Hi, kids. Contrary to appearances, I’m neither dead nor have I abandoned this site to let Levi turn it into The Unofficial Star Wars Homepage (although Timothy Zahn’s books are good sci-fi that has held up through the years quite nicely). I’ve just been otherwise occupied, having spent the past few days writing a few text pieces to fill in some gaps in the magazine, assembling the last bits of artwork (thanks to David Motowylak for coming through with a Bionic Commando box shot), and copy editing the results. In fact, that’s all I did over the weekend. Currently I’m about 3/5 of the way through the copy editing process, which is slow going. I just don’t have the stamina to proofread this much content in one sitting, I fear. My back and neck are killing me from being hunched over my laptop for two days solid, and my brain’s in a bit of a state, too.
But anyway! Now that everything’s sorted out and in the final stretch, I’ve put together this issue’s landing page/table of contents so’s you can get a sense of what’s being covered and how it’s being organized. I’m sorry to say that I took a rather prosaic approach to the history of Game Boy and broke it up pretty much chronologically, with each major section prefaced by a brief historical overview before delving into the individual game breakdowns (and looks at the competition, too).
As you can see, moving to a quarterly format doesn’t mean we’re publishing less content — this book is three months of material being printed up in one go. In fact, I think the numbers work out to a slight surplus: GameSpite Year One, Vol. 1 devoted about 300 pages to six months of online material, and this issue is 160 pages — but the material is more compact this time around since I’ve used a smaller typeface and a more space-conscious title layout for each individual contribution.
Assuming I can devote a couple of hours to copy editing each night this week, I expect to submit the content for a proof no later than Saturday, and I should have the proof back and double-checked no later than two weeks after that. I realize I could just go straight from initial copy edit to general publication, but there’s no real hurry on this besides my eagerness to have the book in my hands and see the final fruits of our labor. I think we can afford to take a couple of weeks to weed out any glitches or errors and make sure everyone is getting the best possible product for their money.
I know this is may sound like a bit much, but it may not be the worst idea in the world to start thinking about ways to sell this stuff at PAX someday (even if it’s just through a third-party vendor).
My takeover plans: foiled!
The Quarterly looks fantastic. Can’t wait to get my grubby hands on it.
Wow, you have a ton of content in there! I guess I should have figured that there would be a lot of content with a 160-page book.
If the copy-editing is causing you grief, is there a chance you could find someone to work on it with you?
WOW, this looks quite impressive.
How much will this cost again?
I might be ready to pre-order ASAP.
I’m shooting for $12 per copy, and I’m considering some sort of premium-priced limited hardbound release as well due to a surprising amount of interest in one. However, there is no such thing as a pre-order for this. It’s being printed through an on-demand service, which means they only take orders once there is something to be demanded.
Daedalian Opus was one of my first Gameboy games! And another one of my first Gameboy games which you also mentioned in passing in the latest podcast is Gargoyle’s Quest. SO awesome, largely unheralded, and although a 1st gen game, had some of the best graphics EVER seen on the original GB.
I’d love if a hardbound premium was offered! Like a fool, I let the last hardbound go when I had a chance. I’ve been regretting that decision…
The Gameboy has some of the best nostalgic memories for me. I can’t wait to read this.
Count me in as someone else who’d throw down for a hardcover version of this.