February update (sort of) (Patreon)

Hey everyone, I wanted to give you the low-down on things.

First, the Patreon tier changes I've mentioned several times recently will go into effect next week. After giving it some consideration, I'm NOT going to introduce a new tier for bonus content. Instead, it's going to work like this:

• The $2/mo. early access will now be $3/mo. to bring this campaign a bit more in line with Patreon standard practices
• The $6/mo. book PDF tier will be bumped up to $8/mo.—BUT in addition to PDFs of a book or two per year, you'll now also be receiving a patron-exclusive monthly-ish podcast as well as patron-exclusive monthly PDFs containing high-rez versions of the photos I've been posting to Instagram. This one's the Nice Price, folks.
• I'm dropping the black-and-white book tier.
• The color book tier will remain the same price, except you'll now be guaranteed hardcovers.
• There will be a new upper tier, probably about $35/mo., for special editions of all future books (hardcover plus slipcase, poster, and other bonus goods). 
• The topic request tier will remain unchanged.

When the changes take effect next week, the first podcast episode will be going live. (The podcast will be called Famiconversations, by the way.) The first monthly PDF will go up as soon as possible—I'm still waiting for some materials to come in. I wasn't really happy with my original photos of the 1983 and 1984 Famicom games, as their lighting is flat, they're shot at a distorted angle, and their backgrounds are wrinkly and distracting. I've hunted down copies of those games to shoot fresh, and you can see the old shots in the attached image on the left, versus the new shots on the right. Some of these new copies aren't as nice as the ones Steve Lin lent me (check out how sun-faded the new Popeye language tutor looks! And it has sticker residue right on the front!), but the photos look a LOT more consistent with the SG-1000 shots, with bright white backgrounds and more dynamic shadows on the objects. Once the last few replacement games for 1983 come in, I'll get those shot and the February PDF uploaded.

Otherwise, nothing much is changing around here. I will continue to invest WAY too much time and money into these videos, and I promise that by year's end you will know everything there is to know about the sum total of the SG-1000 library. Oh, and there'll be some NES stuff in there, too. 

Also, a quick update on books: Super NES Works 1991 is almost done, except for copy edits and screen photos. Once it's in hand, both it and Virtual Boy Works will be going to press. A massively updated version of The Anatomy of Castlevania is in the works. And if I have my druthers, I'd like to get NES Works 1987 and Segaiden Vol. I (SG-1000) out the door by the end of the year... 

That's a lot of stuff, really. I hope you enjoy it all! Thanks once again for making it all possible.