Looking ahead to 2021 (Patreon)

Hey all, sorry my monthly preview post is only showing up now, halfway through the month. I've had a lot going on lately, unfortunately. So rather than just looking at what's ahead for December (which is now 50% complete), let's look ahead to the new year.

First, a heads-up about a small yet significant change for the new year: I'm going to be revising and slightly restructuring patron tiers on January 1 (or shortly after). This is something I've been contemplating for quite a while, and recent circumstances have forced my hand a bit—my wife has had two different extended hospital stays following emergency room trips since the beginning of November. This means that, thanks to the incredibly humane American health care system, we're looking to start the new year with a shiny new five-figure medical debt on our hands. But even putting that consideration aside, the fact is that I launched this Patreon campaign nearly seven years ago, back when the service was new and no one really had the first clue about "best practices" and such. I haven't changed the $2/mo. base level support tier's price since 2014. Starting in January, I'll be bumping it up to $3, and other tiers will see slight tweaks as well. 

Most campaigns like this set their base price at around $5, but that's neither my consideration nor my plan. My main motivation in the change is simply how much bigger and costlier this endeavor has become; when I first launched this campaign, I was producing little five-minute videos about single games. I've since moved to videos that typically range from 10-18 minutes in length and often cover multiple games. This means (1) I'm sinking a lot more time into these productions and (2) I'm spending two or three times as much money to acquire the games and hardware I need to photograph and scan. Bumping up pricing slightly will hopefully help offset those time and cash expenses.

If this exceeds your budget or otherwise offends you, I understand. Money is personal and often challenging. I won't take it personally if you drop support for this Patreon. However, my intention is to add a few new perks for those who do stick around. 

• The $3 base level will remain unchanged—you'll get early access to videos (I aim to keep that at two weeks, circumstances allowing).
• There will be a new $5 tier which grants access to patron-exclusive content. For the moment, that's going to consist of a monthly podcast retracing the material covered in the Video Works series from the beginning. The first episode will go up at the beginning of January and will feature Steve Lin of the Video Game History Foundation and Dr. Sparkle of Chrontendo, discussing the historical context of the NES's American launch. I've set a few new funding goals that will unlock more material for this tier: More frequent podcasts and, ultimately, patron-exclusive videos.
• The book $6 PDF tier will also be bumped by $1/mo. to $7.
• The print book tiers are changing the most. As I no longer publish B&W or paperback books, that tier will be dropped. The color/hardcover print tier will remain the same price. But there will also be a new Collector's Edition tier for premium books that will include a sturdy slipcase, posters, and other goodies. 

Also regarding books: As I've mentioned before, everyone who has been supporting through the year at the existing tiers already are locked in for the Virtual Boy and Super NES books once they ship in early 2021. As a thank-you for your patience while my printing and production process changes over, everyone who has support at the B&W tier will be receiving color hardcovers, and everyone who has been at the color tier will be getting the deluxe CEs.

Again, I realize not everyone has the means to increase their subscription, and that's fine. I will continue to publish videos for everyone to enjoy for free on YouTube each Wednesday.

However, looking ahead to the 2021 plan, hopefully you'll be able to understand how I've been investing this campaign's income. It goes directly into my efforts to chronicle console gaming's post-crash history, which as I've mentioned before is currently undergoing a sort of recalibration. My work in 2021 will be primarily focused on three areas:

• Moving ahead with NES Work 1988 in earnest;
• Wrapping up the last entries in Game Boy Works 1990;
• Turning Segaiden into a parallel chronology to run alongside NES Works.

The NES Works bit is easy! I'm going to just keep doing what I've been doing: Covering a game or two and laying the history and context around it while examining its design. Likewise, Game Boy Works should be straightforward, too.

The Segaiden element is more significant. By the time NES Works 1988 ends, my intention is to have both Atari 7800 and Sega Master System coverage caught up to the same point as the NES chronology. You've already seen that happening with 7800, and Sega is next. But it's going to be a more elaborate endeavor than Atari. Master System had more games; I will usually be compiling three or four Master System games into a single episode, but even so, bringing it up to the end of 1988  will probably require a couple of dozen episodes.

HOWEVER—before we hit Master System, I want to cover the SG-1000, the console that predated the Master System. There are a few reasons for this. 

First, the Master System is actually an iterative evolution of the SG-1000; in Japan, Master System was called the Mark III because it was literally the third iteration of the console, retaining the same core CPU and adding a powerful new graphics coprocessor. 

Secondly, the SG-1000 is nevertheless distinct from the Master System. While the essentials of Famicom have mostly been covered through their NES conversions, SG-1000 games never made it to the U.S. It's an entire corner of the Sega console library without an American equivalent.

Third, the SG-1000 is a vital midpoint between Sega's arcade origins and their console business. Most of their notable early (pre-Super Scaler) arcade titles showed up on SG-1000, but only a few (e.g. Flicky, Penguin Land) hit Master System / Game Gear / Genesis. Even more than Atari 7800, the SG-1000 is an opportunity to look at great golden-age arcade titles that were largely left behind by the NES and everything after.

Finally, there's just not a lot of worthwhile English-language video coverage of the system to date.

So, beyond acquiring the usual NES and Game Boy titles, my big Video Works financial investment for 2020 has been tracking down as much SG-1000 material as possible. I realize this little side series (15-20 episodes total) won't do gangbuster traffic and will be of little interest to most current gamers, but the more I've thought about Video Works the more I've come to realize how valuable it would be to explore Sega's early console history as a prelude to tackling Master System—which will in turn be my biggest 2022 project, naturally. 

And, of course, there will be books to go along with each platform.

My hope is that once NES Works 1988 concludes, NES Works 1989 will be complemented by ongoing looks at Master System, Atari 7800... and eventually Gaiden-style overviews of TurboGrafx-16 and Genesis releases as well. Once we hit 1991, I'll resume coverage of the portable side of things in parallel to the consoles. This means the beginning of NES Works 1992 will bring us back to Super NES Works, too. It's basically a growing katamari of content. Honestly, it's not THAT radically different from what I've been doing; it'll just be more focused, consistent, and legitimately chronological. 

And it'll take years and years! I hope some of you will stick around for the ride. But at the very least, I would like to thank everyone who supports this campaign for making it possible for me to continue to refine my approach, hone my skills, and—hopefully—give these classic games the recognition and respect they deserve. Thank you for your support through the boring games and my tempestuous real-life circumstances alike. This is a true passion project for me, and I'm endlessly grateful that enough people get what I'm doing here to want to help make it happen.

Anyway! Please look forward to a lengthy new video on The Misadventures of Tron Bonne tomorrow, and many, many ancient Sega games beginning in a couple of months.