Guide books and magazines were such a treat back in the day. These days "mooks" (magazine book - a magazine that's as thick as a book) have helped to fill some of the void, but overall this is still something from a bygone era, and it's sad that a lot of people into the hobby these days don't care about these sorts of things. Apart from playing games, I love flipping through old magazines and seeing what people were saying about these games when they were new, or looking through guide books and finding secrets I didn't know about or tips to get better at a game, and I especially love high quality mooks that have interviews or catalogue everything there is to know about a platform.
As far as mooks go, I think the G-MOOK titles are the gold standard. They go in-depth about hardware and the cartridges, show off every revision, every accessory and add-on, and even versions from overseas markets and then go on to catalogue every game released. These are an absolute treat to flip through. The Famicom edition in particular is nice because it was re-released for the 40th anniversary and the author added a lot more content.
Here's a peak inside:
This book is fun too. This one has interviews with a lot of big names which are nice to read. And, interestingly, this one is bilingual.
These two are the first mooks I ever bought, it's a ranking of the top games for Famicom and Game Boy. Each game gets a page dedicated to it and the top 10 or 20 get 2-page spreads. The Game Boy book is a little nicer because it has a handful of articles throughout which are interesting reads.
These ones are neat to look through but they're not as nice as the others
I also love guide books! I've got a bunch (far too many to post)
It sounds funny but I think looking through old guide books is almost as fun as a magazine or a Mook.
I've also got this indie book about the Kiki Kaikai (Pocky and Rocky in the West) series. It has a bunch of interviews (very lengthy ones too!) with staff who worked on the games, as well as lots of art from the production, fan art, and images of various tie-in materials and goods that have been released over the years related to the series. It also has some info about the canceled DS game (which I had never heard about prior to this book! but it has images of the games and character models and whatnot). For a fan of this series, this book is almost like a bible or something.
And not a magazine or Mook or guide book, but I picked up the manga about Satoshi Tajiri when it released a few years back and it was a lot of fun to read. This one was such a treat.
And more recently, Taito has been releasing these Taito Station magazines with the Egret Mini. The first issue was a bonus for the premium package with the Egret Mini, and the following 3 volumes were all included with the Arcade Memories packs that have released throughout the last few years. These magazines contain guides for the included games as well as interviews with Taito staff.
I could keep going but unfortunately I've hit the limit for the number of images you can attach to a post, and I can't express enough love for these books without showing off the insides ?
How about you guys? Do you have any gaming-related mooks or coffee table books that you like to flip through on occasion? Or maybe guide books or old magazines? I'd love to get some old magazines but I usually just read digital scans for those.
