Arcade Imperfect ... another retro-gaming book by Jerry Ellis!

[jerellis1]

GREAT BIG GOLEM BOOKS ANNOUNCEMENT: I’m currently hard at work on my next book, Arcade Imperfect, which will be published in 2019. Here’s the lowdown…

The dream of being able to play accurate conversions of all the latest arcade games tantalised home computer gamers throughout the ‘80s, without ever quite coming true. Nevertheless, stripped-down versions of Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Ghosts ’n Goblins, Gauntlet, Bubble Bobble, Renegade, Galaxian, Yie Ar Kung-Fu, Dragon’s Lair, Donkey Kong, Out Run, Dig Dug and hundreds of others still graced many a grateful gamer’s library. Insert coin, press start and read the whole story here. Coming soon! Hardcover edition available summer 2019 for £24.99 plus p&p.

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Please follow the Golem Books Facebook page and Twitter feed (and the rllmuk and Retro Gamer forum threads) for regular updates!

https://www.facebook.com/JerryEllis1973/
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By the way, as of today, The Book of the Game of the Film is officially available in paperback! The books are in stock right now and you can order your copy directly from the Golem Books website for just £21.99 plus p&p. Also, for a limited time, you can purchase both of my books (The Book of the Game of the Film and The 8-Bit Book — 1981 to 199x, paperback editions) for just £34.99 plus p&p. http://bit.ly/golembooks

[kaiserpc]

Great idea for a book! I always like comparing the ports to the original ... and seeing if the c64 version is better than the speccy version etc. Are you going to look at most of the ports and compare them (there could be loads of different ports/systems per game) ... so the games are going to run to more than 1 page (unlike your previous books)? Also, a few conversions had different versions per region (US & Europe) - i.e. Bionic Commandos, Ikari Warriors & Outrun

[jerellis1]

Some nice suggestions there! I'm actually keeping the format as close to that of The Book of the Game of the Film as possible, so that the two books will serve as perfect companions for one another (basically covering the whole "officially licensed" gamut between them) - so it'll be one page per coin-op, with around half of the content of each page dedicated to the original game, and then the rest covering the most interesting aspects of the 8-bit micro conversions available, rather than exhaustively describing every conversion in too much detail (which would end up being a bit samey, if you see what I mean). I'm about 90 pages in already and it's working well - I'm pretty confident that each entry reads just as well as those from TBOTGOTF, and that I've kept them interesting and fresh throughout. Quite a challenge when attempting to write almost 300 one-page reviews!

P.S. Will upload a few sample pages soon, maybe around Christmas time - just concentrating on getting the text done and dusted first!

[Crusty Starfish]

Well, got a customer here! Sounds like a great idea for a book.

[psj3809]

Some nice suggestions there! I'm actually keeping the format as close to that of The Book of the Game of the Film as possible, so that the two books will serve as perfect companions for one another (basically covering the whole "officially licensed" gamut between them) - so it'll be one page per coin-op, with around half of the content of each page dedicated to the original game, and then the rest covering the most interesting aspects of the 8-bit micro conversions available, rather than exhaustively describing every conversion in too much detail (which would end up being a bit samey, if you see what I mean). I'm about 90 pages in already and it's working well - I'm pretty confident that each entry reads just as well as those from TBOTGOTF, and that I've kept them interesting and fresh throughout. Quite a challenge when attempting to write almost 300 one-page reviews!

P.S. Will upload a few sample pages soon, maybe around Christmas time - just concentrating on getting the text done and dusted first!

Sounds a great idea. Think it would be too much to see 3 or 4 images of the same game on different formats page after page.

I'm stunned why no ones done an arcade style book, theres plenty of homebrew machine books which are great but i've been dying to see something like this. I bought Arcade Fever ages ago which is a nice book but just the more basic arcade games.

Another buyer here for sure ! Please keep us updated

[merman]

Looking forward to it, Jerry!

[kiwimike]

This sounds fantastic. The only off putting thing will be international freight of course, but this is one I may just bite the bullet on and get anyway

[lavalyte]

Some reference material...
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ ... erfectPort

[Greyfox]

love the cover art..superb concept and execution of this great time in video gaming history.

[jerellis1]

Thanks for the comments guys. Unfortunately I may have hit a bit of a snag with the cover - I didn't realise this particular version (the Amstrad CPC loading screen) was Ste Pickford's work, and it looks like I may have caused some offence by modifying it. No malice was intended but I do appreciate that by not contacting him to ask permission first, I've caused a problem and may not be able to use the image after all. But I'm hopeful that I can resolve it as it would look so good on the cover - will keep everyone updated of course.

[Crusty Starfish]

Thanks for the comments guys. Unfortunately I may have hit a bit of a snag with the cover - I didn't realise this particular version (the Amstrad CPC loading screen) was Ste Pickford's work, and it looks like I may have caused some offence by modifying it. No malice was intended but I do appreciate that by not contacting him to ask permission first, I've caused a problem and may not be able to use the image after all. But I'm hopeful that I can resolve it as it would look so good on the cover - will keep everyone updated of course.

Use a different version then (unless he did all of them!) Or a different game. I'm sure Ste Pickford can't be that much of an arse and cause you any financial problems - he's always seemed such a nice guy.

[Crusty Starfish]

Just looked and the C64 version is by Ste but the awful Speccy loading screen isn't!

[jerellis1]

Wow - I've had a heck of a time over the past few days dealing with the fallout on Twitter over my attempted use of the GnG loading screen! My first (very bruising) Twitter storm!

Feel free to check out some of the comments and my responses to them on Twitter, or for a less toxic summary you can simply read Ste's blog post and my lengthy response to it here: http://www.zee-3.com/pickfordbros/blog/ ... p?post=942

Basically, the GnG cover and theme are now goners, which is a real shame as they'd have looked so great in print, but even though there's seemingly no legal obligation to do so, I want to respect Ste's wishes as the last thing I want to do is upset anyone from the retro gaming community. Fear not though! I'm a firm believer that something good can come of any situation, and in this instance that will hopefully be the case. I've since contacted a certain artist to enquire about commissioning three pieces of new cover artwork, one for Arcade Imperfect, one for The Book of the Game of the Film (in the light of the Twitter storm I've decided to drop the Rambo loading screen cover for all future reprints) and one for any future reprints of The 8-Bit Book - just waiting to hear back from the artist in question, but fingers crossed it'll all work out really well.

In the meantime, I'll be cracking on with Arcade Imperfect, with a view to having it ready for its planned summer 2019 release!

[Crusty Starfish]

Well, having read the sh*tstorm that happened, I must say that I am really unimpressed with Ste Pickford for airing his thoughts in an open forum like that.
This should have been dealt with via email/private contact. I can see his point but to do it like that - not cool

[jerellis1]

Yeah, it would definitely have been easier to have dealt with it privately... never mind though, all sorted now and hopefully I've managed to reassure everyone who had their say on Twitter that it was a genuine misunderstanding. Still, it all goes down to experience, and besides, once the new covers have been sorted out, the books will look better than ever!