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Preview: HG101 Presents: The Guide to Retro Indie Games Vol. 1
🕑 Added 2017-03-07 04:20:17 +0000 UTC So, earlier today I accidentally pocket tweeted out a work-in-progress PDF of one of the books I've been working on. Ooops! Confounded technology! Anyway, since it's out there, I figured I'd officially announce it and give a preview to you guys.https://www.dropbox.com/s/ff538sm76v682lc/Indie%20Book%20-%20Preview.pdf?dl=0
The title isn't final, but I wanted to create a book that focused on the retro-styled section of indie games. For as much as people bag on AAA games, both this generation and the last have been saved by the extremely high quality of downloadable titles through the XBLA, PSN, and Steam. To get games like this in the past, we had to pay a premium to get our consoles modded, get software delivered from overseas, and dig out a Japanese dictionary just to get through the menus. Now there's an embarassment of riches available almost instantly, for almost trivial amounts of money. It's incredible. So this series of books primarily focuses on games like that, across all genres.
This is actually a different version that the preview I'd erroneously linked before, cutting out the stuff that wasn't done and adding in some other things (that file was over a month old). There's not much here that isn't already on the site, but there are a few new and updated articles - Kathy Rain, Dust, and Hyper Light Drifter, the latter of which I just finished earlier today. It's still very rough and unedited, some pieces still have blank space at the end, which I need to clean up, but should give you an idea of what it'll be. I haven't decided on the complete title list either, since I'm still finishing some things up.
Anyway, this wasn't announced yet because I usually like to hold off making things public until I've got a cover ready. I've contracted one but it'll still be at least a few months off before it's ready to show. There are actually a few more books intended before the release of this one. Here's the intended schedule for this year:
Soon-ish: Retro Game Super Translation Selection (translation is mostly done, just needs editing)
June (hopefully before Too Many Games): Konami Special: Contra, Mystical Ninja and others
Summer?: Guide to Indie Retro Games
Fall?: The Complete Guide to the Famicom Disk System
Fall?: The Obscure Nintendo Entertainment System
Sometime 2017: Wrestling with Pixels
This is super ambitious but I'm working like heck to get everything in order. It may shift around too, depending on how quickly we can complete the FDS book. In the meantime, enjoy this sample! I'll probably be getting samples together of some of the above books too!
Comments
Hardcore Gaming 101
Thanks! Yeah, a few of those I forget to check to see if they were properly brushed up. Most of them are missing italics and other formatting, since that's one of the last things I do.
Laszlo Benyi
Hi Kurt. A few comments on the PDF - you probably know them, but maybe it helps a small bit: -- The Kathy Rain article has Resonance's data and pictures on its 1st page. -- The platform abbreviations' order are not always consistent, IOS is mostly before MAC, but on Always Sometimes Monsters' page it's after MAC. PS4 is usually after WIN, but on the Assault Android Cactus page it's before it. LIN is usually after MAC, but on Blue Revolver it's before it. (There are more inconsistencies.) -- Assault Android Cactus is out on Linux and Mac too. The official page says it's coming to the Vita and Wii U as well in 2016, but I don't know if those exist or not. -- Westerado's page shows One Finger Death Punch's data. -- Westerado's text does not have game titles in italic. (Same with Maldita Castilla, Mystik Belle) Best, Laszlo
