The Amiga Book – The BIG ONE! | GamesYouLoved
So where do we start – the record for the most successful retro gaming book on Kickstarter is held by the Commodore Amiga: a visual Commpendium. Here we take you through some of the highlights in this epic publication by Bitmap Books.
It deserves the best it can get and Sam Dyer of Bitmap Books has sure given it the love, attention and creative touch that any retro gamer would be proud to own in his or her collection.
This is the second in the Commpendium (spelt this way purposely as a nod to Commodore) series and covers the life of this legendary computer. With the 30 year anniversary of the Amiga now in 2015 this is perfect timing too. There are many events, celebrations and the recent successful The Amiga Years! Movie planned.
This is all about the deep story of the art and imagery of the Amiga told by the people who were there at the time and like the Commodore 64 Sam Dyer has done his homework and sought out the best in the games, and other amazing new features in this edition.
Both household names and those who are slightly off the radar are included as part of this story and there are tons of fantastic contributors to the book. These includes individuals (names to follow) but also developers of the time who have in depth interviews as colourful spreads in the book.
DMA Design, Sensible Software, Team 17 and System 3 are amongst those featured – artwork and in game imagery with pixel art beautifully presented on quality paper sets this off perfectly.
Whilst we are the subject of the book reproduction, we have to mention some of the details.
This is a seriously weighty affair with over 420 pages, but both the printer and Sam have managed this quality with beautiful binding and special touches that give this book a serious premium feel to it. From the lovely bookmark ribbon with the red and white Amiga colours to the dust cover with signatures of the original Amiga 1000 Team members – this has been thought through in many ways.
A well connected story runs throughout, and there is so much variety to the content areas. Yes there are games and so many of them! But there are areas of the book that go beyond with box art, artists interviews the all important Amiga demo scene – even a profile of unreleased games.
So what of the games featured. The Amiga during it’s lifetime had a huge amount of classic titles. This really was a super computer of it’s day and the possibilities really opened up for developers working on the Amiga – especially moving into the late 80s and early 90s.
So what about the games then!? Some of the highlights include:
Batman the movie – cool pixels with a great write up by Bill Harbison & Andy Roberts
The Sensible World of Soccer with the beautiful green pitch of 90s gaming all supported by a great write up by the legendary Jon Hare.
The smash and bash of Speedball 2: Brutual Deluxe has to be a favourite as we as GamesYouLoved share the page with the artist Dan Malone. A real treat for us to be part of this amazing spread within the book.
There many many other great games featured too and rather than talk about every one of them here are a few pics to show the the range and quality of the book:
Also as the lead promoter for the book we have our advert for other Kickstarter project owners to consider us as a promotional partner. GamesYouLoved have been committed fully to supporting Bitmap Books in their endeavours and as a team we made this project a huge success with GYL as the lead promoter.
Bitmap Books have created this book and its elements as a masterpiece of retrogaming and a tribute to a great 30 year legacy of the Amiga. We can only continue to pour over the book and enjoy its amazing art and story. We hope you do too.
If you havn’t got a book already – you have to get your hands on one. And you can at Funstock. Click the link here http://goo.gl/jRQTCy
