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Atari : A Visual History Book is now LIVE on Kickstarter


Greyfox

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I really...really loathe FB ?

  

It's all people talk about at work..

 

It's all I get at home..village banter page is nothing but a 24/7 find fault and gossip site it seems...Ohhh her next door left the dog in the conservatory for 3 hours..barking it away it was...him 3 doors down had a bonfire in his back garden. .them builders over the road been swearing again..etc etc.

 

So i literally do not go near it.

 

 

As for Chris. .

 

My experience literally is buying a second hand copy of the Ocean book and ending up doing research on the one game i wanted answers for myself, thanks to GTW for getting the info for me..

 

A second hand copy of Fusion Magazine years ago..nice feature on Star Wars toys but nothing else stood out

 

And a new copy of History Of US Gold bought from Amazon and which my mate has had on loan for over 18 months. 

 

 

He approached a friend of mine months back when looking for writers for Fusion Magazine and i talked my mate out of it..

 

There was some spat on Social Media between him and another certain individual over claims said individuals work was now not to be used-but when isn't there a spat on social media between writers etc these days? ?

 

Lesson learned and learned well on my part here.

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Regarding the interviews:

 

1 was years old and has been in the public domain since I got it back..Just moved home after Grumpy Old Gamers site went under.

 

The others i didn't keep back ups of..once they'd been safely passed onto Greyfox they were of no use to me..entire point of doing them was so the book had some exclusive interviews.

 

If the people paying to read them get something out of them, then the time i invested in doing them will of been worthwhile. 

 

I think i am at the spilt milk stage now. 

 

Getting involved with this project..

 

Trying to act as middle man between parties like Frank Cohen (hours wasted on interview Q's that never came back with answers, despite repeated assurances they would) and Phillip Morris...

 

Now corners seemingly cut on art used..book to go on general sale ..

 

It just joins advice given and ignored in early days to have a proffessional with experience handle the kickstarter campaign. .

 

If book was always intended to go on general release, proffessional editor and marketing campaign people should of been a given.

 

Not wishing to sound selfish. .but it's no longer my problem..hasn't been for many a month.

 

It has parts which are my content but hands are washed of it.

 

 

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I'm of a clearer head tonight and my main concerns with how the book appears to turning out are as follows:

 

1.Whilst i can appreciate perhaps why Greyfox is producing additional copies to be sold via his website,  money raised could perhaps be intended to fund future books by Greyfox? 

 

If this indeed the case, this turns this project into the start of a Business Venture,rather than a one-off, retirement type project and that should of be made a lot clearer to all from the very start.

 

2.I was never comfortable with 1 of my old interviews being used, whilst it might indeed be new to many people who buy the book, the book itself was sold on exclusive interviews and whilst both Greyfox and myself carried out a number of such interviews,which i hope people enjoy, from a personal stand point i don't like the idea of free to read content being reused in paid for publications. 

 

Just my own stance, but it needs to be made clear.

 

3.Regarding me putting up the interviews i did for the book:That would be criminally unfair to the good people eagerly awaiting the book.

 

I have countless faults,but i am not that narrow minded/selfish as to sour the book experience for backers and future purchasers.

 

I disagree with much regarding the way the book was handled, but i made the choices i felt right at the time and my responsibility to now live with them.

 

 

4.Finally i still think in hindsight the book should of been delayed and certain aspects reworked.

 

The more obscure and lower quality titles should of been removed and replaced if possible. 

 

Games where original and region specific art could not be obtained removed and as above, replaced if possible. 

 

If replacement art could not be found, just drop the games and the page count, lower cost of the book to suit.

 

It was bad enough likes of Mastertronic etc putting C64 screens on A8 game inlays, but now backers can expect C64 cover art for Black Lamp..Blinky's Scary School and Zaxxon? 

 

I'm sure i will be bad mouthed for the above, but above all else i wanted this book to be a testament to what the Atari 8-bit home micro meant to me and to learn from mistakes made on earlier ventures Greyfox and myself to a much lesser degree attempted.

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I skimmed through the pages of this thread to refresh my memory on what had been discussed. 

 

So...

 

The incorrect Zaxxon Cover art was replaced by Greyfox, but he made clear that in cases replacement art for other games featuring incorrect region art etc would be staying if replacement art could not be found as in his opinion,  it would not be a major issue for most people.

 

That's unfortunate, but does explain the issue of incorrect art for Black Lamp and Blinky's Scary School.

 

As for the issue of books being made avaiable for general sale after the kickstarter campain was over...

 

Alatari the Steadfast
Posted May 30
I was a backer of this project, but then decided to withdraw for reasons similar to jaybird3rd.

 

The problem is I have never bought anything from Darren before, and therefore had to decide based on what was presented on Kickstarter. Now maybe I was wrong, and all the problems will be fixed and it will be wonderful. In that case I might regret backing out. However, if I am unhappy then I am out of luck - there are no refunds.

to enjoy..



mchorvat

 
Posted June 6
hi Darren et al,

 

is this book still available for order? I checked kickstarter page but could not find a button to pledge...

 

thanks,

Marco

 

 

Marco's question went unanswered..

 

And why would Alatari the Steadfast  think he might regret backing out of backing the book at Kickstarter? 

 

He could of just withdrawn his pledge, waited for book to be launched, read feedback from backers and then if book was to his liking, ordered a copy from Greyfoxes website.

 

I cannot find anything that said book was to go on general sale at later date.

 

It was all justification for the funding needed to manufacture,  ship and pay taxes on..the number of books needed to supply the backers.

 

So it ended with 665 backers.

 

Do Printers require fixed production runs?

 

Say 500, then 1000 copies or can you put in an order to suit?

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  • 2 months later...


I have had a few people contacting me suggesting it is being claimed on various Social Media sites that i WROTE ST Gamer Magazine. 

 

As well as large parts of Atari visual History.

 


As i have no FB or Twitter account, i am unable to trace the source, but please let me be  100% transparent here once again.

 

Starting with ST Gamer Magazine:

 

 

My involvement was strictly limited to providing interviews with:

Darryl Still
Peter Johnson
colin Porch
Dan Clapson


And i passed on misc triva for, but did not write, The Believe It Or Not sections. 

Reviews were done by:

Marc Johnson
Darren Doyle
Jason Caraway
Jeff Mitchell
Chris Swanson.

Proof Reading by Mike Mee.


I wish to apologise to all the above if they are under the impression i am trying to take credit for their work.
 

 

And once more for clarification on Atari Visual History:

 

I provided:

 

Misc Exclusive interviews for the book

 

Put a few misc Q's in interviews conducted by Darren Doyle as did he in interviews i carried out on the books behalf.

 

I allowed the use of an existing interview of mine.

 

I sourced the books foreward writer but he wrote the foreward. .

 

I found and passed on the details of The Lone Raider coder.

 

 

I would of been bloody hard pressed to do much more..

 

Not being in the possession of either an Atari ST or 800XL for over 20 years, nor owning a PC to run Atari Emulators on.  

 
There clearly are some very odd folk out there with far too much time on their hands.

 

 

If the above makes me a writer or responsible for anyone elses publications...

 

 

Please look forward to my upcoming masterpiece...

 

 

I call it...The Shopping list aka..want anything down the shop..

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I can double up on this..Just for the background on Lost Dragon as mentioned above is completely correct Lost Dragon was as mentioned provided links to the interviews present in my magazines and did not write any part or whole  for the ST Gamer magazine series, This production was and entirely part of the involvement of the people mentioned above, the social media propaganda was fabricated by Kieran Hawkens aka the laird across Twitter in order to sight review removal of his amazon books with plead citing Lost Dragon as a rival writer. this is simply not true, Lost dragon has never contributed with any form of written articles or features in any of Greyfox digital magazines or books.

 

@The Laird, for you exclusively here, if you read this. I can completely hold my hand up with the statement that I wrote 97% of the Atari Visual History and not just a designer as you put it. Lost Dragon did not provide any written words, we both have gone our separate ways sometime now due to difference of opinion, so please stop spreading lies and rumours of information of people you are eager to debunk on your twitter platform. cop on to yourself and grow up ffs.

 

Darren.

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2 hours ago, Greyfox said:

@The Laird, for you exclusively here, if you read this. I can completely hold my hand up with the statement that I wrote 97% of the Atari Visual History and not just a designer as you put it. Lost Dragon did not provide any written words, we both have gone our separate ways sometime now due to difference of opinion, so please stop spreading lies and rumours of information of people you are eager to debunk on your twitter platform. cop on to yourself and grow up ffs.

 

You'd need to confront him on Twitter directly, he isn't here.  

 

The ongoing issues with this moron is people either think putting him in his place isn't worth it/too much bother, or respond to him 'elsewhere' instead of directly on his feed/into other related feeds so that *everyone* involved with him can see what type of person he is.  Just complaining/responding here accomplishes nothing and allows him to continue entwining others into his web of shit.

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I was told via someone who had contacted various sites etc i have contributed to over the years, whilst looking for me (like i say, you will not find me on Twitter or FB) that the individual in question was linking people to this thread in order to prove i was A) A writer and B) In partnership with Greyfox. 

 

 

Hence why we have had to put statements here in order to stop the time of good people on other sites being wasted with this nonsense. 

 

 

Dealing with the latter first:

 

As brief as i can put it, Yes you will find 'content' in Atari Visual History i had a role in, be it interviews for the book or Q's Greyfox submitted on my behalf in interviews he carried out.

 

I sourced the books introduction writer and found a coder Greyfox was looking for.

 

I was a contributing individual, as was Fred_M who allowed use of various Cover Scans.

 

Greyfox and others Wrote the book.

 

As for the aspect of myself being a a Writer..

 

:-)) Ohhh come on.

 

My forum posts are horrendous. 

 

Just ask the likes of Scott Stilphen or staff at Classic Console Magazine or Frank Gasking of GTW or anyone who has used any of my 'interviews' i gave freely..

 

They spent a damn sight more time making the things readable than i put in conducting them.

 

Do you know many writers who don't even own a PC or any wordprocessing software? 

 

Regarding claims i wrote chunks of Atari Gamer Magazine:

 

Again here i sent over a period of weeks, misc triva and general crap to Greyfox to use in any features he planned for the magazine and he wrote them up.

 

I believe i am credited for Taking A Look At..?

 

 

Which indeed was the case.

 

I looked, thought that might be of interest/use and sent it over.

 

Our relationship during Atari Gamer Magazine was different to that of Atari Visual History, so cue myself being credited.

 

 

If anyone has been sent here from Twitter.. 

 

 

Hi.

 

Not much to see really.

 

Sorry for your time being wasted.

 

 

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