BOOK SPOTLIGHT - REDO FROM START (USA & JAPAN)
Andrea Pachetti (2025); Microzeit Publishing; Non-Fiction, Game History
Last month, Microzeit was kind enough to send over their impressive collection of books for our shelves, and “REDO FROM START (USA & JAPAN)” was the one I knew the least about. I had originally intended to start with the CRACKER books, but Paul Norman’s eyes….they drew me in.
What started off as a quick skim through the pages, turned into a few hours of soaking up some pretty incredible interviews. A beefy 384-page hardcover, this first volume recounts the Commodore from 1982-1985. With a lens on USA and Japan, it pulls together voices from developers, publishers, marketers, and software pioneers who were there when home computing was exploding.
The interviews are the hook. You hear from figures like Chris Crawford, talking about pushing simulation and serious design on limited hardware. David Crane reflects on life after Atari, the formation of Activision, and how technical limits shaped creativity rather than stifling it. Others, like Paul Norman, dive into atmosphere and mood on the C64, explaining how games like Forbidden Forest leaned into tension and presentation as much as mechanics.
On the Japanese side, contributors such as Satoshi Matsuoka and Hitoshi Suzuki discuss working across wildly different machines, from PETs and VIC-20s to the Commodore 64 and early Japanese PCs. They talk about reverse-engineering hardware, porting arcade experiences without proper documentation, and having to learn everything the hard way. These sections make it clear just how fragmented and experimental early development really was.
Now I’ve always been super candid; my knowledge of the home computer era is lacking. And many of the individuals in the book were new names for me. But the games and experiences they pioneered were familiar, and that kept the whole thing flowing really nicely. Interviews were interspersed with screenshots and scans, and a nice section in the middle of the book is filled with the Commodore advertisements of yesteryear.
What comes through again and again is how big this was in juxtaposition with how informal everything felt. American devs scrambling to chase commercial momentum. Japanese creators wrestling with hardware quirks and market expectations. Different paths, same constraints. That contrast keeps the book from feeling one-note and gives the Commodore 64 real global context. I’m looking forward to Volume 2 which will cover Canada and Europe.
Through these first hand accounts, REDO FROM START (USA & JAPAN) does a great job humanizing the Commodore era. The mistakes. The ambition. The improvisation. If you care about early game development or the moment when home computers became a cultural force, this is a great one to check out.
You can find more about the book right here in The Video Game Library.
Shoutout to @Andrea Pachetti for this fantastic book!