David Kushner

From award-winning journalist David Kushner, a regular contributor to Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and other premier magazines, Alligator Candy is a reported memoir about family, survival, and the unwavering power of love. David Kushner grew up in the early 1970s in the Florida suburbs. It was when kids still ran free, 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 biked through the forest to the convenience store for candy, and never returned. Every life has a defining moment, a single act that charts the course we take and determines who we become. For Kushner, it was Jon’s disappearance—a tragedy that shocked his family and the community at large. Decades later, now a grown man with kids of his own, Kushner found himself unsatisfied with his own memories and decided to revisit the episode a different way: through the eyes of a reporter. His investigation brought him back to the places and people he once knew and slowly made him realize just how much his past had affected his present. After sifting through hundreds of documents and reports, conducting dozens of interviews, and poring over numerous firsthand accounts, he has produced a powerful and inspiring story of loss, perseverance, and memory. Alligator Candy is searing and unforgettable.

A Memoir

Alligator Candy

Inside the making of a videogame that defined a generation: 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. Explains how British prep school brothers Sam and Dan Houser took their dream of fame, fortune, and the glamor of American pop culture and transformed it into a worldwide videogame blockbuster Written by David Kushner, author of Masters of Doom and a top journalist on gaming, and drawn from over ten years of interviews and research, including firsthand knowledge of Grand Theft Auto's creators and detractors Offers inside details on key episodes in the development of the series, including the financial turmoil of Rockstar games, the infamous "Hot Coffee" sex mini-game incident, and more 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.

The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto

Jacked

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.

Gary Gygax and the Creation of D&D

Rise of the Dungeon Master

“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 today: 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

A Genius, a Con Man, and the Secret History of the Internet's Rise

The Players Ball

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.

Pong, Atari, and the Dawn of the Video Game

Easy to Learn, Difficult to Master

Masters of Doom. O dwóch takich, co stworzyli imperium i zmienili popkulturę

Prepare to Meet Thy Doom

Maestros del Doom : cómo dos colegas crearon un imperio y transformaron la cultura pop

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.

Wil Wheaton

Masters of Doom is the amazing true story of the Lennon and McCartney of video games: 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

Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture

Masters of Doom. Ovvero come due ragazzi hanno creato un impero e trasformato la cultura pop

From award-winning journalist David Kushner, a regular contributor to Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, and Vanity Fair, Alligator Candy is “a raw story about courage, survival, and most certainly about love” (Tampa Bay Times). 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 when David’s older brother Jon took a short bike trip to the local convenience store. He never returned. Alligator Candy is the story of Jon’s murder at the hands of two sadistic drifters, and everything that happened after. 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 the 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?” Alligator Candy chronicles Jon’s story, but also tells how parenting in America has changed, casting light on the transition between two generations of children—one raised on freedom, the other on fear. “Parents today can understand the love, hope, and fear Kushner so eloquently describes in this account of one family’s transcendent courage in the face of crushing pain” (Bookpage, “Top Ten Book of the Month”). Alligator Candy is a disturbing, insightful, and inspiring meditation on grief, growth, and what childhood has become: “not only a memorial to a brother tragically deprived of his right to live; but also a meditation on the courage necessary to live freely in a world riven by pain, suffering, and evil” (Kirkus Reviews).

In the decade after World War II , real estate developer Levitt & Sons helped thousands of people buy into the American dream of owning a home. They laid out the welcome mat, but not to everyone. Levittown had a whites-only policy. The events that unfolded in Levittown, Pennsylvania, in the unseasonably hot summer of 1957 would rock the community. There, a white Jewish family secretly arranged for a black family to buy the pink house next door. The 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.

Two Families, One Tycoon, and the Fight for Civil Rights in America's Legendary Suburb

Levittown

"Quando o crime compensa." Como um grupo de jovens estudantes com grandes sonhos e pouca experiência revolucionam a cultura e a indústria? No caso da bilionária indústria do videogame, que movimenta mais dinheiro que Hollywood, chegando a US$ 75 bilhões, ajuda se a turma for liderada por iconoclastas ousados com a visão de um fora da lei e a ética de trabalho de um puritano, que cresceram loucamente apaixonados por filmes de gangues, games e rap. Pois é este o improvável perfil dos irmãos Sam and Dan Houser, responsáveis pelo jogo mais revolucionário, controverso e bem-sucedido da história - a franquia Grand Theft Auto (GTA). Em "O Grande Fora da Lei: a origem do GTA", o aclamado escritor, jornalista e gamer inveterado David Kushner nos conduz por uma divertida jornada com altos riscos e lucros exorbitantes do mundo cada vez mais acelerado dos maiores players da indústria dos games - e de seus inimigos prontos para derrubá-los. Kushner revela de forma brilhante a história não contada das pessoas que criaram o produto que definiu uma geração e enfureceu outra. Elaborado por mais de uma década com reportagens, entrevistas e muitas horas jogando, o livro de Kushner mergulha fundo nos bastidores de GTA, até então mantidos em segredo e alimentados por rumores e mitos. Além disso, ele examina a violenta reação cultural e política que ajudou a manter sua vida comercial em alta ao mesmo tempo em que ameaçava a existência do próprio jogo. A franquia enfrentou processos e disputas judiciais com o objetivo de tirá-lo de circulação, movidos pelo falso moralismo e puritanismo da cultura norte-americana - e sobreviveu.

A origem do GTA

O grande fora da lei

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.

How a Mysterious Hacker Collective Transformed the World

A for Anonymous

David Kushner raconte l'étourdissante histoire de John Romero et John Carmack, deux adolescents qui, à la fin des années 1980, ont changé à jamais le jeu vidéo en créant Doom, le tout premier FPS (First Person Shooter) qui posait les bases du jeu à plusieurs en réseau. Kushner nous fait revivre la saga des studios ID Software, dirigés dans un joyeux foutoir par ces gamins qui réussirent à transformer leurs hobbies et leur passion du piratage en industrie multimillionnaire. Ce livre permet d'aborder un moment désormais reconnu comme décisif dans l'histoire des nouvelles technologies : l'effondrement des premiers rêves hackers, la fin de la démocratisation de l'informatique au profit de ses géants. Un récit culte dans la lignée de L'Ethique des hackers, de Steven Levy, et dans lequel se retrouveront des générations de joueurs et de passionnés d'informatique.

Doom

Tony Bove

Andy Rathbone

Mark L. Chambers

David D. Busch

Cheryl Rhodes

Martin Doucette

Todd Staufer

Keith Underdahl

Introducing the most complete digital media reference available-more than 900 pages of fun and easy instructions and tips on digital photography, digital video, digital music, and CD and DVD recording At under $35, this value-priced book is the only single-volume digital media reference that covers such topics as choosing a digital camera, taking great pictures, and editing digital pictures Covers printing and sharing pictures, selecting a camcorder, capturing good film footage, and importing video clips Provides coverage of editing videos, buying music online, using playlists, syncing an iPod or MP3 player, and burning CDs and DVDs Includes exclusive Dummies Man reusable peel-and-stick reference tabs that readers can use to mark their favorite pages

Digital Photos, Movies, and Music Gigabook?For Dummies

The Crimean Circle is a historical novel about the Jews in the Crimean War. For the first time in modern history Jews are forcibly conscripted to serve in an army to fight a war for a nation that dispises, mistreats and tries to convert them. They are trained by a Jew-hating sergeant and a Jewish corporal who has lost the love of his father and the faith in his God. With the help of the Jewish corporal the pious young Jews learn to survive in what for them is a hostile environment and become brave and competent soldiers. The story is played out during the exciting backdrop of The Crimean War (1855-56) and the horrific siege of Sevastopol as the Russian Army, poorly led and ill equipped tries to fight against the combined forces of Britain, France and Turkey. It is a stirring adventure story. The story of the young corporal is central to the story as he trains his platoon, teaches them to defend themselves against hatred and humiliation and struggles to return to his lost faith. He falls in love during the darkest days of the siege, survives the paranoid hatred of a high-ranking Russian officer and finally marries his betrothed. It is a colorful story of a period of Jewish history seldom mentioned in Jewish historical fiction. A period that just preceded the great immigration of eastern European Jews to the United States.

A Russian Jewish Tale of the Crimean War

The Crimean Circle

An analysis of the ideas and doctrines of Turkish nationalist writers in the closing decades of the Ottoman period. This book argues that such ideas played an important role in the formation of modern Turkish nationalism.

The Rise of Turkish Nationalism, 1876-1908

A light-hearted nautical detective story of a seventeen-ton lead keel loaded with six kilos of weapons-grade plutonium (enough for a sizeable nuclear explosion) wandering around the Riviera. Searching for it are its owner, a millionaire who wants to make a killing by selling it to the Middle East's highest bidder, a former racing skipper, his teenage son, and a tall, blonde Swedish policewoman who can dive, punch hard and shoot straight. Mix into this Provençal Bouillabaisse the Corsican Mafia, an underwater hijacking, a pink-painted racing yacht advertising a non-existant beer, and a murderous off-shore shoot-out, and you have the menu for a good weekend read.

David Kushner

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