Dreamcast Year One: The Unofficial Book | GamesYouLoved

Following after the success of Sandeep Rai’s (known as 2 Old 4 Gaming on Twitter and YouTube) PlayStation Vita: Year One book last year, Andrew Dickinson took it upon himself to write a book dedicated to his favourite console, the Sega Dreamcast. As of 31st March 2001, it gained an enormous cult following throughout the years (in a similar fashion to the Playstation Vita).

Article by Wing See Li xFlowerstarx from Twitter

It launched in PAL regions (UK and Europe) on 14^th October 1999 and its official final game release is May 2002.

The book promises to provide the backers and its audience an insight of the Sega Dreamcast’s launch and the first year of the console.

 So far the project has garnered 3444 out of 6,000 and 233 backers.

 All of the backer tiers are as follows in order: ‘It’s Thinking…’, ‘Dreamy’, ‘Dream Bigger’, ‘The Dream’, ‘Double The Dream’ and ‘More Than A Dream’.

 If you’re curious about the book specs and why wouldn’t you be? Here they are below:

• 104 page paperback
• 115gsm silk paper stock
• Art direction by Steve Novakovic-Thone
• Illustrations by Eric Pavik
• Foreword by Sandeep Rai

Speaking of the book, Dreamcast: Year One is the first instalment of the trilogy. These three books will give the fans a history of the console from its conception to 31^st March 2000.

Along with the history of the console is an interview section that contains interviews with well-known members of the Sega Dreamcast community in the UK from the past until present day such as Caspar Field (the former editor of DC-UK), Tom Charnock (founder of ‘The Dreamcast Junkyard’) and Bernie Stolar (the former president of Sega of America).

Last but not least, the book boasts a library section that showcases retrospectives of the games, focusing solely on the PAL releases. Excluding the other international releases, Andrew will be taking the PAL release of a game as the main one of the series. Furthermore, there will be a gallery showing all of the box art for the PAL releases (and some of the North America and Japan only releases) and a timeline with an overview of the period inside the book.      

The list of games which are confirmed to be featured in the first book are as follows:

1. Sonic Adventure
2. Power Stone
3. Crazy Taxi
4. Soul Calibur
5. Toy Commander
6. House of the Dead 2
7. Sega Rally 2
8. Sega Bass Fishing
9. Virtua Fighter 3tb
10. Blue Stinger
11. Armada
12. Godzilla Generations

If your favourite game isn’t in the list then fear not as Andrew Dickinson offer twelve backers a golden opportunity of a lifetime to write a 100 words retrospective about their game of choice. Since the ‘More Than A Dream’ backer tier is limited, as with everything else in life, first come, first served.

In addition to a once-in-a-lifetime chance of being able to write a retrospective, the backer’s name, a portrait of his or her picture will be illustrated by the book’s artist, Eric Pavik, and his or her social media or Twitter handle will be included in the book and a digital copy of the portrait will be sent to the backer.    

 At the time of writing, three slots out of twelve slots have already been taken according to the ‘More Than A Dream’ backer tier.

 According to the Kickstarter campaign, Andrew is aiming to deliver all of the copies of the book on October 2019 to celebrate the 20^th anniversary of the Dreamcast launch in the UK and Europe.

If you’ve read Sandeep Rai’s PlayStation Vita: Year One book before, you’ll feel right at home with Andrew Dickinson’s upcoming Dreamcast: Year One – Unofficial Book. The book will be 104 pages long and A5 in size in regards to the pages. This is to keep the postage costs to a minimum.

Unlike PlayStation Vita: Year One, Andrew’s Dreamcast book will lack a deluxe digital version. He planned both digital and physical versions of the book to contain the same amount of content. More content will be added to the book depending on how much this Kickstarter project have funded so far.

Just be aware the first batch of the books will be in limited quantities. More copies will be available for purchase later but after all of the Kickstarter copies have been delivered to every backer. There may be a second run of this book in the midst of a future Kickstarter campaign (but it depends on how the current Kickstarter project will fare). Though, everyone’s copies will be marked as the first edition.   

Most importantly, bear in mind this Kickstarter project will be funded if it reaches its goal by Friday 5^th April 2019 at 11:59 am BST (British Standard Time).

Depending on the progress of this Kickstarter campaign, there might be stretch goals. If 100 shares of this Facebook post, 100 retweets of this tweet and 100 likes of this Instagram image are gathered successfully, Andrew will insert a round 75x75mm vinyl sticker of the cover image with each physical pledge free of charge.  

Tomb Raider: Homecoming

It feels like not too long ago, I helped Peter Connelly, the Tomb of Ash website team and his team to promote Tomb Raider: The Dark Angel Symphony (as it capitalises on the phenomenal success of The Tomb Raider Suite) and yet here I am as I come full circle to write about Tomb Raider again. Tomb Raider: The Last Relevation, to be precise. I’m honoured to announce I’m confirmed to write a retrospective about the game, even if it’s 100 words. Writing for a magazine is one thing, but contributing to a book is another. As the title implies, it feels like homecoming. I may not be a fan of the Tomb Raider series but it’s one of the many video game franchises that help shaped my life.

Article by Wing See Li (xFlowerstarx from Twitter)

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Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dreamcastyearone/dreamcast-year-one-unofficial-book

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