I just finished the new Galaga book from Bossfight Books by Michael Kimball. I enjoyed it and it had some fun stuff in there, but it didn't come together as well as the ZZT book had. In part, the author acknowledges the problem.
The book covers playing Galaga, growing up with Galaga, trivia, and the many pop culture references to a game that made such an impact. Instead of chapters, the book is divided into 255 "stages" just like the game, each a paragraph or three about one of the book topics. The stages are woven together like a novel with multiple character viewpoints, switching back and forth between topics in an easy to follow fashion.Michael Kimball wrote:I probably shouldn't have agreed to write a book about a video game that has almost no story to it, but I didn't think of that before I signed the contract for Galaga.
Ultimately I enjoyed the book because I remember Galaga, and it was worth a few dollars for me, but I got more out of ZZT and hope for more from the upcoming Jagged Alliance 2 book. On the other hand, the authors worked with what they had: ZZT gave an introduction to the game for new players, and Galaga was intended to need no introduction besides "insert quarter, wiggle the joystick, and punch the button!" The author did a great job capturing the magic of Arcades in their heyday; in the end that was my favorite takeaway from the book.