A new Amiga book?

andrew_rollings · 08 December 2007, 21:51

Hi all.

I'm trying to gauge the interest level in a new book on the Amiga in a similar vein to my two prior books.
Each book is basically a full colour run-down of 250 of the computer's most notable games.
I've done two already (with help) and they can be seen at www.zxgoldenyears.com and www.c64goldenyears.com.

I mainly do these books as a hobby, rather than to make money, but I do need to at least break even. With the past two books, I've used pre-orders to fund the printing (thanks to a lot of *very* patient pre-orderers) and I'd be planning on doing the same thing with an Amiga book.

Anyone interested?
Comments/Questions?

Thanks
Andrew

Thalion · 08 December 2007, 22:04

Sounds interesting. I'll have a look on your previous books to get an idea what you did.

But in general this is a good idea i think.

wizard66 · 08 December 2007, 22:26

Count me in !!!

Calgor · 09 December 2007, 15:01

I would be interested. I wonder, how do you determine which games will make the 250 cut, and how the games are organised/ordered/categorised within the book.

I did find the section on the webpage which displayed a sample few pages of the c64 book with some games, but did not give me the answers.

Paul_s · 09 December 2007, 16:02

Count me in too

I've got the Speccy book and I love that - didn't realise you'd done a C64 one too... going to do a pre-order for that right now

If no one has seen these books before they are really really cool - they smell nice too!

Charlie · 09 December 2007, 17:10

Looks great!
I didn't know about either of these books - they'll certainly go on my shopping list.

I'd be most interested in an Amiga book too:

'On the Edge: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore' was a good read but maybe didn't have enough detail about the Amiga years to satisfy. It concentrated more on the company than the 'Amiga-Scene' and characters behind the various Amiga models.
At a first glance at your previous books I would say your take on things would fill an obvious gap.

I look forward to seeing it.

BTW:
Welcome to the EAB - I hope you stick around there's a fair bit going on here and it's always good to see new members.

andrew_rollings · 09 December 2007, 23:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlie

I look forward to seeing it.

BTW:
Welcome to the EAB - I hope you stick around there's a fair bit going on here and it's always good to see new members.

Glad to be here... I've sadly neglected the Amiga community in favour of the Speccy for a few years now, and I'm trying to redress the balance.

Any suggestions as to how to get the largest Amiga-lover audience for this announcement/request would be appreciated...

The layout of the book would be the same as the prior two, with chapters for each year that the Amiga was commercially active (before the rise of the consoles, in this case).
Each chapter would have a intro page that summarized the year in question, and then each of the most notable games (good, bad or ugly) from that year would be described with a section on the game's background, some interesting trivia associated with it, and a brief description of the gameplay, along with box art, screenshots, scores from the leading Amiga magazines and an interesting quote from one of the magazine reviews.

There is a (slightly out of date) preview chapter of the C64 book viewable here. It's been updated/edited a little since then, and is pending further changes depending on how the page proofs turn out. One caveat is that the page background appears a bit more prominent on screen than it does on paper.
There is also a sample chapter (pre-final edits) of the spectrum book here.

Andrew

xaind · 10 December 2007, 07:32

I would certainly be interested in an Amiga book like this.

Charlie · 10 December 2007, 10:35

Hi,
Amiga.org would be another good place to go - big (sometimes quite opionated

) Amiga forum.

Photon · 10 December 2007, 11:15

Welcome Andrew, please tell us a little about yourself!

andrew_rollings · 11 December 2007, 00:16

A little about myself?
Hmm... Not much to tell really...

I've written a couple of books in the past, but these books are the first that I self-published... It's more of a 'for the fun of it' endeavour than a 'for profit' one, although ultimately I think it's the kind of thing I'd like to do full-time

Unfortunately, the money's really not in it, so it remains a hobby.

Anyway, a little history: I started out with a ZX81, moved to the Spectrum for a few years, and then ended up with an Amiga (after a brief dalliance with the ST). Aside from the Spectrum, the Amiga was my favourite computer, and I'd like to give it the same treatment as I did the Spectrum with the ZX Spectrum book (assuming I can get enough support from the community.)

I have to admit, the Amiga community is a bit of an enigma to me as it seems to be more fractured than the Speccy community, which mainly revolves around the one site: World of Spectrum, so I'm a little concerned about reaching the necessary audience to make the book a success. Hopefully with you guys' help, we can get this thing done

The model I used for the ZX Spectrum book (and the C64 book) was to put up a pre-order page and a progress blog with the understanding that the book would be printed if the number of pre-orders reached a high enough threshold (about 80% of the estimated printing costs) within a specified time limit. If not, the money would be refunded. So far though, this hasn't been a problem as the threshold has been reached for the first two.

The format of the book is as follows:
There is a chapter for each year of the computer's commercial lifetime. Each chapter has a summary page at the beginning detailing the main events of the year, and then is followed by a number of pages detailing information about the most interesting (not necessarily the best!) games from that year. This information on this page is split into three sections. The first section is a little bit of background about the release of the game, for example, information on the company that released it, the programmers, or anything else of general interest. The second section is some interesting trivia about the game, such as any controversy it generated, or other interesting (and little known) information. The third section is a brief description of the game, and this is accompanied by several representative screen-shots and a box-shot.

So far, the two existing books have been very well received, and if I say so myself, they do look pretty good

Andrew

Calgor · 11 December 2007, 02:32

@andrew_rollings

As far as I am aware, the main amiga sites are amiga.org, amigaworld.net, eab, amigans.net (smaller), amiga-news.de. There are other sites to be sure, but I think those should cover a lot.

I stay on this forum as ppl here invest less time in amiga gobbledygook and more time in amiga history. Users here are also so knowledgeable about much of the past games, so for any questions about a particular game, this is easily the best place to be.

andrew_rollings · 11 December 2007, 03:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Calgor

I stay on this forum as ppl here invest less time in amiga gobbledygook and more time in amiga history. Users here are also so knowledgeable about much of the past games, so for any questions about a particular game, this is easily the best place to be.

I feel at home already

Andrew

Pyromania · 11 December 2007, 05:21

DiscreetFX would be very interested in the book and might even keep some in stock and sell them for you. How can we buy your C64 book?

andrew_rollings · 12 December 2007, 04:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pyromania

DiscreetFX would be very interested in the book and might even keep some in stock and sell them for you. How can we buy your C64 book?

The C64 book (and the spectrum book) can be purchased by going to
www.c64goldenyears.com and www.zxgoldenyears.com respectively.

Andrew

killergorilla · 12 December 2007, 10:54

Nice looking work you've done mate, I'd be interested in this book.

Make a nice christmas present... It will be ready by Christmas won't it?

Oh and welcome to EAB, what Calgor said is absolutely spot on.

lucadip · 12 December 2007, 14:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by andrew_rollings

Anyone interested?
Comments/Questions?

Thanks
Andrew

Andrew, I'm definitely interested. And I'm going to order a copy of your C64 book as well!

Ciao
Luca

andrew_rollings · 14 December 2007, 05:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by lucadip

Andrew, I'm definitely interested. And I'm going to order a copy of your C64 book as well!

Ciao
Luca

Thank you kindly...

If anyone would like to start suggesting games that *have* to be included, please feel free to add to this thread.

manic23 · 25 January 2008, 13:42

I would absolutly be very very very interested in this book, i have the Spectrum one and have pre ordered the C64 one, the Amiga & Mega Drive (Genesis) are my 2 fav retro formats, so an Amiga book would be heaven, please please do one, go on pleeeeeese........

andrew_rollings · 25 January 2008, 20:15

Well, I'm still thinking about it... I've got to be sure I can do it justice first though...
I'm doing some preliminary work right now, but that doesn't mean too much just yet...

Cody of HoL has kindly agreed to let me use the HoL resources, so that makes things a lot easier... (except for the watermarks, of course

)

Andrew

08 December 2007, 21:51	#1
andrew_rollings Registered User Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Auburn, Alabama Posts: 33	A new Amiga book? Hi all. I'm trying to gauge the interest level in a new book on the Amiga in a similar vein to my two prior books. Each book is basically a full colour run-down of 250 of the computer's most notable games. I've done two already (with help) and they can be seen at www.zxgoldenyears.com and www.c64goldenyears.com. I mainly do these books as a hobby, rather than to make money, but I do need to at least break even. With the past two books, I've used pre-orders to fund the printing (thanks to a lot of very patient pre-orderers) and I'd be planning on doing the same thing with an Amiga book. Anyone interested? Comments/Questions? Thanks Andrew

09 December 2007, 16:02	#5
Paul_s Registered User Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Amigaville Age: 46 Posts: 3,334	Count me in too I've got the Speccy book and I love that - didn't realise you'd done a C64 one too... going to do a pre-order for that right now If no one has seen these books before they are really really cool - they smell nice too! Last edited by Paul_s; 09 December 2007 at 16:08.

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08 December 2007, 22:04	#2
Thalion Amiga Collector Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Germany Age: 41 Posts: 679	Sounds interesting. I'll have a look on your previous books to get an idea what you did. But in general this is a good idea i think.

08 December 2007, 22:26	#3
wizard66 FPGA Replay inside A590 Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Rotterdam/Netherlands Age: 57 Posts: 294	Count me in !!!

09 December 2007, 15:01	#4
Calgor (Amigas && Amigos)++ Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Anrea Posts: 999	I would be interested. I wonder, how do you determine which games will make the 250 cut, and how the games are organised/ordered/categorised within the book. I did find the section on the webpage which displayed a sample few pages of the c64 book with some games, but did not give me the answers.

09 December 2007, 17:10	#6
Charlie . . Mouse . . Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Nowhere Age: 55 Posts: 1,792	Looks great! I didn't know about either of these books - they'll certainly go on my shopping list. I'd be most interested in an Amiga book too: 'On the Edge: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore' was a good read but maybe didn't have enough detail about the Amiga years to satisfy. It concentrated more on the company than the 'Amiga-Scene' and characters behind the various Amiga models. At a first glance at your previous books I would say your take on things would fill an obvious gap. I look forward to seeing it. BTW: Welcome to the EAB - I hope you stick around there's a fair bit going on here and it's always good to see new members.

10 December 2007, 07:32	#8
xaind Registered User Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Sydney / Australia Posts: 113	I would certainly be interested in an Amiga book like this.

10 December 2007, 10:35	#9
Charlie . . Mouse . . Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Nowhere Age: 55 Posts: 1,792	Hi, Amiga.org would be another good place to go - big (sometimes quite opionated ) Amiga forum.

10 December 2007, 11:15	#10
Photon Moderator Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Eksjö / Sweden Posts: 5,602	Welcome Andrew, please tell us a little about yourself!

11 December 2007, 00:16	#11
andrew_rollings Registered User Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Auburn, Alabama Posts: 33	A little about myself? Hmm... Not much to tell really... I've written a couple of books in the past, but these books are the first that I self-published... It's more of a 'for the fun of it' endeavour than a 'for profit' one, although ultimately I think it's the kind of thing I'd like to do full-time Unfortunately, the money's really not in it, so it remains a hobby. Anyway, a little history: I started out with a ZX81, moved to the Spectrum for a few years, and then ended up with an Amiga (after a brief dalliance with the ST). Aside from the Spectrum, the Amiga was my favourite computer, and I'd like to give it the same treatment as I did the Spectrum with the ZX Spectrum book (assuming I can get enough support from the community.) I have to admit, the Amiga community is a bit of an enigma to me as it seems to be more fractured than the Speccy community, which mainly revolves around the one site: World of Spectrum, so I'm a little concerned about reaching the necessary audience to make the book a success. Hopefully with you guys' help, we can get this thing done The model I used for the ZX Spectrum book (and the C64 book) was to put up a pre-order page and a progress blog with the understanding that the book would be printed if the number of pre-orders reached a high enough threshold (about 80% of the estimated printing costs) within a specified time limit. If not, the money would be refunded. So far though, this hasn't been a problem as the threshold has been reached for the first two. The format of the book is as follows: There is a chapter for each year of the computer's commercial lifetime. Each chapter has a summary page at the beginning detailing the main events of the year, and then is followed by a number of pages detailing information about the most interesting (not necessarily the best!) games from that year. This information on this page is split into three sections. The first section is a little bit of background about the release of the game, for example, information on the company that released it, the programmers, or anything else of general interest. The second section is some interesting trivia about the game, such as any controversy it generated, or other interesting (and little known) information. The third section is a brief description of the game, and this is accompanied by several representative screen-shots and a box-shot. So far, the two existing books have been very well received, and if I say so myself, they do look pretty good Andrew

11 December 2007, 02:32	#12
Calgor (Amigas && Amigos)++ Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Anrea Posts: 999	@andrew_rollings As far as I am aware, the main amiga sites are amiga.org, amigaworld.net, eab, amigans.net (smaller), amiga-news.de. There are other sites to be sure, but I think those should cover a lot. I stay on this forum as ppl here invest less time in amiga gobbledygook and more time in amiga history. Users here are also so knowledgeable about much of the past games, so for any questions about a particular game, this is easily the best place to be.

11 December 2007, 05:21	#14
Pyromania Moderator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 3,375	DiscreetFX would be very interested in the book and might even keep some in stock and sell them for you. How can we buy your C64 book?

12 December 2007, 10:54	#16
killergorilla Lesser Talent Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: UK Age: 42 Posts: 7,957	Nice looking work you've done mate, I'd be interested in this book. Make a nice christmas present... It will be ready by Christmas won't it? Oh and welcome to EAB, what Calgor said is absolutely spot on.

25 January 2008, 13:42	#19
manic23 Only Amiga! Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: London / UK Age: 53 Posts: 512	I would absolutly be very very very interested in this book, i have the Spectrum one and have pre ordered the C64 one, the Amiga & Mega Drive (Genesis) are my 2 fav retro formats, so an Amiga book would be heaven, please please do one, go on pleeeeeese........

25 January 2008, 20:15	#20
andrew_rollings Registered User Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Auburn, Alabama Posts: 33	Well, I'm still thinking about it... I've got to be sure I can do it justice first though... I'm doing some preliminary work right now, but that doesn't mean too much just yet... Cody of HoL has kindly agreed to let me use the HoL resources, so that makes things a lot easier... (except for the watermarks, of course ) Andrew

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