So, my GameSpite Quarterly 8 proof showed up yesterday — quite a bit ahead of schedule. I guess if I pushed it, the book could launch in a week or so. I’m not sure there’s any pressing need for me to push it, though. I’ll take a leisurely stroll through the corrections, finish up the photography, and aim to have it ready sometime between April 15 and May 1.
I have to say, this thing is a beast. It’s one folio (40 pages, to be specific) shorter than GameSpite Quarterly 5, but physically it feels exactly as large… and flipping through the pages, it seems far more dense. There’s much more text and depth in the articles in this volume… a trade-off, I suppose, for the fact that it is necessarily somewhat less comprehensive a look at its respective platform than GSQ5 was. There were simply more games released for PlayStation than for NES, and those games are more difficult to come by, take longer to complete, and cover a wider spectrum of genres and quality. Plus, the PlayStation isn’t quite so well documented a platform as the NES, at least not in retrospective form. I feel like the time for navel-gazing PS1 retrospection is only now beginning. Which is why we’re doing this book. Why not get things started, I figured?
Honestly, since it’s still a month before GSQ8‘s scheduled publish date, I may go in and add another 40 pages just because I can. (Alternately: just because I am a giant idiot who loves making himself suffer needlessly for his obsessions.) I mean, I didn’t even mention Umihara Kawase Shun 2nd! Unthinkable.
In the meantime, I’m knee-deep in the fourth subscriber book. It’ll be a follow-up to the third, another “anecdotal history of games” volume mixing essays about personal memories with objective looks at games like Tron, Centipede, Galaga, and Super Mario Bros. Anyone who is signed up to help out with the cost of running the site and forums as of this month can expect to receive their books in June or July. And anyone who hasn’t received their third book due to international shipping complications or having out-of-date addresses on file can expect that to show up within a few days, as I sent those stragglers out this week.
In summary: I still love working in print.
Book looks great, as always.
One incentive to publish is sooner than the beginning of next month would be to allow us to take advantage of the money saving coupon codes that you posted here a few days back.
Yeah, that thought occurred to me, but I would really have to sweat it to finish the book in time for people to have more than a day or two of coupon codes, and I just don’t think I can handle it after the amount of effort I’ve already poured into this thing. I have barely done anything with my free time besides work on it all since the beginning of the year.
Don’t burn yourself out!! :)
The “Open” button looks realistic. I wish there was some way you could rig the book to open when you pressed it.
There is! Make sure your finger is sticky when you press it.
Let the retrospection begin. Very much looking forward to this issue. You work is appreciated!
I really am impressed with how gorgeous the print version looks. I’m trying my best to move away from buying printed materials (unless they’re rare and second-hand), what with my embrace lately of the Kindle. But I think I’ll have to make an exception here. Your love and attention is very evident in GSQ8, and I, for one, am more than ready to begin the PS1 retrospecting.