Atari 8 bit computer book

[Scooter83]

I've started to do a guise book for the atari 8 bit computer series . Mostly a cart guide book. No price guide or set rarity guide. But it should be a nice break down on the carts systems and 1st party accessories . Including cart and label variants, demo and prototype carts to the best of my ability.

 

I've broken ground on this project but was just wondering how much interest there is for a book like this. Would it be worth it for the community. Please let me know what you all think since this is probably one of the biggest groups of a8 fans I can think of.

[+davidcalgary29]

Fantastic idea! I'll buy a copy.

[Scooter83]

I've taken the time to reach out to a few people I know to have a nice collection of carts to help with photos and maybe will see if they are willing to give info on games they have that I cannot review to not having them in my personal collection.

[+davidcalgary29]

I'd reach out to Nir, Andre, and the other mega-collectors if you haven't already done this. I can't believe I'm typing this, but even 'Hypnotic Land' should make it in, and including the Polish multi-carts would be a great idea. Question: what will you do about Video 61's carts?

[Scooter83]

B&c computer visions and video 61 I feel should get a home in the homebrew reproduction area. I feel that's fair assessment to me but I'm always up for hearing from the community on their take.

 

I did reach out to a few people but people like nir I still need to.

 

I think this will be a living book cause the estimate online for a full us set of carts vary from 333 to over 500 depending who you ask and what list they provide.

 

I think also the label and cart variant section will be a nice touch since I collect those as well as different game cart programs. But I hope this will give everyone something. Beginners causal collectors and hard core collectors .

[+davidcalgary29]

Video 61 is an interesting case, as they also sell original games like the Tempest carts. I'm also liking their new instructions, which are printed on laminated mini posters. Have you contacted Lance yet? In addition, perhaps you could get permission from the owner of the boxed copy 'Mr. Do!'s Castle' that's been discovered, as that was a real find. In any case, good luck with this project! I'm sure many here will help you with this.

[Scooter83]

I'm sure ill.find more help once people start seeing it come together. I just think there should be a central guide book for us and someplace where all lists can come together and grow from.

[+CharlieChaplin]

Hmmm,

 

if you do this: 1) don't start a Kickstarter campaign (or something similar), 2) do not show pictures of the packages and/or the manuals (this might be also true for screenshots of the program and a photo of the Atari cartridge), 3) do not make big adverts...

 

...otherwise Atari might claim a copyright infringement regarding their logos, artwork, etc. This has just happened to someone else:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/993169463/games-for-atari-1977-to-1995

 

Quote: "Description of copyrighted material: in-game graphics, screenshots, box art, and logos from classic Atari video games. Description of infringing material: physical book to feature uncleared reproductions of the copyrighted material."

 

I hope this will not happen to you and therefore wish you good luck with your book project !!

Edited August 30, 2017 by CharlieChaplin

[Scooter83]

I was thinking of cart pictures taken by me or fellow members who physically own their respective carts. i figure that would be covered by fair use. screen shots too i would imagine to be the same way as per pat contri's nintendo book. I guess its about fair use and what Atari thinks is such. Its hard to have a cart guide with variants without visual examples. which i would think be covered by fair use.

 

For as packaging and manuals i planned not to include in the book due to said reasons you stated. but cart scans if credit given to the respective cart/ photo holder that should cover copyright claims on that.

 

Kickstarter I might need help for getting things printed and get the ball rolling. ( depending on how much this would cost and if can by myself afford to self kickstart this project). Time will tell and not too worried about that at this point ( day 4 of my project).

 

My advertising plan would be limited to here and a few other boards that I think might have some interest in the completion of this book. ( which is why for this feeler thread to see if there is enough interest for me to continue this project further).

 

It would be nice to be able to fulfill this book to the people who are big into this area..

 

 

What i wish i could see is what that book looked like on kickstarter before the claim was made. Would be nice to see what they were doing /way they were doing it and compare that to how pat did his book and maybe learn something to avoid issues going forward.

[KLund1]

This will be a large project, be sure. There were/are 100's of 8-bit carts. A lot can be found in here with some major searching. A Kick-start would be a good place to get additional funds after you do a good search in here.

I'll bet that you can find 90% of them on a google search, and 9% in here. Then .8% from this thread, if all goes ok. It will be the .2% that will be the major challenge.

But then working up each and every description of those carts will take a lot time.

If you do this, know you will need to invest a lot of your time.

But we in the Atari community wold be very grateful!

[Scooter83]

I have limited time but I hope those who have games and utility carts I don't have could provide pics and maybe a review or description that can be used in the book.

I gave up waiting on someone to wrote the book and thought I guess I should try

[+orpheuswaking]

I'm always down to help, although I have a feeling you have all the same carts as I do

[Scooter83]

Orpheuswaking send me a message cause not only titles I can use but label variants I can use too.never know what you may have

[towmater]

I've started to do a guise book for the atari

 

Not full of typos, I hope. Just kidding, I would love this, as we now have ways of playing many, or even every game, and there is a need for some curated content and hopefully even mini-manuals so that we don't have to wade through all of the trash and maybe never find the treasure. I'm sure I could search about each rom before loading, but that is hit-or-miss with a low signal to noise ratio, so I'd like to see a series of such guides in print for every system. I think there may be something like this for NES?

 

I don't know if label variants is really a useful notion, as it is likely discoveries will be made and the info obsoleted.

[Bill Loguidice]

 

Not full of typos, I hope. Just kidding, ...

 

That's a valid point, frankly. There have been many a self-published book that have been written poorly and/or poorly copy edited, even some high profile ones relevant to our interests. Addressing that HAS to be part of the equation in a book's production.

 

Of course, any book - including the ones I've done for big publishers - also have their fair share of typos and editorial blunders, but there's usually a big difference between those issues and the ones in a self-published work that does not have good (or any) editing.

[Scooter83]

Well I don't intend on writing the book on my phone so the autocorrect function picking silly words and spellings should be greatly cut down before editing.

[Zap!]

Totally interested.

[Scooter83]

I have the lay out pretty much figured out for the main section with a general idea for the label variant section. So far the main section is around 200 pages give or take plus the other section. I do need help getting cart pictures for the hard to come by utility carts and information on them for the corresponding text sections. If anyone is interested in it feel free to let me know. I have 233 different titles at the moment but I know the cart total is much much higher.

[+davidcalgary29]

Can you list those that you need? That might help.