Worst Amiga books

Minuous · 17 February 2021, 00:40

There are lots of "worst Amiga games" threads but nothing about "Worst Amiga books", so I thought I would start one.

This book is really dreadfully bad: https://commodore.bombjack.org/books..._Solutions.zip

It's like someone just copied some random hints from magazines and/or the internet, introducing all kinds of extra errors in the process, and then stuck them into a book. No wonder there is no author's name.

I only had a quick look through, but there's games that didn't even come out on the Amiga, like Ultima 7 (which they call "Ultima v11"), games that didn't come out on any platform (Arkanoid 3), wrong level codes (eg. Leander), non-working hints (eg. for "Bards Tale 111"), etc.

I had a look at a couple of the other Kuma books and they aren't much better, it seems they would just publish any old garbage without any proofreading or testing at all.

dreamkatcha · 17 February 2021, 07:35

LOL. That is pretty shoddy. The spelling is atrocious and some of the 'tips' seem to be merely the game's premise taken from the back of the box. Could this be one of Kieren Hawken's literary masterpieces?

Psiq · 17 February 2021, 09:15

On the back cover it says 'This book is the first of a continuing series of help for the AMIGA format'. So this could be a series of the worst books ever.

manossg · 17 February 2021, 09:17

Yet, Ultima VII was ported for the Amiga at the end. So maybe this is the book of prophecy! :P

Foebane · 17 February 2021, 11:02

I've seen that front cover before, looks familiar.

Daedalus · 17 February 2021, 15:18

Ouch, yeah, that's pretty poor alright. Was it a freebie? I'd guess not given the number of pages. But even if it was, that's hardly an excuse. It's like the print equivalent of shovelware.

Minuous · 17 February 2021, 18:27

Nope, 10 quid according to the back cover.

Also worth noting about the back cover is how they brag about their single one-line non-working Bard's Tale 3 tip, "and of course THE ULTIMA II series", when the only Ultima covered is Ultima 7 :-(

On the page before that is some details of the BBS where they presumably stole their tips from :-D

And as far as I can tell the Sidewinder entry is just made up, as there never was a disk 2.

vbgd · 05 April 2021, 05:23

Oh my god, at the end this book is responsible for the end of the Amiga?

17 February 2021, 00:40	#1
Minuous Coder/webmaster/gamer Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Canberra/Australia Posts: 2,630	Worst Amiga books There are lots of "worst Amiga games" threads but nothing about "Worst Amiga books", so I thought I would start one. This book is really dreadfully bad: https://commodore.bombjack.org/books..._Solutions.zip It's like someone just copied some random hints from magazines and/or the internet, introducing all kinds of extra errors in the process, and then stuck them into a book. No wonder there is no author's name. I only had a quick look through, but there's games that didn't even come out on the Amiga, like Ultima 7 (which they call "Ultima v11"), games that didn't come out on any platform (Arkanoid 3), wrong level codes (eg. Leander), non-working hints (eg. for "Bards Tale 111"), etc. I had a look at a couple of the other Kuma books and they aren't much better, it seems they would just publish any old garbage without any proofreading or testing at all.

17 February 2021, 18:27	#7
Minuous Coder/webmaster/gamer Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Canberra/Australia Posts: 2,630	Nope, 10 quid according to the back cover. Also worth noting about the back cover is how they brag about their single one-line non-working Bard's Tale 3 tip, "and of course THE ULTIMA II series", when the only Ultima covered is Ultima 7 :-( On the page before that is some details of the BBS where they presumably stole their tips from :-D And as far as I can tell the Sidewinder entry is just made up, as there never was a disk 2. Last edited by Minuous; 17 February 2021 at 18:41.

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17 February 2021, 07:35	#2
dreamkatcha I've got a new byline Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Manchester, UK Posts: 1,219	LOL. That is pretty shoddy. The spelling is atrocious and some of the 'tips' seem to be merely the game's premise taken from the back of the box. Could this be one of Kieren Hawken's literary masterpieces?

17 February 2021, 09:15	#3
Psiq Keen Collector Join Date: Dec 2017 Location: Herefordshire UK Posts: 120	On the back cover it says 'This book is the first of a continuing series of help for the AMIGA format'. So this could be a series of the worst books ever.

17 February 2021, 09:17	#4
manossg Registered User Join Date: Nov 2019 Location: Greece Posts: 992	Yet, Ultima VII was ported for the Amiga at the end. So maybe this is the book of prophecy! :P

17 February 2021, 11:02	#5
Foebane Banned Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Cardiff, UK Age: 51 Posts: 2,871	I've seen that front cover before, looks familiar.

17 February 2021, 15:18	#6
Daedalus Registered User Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Dublin, then Glasgow Posts: 6,334	Ouch, yeah, that's pretty poor alright. Was it a freebie? I'd guess not given the number of pages. But even if it was, that's hardly an excuse. It's like the print equivalent of shovelware.

05 April 2021, 05:23	#8
vbgd Insider Join Date: Nov 2019 Location: Paris Posts: 84	Oh my god, at the end this book is responsible for the end of the Amiga?

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