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VCS Encyclopedia "Coming Soon"


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Also, for those not in the USA, the publisher I'm using has printers in the USA, UK, and Australia, so you can purchase and it ships locally. No outrageous international shipping charges!

I'm VERY interested in knowing more about the Australian ordering option! Having said that, i couldn't wait - i just ordered it from Amazon US - it just looked too good! :D

 

If i can save in future (3 more to go at least) then that would ge great! Also, I can pass the word around here to get people more interested in ordering if it saves on those damn outrageous shipping charges!

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I'm VERY interested in knowing more about the Australian ordering option! Having said that, i couldn't wait - i just ordered it from Amazon US - it just looked too good! :D

 

If i can save in future (3 more to go at least) then that would ge great! Also, I can pass the word around here to get people more interested in ordering if it saves on those damn outrageous shipping charges!

 

Thank you very much for the order! I really appreciate it and am sorry that you had to pay for international shipping. From what my printers tell me there is an Australian printer, and it is supposedly available to local sites/stores. I know for the US and European versions it has shown up on the big sites like Amazon and Barnes and Noble, but I've heard it showing up on smaller online stores as well. Not sure who the big book sellers are there but you might want to check them out to see if they carry any of my books. The Sega Master System Encyclopedia will probably be the best option to look for at the moment (not to buy necessarily but to see if they have a listing for my books). It can take weeks or months for my books to show up on various other sites. If you happen to find something please let me know as I'd love to be able to link to it.

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Hi there!

My copy arrived this week here in Germany. I don´t have expected this size ... yes, it´s a real encyclopedia!

Good work, Derek, I like it very much ... when will the next volume be published .-)

LLe

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Maybe it's my age, but I think it is very important a printed version. I bought my copy on May 11 and was delivered May 21.

Now Brazil already has a copy of Volume 1.

Congratulations for the work.

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Y'all are really amazing. In the last three posts people on three different continents have informed me that they have gotten my book. In less that 3 weeks people on four continents (Europe, Australia, North and South America) have it. It's very humbling. Thank you all for your support and hope you are enjoying it! Can't wait to get the rest of them out for y'all to enjoy it. Now just need to get Africa, Asia and Antarctica!

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Printed book arrived here in Austria today.

 

I also assumed that glossy paper would have been used from posted pictures in the beginning of this thread, but maybe it really gives a more nostalgic feeling this way. Page cropping is within tolerable limits but far from perfect and I expect it to be better in future editions. Also I'm sure that for some of the scanned boxes, better ones can be found to include like Donkey Kong Jr for example where there is still a part of the Musicland sticker on the box and a peeled off one visible. Just get in touch with people here - I'm sure the community is willing to help out with nicer scans.

 

For me, the price to quality ratio is not the best (paid 44 GBP shipped from Amazon.co.uk) but overall, I'm happy with the offered product and look forward to the remaining volumes.

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Mine arrived today to my workplace, so have only scanned through it but I think it's amazing to see the work gone into it. Well done to all involved, this is a great project to take on! The pages remind me of old comic book paper, I for one prefer them over glossy paper, old skool!

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Glad to liked the book FrOst, didn't think of it like that, but now you mention it..lol. All I can say it will be a while before you've gone through it from start to finish. It's a thick book and one which would be handy to knock out annoying siblings for a few minutes while you try and get you fix :)

 

Thanks for the support , great to hear and see people appreciating the work , effort and time to produce a book of its type.

Edited by Greyfox
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Yea I plan on kind of 'saving' it till I get a decent chance to sit down and read through it, it really does have an Encyclopedia look to it, it's brilliant. As you know Greyfox we have a long weekend this weekend, so I'll have a good chance to have a read!

 

My Everdrive for the Snes arrived yesterday too, so hopefully I get a chance to play that over the long weekend too.

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Yea I plan on kind of 'saving' it till I get a decent chance to sit down and read through it, it really does have an Encyclopedia look to it, it's brilliant. As you know Greyfox we have a long weekend this weekend, so I'll have a good chance to have a read!

 

My Everdrive for the Snes arrived yesterday too, so hopefully I get a chance to play that over the long weekend too.

Yeah , I'm hoping to get some more work done on my coin op book this weekend so, I won't be playing any games, well maybe sneak one in on the jxd ;). Again delighted that you like the look and feel of the book, it is a monster and I had a great time designing it for Derek minus the long hours involved. So happy reading and have some great fun with the SNES ever drive , I may get one, one day, maybe you can give me the low down on it when I've had a go?

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What's the story on this book, As an arcade collector my interest is piqued!

Hiya Hyperboy, without derailing or going off the subject of Derek book within this post, I am indeed being working on a Coin-op book since 2012, but due to work and other commitments it was put on the back burner for some time, but I have now returned to it to hopefully start a crowd fund raiser for It later in the year hopefully, but if you want to see more, click here! for more information which explains delay and other antidotes :)

 

Thanks for the interest.

 

Darren.

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I'll probably have to write up a full review of Volume One sometime. In short, though, it's a bit pricey, but an impressive collection of material for a large swath of Atari's catalog. Color art is everywhere, giving you screenshots, manual scans, cart pics, and so on.

 

The downside (other than the price) is some poor editing, and some of the physical pics aren't the best, with price tags in many places, and, worse, leftover thumbnail artifacts. Not enough to give this a negative overall, but a bit wince-inducing when they come up.

 

Overall, though, this is an impressive work and I am looking forward to volume 2 whenever it comes along...

Edited by Jaynz
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Hiya Hyperboy, without derailing or going off the subject of Derek book within this post, I am indeed being working on a Coin-op book since 2012, but due to work and other commitments it was put on the back burner for some time, but I have now returned to it to hopefully start a crowd fund raiser for It later in the year hopefully, but if you want to see more, click here! for more information which explains delay and other antidotes :)

 

Thanks for the interest.

 

Darren.

WOW Darren, your Arcade book looks killer. Sign me up like yesterday! LOL I really hope you can make it to the finish line on this project, as it looks like one of the better Arcade books I've ever seen. Keep up the good work.

 

Chris

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WOW Darren, your Arcade book looks killer. Sign me up like yesterday! LOL I really hope you can make it to the finish line on this project, as it looks like one of the better Arcade books I've ever seen. Keep up the good work.

 

Chris

 

Fingers crossed :).. now on with what you thought of the Atari VCS Encyclopedia, if you haven't acquired it yet..why not?..:)...have a good one

 

Darren.

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Fingers crossed :).. now on with what you thought of the Atari VCS Encyclopedia, if you haven't acquired it yet..why not?.. :)...have a good one

 

Darren.

I did buy a copy, and I commented at the top of page "7" and then some. It's a very good book, but my copy had some serious production issues(pics posted). I have Derek's Master System Encyclopedia, and found that to have zero issues. So to have a very similar book in regards to size and price, I can't justify getting another one until the "Major" issues my copy had are confirmed "fixed". It was a night and day difference between the two books.

 

The matte finish of the pages was fine with me, as was the layout and content. What wasn't OK, was the terrible cropping issues in my copy, as well as some severe print problems where several pages had faded 1-2" stripes running down the length of the pages.

 

It seems as though the fading may have been isolated to just my copy, but the cropping was not, and I found that very annoying. I buy any and all books of this nature, as I want to see more books come from established authors, as well as others who get the bug to put out something cool. I don't think any of these books are made for the money, as I don't believe there is much to be made, simply for the "niche" market of these kinds of books. So to see such "labors of love", I'm always happy to support them at any price.

 

So I'm hoping at some point, my issues are confirmed fix, but until then, at it's current price, I can't justify buying another one.

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Still think quality control should be at the printer. I'm assuming whoever is binding the books should be looking at the pages.

 

Phil

I completely agree, but if they aren't doing there jobs at the printer, someone should be calling them on it and making corrections, especially for a book that cost $50. If the printer is unable or unwilling to fix these issues, they should not be used, PERIOD.

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I was looking forward to this one. I found the print quality as well as the artwork scans to vary from fair to poor. Lot's of color bleeding, printing looks like it was done on an inkjet. The idea of putting and entire manual on a single page is a bad idea, especially considering the poor print quality. I ended up returning the book to Amazon.

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Hey Everyone,

 

First off I want to thank everyone who has purchased my book. I know some of you have had some issues in regards to the printing of them, so I wanted to make a post and let everyone know what's up. Also I'd like to apologize for being absent on here of late, as my day job has had me on the road recently, which when coupled with my impending move in a couple of months means my time has been incredibly short. That said, let's get started.

 

On the print quality and cropping. I have been in touch with the printers and alerted them to the issues. They are attempting to make some adjustments, and in future volumes we are going to be able to make some adjustments that will hopefully alleviate (but not completely eliminate) the issues. They have also informed me that depending on where the book is printed has some impact as they are upgrading their printing presses in some locations (both in the USA and the UK). Hopefully once they have upgraded the presses and we make the necessary adjustments in future volumes (it is all but impossible to make the adjustments on this one as it would require a complete redesign, which just simply isn't in the budget)

 

On the paper. I know some of you have expressed disappointment with the matte paper. Believe me, I wish we could have done glossy, but it simply isn't an option at this point. The only two ways to get glossy paper is to go with a publisher or pay for a batch of them out of pocket. Given that this is a four volume, 1600 page set on a nearly four decade old system, the odds of me finding a publisher aren't that great. Paying out of pocket isn't an option either as it would take tens of thousands of dollars, up front, to get a print run of only a thousand. Even if I had the money, which I don't, it still wouldn't be a viable option since distribution would be an issue. I simply don't have the infrastructure in place to support direct sales (not to mention the fact I can be on the road for weeks at a time, which makes it very difficult to ship things on a regular basis). This would also make it much more expensive for European purchasers as I would have to add international shipping to all of them. Hopefully one of these days one of these printers will upgrade to glossy paper, and keep it a reasonable price, and when they do I will jump over to them.

 

I know the printer I have gone with has some issues, but at the moment there are only two printers our there than can meet my needs (print on demand, international printing presses, reasonable costs, handles payment and shipping, grants me Amazon access). The other printer does have slightly higher quality control, however they are a LOT more expensive. I actually went with both printers on my Sega Master System book, and here are the issues. The most obvious one is that the other printer only does softcover. Because the printing charges are a lot higher, the end cost is a lot higher ( $50 vs $65), and the royalty is less than half of what I'm making with my current printer (and the royalty I'm making isn't a whole lot to begin with). I have hundreds of hours and several thousand dollars invested in this book, which means I have to sell several hundred just to break even, so going with the other printer means I would have to sell twice as many copies at a higher price. I know there are lots of you who are hardcore Atari 2600 fans, but it remains to be seen just how many of you are game to spend $200 on a book series. My hope is that I will make enough off of the first volume to fund the second volume, and then use those profits to fund the next one and so forth. I don't want anyone to think that I'm getting rich off of putting out a subpar project. I'm doing this for the love of it and want there to be something of quality on the 2600 system.

 

I know some of you have had issues, and I know some of you aren't pleased. Just know that I'm trying my hardest to produce the best quality book while making it affordable to everyone around the globe, and while trying not to end up bankrupt in the process ;)

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