Atari : A Visual History Book (Concept Project)

[Greyfox]

Hey, thank You Lost Dragon, this would be wonderful thanks, I've been so busy putting together spreads for the book, getting a ton of writing done and then formulating questions for the many interviewees I have have contacted me when they've seen what the book will be, it's incredible that I am now talking with those that made games I adored as a kid. It's all surreal.

[Lost Dragon]

Well..

 

You have the misc info from Chris Abbot.

 

GTW have given me a FB contact you might like to try.

 

You've the support of an old Atari contact of mine.

 

The misc info from the PS2 coder i sent over.

 

It's all very scattered and raw,but i am sure you can weave it into the book somehow.

 

Is there a deadline for submission of material?

 

No point sending you any odds n sods if they can't be used.

 

I'd just send them to Atarimania instead.

[Greyfox]

Yes, it's starting to pile up now, so going to be headlining the submissions for now late August and early September to have content then submitted for grammar and proofreading by my guy. So I will try and get everything in

[Lost Dragon]

Sounding like the book has real potential.

 

I've found the information that interests myself the most,has come from dedicated projects on Ocean/U.S Gold/Gremlin Graphics /Bitmap Bros etc..

 

Along with likes of Atari Crypt interviews, the interview with Daniel Macre from Lankhor you had in ST Gamer magazine.

 

Also likes of Arcade Attack doing fantastic Jaguar related interviews..

 

Tom Charnock doing a superb piece on the Iron Soldier games.

 

If you can get enough fresh faces onboard doing reviews,articles and interviews, you'll be doing the A8 proud.

 

You've come a long way since Atari Gamer magazine.

 

I'm sure it's been a learning curve,but if you can put the lessons learned into good effect, you'll have something to be very proud of.

[Greyfox]

Thanks fella really appreciate your praise

[Lost Dragon]

I only say the same to you,as i do to likes of Atari Crypt, arcade Attack etc.

 

I'm all too aware of just how time consuming and frustrating, just getting a stand alone interview can be.

 

When you guys reach industry folks that are beyond my humble reach and the supposed Big Guns and their resources have yet to cover for what ever reason, you should be thanked and supported.

 

Without the efforts you all put in, the information simply wouldn't be out there, would it?.

 

I subscribed to likes of Edge,Gamestm and RetroGamer for countless years and learnt a lot about likes of A8 Elite, ST chuck Rock II,etc, but on the flipside...

 

Bought the Gremlin Graphics book, History of US Gold etc

 

 

So many potential interview candidates were missed, questions not asked when chance was available.

 

 

So i've had to reach out to people and get the answers myself.

 

Damn sight easier for me to simply sit back and enjoy the work you guys do now, then risk buying a magazine and hope there is an article or 2 of interest.

 

I've not returned to gaming on the A8 since i moved from it to the C64 years and years ago, but like the 2600,i still love reading about it, if it's done right.

 

The Art Of Atari book for example was pure hog heaven for myself, if your A8 book can fill a similar void in my book collection, you'll have done the community proud.

 

It sounds like you have them onboard..so confidence is high.

[Lost Dragon]

Not sure if you've any plans to cover Databyte.. But if you do, best of luck.

 

When i interviewed Geoff Philips for GTW, i asked about Databyte's Adam Caveman and had this reply:

 

 

Geoff :I would ask Tim Holland if I had any contact with him… but he disappeared from my radar. I asked Richard Spitalny of First Star if they knew where he was, and he did kindly reply, but he did not know either. Databyte was, as far as I knew, just Tim Holland, with help from his girlfriend Karen. No-one, as far as I know actually worked there with him – I suppose there may of been people like myself working at remote sites and sending stuff in.

 

I think he (Databyte) was more of a distributor of American games.. but I could be wrong. I got to know Tim through Orpheus, and we did many conversions for him, and often went down to see him at Kentish Town, and later Hampstead. Tim was very fond of his Atari.. The name Adam Caveman does ring a bell but I could not swear to it.

 

If these guys lost contact with Tim

.

[high voltage]

It would've been nice to include some stuff from Electronic Arts, for example. Their stuff shined on Atari, M.U.L.E.,Archon, Pinball Construction Set, The seven cities of Gold and other.

[Lost Dragon]

Sorry to be the bearer of more bad news but just had a message from GTW regarding the FB contact who's details they gave me for your book.

 

Apparently the guy hardly ever goes on Z FB, it took months for him to reply to GTW...

 

You might get lucky, but if you have a deadline for contributions, chances are he will reply after it's long expired.

 

Didn't want you going in with false hopes here..

 

Sorry pal

[Greyfox]

It would've been nice to include some stuff from Electronic Arts, for example. Their stuff shined on Atari, M.U.L.E.,Archon, Pinball Construction Set, The seven cities of Gold and other.

These are all in here too fella, leaving nothing out for the true Atari 8-bit fan. Enjoy

[Lost Dragon]

A challenge for you then Greyfox.

 

How about no score or ratings when it comes to looking back at A8 games, in any section of the book..and no top 10 or 25 lists....

 

Simply let the review text speak for itself? .

 

That way, people can decide for themselves if they want to try a particular game and you avoid all the daft nonsense of people saying how on earth did game A only get ##% or #/10.

 

Up for it?

Edited July 17, 2018 by Lost Dragon

[Greyfox]

This isn't a magazine-style approach and will not cover any form of bias rating of the games and was personally a huge regret for myself incorporating these with my Atari Gamer magazine, as it labels the games under a ranking and potentially stopping those that never experienced them cast a shadow of doubt based on somebody else's opinion which could in turn, they've either never played the game on real hardware at the time of the original games release or watched a youtube video of gameplay to make up there mind if the game was worthy of a high or low score based on viewing, this to me is simply slandering the game with a bias rating and it's even worse when it's completely inaccurate too after you've played the game only to discover it is a lot better than you were led to believe.

 

So NO! there will be, thank god!, nothing like this in the book.

Edited July 17, 2018 by Greyfox

[Lost Dragon]

I personally find the top # games/movies etc articles in mainstream magazines to be little more than filler.

 

Votes cast on social media and it always ends with people claiming results are rigged etc.

 

It doesn't belong in a book.

 

The other factor with review scores..espically on the A8 is what are you going to do?

 

Give seperate scores/ratings for the 16K and 32K versions of certain titles?

 

What about those avaiable on Tape..Disk and Cartridge?

 

If the reviewer is just pulling them off a flash cart or using an emulator. .the experience is going to differ from someone praying the likes of Red Max or Ace Of Aces will load and be worth the 20 min+ loading times.

 

Have you specified any review conditions to your contributors?

 

I'm asking these questions because your looking to sell me a product, a product i know seek out rather than subscribe to magazines and i want to know how it's going to differ from the PDF magazines you've previously done, as i am sure others do.

 

So your time in answering is appreciated.

[Greyfox]

Just a brief update for those you following this wonderful project in production, I thought I'd give this a new update. So well into the 200+ page count so far and doesn't seem to be slowing down and I'm incredibly humbled by those that have contributed to the book so far and to those that have been so supportive of the project, this is going to be amazing to hold in your hands and to be able to have an Atari 8-bit of majestic proportions

 

So here is some recent pages created in the Gumball factory.

Edited August 24, 2018 by Greyfox

[Lost Dragon]

Looking fantastic my friend.

 

Some great memories brought back by the titles shown.

 

Poured hours into Feud. .another of the A8's very brown looking games.. (not sure if you plan to cover Gremlin Graphics:Basil The Great Mouse Detective?)..

 

A very quick n dirty port..bugged as well.

 

But A8 Dropzone. ..simply THE version to play, if you had the skills.

 

This is looking like a fantastic coffee table book.

[Lost Dragon]

Just forwarded over a name you might like to try contacting...if it's of no use, i will suggest it to Antic for a future podcast.

 

To hear a Sega coder talk of his early A8 work, how advanced the hardware really was etc made for nice reading.

 

Never expected him to say the A8 hardware did things better than the Sega Genesis, but sadly he didn't go into specifics

 

He did name who in his view, was the first to realize music should be an integral part of A8 games.

 

Anywho, see what you think.

 

His personal website is now dead,but he does appear on FB, that's an area i cannot help you with though.

Edited September 15, 2018 by Lost Dragon

[zapiy]

Looks awesome bud.

[NewKillerAmerica]

Amazing work Greyfox!!! Keep it up man! :thumbsup:

[Greyfox]

I will just leave this here ?

Edited October 20, 2018 by Greyfox

[Lost Dragon]

Right.

 

It's all well and good me moaning about how p#ss poor the A8 coverage is and has been in RG magazine for some time now, but that's not going to change a damn thing.

 

Your book however just might.

 

Emailed 4 more folk on your behalf to see if they would be interested in assisting you with the book and messaged you another 2 you'll have to reach via FB etc.

 

My thinking is..you are only getting 1 shot at this, so the more industry folk you can reach and have involved,the better.

[Greyfox]

For those of you interested if you visit our website and sign up for our newsletter at the bottom of the holding page, you will be automatically be notified when this project goes live for funding with your help of course

 

Please visit us @ www.greyfoxbooks.com

 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/greyfoxbooks

Twitter: @greyfoxbooks

 

For updates as they happen.

 

Thanks everyone for your support so far.

 

Kind regards

 

Darren.

[Lost Dragon]

Can i make a constructive suggestion with regards to how you approach publisher profiles for any chapters in the book?.

 

Take a look at what's already been covered.

There have been a wealth of company profiles on likes of Mastertronic, English Software, Codemasters etc in the likes of RetroGamer magazine over the years and we have seen dedicated books on US Gold and Gremlin Graphics.

 

Unless your features are going to cover new ground and you've reached people previously unavailable/over looked, you run the risk of having the same old stories being repeated yet again.

 

The likes of Future Publishing for 1 are pushing these collected works bookzines at a fair rate of knots.

Old articles on Atari systems and games, all lumped into one handy collection with maybe 1 or 2 new articles at best.

 

I'd hope your book could offer a new slant on what's gone before and if you do use familiar names, you adopt a different style than the format the likes of RetroGamer etc use.

 

Your book needs to compliment and expand on what's gone before.

A lot of people won't be looking to pay good money for familiar sounding print.

 

I've heard the same stories from Ex-Ocean, Codemasters and the like with same triva in reviews of their biggest games, it's gotten rather stale.

If you don't think your company profile can add a lot to the sterling work someone's already done for say RetroGamer Magazine, then drop it and write a profile on someone that has largely been ignored.

Edited November 29, 2018 by Lost Dragon