Mega Drive: Total - A book I've been working on

[Lorfarius]

About a month ago I was involved in a new quarterly retro publication called Pixel Nation (http://pixel-nation.co.uk/) where a group of retro nuts did their best to come up with something special. One thing me and a few others have been working on like crazy is a coffee table book, complete worldwide release guide for the Genesis/MD. With so many MD games its going to be split over several volumes and this is the first.

Due this July, pre-orders are available now:

http://pixel-nation.co.uk/index.php/...al-1-pre-order

Couple of page samples to show the sort of thing we are aiming for:




I'm really proud of this, its a huge undertaking and after months of works its almost complete, it won't just be about the games as there's hardware guides in there and detailed articles on the system history. There will be a PDF version like with the PN book but I'd say the printed book will be best as we will be going for a high quality glossy print. Thanks for looking guys!

[Phantar]

Mmmh... looks interesting. Colour me intrigued.

So I take it you and your collaborators are publishing this little baby yourself? How many People are involved in this project? How many Volumes are there going to be? And in what way will the volumes be split? Regionally, alphabetically, by Year of release, or thematically?

Anyways, seems like you've invested quite a Good deal of effort there. Nice One!

[Lorfarius]

We are estimating it to be 7 volumes in alphabetical order. Each book will have a number of articles and the aim is to have a great reference book to sit on a shelf at the end.

Its totally self published and there's been 4 people working on the book so far.

[Olls]

Looks good.
Will this include unlicensed and unreleased titles as well as other oddities (Sega Channel/MegaNet stuff, difference in games per region, etc.)?

[Lorfarius]

Yep, as much as our research can fit in. Want to have full game listings and info for all of the above as well as hardware info throughout the books.

[Zebbe]

I think you may need a few more lads to give you information on for example unlicensed titles, checking facts, proof-reading etc. Just my two cents. I'll get it anyway .

[Thenewguy]

Your Addams Family write-ups are reversed, and Adventures of Batman and Robin is based on a cartoon series, not a movie.

Also, there's nothing remotely rudimentary about the Addams Family platform game, its one of the more complicated platform games from the time, includes complete non-linear freedom of movement, adventuring style heart container upgrades, loads of secrets, different paths, and password saves.

[djshok]

Very cool! I'll be sure to preorder this next week when I get paid.

[Lorfarius]

Don't worry guys, these are just samples of what the finished product will look like. They will all be checked and adjusted as needs be Another change that will be made is flags. Where it currently shows the country EU, US, Jap etc these will be replaced.

[Cucollins12]

looks awesome!

[makinagenesis]

looks a labor of love, ordering mine on monday, thanks for the heads up!

[Thenewguy]

Also, I may be wrong here, but I think in the US "Jap" is considered a racial slur, kinda like saying "Paki" in the UK, might be better to just have JP written down.

[The Jackal]

Also, I may be wrong here, but I think in the US "Jap" is considered a racial slur, kinda like saying "Paki" in the UK, might be better to just have JP written down.

Really? I use the term all the time, never saw any harm in it, like calling us British, "Brits", it's just easier to write.

[SpaceFlea]

Really? I use the term all the time, never saw any harm in it, like calling us British, "Brits", it's just easier to write.

It is actually derogatory. Found that out when I studied about WWII in school. And it's the reason I always use "JP" for short, or "JPN" if I must have three letters.

Aside from that, he already mentioned that they were using flags in place of the acronyms.

[Lorfarius]

They were just there as place holders/abbreviations until the designer could replace them, Jap was just short for Japan as EU was for European Union and US for United States. We might even have used used BRA for Brazil but no lingerie was used or harmed in the making of this book . Here is an updated pic and a couple more to wet your appetites:





We are trying our best to offer something special, not sure if something like this has been attempted before but its been a great experience. Over on PN we also have a section called U-Publish, basically acting as a central hub for people to offer their own retro work in PDF or printed format. So by all means if you guys feel you have something to contribute or even feel you could do something better then the opportunity is there

http://pixel-nation.co.uk/index.php/u-publish

NES-Bit Magazine System was something I worked on before all this started. The biggest problem I felt I had was getting the word out that it even existed, I'm hoping people will use U-Publish as a way to share and spread the word.