Hey folks, just a quick bit of janitorial work regarding GameSpite Quarterly 5. Unfortunately, it looks like there’s a pretty noticeable goof on page 70: The text is skewed 12 degrees clockwise. All of the text. You can see what it’s supposed to look like here, but the actual printed version doesn’t look quite right. What with the text being skewed 12 degrees and all.
The really infuriating is that it wasn’t this way in the proof version — this is a problem that crept in during the corrections process. For some really annoying reason, Adobe InDesign doesn’t play nicely with MacBook trackpads. As I laid out this issue, I was constantly correcting objects that suddenly rotated themselves for no good reason. The problem is that Apple trackpads have been tweaked to work like iPhone/iPad interfaces, offering the same drag, pinch, and twist gesture commands as their mobile touch devices. Unfortunately, in my experience, those gestures are horrible in an indirect touch context — the only place the rotating motion ever actually seems to work is with layout objects in InDesign, and only when I’m not trying to make use of it. When I try to rotate things with the trackpad, nothing happens. When I’m simply trying to scroll the screen to the next page, though, half the time my swiping motion is mistaken for a twist.
Evidently that’s what happened in my final rounds of proofing, and somehow I failed to notice it when I scanned over the final PDF, probably because page 70 is the single least interesting page layout in the entire book. I don’t think this is a crisis worth of a refund, and also I’d like to be able to pay my rent next month, but I would like to offer an apology for this error. I’m really meticulous about proofing and feel terrible that this slipped past my notice. The page will be reprinted correctly in issue 6, for whatever that’s worth. You can also right-click to download the corrected version as a PDF that can be read more easily (and, I suppose, printed and slipped into your copy of the book, if you like).
Hopefully that will be the only problem with the book that comes to light. Otherwise, I’ll… I dunno, eat my skull in despair or something.
(Well, there’s also the matter of the three articles that I overlooked when laying out the book; they’ll be printed in GSQ6 as well. And this is precisely why we will never do another maximum-page-count monstrosity ever again.)
On the plus side, this did prompt me to do some research and discover that those stupid trackpad gestures can be turned off, so this error will never happen again. There’s room for plenty of other errors, of course! But not this one. So, in summary: mea culpa, my apologies, and corrections have been put forth.
Does that mean that when these books are mega popular our skewed versions will be worth millions on ebay? Cos if so, thanks!
The book is still a great value, in my opinion. Sorry if I seemed to be nitpicking!
Not at all. I’m glad you brought it to my attention.
Yeah, like Pimento said. This sounds like the ultra collectible error-print edition. Now I’ just going to read the web content instead so I can keep my copy of the printed book in mint condition and hermetically seal it away for a few decades until the value hits a sweet spot.
With the crazy layout, I was trying to figure out if it was intentional.
I hate double posts, but let me clarify that by crazy, I mean crazy cool.
I wouldn’t worry about it, Edge magazine has been printing content at unreadable angles ever since it started being published so you’re in good company.
“Of all of Nintendo’s early Famicom titles, only two were never published in America.”
Nintendo also released Gomoku Narabe Renju, at least one Mahjong game, and F1 Race before Super Mario Bros.
You scared me for a minute. I was thinking of replacing my Macbook, but all that talk of iPad/Pod-like trackpads… glad to hear it can be turned off.
I can’t imagine how tough it was to organize, design, and proof this issue. The layouts have come a long way from GS: Year One, and the misprint didn’t ruin the article. This book is a gift to anyone who’s ever owned and loved the NES, so thanks to the whole crew for their efforts.
Though the following question may be a bit off-topic, it comes after reading the article about the PlayChoice 10. Does anyone know if there was a playable version of Zelda on any of these cabinets? I seem to remember it being my first experience with the series before I actually received a copy as a birthday present when I turned five. It could have been imagined or even a dream, but I was wondering if anyone had ever seen it before.
Sturat: Weren’t those FDS games? I was writing specifically about cartridge-based games. If not… whoops.
BirdWeak: I can’t imagine Zelda working well in a PlayChoice context, and according to this site http://playchoice.riemen.net/ it was never a PC10 or Vs. title. My guess is that you played it on one of those multiple-cart demo systems at a department store.
You know, I’m kinda surprised Nintendo doesn’t just edit the crosses into pitchforks like Dragon Quest’s been using since VIII, or stars like in the NES Dragon Warriors. I’d think those lowercase Ts would be the only real things keeping it from being an import Virtual Console release these days, considering there’s been Devil World references in stuff like Art Style: PiCTOBiTS and the blue devil himself appeared as an assist trophy in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
Of course, I’ve heard it’s not that good, but still…..
re: trackpad
It must be an Adobe thing. I have been using the trackpad for a couple years and have never had anything accidentally rotate. In fact, I would say that the rotation is actually not sensitive enough.
Ha! Yes, those gestures are a bane to many designers. Would a style sheet have saved the day?
(Could be worse – could be Quark)
oh hey, it’s kohler’s work, almost verbatim
I just received my shipment of Q4, Q5, and Volume 2. Jeremy, these really are amazing, especially Q5. Sorry to hear about page 70; I’d be annoyed if I were in your shoes, too. But in the context of all this awesomeness, this little blip is easily lost in the rounding within the coolness formula, even more so since you’ve fully debugged the issue. So, thank you and thanks to all the contributors.
A Phil Collins reference? Jeremy, you cad.