The Book of the Game of the Film: now available in paperback!
Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 8:43 pm
Major double-announcement time, folks. First up, my new book - more than three years in the making - is at last complete and available to preorder. The Book of the Game of the Film is a full-colour, 300-page, 150,000-word hardcover epic and I’m going to describe it to you just as soon as you’ve feasted your eyes on this delightful dust jacket cover:
The Book of the Game of the Film is a follow-up to The 8-Bit Book - 1981 to 199x, which came out in 2009. This time around, instead of looking back at a broad mix of the titles that graced many of the of the more obscure platforms of the day, I’ve put together what amounts to a celebration of the film tie-ins (and much more - see below) that were released for 8-bit home computers between 1980 and 1993; that’s 121 films, from Alien to Willow, each given a full page and an average of 500 words’ worth of analysis. As you can see from the following sample pages (see pdf links below chapter intro page), the book is in landscape format, and every essay is accompanied by cover artwork and screen shots. The essays themselves generally consist of three paragraphs, the first being a summary of the film in question, and the rest given over to an overview of the game (or games) it inspired. It’s a similar format to that adopted for The 8-Bit Book, although at around 500 words a time, the essays are significantly longer this time (the average word count per page back in 2009 was around 350).
Try some sample pages!
Now brace yourselves, because there’s more - much more! Soon after I started writing the book, it occurred to me that the tie-in phenomenon back in the day wasn’t restricted to movies alone; in fact, there were almost as many games based on television programmes as there were film tie-ins. Well, I couldn’t ignore them, so I decided to expand the book to include them as well. There are 77 of these entries in the book, from Auf Wiedersehen Pet to The Young Ones, together constituting the Programme Programs section:
I promised much more, and I’m a man of my word, so say hello to the third section of the book: Bands, Brands and Grandstands. It wasn’t just film and television tie-ins that dominated the home computer gaming scene in the ‘80s and early ‘90s; titles based on pop groups, sports personalities and high-street brands were also extremely popular. There are a further 34 pages in this section, packed with classic titles from Action Biker (promoting KP Skips) to Zoids:
And that’s not all. There’s still one more chapter in this story to be told. The title of the final section of the book pretty much covers what’s involved here:
The Book of the Game of the Film wraps with a 56-page tribute to the games that were inspired by books, comics, role-playing games and other literary works during the 8-bit computer gaming era, from Adrian Mole to the X-Men. This section could have been much longer as it quickly became apparent once I’d started writing it that the number of games in this category runs well into double figures, but I didn’t feel it would be wise to cover every single one of them as I’d be running the joint risks of drifting too far from the original premise and having to come up with a different name for the book (and I also really wanted to stick to a page limit of 300.)
Hopefully that’s given you a pretty clear idea of what to expect. The book is now complete and currently undergoing proofreading; I have the printer lined up and ready to go and I’m going to be accepting pre-orders from today - more on that in a moment. Initially there will be 1,000 copies printed, all hardcovers. There may be future print runs, but for now I’m setting the limit at 1,000. The books are roughly A5 landscape-sized and shaped, so they won’t take up too much space on your coffee table, but they will be satisfyingly thick and hefty.
The price of the book is £24.99, plus p&p. Within the UK, p&p will be £3.90 for 2nd-class Recorded Delivery. The books will be very safely packed in recycled card packaging. Overseas postage is quite steep I'm afraid - it's £14.65 within Europe and £19.90 everywhere else. That's for tracked and signed-for international postage via Royal Mail. If I can find a cheaper but equally reliable international postage option, I'll post an update. Payment is via PayPal Friends and Family, to avoid extra fees; anybody who would prefer to pay by standard PayPal Goods and Services is welcome to do so, but there would be a small additional charge to cover the resulting fees (exact amount TBC). Payment will need to be up-front, as the printer needs to be paid in advance, but I won’t actually be requesting payment from customers immediately; instead, I’m planning to compile an initial list of 300 people who can offer me a firm pledge that they’ll be buying the book, and once I’ve gathered those 300 names, I’ll contact everyone to request payment. As soon as those payments are made, the printer will be instructed to go ahead, and it will then take around two weeks for the books to arrive, and then I’ll dispatch them as quickly as I can (based on past experience as a seller on eBay, I’m confident that I can pack and dispatch around 50 parcels in a single day, so it shouldn’t take more than a week for me to get everyone’s books posted by that point.) However, anyone who would like to send their PayPal payment sooner is welcome to do so, and there will be an advantage in doing this, as the first 300 people to confirm their preorder will have their name printed inside the book on the All Time Heroes high-score table. The first 300 copies of the book dispatched will also be numbered and signed, and the number you receive will correspond with your position on the All Time Heroes table. Please note that names for inclusion in the book are subject to approval - I wouldn't be able to accept anything rude or offensive in any way, for obvious reasons!
My PayPal address is jerellis1@yahoo.com (it’s the same as my e-mail address.) If you’re placing a pre-order, please e-mail me or PM me as well and I’ll give you an order number once I’ve received your payment. If you’re just pledging your interest for now, please let me know and I’ll add you to the initial list on a first-come, first-served basis, although obviously those who actually send their payment rather than simply offering a promise to buy the book will have their names moved up the high-score list accordingly! Naturally I’ll provide regular updates here on how it’s all going. At the moment there’s no website to promote the book, although I do plan to set up a golembooks.co.uk website at some point, which will basically include all of the above info and maybe an ordering system if I can get my head around how to do it, and as long as it’s not too expensive to run. For now though, hopefully this thread and the Facebook page that I will be launching shortly will suffice.
Okay, now for a surprise bonus announcement. My first book, The 8-Bit Book - 1981 to 199x, is available to buy again for the first time since 2009!
I have a batch of brand-new paperback copies from the original print run, each priced at £17.99 plus p&p. Postage is £2.25 within the UK, £6.60 within Europe and £10.15 everywhere else. This is the first time it’s been possible to buy The 8-Bit Book outside of eBay for a number of years, and it’s also the cheapest it’s ever been to buy the book in the UK - when they first came out they were all dispatched from the USA, and postage to the UK was ridiculously high at something like £8 per book! For anyone unfamiliar with the book, you can find out more about it in this Retro Gamer thread:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10618
Here’s a cherry-picked selection of humbling praise for The 8-Bit Book - 1981 to 199x:
“ … wonderfully presented… a varied and a highly informative read…” - Retro Gamer magazine (Treasure of the Month, December 2009)
“… a truly varied read that effortlessly jumps from nostalgia to gaming history and even touches on design philosophy.” - Obsolete Gamer
“… extremely well-written… exceeds any other videogame book I've read.” - A.S.G. (amazon.com reviewer)
“… a jewel…” - Ars Lucida
“… a real gem… depicts a whole epoch with dynamism and precision.” - grospixels.com
The book also benefits from a foreword contributed by none other than David Braben.
As with The Book of the Game of the Film, payment for The 8-Bit Book should be made directly to jerellis1@yahoo.com via PayPal Friends & Family. Please e-mail me or PM me your address details when you send your payment and I will get back to you with an order number. The 8-Bit Book is in stock right now and will be dispatched immediately upon receipt of payment. If anyone wants me to sign or dedicate their copy, let me know and I’ll make it so.
- DUST JACKET FRONT.jpg (1.04 MiB) Viewed 561 times
Try some sample pages!
Now brace yourselves, because there’s more - much more! Soon after I started writing the book, it occurred to me that the tie-in phenomenon back in the day wasn’t restricted to movies alone; in fact, there were almost as many games based on television programmes as there were film tie-ins. Well, I couldn’t ignore them, so I decided to expand the book to include them as well. There are 77 of these entries in the book, from Auf Wiedersehen Pet to The Young Ones, together constituting the Programme Programs section:
I promised much more, and I’m a man of my word, so say hello to the third section of the book: Bands, Brands and Grandstands. It wasn’t just film and television tie-ins that dominated the home computer gaming scene in the ‘80s and early ‘90s; titles based on pop groups, sports personalities and high-street brands were also extremely popular. There are a further 34 pages in this section, packed with classic titles from Action Biker (promoting KP Skips) to Zoids:
And that’s not all. There’s still one more chapter in this story to be told. The title of the final section of the book pretty much covers what’s involved here:
The Book of the Game of the Film wraps with a 56-page tribute to the games that were inspired by books, comics, role-playing games and other literary works during the 8-bit computer gaming era, from Adrian Mole to the X-Men. This section could have been much longer as it quickly became apparent once I’d started writing it that the number of games in this category runs well into double figures, but I didn’t feel it would be wise to cover every single one of them as I’d be running the joint risks of drifting too far from the original premise and having to come up with a different name for the book (and I also really wanted to stick to a page limit of 300.)
Hopefully that’s given you a pretty clear idea of what to expect. The book is now complete and currently undergoing proofreading; I have the printer lined up and ready to go and I’m going to be accepting pre-orders from today - more on that in a moment. Initially there will be 1,000 copies printed, all hardcovers. There may be future print runs, but for now I’m setting the limit at 1,000. The books are roughly A5 landscape-sized and shaped, so they won’t take up too much space on your coffee table, but they will be satisfyingly thick and hefty.
The price of the book is £24.99, plus p&p. Within the UK, p&p will be £3.90 for 2nd-class Recorded Delivery. The books will be very safely packed in recycled card packaging. Overseas postage is quite steep I'm afraid - it's £14.65 within Europe and £19.90 everywhere else. That's for tracked and signed-for international postage via Royal Mail. If I can find a cheaper but equally reliable international postage option, I'll post an update. Payment is via PayPal Friends and Family, to avoid extra fees; anybody who would prefer to pay by standard PayPal Goods and Services is welcome to do so, but there would be a small additional charge to cover the resulting fees (exact amount TBC). Payment will need to be up-front, as the printer needs to be paid in advance, but I won’t actually be requesting payment from customers immediately; instead, I’m planning to compile an initial list of 300 people who can offer me a firm pledge that they’ll be buying the book, and once I’ve gathered those 300 names, I’ll contact everyone to request payment. As soon as those payments are made, the printer will be instructed to go ahead, and it will then take around two weeks for the books to arrive, and then I’ll dispatch them as quickly as I can (based on past experience as a seller on eBay, I’m confident that I can pack and dispatch around 50 parcels in a single day, so it shouldn’t take more than a week for me to get everyone’s books posted by that point.) However, anyone who would like to send their PayPal payment sooner is welcome to do so, and there will be an advantage in doing this, as the first 300 people to confirm their preorder will have their name printed inside the book on the All Time Heroes high-score table. The first 300 copies of the book dispatched will also be numbered and signed, and the number you receive will correspond with your position on the All Time Heroes table. Please note that names for inclusion in the book are subject to approval - I wouldn't be able to accept anything rude or offensive in any way, for obvious reasons!
My PayPal address is jerellis1@yahoo.com (it’s the same as my e-mail address.) If you’re placing a pre-order, please e-mail me or PM me as well and I’ll give you an order number once I’ve received your payment. If you’re just pledging your interest for now, please let me know and I’ll add you to the initial list on a first-come, first-served basis, although obviously those who actually send their payment rather than simply offering a promise to buy the book will have their names moved up the high-score list accordingly! Naturally I’ll provide regular updates here on how it’s all going. At the moment there’s no website to promote the book, although I do plan to set up a golembooks.co.uk website at some point, which will basically include all of the above info and maybe an ordering system if I can get my head around how to do it, and as long as it’s not too expensive to run. For now though, hopefully this thread and the Facebook page that I will be launching shortly will suffice.
Okay, now for a surprise bonus announcement. My first book, The 8-Bit Book - 1981 to 199x, is available to buy again for the first time since 2009!
I have a batch of brand-new paperback copies from the original print run, each priced at £17.99 plus p&p. Postage is £2.25 within the UK, £6.60 within Europe and £10.15 everywhere else. This is the first time it’s been possible to buy The 8-Bit Book outside of eBay for a number of years, and it’s also the cheapest it’s ever been to buy the book in the UK - when they first came out they were all dispatched from the USA, and postage to the UK was ridiculously high at something like £8 per book! For anyone unfamiliar with the book, you can find out more about it in this Retro Gamer thread:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10618
Here’s a cherry-picked selection of humbling praise for The 8-Bit Book - 1981 to 199x:
“ … wonderfully presented… a varied and a highly informative read…” - Retro Gamer magazine (Treasure of the Month, December 2009)
“… a truly varied read that effortlessly jumps from nostalgia to gaming history and even touches on design philosophy.” - Obsolete Gamer
“… extremely well-written… exceeds any other videogame book I've read.” - A.S.G. (amazon.com reviewer)
“… a jewel…” - Ars Lucida
“… a real gem… depicts a whole epoch with dynamism and precision.” - grospixels.com
The book also benefits from a foreword contributed by none other than David Braben.
As with The Book of the Game of the Film, payment for The 8-Bit Book should be made directly to jerellis1@yahoo.com via PayPal Friends & Family. Please e-mail me or PM me your address details when you send your payment and I will get back to you with an order number. The 8-Bit Book is in stock right now and will be dispatched immediately upon receipt of payment. If anyone wants me to sign or dedicate their copy, let me know and I’ll make it so.
