Also on the production front: Remember those Final Fantasy VI pieces I posted earlier this week? I didn’t simply throw those online for fun. I’d like to turn that style of content — pairing anecdotes with art and  analytical retrospectives — into a book, and I don’t think it’s a good match for GameSpite Quarterly. (Mainly because I’d like for this to be in color, which the pocket format doesn’t allow.) I also don’t think many people want to read a book full of musings by me and only me. Therefore I would like to crowdsource this one! I’m interested in rounding up as many personal anecdotes as possible about arcade games of the “golden” era as possible (say, through 1985). They don’t necessarily have to be about playing those games when they were new; maybe you first encountered Galaga last year? The important thing is that you have a story to tell about it.

There will be a modest stipend involved! Said stipend may be a sad pittance like five bucks per entry, I dunno — no one’s getting rich off of these books, least of all me (yesterday’s exciting tax experience proved that pretty definitively). But I want to make it worth your while, as best as I can. So drop me an email at toastyfrog at gmail dot com if you’re interested in contributing to a future GameSpite print project. We’ll also accept artwork, like those doodles I included in the FFVI anecdotes.

Here are the important guidelines you need to know:

• Submissions need to be between 500-550 words. This is an exact figure.
• The games in question need to be arcade games that originated between 1970-1985. Pieces on home ports are fine, but the game’s origins should be in the arcades.
• Pretty much anything goes, but keep it relatively clean.
• This book will be in color, so please keep that in mind if you submit art! (And don’t forget that print art needs to be 200 pixels per inch, minimum.)
• There is no immediate deadline for this — six months from now, maybe.
• I love you all. Please email me.