August bonus 1: Book in progress (Patreon)

Greetings, patrons! I have the first of this month's bonus items ready for download: The latest revisions of the Instagram box art photo book. You will notice this latest upload is quite a bit different from previous versions, and that is because I finally have a direction and purpose for this project. Where before I was feeling out the content and approach, the time I've taken off from working on it has given me a chance to come up with an overall strategy for it.

It's still very clearly a work in progress here! You'll spot this right away, since it's now (1) 240 pages long and (2) the majority of those pages are currently blank. Including many near the front.

So what will this book be, exactly? Hopefully the new title and all the placeholder text speak for themselves. This book is now called From the Beginning Vol. 1, and it will feature the box art of games in approximate chronological release order. This volume centers on Japanese game consoles, and it will begin at the beginning—with 1981's Epoch Cassette Vision—and run all the way through the end of 1985, when Japanese consoles finally came to America with the Nintendo Entertainment System launch.

For Vol. 2, I'd like to cover the chronology of post-crash consoles in America. And maybe portable gaming for Vol. 3. But those are quite a ways away.

This is still very much a work in progress, even beyond the many missing photos. I can see several photos I need to retake; I need to rethink the relationship between text and images; text will need to be revised and copy-edited. I invite you to follow along as I build this book into a finished product! And it will be a product: A release of 12" square hardcover and softcover editions should be available for purchase sometime next year. I'll be uploading the work-in-progress files along the way, so you can follow along in real time (-ish) to chart the development and refinement of this project.