Retro video game fans have a rich history worth commemorating, but finding media that fully captures that era in an artful manner has proven to be difficult — that is, until now.
A new Kickstarter has launched for the Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom a visual compendium, and it quickly broke through its original goal $36,733.
This visual compendium comes from Bitmap Books, a company that has plenty of experience making high quality coffee-table books celebrating gaming. Founder and graphic designer Sam Dyer and his team have already released compendiums for the Commodore 64, Commodore Amiga, and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Now they plan to take on what is probably the most influential video game console ever.
This isn’t Dyer’s first foray into the world of Kickstarter. “We’re really lucky to have built up a nice following over the last few years so getting funded quickly isn’t unusual” Dyer told Digital Trends, “but this campaign has definitely been the fastest.”
It’s easy to see why. The NES has sold over 60 million units, it brought the video game industry back from collapse, and it ensured games were high quality by introducing the “Nintendo Seal of Quality.”
Dyer’s team includes some notable video-game journalists who are overseeing the project to ensure a high quality final product. These individuals include Steve Jarrett from Total!, Edge, and Official Nintendo Magazine and Damien McFarren of Nintendo Life. Because this book is an unofficial tribute, for Dyer the “downside of this is that I will not have any access to current Nintendo employees.” To ensure a breadth of content, Dyer and his team “will be using text from existing interviews,” giving credit where credit is due. Dyer will also try to get as many ex-employees from the U.S./U.K. involved as possible. Hopefully this will come to the attention of some Japanese developers so they too can jump on board.
The book has been in development for the past six months, and as of now 30 full spreads have been created. The team is now dedicating all its resources to getting the book out by January 2017.
