Bitmap books thoughts?

[$CASHMONEY$]

Finally got around to getting Bitmaps 'History of Neo-Geo', which was fantastic! to be fair i wasn't familiar with bitmaps at all until a few months ago when someone mentioned it in a youtube video.. but its a great book and i enjoyed 90% of it as a whole... but i just picked up their ultimate history of kof book.. i dont know... great production, but formulaic.. interviews were horrible

 

[LoneSage]

Bad interviews huh. They should have got Mr. Karate II to ask the questions: https://www.neo-geo.com/forums/inde...og-snk-voice-actor.266975/page-2#post-4375572

 

[$CASHMONEY$]

Bad interviews huh. They should have got Mr. Karate II to ask the questions: https://www.neo-geo.com/forums/inde...og-snk-voice-actor.266975/page-2#post-4375572

you got the audio version? ... be honest, great books but interviews with a myriad of "yes" "no" answers aren't very interesting to read/listen to

 

[terry.330]

You're not actually supposed to read them. You're just supposed to flip through it a couple time, look at all the pretty pictures and then put it on the shelf until you die.

Seriously though bad interviews usually come down to the interviewer being bad and not knowing how to ask the right questions to get substantial and interesting answers. There are lots of interesting behind the scenes stories you just have to know how to get them to open up and a good interviewer does. I know the language barrier is also a problem there are ways around it. Also lets be honest the guys making these books and game dorks in general aren't exactly known for their amazing social skills.

 

[yagamikun]

It's a bit misery reading through the interviews for snippets of interesting information. Coupled with the issues listed above, these are also people being interviewed about games and hardware almost 30 years after the fact. Memories are fuzzy and details get lost to time unless there's a design document to pull information from. For many of us here, much of the information contained within isn't anything new or ground breaking in any of the books: NG History, KOF, or Metal Slug.

My beef with these books is the horrible, horrible writing outside of the interviews; full of hyperbolic phrases and overuse of filler words to take up space. It's all "puffery" as the old literary critics used to say.

They all have pretty pictures, though, and are nice tomes to have around for conversation. I just wish they were the reference material I had hoped they would be.

 

[Burning Fight!!]

Sometimes on written interviews you can really feel the Mr. Karateisms of the interviewer. Reminds me of the Mitchell Corp. part of this one book I forgot the name of where Roy Ozaki is basically telling the interviewer to fuck off at times but he doesn't get the hint.

 

[LoneSage]

Sometimes on written interviews you can really feel the Mr. Karateisms of the interviewer. Reminds me of the Mitchell Corp. part of this one book I forgot the name of where Roy Ozaki is basically telling the interviewer to fuck off at times but he doesn't get the hint.

Bro. Please find that interview for me. I'm a Mitchell fan.
-LoneSage

 

[Tarma]

I'm still waiting for their long awaited Ultimate Guide to Neo Geo Lost Protos.... that'd contain some "puffery"... "faggotory" as well.

 

[Burning Fight!!]

Bro. Please find that interview for me. I'm a Mitchell fan.
-LoneSage

The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers Volume 2: Monochrome: Szczepaniak, John: 9781518655319: Amazon.com: Books

The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers Volume 2: Monochrome [Szczepaniak, John] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers Volume 2: Monochrome

www.amazon.com

 

[Fygee]

I enjoyed all three of the Neo ones a lot. A little light on interview content, but still great.

The best non-Neo one is The Games That Weren't. It's a super fascinating book about many canceled games in the 70s and 80s with tons of interviews from those that developed them, along with screenshots, info on if they were completed, and mock-ups for games that are lost to history.

 

[NeoSneth]

I bought the C64 one for my brother when he was ill. We spent a few days going through it together since we spent a decade on that platform together. It was good to share those memories before he passed. He went through it page by page.

Generally, they are just another thing to sit on the shelf.

 

[LoneSage]

Damn, sorry to hear that about your brother. It's good you were able to remember the good times from your youth together.

 

[HMG]

I haven't seen a $CASHMONEY$ post in what feels like over a decade

 

[wyo]

I bought the C64 one for my brother when he was ill. We spent a few days going through it together since we spent a decade on that platform together. It was good to share those memories before he passed. He went through it page by page.

Generally, they are just another thing to sit on the shelf.

Bro this post hit hard. My condolences for your loss.

 

[NeoSneth]

Bro this post hit hard. My condolences for your loss.

All good. It's been a few years, and people here gave me plenty of comfort. It's the bookmark stuck in time that hits me.

 

[NGLad]

I picked up "Neo Geo: A visual history"
and the "King of Fighters: the Ultimate History". I like them a lot since they're fun
to read and you get nice, close up pics of the art and design. I'm a sucker for concept art.

 

[KGRAMR]

I picked up "Neo Geo: A visual history"
and the "King of Fighters: the Ultimate History". I like them a lot since they're fun
to read and you get nice, close up pics of the art and design. I'm a sucker for concept art.

And that freaking book just casually revealed Akio's full name like it was no big deal. Yeah, the full name of Irem's pixel art messiah.

 

[KGRAMR]

I enjoyed all three of the Neo ones a lot. A little light on interview content, but still great.

The best non-Neo one is The Games That Weren't. It's a super fascinating book about many canceled games in the 70s and 80s with tons of interviews from those that developed them, along with screenshots, info on if they were completed, and mock-ups for games that are lost to history.

I hope that one gets a second volume! Frank Gasking (the book's author) has also been publishing articles from the book on his website and i highly recommend giving them a read.