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- New Project: Retro Game Zine
Hello everyone, I wanted to pop in your email inbox and share with you a new update on a project I have cooking. Retro Game Zine!
Retro Game Zine is a specialty micro-magazine that examines a single game in each issue. Whether you know the game in the issue or not, the goal is to learn about the game’s history, read some personal stories or essays, see screenshots, rare artwork, and other unique things about the game. This is all covered in a one-and-done issue.
This is a 5.5" x 8.5" inch, 26-page (for now) zine printed on 80lb recycled paper in full color, with a 100lb soft-touch laminated cover stock.
As you can see, the first issue focuses on the game “It Came from the Desert.” My friends and I found this game around the house, and we had no idea where it came from. That didn’t matter, as we just wanted to play something cool, and it was!
Here are some preview pages to get an idea of the zine:
I am running a Kickstarter for the book to print the issue, create some stickers and postcard rewards, and ship it out. I already announced a stretch goal, and it will give every backer a complete second issue of the zine. Issue 002 matches the same content as Issue 001, but the game in question is Chakan: The Forever Man for the Genesis and Game Gear.
Thanks a lot for checking this out. If you want to look at the project page, you can head over here:
Before I leave your inbox, I wanted to share a review I wrote on my Patreon page. I have been sharing some original content there. All the writing is free; you can even buy digital copies of my books on the shop page. Check that out here: https://www.patreon.com/darrenhupke
Writing and creating books focused on retro video games is not foreign to me. If you’re reading this, you likely know who I am and my series of books called 32 Bit Library. I decided to take a break from my usual routine and write up a review on someone else’s video game books! How about that? A video game book writer, writing about someone else’s book written about video games!
The book I chose to review here is Brian Riggsbee’s Video Game Maps: NES & Famicom. The copy was pulled from my personal collection. I’ll share the book’s description from RetroGameBooks.com here:
Video Game Maps: NES & Famicom features maps from 250+ games and is beautifully printed in full-color across 346 pages. It’s a celebration of NES maps as seen in mags, manuals, posters, ads, guides, more.
The first thing that jumped out to me was the book's size. Three hundred forty-six pages is hefty. It’s compact in a 5.5"x7.75" frame, though. The pages are also full color, so these aren’t lightweight. There is something about holding a solid book like this that excites you. I wanted to pause and admire its size, but then the cover art drew me in.
Philip Summers is the cover artist, and they did a fantastic job. With a peach-toned image of an adventuring group overlooking a valley leading to a distant kingdom, you can feel yourself being called into what’s to come inside the book. That sense of wonder of what’s out there and what’s left to discover is a core element of playing a quality adventure game, and to set the stage of a book focused on the maps and worlds of hundreds of these games, it does the job.
Once you crack open the pages and get into it, you find four pages of contents. If you were only just a small fan of the NES library, you’ll likely see some of your favorite games included. The book is simply designed and laid out alphabetically, so thumbing through the full-color pages is easy enough to get to where you want to go. There are some written entries to kick things off, like the forward by Konstantinos Dimopoulos, the preface by Brian himself, and some unique essays by Justin Andrew Mason and Ross Thorn. These are authors, designers, and cartographers, so their words dig into why these maps and these designs matter. There are details and toolscs that I’d never had considered before, and these were entertaining to read. Also, they don’t run on too long, if anything, I want more!
After that introduction, the book wastes no time getting to the good stuff. The onslaught of games begins on page 16 and doesn’t stop until 345. Each game has a minimum of one page, and the layout shares the title of the game, the publisher and genre, and the year of its release. The bigger games and heavy hitters span multiple pages, showing off multiple maps and artwork from various sources. It is primarily a visual format, with full scans and photographs from many unique places. The images are credited to their original source, and I’ve never seen much of the content before. Many of the maps and photographs are pulled from Japanese magazines and guidebooks from the era. I do recognize the Nintendo Power and US manual images for some titles.
The book also includes fan-created maps by 13 different artists. Their names and sites are listed in the book on the last page for easy reference, and it’s worth checking them out. They did some great work, and it’s cool to see some modern design and art mixed in with the classic scans and images.
If I had to share a complaint or an ask, it would be to have these artists' images called out or highlighted in some way in the table of contents so they can be found easily. Beyond that, my only other wish is that the book was larger, as I’d really like to soak in some of this content. That being said, by no way is it a deal breaker, and the book is an excellent read as is. If you’re already checking out some of Brian’s other projects at RetroGameBooks.com, you’ll see his Video Game Maps: SNES book is already a larger size, released as an 8.5"x11" hardcover. Maybe a revision or deluxe edition of this book is something that can be done in the future to match that size and format?
Overall, this is a no-brainer buy for nostalgic gaming fans, especially fans of this era. You’d be hard-pressed not to find something new to discover about a few of your favorite NES and Famicom games, and having this tome gather up over 250 titles is a significant achievement.
Score:
🗺️🗺️🗺️🗺️🗺️
