1981 / Ebook / 32 pages / USA
***
I'd assumed the film was based on a kids' book of some kind, but a picture book was a surprise and slight disappointment. Nice drawings, but no time for tension as we work methodically through the urban bestiary.
1983 / Ebook / 107 pages / UK
**
The crafty add-on that makes Steve's gamebooks that much less frustrating, this is a nice idea, even if it's all riffs on the standards, but would've been more useful condensed into a quick reference card like we all made anyway.
1999 / Ebook / 192 pages / USA
****
Mostly obvious, infrequently dangerous and sometimes not technically games, but it's good to have lists. Sorted by approximate age with quick-reference illustrations when you're panicking to stave off boredom.
2007 / Audiobook / 390 pages / UK
*
This was his current novel when I started to read Iain Banks and really not the follow-up to The Wasp Factory I was looking for at 22, so I didn't make it very far on the first attempt. This time I only made it through for completism's sake. I can't be the only reader who audibly groaned every time the author vented his c.2007 politics in dialogue, though as a literary wanker, I was more disappointed by the lack of game metaphors.
2016 / Ebook / 236 pages / Australia/UK
****
A fittingly colourful and DIY biography of the precocious 8-bit clones, albeit skewed towards their retro creations and skimming over their personal lives and creative work after the early '90s that didn't involve aborted Dizzy revivals. That's what we're here for.
