was explosive: who invented video games?
For more than a decade, Magnavox had used a set of foundational patents to extract more than $100 million from its rivals. The patents reached back to the medium’s origins: a 1966 prototype from which the first home video game console – and, Magnavox argued, an entire industry – had sprung.
Nintendo saw things differently. As Super Mario Bros. conquered the world, the Japanese toymaker set out to prove that, not only had Magnavox not invented video games, but also the patents had even been fraudulently obtained. The case threatened to rewrite the medium’s creation story. If Nintendo succeeded, Magnavox’s patent empire could collapse.
Based on court records, interviews and previously unseen sources, Trial of the Space Invaders is the untold story of the lawsuit that defined modern gaming. Simon Parkin takes us on a thrilling journey from the birth of a new artform to its turning point, exposing the secret settlement that reshaped our culture.
‘This lovingly researched, deftly rendered book tells the surprisingly thrilling story of how video games leapt from the research lab into the home… Parkin is a terrific writer’
J. Robert Lennon, co-editor of Critical Hits
‘A meticulously researched, compellingly written corporate drama that feels ready for the big screen. Reminiscent of Michael Lewis and Patrick Radden Keefe at the height of their powers’
George E. Osborn, author of Power Play
‘A splendid book that imbues the deep history of video games with the pacing and suspense of a legal thriller… A real page-turner’
Rob Dubbin, co-host of The Secret Life of Games
For more than a decade, Magnavox had used a set of foundational patents to extract more than $100 million from its rivals. The patents reached back to the medium’s origins: a 1966 prototype from which the first home video game console – and, Magnavox argued, an entire industry – had sprung.
Nintendo saw things differently. As Super Mario Bros. conquered the world, the Japanese toymaker set out to prove that, not only had Magnavox not invented video games, but also the patents had even been fraudulently obtained. The case threatened to rewrite the medium’s creation story. If Nintendo succeeded, Magnavox’s patent empire could collapse.
Based on court records, interviews and previously unseen sources, Trial of the Space Invaders is the untold story of the lawsuit that defined modern gaming. Simon Parkin takes us on a thrilling journey from the birth of a new artform to its turning point, exposing the secret settlement that reshaped our culture.
‘This lovingly researched, deftly rendered book tells the surprisingly thrilling story of how video games leapt from the research lab into the home… Parkin is a terrific writer’
J. Robert Lennon, co-editor of Critical Hits
‘A meticulously researched, compellingly written corporate drama that feels ready for the big screen. Reminiscent of Michael Lewis and Patrick Radden Keefe at the height of their powers’
George E. Osborn, author of Power Play
‘A splendid book that imbues the deep history of video games with the pacing and suspense of a legal thriller… A real page-turner’
Rob Dubbin, co-host of The Secret Life of Games
Reviews
PRAISE FOR THE FORBIDDEN GARDEN OF LENINGRAD
Shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing and the Royal Society Science Book Prize
'An astonishing story brilliantly told . . . It is as moving as it is gripping to read'
Jonathan Dimbleby, author of Endgame 1944
'A richly researched and meticulously observed account of a little-explored corner of 20th-century history'
Guardian
PRAISE FOR THE ISLAND OF EXTRAORDINARY CAPTIVES:
Winner of the Wingate Prize
'Vivid and moving'
Max Hastings, Sunday Times
'Eye-opening, insightful and brilliantly written'
Daily Mirror
This lovingly researched, deftly rendered book tells the surprisingly thrilling story of how video games leapt from the research lab into the home, with big personalities battling over big money on the little screen. Think Ace Attorney meets Game Dev Tycoon, with all the plot twists and deep lore of your favorite RPG. Parkin is a terrific writer
Trial of the Space Invaders takes a long-forgotten lawsuit and places it at the heart of a meticulously researched, compellingly written corporate drama that feels ready for the big screen. Reminiscent of Michael Lewis and Patrick Radden Keefe at the height of their powers, Parkin's book reminds us in utterly gripping fashion that people, not software, hardware or intellectual property, built and fought over our rights to play in a digital age - shaping a creative medium that has defined our age in the process
A splendid book that imbues the deep history of video games with the pacing and suspense of a legal thriller. Parkin's technical expertise, infectious curiosity, and dogged pursuit of a mystery hiding in plain sight make for a real page-turner, shedding new light on how this medium grew from a few cathode-ray tubes in experimental labs into the rivalry-filled, multibillion-dollar entertainment colossus it is today