Enlarge/ Four of the bundle's 18 books from MIT Press.MIT Press

You'd be forgiven for letting a Humble Bundle pay-what-you-want sale whiz by without thinking about it. The shop has been bundling software and ebooks for eight years at this point, so while the discounts are still quite solid, the novelty has worn off.

But Monday's sale stands out for what appears to be a first for Humble: an entire ebook sale dedicated to video game history.

MIT Press, which has been publishing game-studies essays and books since 1998, has packed 18 of its gaming-specific ebooks into a single $15 bundle. (Should you elect to pay less, you can pick up fewer books at the $1 and $8 tiers.) It's not a comprehensive collection from the publisher, but as an entry point to the highly analytical and tech-heavy collection, this Humble Game Studies Bundle is particularly good at offering more of MIT Press's timeless titles, particularly analyses of various game consoles during their active lifespans.

You'll have to jump to the $15 tier for the best of these, including lengthy looks at the NES, Super NES, and Wii—though, gosh, we wish MIT Press's history of the Amiga was in this set. But really, this is an easy buy for a few weekends' worth of game-design reading that offers equal dives into technical specifications and esoteric, "how to design games" ruminations.

Original Article

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Ars Technica

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