[1] Grame Mason writing for Eurogamer described it as "one of the first tips books"[2] while Scott Stilphen identified it as one of "the first 2 'how to' video game books" alongside Ken Uston's Mastering Pac-Man which came out the same year.
[3][4] Hirschfeld divides the included games into broad categories in the table of contents: Space Invaders-type, Asteroids-type, maze, reflex, and miscellaneous.
[6] In 1982 Michael Blanchet released two competing books, How to Beat the Video Games[7] and How to Beat Atari, Intellivision, and Other Home Video Games.
[8][3] How to Master the Video Games sold about 650,000 copies, appearing on The New York Times mass-market paperback list.
If you really want to enjoy the coin-operated arcades take a few of those spare quarters and pick up How to Master the Video Games, you'll come out ahead in the long run.