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Metal Slug: The Ultimate History – Book Review

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The very first game we bought when we got our Neo Geo MVS arcade machine was Metal Slug. That was quite a while ago, and we must admit, we have the series on pretty much every format – the games are that darn good!

Once we had heard that Bitmap Books was going to publish a book on this brilliant gaming franchise, our interests were obviously piqued. Upon receiving Metal Slug: The Ultimate History from Pixel Crib, we noticed this thing was heavy, which is a good thing when it comes to these kinds of publications.

If you have read any of our previous Bitmap Books book reviews, you’ll know what to expect from this published work of art – it oozes quality and quantity. When you hold a Bitmap Books tome in your hands, we guarantee you’ll be smiling from start to finish. Sam Dyer and his amazing team have done a wonderful job in bringing us a fully licensed art book on the Metal Slug series.

With unprecedented access to SNK‘s vast archives, this book contains some of the best high-resolution artwork (including concept artwork) and illustrations, with some being made publicly available for the very first time. Even though it is primarily an art book celebrating Metal Slug, this tome also contains eleven exclusive and detailed interviews with key members of the development team, including Kazuma Kujo, Takushi Hiyamuta, Andoh Kenji and Takeshi Okui, the latter two of which have never spoken about the series previously. These insightful discussions bust myths and reveal the real truth behind the creation and evolution of this esteemed franchise, extensively covering the formation of Nazca and the truth behind Metal Slug Zero – the version of Metal Slug when you only controlled the SV-001 tank. The book also dives into and explores the roots of Metal Slug, looking at Irem titles In the Hunt and GunForce II and how these arcade cult classics influenced what was to come later. This page turner is definitely a must for any fan of the Metal Slug series, and if you are into art, then this book is for you too.

Since Christmas is around the corner, we reckon the Metal Slug: The Ultimate History book would look pretty good under that Christmas tree.

The important bits:

  • Title: Metal Slug: The Ultimate History
  • Publisher: Bitmap Books
  • Front Cover: Black foil-blocked cover and spine
  • Back cover: Hardback
  • Pages: 452
  • Retail Price: AUD$69.95 from Pixel Crib

Disclosure: Metal Slug: The Ultimate History book was provided by Pixel Crib for this review.

 

Book Review: The Art Of Point + Click Adventure Games and The CRPG Book

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Do you remember your first ever adventure video game? We sure do! We have very fond memories playing Transylvania on our school’s one and only Apple IIe computer. Back then we had to book the computer for use, as it had to be shared amongst all the primary school kids. Of course we preferred to play games on it during our allotted time instead of using Logo to learn some rudimentary programming – but that would have been boring. We immediately fell in love playing Transylvania as it allowed us to explore new worlds and create our own adventures, a lure that has kept us gaming ever since.

A lot has changed since the days of playing Transylvania, just like Moore’s Law ensuring technology would leap forward every two years, adventure, role playing and point + click games have done the same, as they have become more sophisticated over the ensuing years. What better way to capture the history of this genre than these two fine books.

The Art of Point-and-Click Adventure Games and The CRPG Book: A Guide to Computer Role-Playing Games by Bitmap Books capture the essence of these wonderful and enduring gaming genres. If you want to get a feel for these books without reading too many words, then skip ahead to the pics we have assembled below. On the other hand, if you want to know a tad more, read on.

Let’s start with The CRPG Book. Weighing in at 528 pages, this book has everything you can think of from the world of computer role-playing games from 1975 to 2015! We obviously went straight to the Ultima content, but that was one of only 400 titles covered in this beast of a book. The best part about this book is that it is completely written by fans, developers, indies, modders, journalists and industry personalities like Tim Cain, Chris Avellone, Scorpia, Ian Frazier and Richard Corbett to name just a few. Having these different perspectives gives the book a unique feel to the traditional interviews found in these types of publications (Ed: don’t get us wrong, we still love interviews in books!). The fact that there are mod hints, mod suggestions and tips on how to run these old classics games on modern hardware just adds that little bit extra to this already great tome. Of course, no book is complete without beautiful and vibrant imagery, and The CRPG Book has these in abundance.

Just like The CRPG Book, The Art of Point + Click Adventure Games book is stuffed full of content in its 460 pages, like the exclusive interviews with the makers of our fave point and click adventure games; Tim Shafer, Robyn Miller, Ron Gilbert, David Fox, Aric Wilmunder, Richard Hare, Hal Barwood, Gary Winnick, Charles Cecil and Paul Cuisset to whet your appetite. The book covers an array of iconic classic titles, from the very well known ones, King’s Quest, Myst, Toonstruck, Discworld, Blade Runner, Gabriel Knight, The Adventures of Willy Beamish, Simon the Sorcerer, The Secret of Monkey Island, Leisure Suit Larry, Maniac Mansion to the lesser-known games and homebrew efforts. Complimenting the writing is the extensive and engaging imagery used throughout, which means that this book will have you glued to each page.

We can cut right to the chase, both The Art of Point-and-Click Adventure Games and The CRPG Book: A Guide to Computer Role-Playing Games books come highly recommended. Being Bitmap Book publications, you know the quality of the content and presentation is guaranteed to be top notch. Both books are beautifully presented, with great page-turning content. Leaving these on our coffee table has sparked many great conversations with family and friends about old games they used to play. These hefty publications will definitely satisfy the most discerning gamers amongst you, even if you weren’t into point and click adventure games or RPGs! If you are in need of a great Christmas present (for yourself or a special friend), then these books would be perfect.

Both books are available at Pixel Crib right now:

The beautiful books!

The CRPG Book: A Guide to Computer Role-Playing Games

The Art of Point + Click Adventure Games

 

Disclosure: The Art of Point + Click Adventure Games and The CRPG Book – A Guide to Computer Role-Playing Games books were provided by Pixel Crib for this review.

 

Book Review: GameCube Anthology

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Geeks Line Publishing’s Anthology book series have so far been nothing short of brilliant. Their new GameCube Anthology is no exception, with excellent content and overall quality that will draw you in.

The GameCube Anthology, just like its predecessors, comprehensively details everything that is to know about Nintendo console. Chronicling it’s early days, this tome pulls no punches when it comes to detailing the stiff competition from Sony and its foundation for its successor, the Nintendo Wii.

Accompanying the great written content is the equally impressive photography – the breadth of photos cover the full gamut, from detailed hardware shots to exhaustive photos of GameCube games.

As mentioned, the depth of information and facts covered does true justice to Nintendo’s excellent GameCube system. This book is truly hard to fault. One of our fave sections in the book is the coverage of unreleased titles – which rounds off what is a must have book for any GameCube fan or gaming historians.

This book is an easy recommendation – go and get it right now!

Title: GameCube Anthology
Publisher: Geeks Line Publishing
Available from: Amazon

Disclosure: GameCube Anthology (Classic Edition) was kindly provided by Geeks Line Publishing for this review.

 

Book Review: PlayStation Anthology

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Book: PlayStation Anthology (Classic or Collector Editions)
Publisher: Geeks-Line Publishing
Pages: 386 pages (Classic Edition) / 458 pages (Collector Edition)
Price $USD: $44.90 (Classic Edition) / $55.90 (Collector Edition – currently unavailable)
Available from: Amazon

After impressing us with their Nintendo 64 Anthology, Geeks-Line Publishing has taken its next book, PlayStation Anthology in a different direction. The result is a great read that not only explains Sony’s origins and the rise of its first console, but also includes some amazing interviews with a number of high-profile devs, like Jason Rubin, Yuji Horii, Kanta Watanabe and Suda51 to name just a few. It is let down in places by some low quality images, but it still manages to do an incredible job of retelling the story of Sony’s market dominance.

To add to the level of detail that the book offers, it finishes with a collector’s guide that lists every single PlayStation game that was officially published. This book was touted as a celebration of a console that brought wonder into the lives of many (us included), and a brand that reshaped the whole entertainment industry – we reckon the authors have definitely achieved this and surpassed what they had promised.

This IS the definitive book on Sony’s PlayStation. You won’t find any other book that covers so much detail on the original PlayStation as this one does, so we recommend you get yourself the PlayStation Anthology tome right now!

Disclosure: The ‘PlayStation Anthology’ book was kindly provided by Geeks-Line for this article.

Review of the SNES / Super Famicom: A Visual Compendium

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When it comes to video gaming related compendiums, Bitmap Books has got you covered. One of their first efforts, the cleverly titled Commodore 64: a visual commpendium was an absolute ripper. We still love and cherish our C64 commpendium, especially the nostalgic buzz we get when flicking through its pages and finding games that we may have forgotten about. That C64 commpendium was the start of Bitmap Books’ journey into publishing awesome gaming related tomes.

Fast forward to today and we are once again wowed by their latest publication, the SNES/Super Famicom: a visual compendium! Not only is this compendium double (and then some!) the size of the Commodore 64 one, it boasts content that you would not normally find in a book like this. We were expecting the games coverage (of course), but the variety of content and contributions from industry legends, like Eugene Jarvis (Ed: OMG!) really blew us away!

The first thing that struck us when we received the SNES/Super Famicom: a visual compendium was its beautiful lenticular fascia slipcase. As mentioned, the size of this compendium (it’s 536 pages!) did get the 16-bit nostalgic nerves tingling immediately. We can bang on about the premium quality and finish, but we have come to expect this from Bitmap Books, which is a great feather in their cap.

The SNES (Super Famicom in Japan) was Nintendo’s entrant in the bitter 16-bit console war with Sega’s Mega Drive/Gensis. Selling almost 50 million consoles worldwide, it made Nintendo’s console a firm favourite with millions of gamers around the globe. If you owned or played on one of these 50 million SNES/Super Famicom consoles, then this compendium is for you!

SNES/Super Famicom: a visual compendium offers a visual snapshot of the best games, developers, box art and product design from across the territories it sold in. As the name suggests, it is a visual book designed to stir up excitement and nostalgia for Nintendo’s fantastic 16-bit machine and its legacy of classic video games. From the varied and amazing visual content, we absolutely loved the behind the scenes look at the creation of the SNES product / console packaging – a fascinating insight into the design team’s thinking!

This is really an easy review to do as the subject matter and quality finish truly sell themselves. Do yourself a favour and grab this compendium before it sells out!

SNES/Super Famicom: A Visual Compendium was kindly supplied for review by Bitmap Books

 

Book Review: Ready Player One

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BOOK

At the time I found Ready Player One, I was up for getting into a good, well, a great, journey book. Walking through the airport on my way home from an August conference in Vegas, this book somehow stood out as a perfect story to spend my trip being engrossed in. The description on the cover read, “Enchanting…Willy Wonka meets The Matrix”; which was exactly the perfect description to raise my interest.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline is set in the year 2044 and tells the story of Wade, a young kid full of passion for the 80s, on a quest for his prize – the solution to a virtual reality game OASIS, left behind by a famous videogame designer and retro aficionado, James Halliday. Along the way were puzzles and various Easter eggs left within the game, and solving the game meant consequently inheriting Halliday’s hidden fortune.

After reading a few pages in the shop, I was hooked and had to buy the book. For me, it seemed to have just the right mix of all the best elements of honest geekiness, and lots of 80’s retro references. While the story is about a video game, the quest feels much more like an enchanting quest, closer to Journey to the Center of the Earth than say, Tron. Mix in with that feeling a ton of references to John Hughes’ movies and a sense of that “man against the machines” feel of films like Terminator 2, or The Matrix, and you’ll have a feel for what Ready Player One was like to read.

Something that really worked in the book, was the way Cline creates the feeling of a much bigger world than what is currently happening. There is a definite shared appreciation and understanding that emerges between Halliday and the young “Gunters” who are pursuing the final prize that he has hidden within his game. The book bounces between what is happening and flashbacks and quick historical explanations of why something is, and seeing the story of the quest unfold through the young eyes of Wade as he realises the full extent of evil in the corporation that pursues them so closely.

RPO_IMAGE
Halliday presents the keys!
source: Ready Player One

Like the author, I grew up with arcade video games and all the referenced 80s films and music, so this book really struck a chord of familiarity and excitement with me. Even without that, the story still came across with a lot of heart and feeling. It isn’t overly technical or clinical, yet still was a great follow up to prolong the rush from the conference I’d just been to.

Without giving away too much of the story, there were also some great moments of triumph tempered nicely with the warm 80s backdrop. The pace varies throughout the book which adds some great dynamics of tension, elation, as well as calm moments of reflection in-between.

I’d recommend this book to anyone who loves 80s movies ranging from the science fiction of Back to the Future series to the teenage revelations of The Breakfast Club. There is an assumption that the reader is familiar with these. The geeky elements are also there to please old gamers too. Even after my flight landed, I was still glued to this book. It literally made me grin later when I realised that the author had actually followed up with running a competition and had given away a real customised DeLorean!

RPO_DeLorean
Ready Player One author, Ernest Cline and the beloved DeLorean
source: Ready Player One

Reading this book was indeed a thoroughly enjoyable journey, which left me with a sense of nerdy excitement that makes you want to go and play old arcade games and hack away on a computer to 80s music. Read it now!

Ready Player One [by: Ernest Cline] is available paperback and for the Kindle.
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MARTdiaf23
Retro, science fiction, horror movie fan and breaker of things.

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