David Kushner

Masters of Doom is the amazing true story of the Lennon and McCartney of video John Carmack and John Romero. Together, they ruled big business. They transformed popular culture. And they provoked a national controversy. More than anything, they lived a unique and rollicking American Dream, escaping the broken homes of their youth to co-create the most notoriously successful game franchises in history—Doom and Quake—until the games they made tore them apart.Americans spend more money on video games than on movie tickets. Masters of Doom is the first book to chronicle this industry’s greatest story, written by one of the medium’s leading observers. David Kushner takes readers inside the rags-to-riches adventure of two rebellious entrepreneurs who came of age to shape a generation. The vivid portrait reveals why their games are so violent and why their immersion in their brilliantly designed fantasy worlds offered them solace. And it shows how they channeled their fury and imagination into products that are a formative influence on our culture, from MTV to the Internet to Columbine. This is a story of friendship and betrayal, commerce and artistry—a powerful and compassionate account of what it’s like to be young, driven, and wildly creative.“To my taste, the greatest American myth of cosmogenesis features the maladjusted, antisocial, genius teenage boy who, in the insular laboratory of his own bedroom, invents the universe from scratch. Masters of Doom is a particularly inspired rendition. Dave Kushner chronicles the saga of video game virtuosi Carmack and Romero with terrific brio. This is a page-turning, mythopoeic cyber-soap opera about two glamorous geek geniuses—and it should be read while scarfing down pepperoni pizza and swilling Diet Coke, with Queens of the Stone Age cranked up all the way.”—Mark Leyner, author of I Smell Esther Williams

From journalist David Kushner, a regular contributor to "The New Yorker," "Rolling Stone," and other premiere outlets, "Alligator Candy" is a reported memoir in the vein of "The Night of the Gun" about how a family survives an unthinkable tragedy. David Kushner grew up in the suburbs of Florida in the early 1970s, running wild with his friends, exploring, riding bikes, and disappearing into the nearby woods for hours at a time. One morning in 1973, however, everything changed. David's older brother Jon, making a trip to the local convenience store, vanished. This is the story of Jon's murder at the hands of two sadistic drifters and everything that happened after. "Alligator Candy "isn't only the chronicle of Jon's death, it is also the story of how parenting in America changed, casting light on the transition between two generations of children one raised on freedom, the other on fear. Jon's death was one of the first in what turned out to be a rash of child abductions and murders that dominated headlines for much of the 1970s and 80s. It was around this time that milk cartons began to feature the images of missing children, and newscasters began asking, It's 10:00, do you know where you children are? When one of Jon's killers received a parole hearing, David revisited the case that had so haunted him. Marshalling his skills as a journalist, he compiled all the details that he was sheltered from as a child, interviewing neighbors, reporters, cops, and his own family, and combing through yellowed news clippings. Haunting and intimate, "Alligator Candy" is a moving, disturbing, insightful, and inspiring meditation on grief, growth, family, and survival."

Inside the making of a videogame that defined a Grand Theft Auto Grand Theft Auto is one of the biggest and most controversial videogame franchises of all time. Since its first release in 1997, GTA has pioneered the use of everything from 3D graphics to the voices of top Hollywood actors and repeatedly transformed the world of gaming. Despite its incredible innovations in the $75 billion game industry, it has also been a lightning rod of debate, spawning accusations of ethnic and sexual discrimination, glamorizing violence, and inciting real-life crimes. Jacked tells the turbulent and mostly unknown story of GTA 's wildly ambitious creators, Rockstar Games, the invention and evolution of the franchise, and the cultural and political backlash it has provoked. Whether you love Grand Theft Auto or hate it, or just want to understand the defining entertainment product of a generation, you'll want to read Jacked and get the real story behind this boundary-pushing game.

Rise of the Dungeon Master tells, in graphic form, the story of Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, one of the most influential games ever made. Like the game itself, the narrative casts the reader into the adventure from a first person point of view, taking on the roles of the different characters in the story. Gygax was the son of immigrants who grew up in Lake Geneva, WI, in the 1950s. An imaginative misfit, he escaped into a virtual world based on science fiction novels, military history and strategic games like chess. In the mid-1970s, he co-created the wildly popular Dungeons & Dragons game. Starting out in the basement of his home, he was soon struggling to keep up with the demand. Gygax was a purist, in the sense that he was adamant that players use their imaginations and that the rules of the game remain flexible. A creative mind with no real knowledge of business, he made some strategic errors and had a falling out with the game's co-creator, his close friend and partner, David Arneson. By the late 1970s the game had become so popular among kids that parents started to worry -- so much so that a mom's group was formed to alert parents to the dangers of role play and fantasy. The backlash only fueled the fires of the young fans who continued to play the game, escaping into imaginary worlds. Before long, D&D conventions were set up around the country and the game inspired everything from movies to the first video games. With D&D, Gygax created the kind of role playing fantasy that would fuel the multibillion dollar video game industry, and become a foundation of contemporary geek culture.

“An engrossing microcosm of the internet's Wild West years” ( Kirkus Reviews ), award-winning journalist David Kushner tells the incredible battle between the founder of Match.com and the con man who swindled him out of the website Sex.com, resulting in an all-out war for control for what still powers the internet love and sex.In 1994, visionary entrepreneur Gary Kremen used a $2,500 loan to create the first online dating service, Match.com. Only 5 percent of Americans were using the internet at the time, and even fewer were looking online for love. He quickly bought the Sex.com domain too, betting the combination of love and sex would help propel the internet into the mainstream.Imagine Kremen’s surprise when he learned that someone named Stephen Michael Cohen had stolen the rights to Sex.com and was already making millions that Kremen would never see. Thus follows the wild true story of Kremen’s and Cohen’s decade-long battle for control. In The Players Ball , author and journalist David Kushner provides a front seat to these must-read Wild West years online, when innovators and outlaws battled for power and money.This cat-and-mouse game between a genius and a con man changed the way people connect forever, and is key to understanding the rise and future of the online world.“Kushner delivers a fast-paced, raunchy tale of sex, drugs, and dial-up.” — Publishers Weekly

From "Masters of Doom" author, David Kushner, comes "Prepare to Meet Thy Doom”, a compilation of true gaming stories covering many facets of America’s biggest entertainment business: the video game industry. In addition to more than a dozen fascinating tales of game creation, play, business, and controversy, “Prepare to Meet Thy Doom” follows up on Kushner’s previous bestseller, “Masters of Doom” with a long-awaited update on id Software founders John Romero and John Carmack.

If you think a gang of real-life geeks can’t take on the world and win big . . . think again. And whatever you do, don’t sit down across a gaming table from Jon Finkel, better known as Jonny Magic. Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids is his amazing true the jaw-dropping, zero-to-hero chronicle of a fat, friendless boy from New Jersey who found his edge in a game of cards–and turned it into a fortune.The ultimate bully-magnet, Finkel grew up heckled and hazed until destiny came in the form of a trading-card game called The Gathering. Magic exploded from nerdy obsession to mainstream mania and made the teenage Finkel an ultracool world champion.Once transformed, this young shark stormed poker rooms from the underground clubs of New York City to the high-stakes tables online, until he landed on the largest card-counting blackjack team in the country. Taking Vegas for millions, Finkel’s squad of brainy gamers became the biggest players in town. Then they took on the town’s biggest game, the World Series of Poker, and walked away with more than $3.5 million.Thrilling, edgy, and ferociously feel-good, the odyssey of these underdogs-turned-overlords is the stuff of pop-culture legend. And David Kushner, acclaimed author of Masters of Doom , masterfully deals out the outrageous details while bringing to life a cast of characters rife with aces, kings, knaves . . . and more than a few jokers. If you secretly believe every player has his day, you’re right. Here’s the proof.

The dark side of the American the true story of the first African-American family to move into the iconic suburb, Levittown, PA .In the decade after World War II , one entrepreneurial family helped thousands of people buy into the American dream of owning a home. T he Levitts―William, Alfred, and their father, Abe―pooled their talents to create storybook towns with affordable little houses. T hey laid out the welcome mat, but not to everyone. Levittown had a whites-only policy. The events that unfolded in Levittown, PA, in the unseasonably hot summer of 1957 would rock the community. There, a white Jewish Communist family named Wechsler secretly arranged for a black family, the Myerses, to buy the pink house next door. T he explosive reaction would transform their lives, and the nation, leading to the downfall of a titan and the integration of the most famous suburb in the world. Levittown is a story of hope and fear, invention and rebellion, and the power that comes when ordinary people take an extraordinary stand. And it is as relevant today, more than fifty years later, as it was then.

With its manicured lawns and well-kept college-style buildings, the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida—the largest reform school in the country—always seemed like a model for how to turn wayward teens back into productive members of society. But for decades, the century-old school’s alumni whispered about a nightmarish reality that lurked behind the gleaming façade—a legacy of beatings, sexual abuse, and even murder, the evidence buried in unmarked graves on the overgrown fringes of the property.In The Bones of Marianna, David Kushner tells the story of the unlikely crusaders who pushed Dozier’s dark past into the light. A one-time high school football star, haunted by the memory of a departed teammate, spends years quarterbacking the fight to expose the truth, while an anthropologist uses cutting-edge technology to dig up grim secrets. Informed by months of reporting, Kushner delivers a gripping tale of hard-won justice—and exclusive details on more secrets that may be waiting to be unearthed.

The illustrated, inside story of the legendary hacktivist group's origins and most daring exploits.A for Anonymous shows how a leaderless band of volunteers successfully used hacktivism to fight for the underdog, embarrass their rich and powerful targets--from Sony and Paypal to the Church of Scientology and Ferguson Police Department--all in the name of freedom of speech and information. Their exploits blurred the distinction between "online" and "reality," and help shape our contemporary world.

The gripping origin story of Pong, Atari, and the digital icons who defined the world of video games.A deep, nostalgic dive into the advent of gaming, Easy to Learn, Difficult to Master returns us to the emerging culture of Silicon Valley. At the center of this graphic history, dynamically drawn in colors inspired by old computer screens, is the epic feud that raged between Atari founder Nolan Bushnell and inventor Ralph Baer for the title of “father of the video game.” While Baer, a Jewish immigrant whose family fled Germany for America, developed the first TV video-game console and ping-pong game in the 1960s, Bushnell, a self-taught whiz kid from Utah, put out Atari’s pioneering table-tennis arcade game, Pong, in 1972. Thus, a prolonged battle began over who truly spearheaded the multibillion-dollar gaming industry, and around it a sweeping narrative about invention, inspiration, and the seeds of digital revolution.

This timely volume, written by Spin magazine contributing author David Kushner, offers easy steps for finding, downloading, creating, and listening to music on any PC. Cybercasts, MP3, and Internet radio are among the hot trends covered in this fun and easy guide, which also includes tips on tweaking systems for optimal performance and locating the best tunes online. The CD-ROM contains links to online music sites, software for making and listening to music files, and more.

Книга рассказывает об одной из самых популярных компьютерных игр, чья история полна революционных прорывов и болезненный падений.

Two men were engaged to translate four film scripts written by an acclaimed director for a projected book to be titled "Four Screenplays by Ingmar Bergman." Included in the contract was a forward to be written by the director/author and sold in advance to a national literary magazine. The editor was pressed for time, the famous director uncooperative and recalcitrant, apparently unhappy to see his films turned into literature. The book's forward was not delivered as promised. Panic set in.

Imagine sitting down across a gaming table from Jon Finkel, better known as Jonny Magic. Listen as author David Kushner and Jon discuss Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids, the jaw-dropping zero-to-hero chronicle of a fat, friendless boy from New Jersey who found his edge in a game of cards and turned it into a fortune!

Dois jovens mudaram o mundo... programandoOs Mestres de Doom é a fascinante história real de John Carmack e John Romero, que, juntos, dominaram o mundo dos videogames, revolucionaram a cultura pop e provocaram polêmica nacional. Mas, acima de tudo, viveram uma versão única e turbulenta do sonho americano, escapando de infâncias problemáticas para desenvolver, lado a lado, duas das franquias de jogos mais notórias e bem-sucedidas da histó Doom e Quake.Este foi o primeiro livro a contar a maior aventura da indústria do entretenimento interativo. Um dos principais observadores do meio, David Kushner leva o leitor para dentro da jornada de dois empreendedores rebeldes que saíram do nada e ajudaram a moldar toda uma geração.Além de reconstruir suas vidas, o autor mostra por que os jogos deles são tão violentos e por que a imersão nos mundos de fantasia foi, para os garotos, uma forma de conforto. Esta é uma história de amizade e traição, de negócios e arte, um relato completo e intenso sobre como é ser jovem, ambicioso e absurdamente criativo.Traduzido por Felipe Damorim