Trigger Happy: A Visual Celebration of Video Game Controllers Review

It’s fair to say that the very notion of the Bitmap Books output is serving a niche area. But even within this, their latest release is perhaps even more specialist. We love it when you get books focused on subjects a bit more outside the norm as they tend to be the ones with the most detailed research and that are real passion projects for the writers. We’ve been here before with The Secret History of Mac Gaming, but a book focused solely on video game controllers is certainly leftfield.

Written by Christian Wenk, who also acts as photographer for the book, we are invited to take a ‘playful voyage’ that is heavily designed to play on the readers own nostalgia for various controllers and the games played with them. In this way, the book will likely take on a highly personal meaning for many people reading. We found ourselves transported back to the early 8-bit computers, remembering various joystick designs which had long left our memory and the games that ended up causing us to brake them.

Content is exhaustive as well. Obviously, not every single design is in here but there is comprehensive coverage of just about every major joystick and controller from the dawn of gaming up to the present day. There’s even a section on newer ‘retro’ devices such as the Sega Astro City and the Evercade. Add in looks at some of history’s most famous oddities such as the infamous Nes Power Glove and peripherals such as racing wheels and you can see how well covered all things controller are. Don’t expect any light guns though, this book focuses on things which require a bit more direct player input.

The book does an excellent job in walking readers through initial designs for various consoles and computers, with insightful comments on the purpose and effectiveness of each. The photography is also exceptional. These are easily some of the best pictures we’ve seen in any Bitmap book and they help to really bring the controllers to life. Don’t be surprised if your mind starts wandering towards trawling Ebay for old controllers to look at.

In terms of layout, most of the controllers are given a couple of pictures with two or three paragraphs of text to go with them. The more prominent ones then get some full-page shots as well. Very occasionally you’ll get a shot of a video game with some reminiscing about how a controller effected the performance of the game, such as playing Street Fighter 2 on the Mega Drive pad. It doesn’t create a lot of variety, but each individual subject matter is well informed, interesting and often whimsical which acts to draw readers through the wealth of information. And this is a book that begs to be read in full, rather than used as quick coffee table reference material, it’s just too interesting for anything else.

Overall, Trigger Happy is one of Bitmap Books most interesting and well put together releases. And when you consider how excellent all their output is that is a high bar to reach. There’ s just something about the way it’s written, the quality of the pictures and the niche subject matter that makes it totally compelling. For those looking to dig into one of the more leftfield sides of the video gaming this is just about perfect.

Link to Bitmap Books store - Trigger Happy: A Visual Celebration of Video Game Controllers

Run ‘N’ Gun: A History of On-Foot Shooters Review

As much as we love the Bitmap Visual Compendium and Box Art books, it’s always nice when one of their more investigative releases appear. In the past we have had a host of great volumes such as The Games That Weren’t, From Antz to Zombies and A Secret History of Mac Gaming, which aimed to make us all instant experts on overlooked areas of video game history. Run ‘N’ Gun : A History of On-Foot Shooters falls more into this latter category as it aims to take us through the origins and thematic of everything running and gunning, while unearthing a fair few overlooked gems along the way.

As we’ve come to expect the cover art for the book looks absolutely gorgeous. Adorned with two sci-fi marines blasting robots, it perfectly captures the feel of classic games in the genre such as Contra. The pages inside are no different with a good mix of screen shots and text. The consistent and thoughtful colour palette used is also well judged to fit the mood while keeping text easily visible.

Contents wise, the book is exhaustive. There are of course too many Run ‘N Gun games for everything to be covered but you are getting over four hundred and ninety-five pages of curated coverage here. This covers pretty much every system from the Atari 2600 to modern day consoles (Or Atari to ZX Spectrum if you want to keep with the alphabet theme).

With such a wide area to cover the author has taken a logical approach to cataloguing all these games. Games are listed by decade with clear section dividing 1980-1989, 1990-1999 and then three more sections dividing up the 2000’s. the book goes right up to 2023 as well so the mix of old and new is excellent and gives a huge insight into the development of the genre.

The writing itself is of an exceptionally high standard. The Book opens with a well-judged preface by Dave Cook and then two contrasting forwards from Keiji Inafune and the team behind Cuphead. Again, mixing the old and new in a logical and interesting way. This then followed by a breakdown of what elements make up the genre and a look at how it developed. From then on, it’s onto the games.

The amount of games present is impressive. Many are spread across two pages, but these inclusions are bolstered by smaller looks at games split into four. This helps give a snapshot of certain decades and years while also focusing on the more iconic and historically important ones. Each decade also has a short summation talking about how the genre work throughout it. To add some variety there are also some looks at sprite work, characters and iconic moments from games as you go through.

Overall, Run ‘N’ Gun A History of On-Foot Shooters is an extensive and great looking highlight of the excellent Bitmap books catalogue. It’s an entertaining read that begs for you to go and start finding all the games to play. It’s definitely up there with the constantly sought after Point and Click and JRPG Books and is pretty much essential for anyone interested in video games.

Click here for store link

The Unoffcial N64: A Visual Compendium Review

 

While we have a pretty decent knowledge of all things retro there are always blind spots. Despite the fact we’ve gathered a modest N64 collection together it would be fair to say that we are far from experts when it comes to the console. This latest Bitmap Book seemed a perfect opportunity to remedy that. So with thoughts of short draw distances and weird looking polygons in our head it’s time to take a look at Nintendo's first foray into the world of 3D.

We are reviewing the book via a digital copy so we can’t comment on general build quality. That said all the previous visual compendium we have looked at have been of an excellent standard and we see no reason why that may have changed. As usual, the cover features a host of characters from iconic games which hits the nostalgia button right from the start with everything from Pokemon to James Bond drawing you in.

The book follows the now proven route in terms of content. You get the usual excellent intro full of information to both make you an instant expert and also pique your interest into what’s to come and an excellent selection of interviews from developers and industry veterans of the time such as motion capture expert Remington Scott and Kevin Bayliss from Rare.

The games are mainly presented with a single, well chosen, screen shot spread over two pages with decent amount of text to give further information. Some games do get three or four pages, such as Paper Mario and the selection is pretty expansive with all the titles you would expect and many more obscure ones as well. The interview with Rare is particularly good and gives a key insight into a lot of the systems most iconic games. It's always a pleasure to look through and find games that look interesting to try and hunt down.

Away from the standard games there is also a look at some of the 64DD games such as Doshin the Giant, cancelled cartridges such as Eternal Darkness and some of the peripherals like the Expansion Pak. There’s also an interesting look at the development of the unique N64 controller. This helps to give a fuller and more well-rounded feel to the book and gives some more context behind the technical thought process and aims of the console.

Overall,the N64 Visual Compendium is up to the same high standards of Bitmap Books other releases. We felt that this book in particular gave us a real urge to go and find a lot of these games and add them to our collection. As we weren’t experts on the console in the first place we found it a great way to get a detailed overview of the interesting and diverse back catalogue and also the systems place in the market in term of historical context. We may not have known much about the development of the N64 before this but after reading through we certainly love it more than ever.

Click here for store link. 

From Ants To Zombies Review

 

As much as we love the Bitmap Visual Compendium and Box Art books, it’s always nice when one of their more investigative releases appear. In the past we have had a host of great volumes such as The Games That Weren’t, A Gremlin in the Works and A Secret History of Mac Gaming, which aimed to make us all instant experts on overlooked areas of video game history. From Antz to Zombies falls more into this latter category as it aims to take us through the origins and thematic of everything horror, while unearthing a fair few overlooked gems along the way.

As we’ve come to expect the cover art for the book looks absolutely gorgeous. Adorned with various ghosts and beasties, it perfectly captures the feel of early creature features. The pages inside are no different with chibi pixelated monsters used to decorate pages and a good mix of screen shots and text. The consistent and thoughtful colour palette used is also well judged to fit the mood while keeping text easily visible.

Contents wise, the book is exhaustive. There are of course too many horror games for everything to be covered but you are getting over six hundred and sixty pages of curated coverage here. This covers pretty much every system from the Atari 2600 to modern day consoles (Or Atari to ZX Spectrum if you want to keep with the alphabet theme).

With such a wide area to cover the author has taken a creative approach to cataloguing all these games. Instead of by year or system, titles are categorised by their monsters. As a result, you get sections such as ‘Terror of the Abyss’ and ‘Dark Forests’ to go with the more conventional ‘Survival Horror’ tag. It’s an entertaining and effective way of linking games together while also retaining the fun B movie style the book nails perfectly.  

The writing itself is of an exceptionally high standard. The Book opens with an incredibly in depth look at the notion of horror as a genre generally, tracing it back to its origins in film and literature and then goes on to relate that in terms of how it applies to video games. It’s quite a theoretical approach but one we found fascinating, and we couldn’t help but think how useful this book would be for anyone studying game design or even horror as a genre generally.

When moving to the games themselves, the same standard of writing is present, but it changes tack to focus on what within the games acts to trigger the feelings of dread within us and how the mechanics of the games work to further help put this across. As a result, it’s an incredibly interesting read which will likely draw you in even if you have just come to flick through and look at the screen shots or use it as reference material for game hunting.

Overall, Antz to Zombies is a real highlight of the excellent Bitmap books catalogue. We always like it when someone brings a new idea and a new approach to the books and this one feels like something fresh and fun. It’s definitely up there with the constantly sought after Point and Click and JRPG Books and is pretty much essential for anyone interested in video games.

Click here for store link.

*Picture from the Bitmap Books Website

PC Engine: The Box Art Collection Review

 

We’ve covered a number of Bitmap Books visual compendiums before but this the first time we’ve had the chance to look at one of the box art collections. There’s a couple more of these available as at present with both the Gameboy and Super Famicom represented but with the PC Engine not widely available over here it seemed like a far more interesting place to start.

The physical book itself is of unsurprisingly excellent quality. This is always the case with the Bitmap books we’ve looked at and it’s pleasing to see it continue. Paper is heavy and the front and back hard covers are manufactured well. The colours throughout the book are consistent and printed well, meaning each page looks as good as the last. The colour selection is also excellent and well thought out so that it complements the box art on each page.

Across 372 pages you get a well written foreword, a detailed history of the console and an interview with collector Lee Thacker. After that it’s pages and pages of glorious box art, screen shots and descriptions of the games. What is particularly interesting about this book is that it’s not likely to be as nostalgic for most who lived through the SNES Vs. Mega Drive days but if anything, it makes the games even more interesting.

Each page of box art follows the same layout. You get the cover shot of the game, a selection of smaller screen shots underneath and then an explanation of the game followed by a short breakdown of how the artwork is set out. You also get information such as the year the game released, developer and the type of PC Engine game it was such as CD or card. It’s everything you need to set you off on a journey looking for hundreds of games you’ve probably not played before. There’s a very handy index at back which helpfully lists every title covered as well to aid in this process.

As most of the book is full of the box art you aren’t getting the level of history and analysis present in some of Bitmaps other books but then it’s pretty clear from the title what the aim is. What is clear though is that every single game has been given the respect and care it deserves. With books like this it’s vital to spark a curiosity in the reader and in that respect, it can’t really do anything more. Just try to keep off eBay for a few days after reading it at least.

Overall, the PC Engine: Box Art Collection is a great new addition to Bitmap Books already impressive lineup. In many ways it’s the perfect console to pick as it will draw in a crowd who will likely be looking to discover something new. The start of the book gives enough background to give you an understanding of the systems place and the presentation of everything else is consistently excellent. In terms of the box art and visual compendium releases from Bitmap, this is undoubtedly one of the best and highly recommended.

 Click here for store link. 

*Picture from Bitmap Books website.

Commodore 64: A Visual Compendium Review

 

Written by Dan Gill

The gaming scene in the UK back in the early 80s was very different to that of the USA. Market saturation and poor-quality releases led to the video game market dying, at least until Nintendo brought it back from the dead in 1985. In the UK you wouldn’t have noticed, as we had the holy trinity of the Spectrum, Amstrad CPC464 and the Commodore 64. Personally, I had the Commodore 16, a computer which was released after the Vic-20 and C64 but was never as popular as either due to its low-end performance. However, my cousins did have a C64, and every Saturday I’d go to theirs to experience the games my own computer couldn’t handle. Kane, Future Knight, Formula 1 Grand Prix, Beach Head... the list goes on. It was certainly an important computer for many, and the prolific game releases and ports courtesy of bedroom coders, talented artists and SID chip musicians matched with the affordable price of games made for a heady combination.

Putting my own nostalgic ramblings aside for a moment, I direct your attention to Commodore 64: A Visual Compendium, Bitmap Books’ chunky love letter to the beloved computer. If you’ve seen any of their other books (a few of which have already been reviewed on Retro101) you’ll know what to expect, and this release matches the high quality of the other titles in the “compendium” series. Over one hundred games feature, from stone-cold classics such as Turrican and Armalyte to later releases such as Mayhem in Monster Land, a lot of ground is covered, especially when you consider up to around 10,000 commercial games released for the system. While it would be nice to see Future Knight appear, there’s no way Bitmap would be able to cram so much in while keeping the art quality so high.

Most games have their art spread over two pages, giving it room to be fully appreciated by the reader, along with some sound bites from those that worked on the game, or opinions from a reviewer. Throughout my time with the book there have been many “I completely forgot about this one” or “ah yes, this is a classic” moments, and even the odd “how did this pass me by?”. Some developers and publishers have many titles feature (Epyx in particular), and while it would be nice if some lesser-known works appeared, these games really did define the machine, so their exclusion would be noticed. At just under five hundred pages, the book is already hefty. Any more pages and a lifting belt would be required.

Features appear throughout, be this in the form of interviews with key figures within the C64 scene, a look at retro magazines, along with some of the late, great Oliver Frey’s amazing artwork. These offer a little more insight into the work that went into the games, which is a nice touch for those who like a little flavour to accompany the eye candy. The book also looks at the demoscene, where coders, musicians and artists really pushed the limits of what the C64 was capable of. If you’ve read the review of Amiga: A Visual Compendium on this very site, you’ll already be aware of this reviewer’s appreciation of the scene and the effect it had on computing of the era. It’s as important to the machine as the games, even if the overlap between scene coders and game crackers often overlapped.

So, another triumph, then. Even though the C64 had a distinctive earthy colour palette and blocky graphics, Bitmap Books have managed to yet again collate some wonderful artwork and present it so beautifully that the graphics are appreciated rather than derided as old hat. It’s sure to hit fans of Commodore’s beige wonder with strong nostalgic flashbacks. The biggest criticism I can come up with is that it’s becoming harder and harder to find new ways to say good things about each new release Bitmap Books pass my way. The second gripe is that having looked through the book again and again, I’m urged to go back and play one of the featured games, which distracts me from my adult duties in favour of recapturing my misspent youth for a few minutes. Well, maybe one more go on Uridium won’t hurt...

Click here for store link.

Commodore Amiga: A Visual Compendium Review

Written by Dan Gill

Bitmap Books have been prolific over the past few years, releasing gorgeous books that run the gamut of gaming. Anything from their collection would look great on the avid gamer’s coffee table, tempting you to have a peek at its lovingly collated artwork and gaming summaries. Having previously covered everything from RPGs to the art of game covers, the focus here shifts to possibly the biggest cult hero of computer gaming, the Commodore Amiga.

It’s easy to overlook the Amiga for those that were either raised on consoles or transitioned to them from the 8-bit computers such as the Spectrum or C64, but the Amiga was a big thing when it launched in the late 80s. With its dedicated custom chipsets to handle processing, graphics and audio (named Agnus, Denise and Paula), the Amiga was a huge step up from the C64, and it was a graphical and audio powerhouse. It was essentially an affordable and much more intuitive alternative to IBM compatible PCs of the time and bore similarities to Apple’s Mac of the era. As with most capable computers, developers – mostly bedroom coders from the early 80s – began working on the machine and legends were born. Without the Amiga the gaming landscape would be quite different today, Amiga: A Visual Compendium pays homage to the system with style.

The book opens with a foreword from Stoo Cambridge of Sensible Software and opens to a huge list of contributors from across the games industry. Soundbites from industry veterans, members of the demo scene, and even Andy Warhol accompany huge art spreads showcasing some of the Amiga’s best-looking titles. There are some interviews with developers and artists which offer an insight into how they worked with the hardware, offering an insight into how the tools allowed them to develop some classic games. While the focus is on the visuals of Amiga games, there are some features throughout that delve into the history of the brand, articles on developers and a look at the demo scene.

The focus is the art, and some 140 games are featured, ranging from stone cold classics such as The Secret of Monkey Island and Cannon Fodder, to deep cuts like Disposable Hero and Walker. The artwork is the focus and remains uncluttered bar a few quotes here and there. The inclusion of imagery from demos is also welcome as a reminder of the artists and coders that used to push the hardware to its limits. The book offers some a brief look into works by Scoopex, Angels and Lemon, and touches on the scene’s ties to game crackers – coders who would find ways around copy protection of Amiga games. It’s a welcome addition to the book, as it’s something integral to the Amiga’s success on two fronts: technical showcases from demos, and easily pirated games from crackers. Of course, your opinion as to whether easily obtainable games was a good thing depends on whether you were a developer or a kid with enough money to buy blank floppy disks, but that’s a conversation for another time.

All in all, there’s nothing bad I can say about this book. It’s as beautifully presented as you’d expect, and really scratches that nostalgic itch for those that were lucky enough to grow up during the Amiga’s heyday. From a personal point of view, I was reminded of some titles I’d read about but never played (not to mention a few vapourware titles) and has prompted me to seek out some games that have passed me by (and has led to me taking a serious look at the A500 Mini). This is essential reading for Amiga fans, retro gamers or fans of digital art in general.

Click here for store link.

Go Straight: The Ultimate Guide To Side-Scrolling Beat-'Em-Ups

We’ve never had a Bitmap book come through the door we didn’t like. When this heavy tome arrived focused on side scrolling beat‘em ups we were immediately transported back to the arcades of old. Perhaps of all the books the team have released this has the potential to hit the nostalgia gland more than any other with the genre having many games that never made it to home releases.

Across the 456 pages it’s pretty much guaranteed you are going to find a ton of game you won’t have played, or perhaps even heard of, as the book covers games from all over the place. It’s set out into different decades running from 1980 all the way up to recent releases in 2021. The whole thing starts with a foreword from Renegade creator Yoshihisa Kishimoto followed by an informative and entertaining look at what makes a game fall into the genre. During this afterword section you also get the first of many double foldout pages.

In a visual representation of a side scroller, many of the articles about key games unfold to effectively create a four-page layout. This starts with Streets of Rage which is used to display a numbered scene from the game which acts as your guide to the key ingredients of the genre. The fold out pages are double sided as well so there’s no wasted space here.

Starting in the 1980’s with Kung Fu Master the amount of information you get on the games is massively impressive. For instance, Double Dragon has six pages dedicated to it covering development, gameplay, ports and classic moments. More obscure games get less or are reduced to split pages, but this certainly feels exhaustive in terms of the games featured and it’s hard to see what else could have been put in (even the notorious Bebe’s Kids is here). The big licenses are all in here as well, screenshots and all, so expect to see Turtles, Simpsons and even Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker.

There is a decent selection of screen shots and some full-page pictures but there is also a lot of text here so it’s certainly not just a coffee table book to flick through nonchalantly. The research and dedication required to get all this information together is impressive and everything is interesting and will likely send you off hunting for more than a few of the games. The fact each decade comes with a written introduction to the development of the games and market during that period is further proof that these books will likely end up on some kind of historical game development course in the future. There’s certainly enough to take you from knowing nothing to having a huge knowledge of both the titles and genre through the ages.

Overall, Go straight is an exceptional book. It’s perfect to dip into to look for your favourite game or read from front to back to get a detailed overview of pretty much every title in the genre. It’s logically organised which makes finding things easy and the intros to each decade are great encapsulations of the time they look at. Much like the Point and Click Adventure book before it, this is a real highlight in an already packed and impressive back catalogue from Bitmap books. Utterly essential for all retro fans.

 

Click here for store link. 

A Gremlin in the Works Review

Recently, we looked at The Secret History of Mac Gaming which was a passion project dedicated to an often overlooked section of gaming history. A Gremlin in the Works follows hot on its heels and again falls very much into the passion project category. This time Mark James Hardisty has untaken the mammoth task of compiling over five hundred pages on one of the corner stones of the British gaming scene – Gremlin Graphics.

As always with Bitmap productions great attention is always spent on the covers. This one comes with a bright green cover adorned with the Gremlin logo that will be familiar to gamers of a certain age. It’s another example of a well-judged design intended to fire up nostalgic memories.

The content of the book is almost exclusively interviews with the key figures of the company and games. As a result it can be a little hard to get into. We would have ideally liked more of a mix of commentary on the games, historical writing and interviews but at least you know everything you are reading is coming first hand from the source. Think of it as a massively extended section of the team interviews you used to get in gaming mags of the time. It is a bit of a shame though when it comes to the games themselves as we would have loved even more screenshots and more context with regards to how the games have aged and the influence they have had – outside of the interviews about them.

But there’s no arguing that the interviews here are extensive, insightful and entertaining. The book presents first-hand accounts right from the start of the company as a computer shop all the way up to the much later Sumo Digital days. All of the major game releases are also well covered with insightful and interesting input from developers and programmers who worked on them. If you’ve ever wanted the inside scoop on ‘Thing on a Spring’ or even ‘Actua Soccer’ then look no further.

The other thing that really stands out is the connection Gremlin had to other historical events that where happening at the time. As the shop and company where based in Sheffield there’s some interesting commentary on the environment around the place during touchstone moments such as the miners strikes and the fact that this turn of events led to Monty Mole becoming a miner himself and Scargill being set up as the last boss of the game.

Overall, A Gremlin in the Works is a well-researched and detailed account of one of the most iconic companies in the micro-computer era told by those who were there. While it may not be as instantly accessible as the visual compendiums and box art table books it will be of interest to those who want to dig into the fine detail of gaming history. It’s commendable that someone has put this much effort into recording such an important time in the industry and as such it should be respected and recognised as the important document it is.

Click here for store link. 

*picture from Bitmap Books.

The Secret History of Mac Gaming: Expanded Edition Review

Bitmap books has done a wonderful job of presenting some beautifully laid out books that show off the look and feel of gaming systems from years gone by and act as quick injections of nostalgia. The Secret History of Mac Gaming is different to the bulk of their output in that this is a much more in-depth and less picture heavy insight into a world that we dare say many gamers will have little to no knowledge of (including ourselves). It’s a good thing then that this hefty hardback can back up the promise of its premise with well researched and fascinating writing from author Richard Moss.

Before we get into that, we should stop to admire the stunning cover design of the book. In all its glory we have an early Apple Mac computer displayed in the same graphical style as the first Apple Mac OS screen displays. Despite never owning one (and rarely playing one), the computer that emerges from the dot based art conjures instant nostalgia and we just knew after seeing the care that has been taken with it that the rest of the book would meet a similar level of quality.

It’s worth noting though that this book really is more of a serious and in-depth look at a key company and time in video game history. It’s not the sort of book that can be just flicked through like so many other of the company’s releases. This really requires sitting and reading for a decent period of time in order to get the most out of it. That’s not particularly difficult though as the stories and interviews within are really well handled which means it remains consistently interesting throughout its four hundred and eighty plus pages.

For those wanting to dive into specific sections of the story there is a very clear layout and chapter separation so that is still very much possible. But most of the bulk of this book is text with only a few screenshots used to highlight certain games being spoken about so you’ll need to read a whole chapter at a time to make much sense of it.

The book is a treasure trove of information though. Our personal favourite of which is the chapter based around Apple’s attempt to break into the console market with Bandai after creating the Pippin. We’ll admit that we had never even heard of this and the story of the chaos and different approaches the two companies had to this is a great insight into the industry at the time. It’s something that is often overlooked in the wider retro gaming community so having a spotlight placed on it here is most welcome and will hopefully get readers looking into more obscure and forgotten systems out there which can only be a good thing.

Overall, Author Richard Moss has done a brilliant job in turning a real passion project, which he clearly holds dear, into something that is both informative and interesting to read. This book is perhaps aimed at a bit more of a niche audience than many of Bitmap Books releases but for anyone who remembers the Apple as a gaming machine or is interested in the history of video games and game development this is an absolutely essential read.

Click here for store link. 

*picture from Bitmap Books website

The Sega Master System Visual Compendium Review

While we have a pretty decent knowledge of all things retro there are always blind spots. Despite the fact we’ve gathered a modest Master System collection together it would be fair to say that we are far from experts when it comes to the console. This latest Bitmap Book seemed a perfect opportunity to remedy that. So with thoughts of Alex Kidd in our head it’s time to take a look back at the much underrated ‘other’ 8-bit console.

As is standard with the visual compendiums you get the usual high quality cover and slip case. This time the colour is black which means your book won’t visually match other compendiums you have but makes sense in the grander scheme of things. As usual, the cover features a host of characters from iconic games which hits the nostalgia button right from the start. The compendium also comes with a set of old style Red/Blue 3D glasses to view some of the pages with. It’s a nice touch that ties in with the Master Systems hit and miss attempts at playing with early 3D in some of its games. Sadly, we didn’t get much from the 3D effect when looking at the pages – but then this could be down to colour-blindness so your experience may differ.

The book follows the now proven route in terms of content. You get the usual excellent intro full of information to both make you an instant expert and also pique your interest into what’s to come and an excellent selection of interviews from developers and industry veterans of the time such as Mutsuhiro Fuji and Steve Hanawa. The games are mainly presented with a single, well chosen, screen shot spread over two pages with decent amount of text to give further information about the game. 

Where this book does differ from other visual compendiums we have seen is in that some games have extra sections attached to them which fold out. This normally takes the form of level maps showing a large area of the selected game. These also come with extra written content as well as an added bonus. It’s a really nice touch that makes the compendium stand out and offers up a great physical Easter egg of sorts.

Away from the individual games there is also a host of excellent pictures of Master System peripherals sprinkled throughout and some features which focus on certain parts of the catalogue such arcade games and a section dedicated to different parts of the hardware – the photographs of which are absolutely sublime. There is also a section dedicated to the box art from different regions which showcases some of the best designs of the time so get ready to look at a lot of white square covered boxes.

Perhaps most interesting though is the section dedicated to the Master System release in Brazil. This covers a lot of the regions exclusive game and gives a good insight into the history surrounding the whole operation. Just try and resist looking for those games on Ebay or you may have a small cardiac event.

Overall, The Master System Visual Compendium is up to the same high standards of Bitmap Books other releases. We felt that this book in particular gave us a real urge to go and find a lot of these games and add them to our collection. As we weren’t experts on the console in the first place we found it a great way to get a detailed overview of the interesting and diverse back catalogue and also the systems place in the market in term of historical context. We may not have known much about the life of the Master System before this but after reading through we certainly love it more than ever.

Click here for store link. 

*picture taken from the Bitmap Books website.

The Art of Point and Click Adventure Games Review

Bitmap Books have built up an excellent reputation now with a string of extensive and informative releases. As long-time fans of the point and click genre it seemed a perfect opportunity to dive into their hefty tome based on everything involving using obscure items and dialogue trees.

The first thing to say is that this is another release that certainly gives a good impression with it being the size of a small bus – both in general size and page count. This edition of the book now contains around 500 pages organised into chronological order spanning from 1984 all the way to 2020. An excellent opening laying out the history of the genre draws readers and also gives a great overview for those looking to know more or who may be unfamiliar with it.

If there is a criticism here it’s that there is no glossary to allow you to get straight to a particular game. Luckily the exhaustive interviews in the book are indexed alphabetically meaning it’s easy to find which legend you want to read about. The amount of people interviewed is unbelievable. Pretty much every icon and legend of the genre is here meaning you get insights into just about all of the major publishers and developers that made their name in this area. Multiple legends from Lucas Arts are here such as Tim Shafer and Ron Gilbert, Sierra games such as King’s Quest, Gabriel Knight and Police Quest are spoken about, Revolution and Westwood get a solid nod and even people behind Future Wars and the Discworld games are on hand.

In fact, the only real omission we found was that Ragnar Tomquist wasn’t interviewed about The Longest Journey series. That and the interview with Jane Jensen about Gabriel Knight had some strange questioning considering the game was remade in 2014. It would also have been nice to delve a little deeper into the issues regarding Discworld and what would be required to bring the games to a new audience. These are all minor point though as the amount of stuff in here is mind blowing.

The exhaustive collection of information also covers just about every major point and click game you can possibly think of. Being as pedantic as we are though we would have liked to see a 2004 mention for The Moment of Silence. Aside from that though we really couldn’t think of anything that was missing. There are hundreds of games here and it will likely send you racing to eBay to try and find adventures you’ve missed out on.

Mass of information aside the other big selling point of the book is of course the art work. As usual this have been handled expertly. Most of the titles are treated to at least a double page spread of an iconic image from the game. Key games are also given extra pages to show off more of the locations and key art work. All these pixels and screens and are presented beautifully.

Overall, The Art of Point and Click Adventure Games is an exceptionally high quality release from Bitmap Books. It works both as a casual coffee table book to be browsed through and looked at just for the art and also as a more thoughtful read containing all the information you would ever need for those looking to learn about an important and iconic genre. It’s easily worth the asking price and stands out even against Bitmap Books other excellent releases.

Click here for store link 

*picture from Bitmap Books website

Atari 2600/7800: A Visual Compendium Review

For those of you that read our recent review of the SNES Pixel Book you’ll know we are becoming very big fans of Bitmap Books. The visual compendium series now stretches across a whole range of computers and consoles and we thought the best place to start would be with one of the earliest games machines of them all.

As its name suggests the Atari 2600/7800 compendium covers an absolutely massive range of games from the two systems. There are screen shots galore, interviews and short features from a host of industry legends and developers and it has all been curated as thoughtfully as ever. If you are a fan of gaming history then this book alone will give you a well-rounded understanding of the games, systems and general state of the industry at the time from an Atari point of view.

The cover and slip case are of the standard we have now come to expect from the company. A simple design featuring a host of characters from iconic games is used which allows for clear visual identification of which system the book is aimed at. The slip case also has a hologram element to it so you can see the characters move to different poses depending on what angle you are looking at it from. It’s a nice touch that mimics the animation style of the games in a fun way.

The book starts with an excellent and extensive historical piece before leading into the beautifully captured shots of the blocky pixels that the 2600 produced. Most games are presented as a single shot spread over a double page with decent chunk of text from industry veterans included to tell you about any interesting trivia or historical context surrounding it. Despite the basic level of graphics the 2600 was capable of producing the pictures used are incredibly crisp and show the minimalist design off to its absolute best. It’s a wonderful achievement to make some of these games look so good.

Aside from the games there are also detailed interviews with important figures from the time such as Carol Shaw, Joe Decuir and Dennis Koble and profiles of important publishing houses such as Activision and Imagic. These pieces really help to give greater insight into the time period and the process of developing and publishing for the systems and further moves the book closer to being a sort of one stop shop for all the information you might need.

As you work through to the end of the 2600 games you’ll find that an interesting section dedicated to unreleased prototypes. Here, designers and programmers give information on the aim of the titles and offer insights into where they may have fitted into the market any why they never made. It’s a brief section but again shows the level of detail that has been included when compiling the book.

There’s also a great section focusing on the box art of the games which highlights some of the awesome designers and art work that has been produced for the system. It’s guaranteed to get anyone who remembers buying games purely based on the picture on the front drowning in a sea of nostalgia.

The 7800 section of the book is just as detailed with the superior graphical power showcased in just as careful and considered a way as its predecessor. It also helps to show there was much more to the 7800 than just Ninja Golf (which everyone seems to have discovered via the Evercade).  

Overall, this is another release from Bitmap Books that is absolutely packed with content. There is so much in here that it’ll take you a good while to be able to take everything in. It’s not just the information or screenshots that set the book apart though. Everything here is considered and thought about from placement of graphics to curation to overall page design and visual signification. If only all books would take this sort of care and attention when it came to their subject matter.

Click here for store link.

The Unofficial SNES Pixel Book Review

For a fair while now Bitmap books have been producing a whole host of homages and call backs to magical days of retro gaming. With that in mind we thought it was probably time that we started to take a closer look and start to review some of these titles. The first on our list is this love letter to Super Nintendo graphics and what a special book it is.

To start with it’s fair to say that even by hardback coffee book standards this is both large and a very strange shape. But, it works. The 272 pages are set out in the dimensions of 250mm × 250mm and it just seems to be the perfect size to portray these pixel graphics to their fullest and most impressive. The books outer cover is solid and colourful and gives you every confidence that it will protect its precious cargo while also adding an air of grandiosity and ceremony to the book held within it. As a lesson on how to give a good first impression this is a masterclass.

Once you’ve finished marvelling at the impressive cover you are welcomed to the world of 16-bit pixels by a well written introduction and explanation as to how the book has been laid out. In this case the games are set out into genres based on their defining characteristics such as platform games, shooting games, adventures etc. It’s presented in a fun and cohesively clear way that makes navigating to your favourite easy while also leading readers to similar games that they may not have heard of or know little about.

The main focus here though is the glorious pixel graphics of the era. Though there are detailed summaries and explanations throughout the book to do with everything from various genres to different types of adventure game bosses, most of the individual games are restricted to single sentences or small paragraphs at best. One particularly striking image from Pocky and Rocky simply states ‘Destroyer of Rice Balls’ above it for instance. This is of course to showcase the art work in its best possible way but once you have had your interest peaked by a particular title it’s likely you’ll have to look elsewhere to really get the information on it.

That said, if you want an introduction into the world of 16-bit games in terms of mechanics and styles this certainly is covered. For instance, the adventure game section takes time to discuss core elements of games viewed from different perspectives (top-down, isometric etc.), while the RPG section talks about menu systems and inventories. This is a really unique take and something you don’t normally see in these sorts of books. In that sense it really does help you to understand core mechanics of a lot of these genres and games.

When there is text it is entertaining, insightful and well worth reading. The way the book is written really seems to highlight things that we may have all noticed but not necessarily thought about in the way it talks about them. The analysis present is easy to follow, logical and something that genuinely informed us and peaked our curiosity to learn more. It’s excellent work and you can tell it’s been well thought about and written with both passion and detail imbued within it.

Overall, The Unofficial SNES Pixel Book is incredibly impressive. We’ve played a lot of games on the SNES over the years but this has managed to get us to think about them in a completely different way and notice details we have overlooked many times. It’s a remarkable achievement in all areas of design and writing and we can’t think of anything really that would have improved it. We can’t recommend it enough and anyone interested in design, style and mechanics of these classic titles won’t be disappointed. It’s also got Shadowrun and Hagane in it so what’s not to like?

 Click here for store link.

*Original photo Bitmap books.