Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud_0wv6oRn4
I’m In A Book!
Introduction
I consulted on a brand new book by Lewis Packwood called “Curious Video Game Machines - A Compendium Of Rare And Unusual Consoles, Computers And Coin-Ops” for a chapter on obscure Atari history!
Lewis voiced by Lee (More Fun Making It): https://www.youtube.com/@MoreFunMakingIt
Script
If you’ve been following this channel for a while you’ll no doubt be aware that I’ve appeared in print on more than one occasion - whether that be in the form of interviews or even articles that I’ve actually written.
But so far, that’s been in magazines and never an actual book. Until now.
Alright, I haven’t actually written a book - I’m not going to sit here and take credit for someone else’s work. But, I have contributed to a book. You see, 18 months ago I was contacted by a pretty big and well established name in the world of retro gaming journalism and that name was Lewis packwood - he’s written for PC Gamer, EDGE, Eurogamer, Retro Gamer - more on that in a moment - and even The Guardian newspaper among many others - in a writing career that spans over 20 years.
So of course I was very interested indeed when I received an email from him that would mark the beginning of a very exciting 18 month collaboration.
“Hello, my name is Lewis, and I’m working on a book called Curious Video Game Machines, all about rare and unusual consoles, computers and coin-ops. I stumbled across you on Twitter today, and I was wondering whether you could help.
I’ve been working on a chapter all about Atari’s ‘forgotten’ consoles - the early PONG consoles, as well as Video Music, Video Pinball and Stunt Cycle. I watched your YouTube video on Video Music, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on the machine, as well as on the other consoles I mentioned. I really want to include people’s experiences with these machines rather than just creating a collection of dusty facts!
Would it be possible to organise a video call so we could have a chat about your experiences with the early Atari consoles? I’d love to include some quotes from you in the book. Let me know when is a good time for you.
Thanks for your help! Lewis”
How could I say no?
So, over the past year or so Lewis has picked my brain on my specialist subject of obscure Atari knowledge and I’ve also helped him out by photographing some bits and pieces of my collection for the book.
We also took a bit of a detour via Retro Gamer magazine for a 6 page spread all about weird and wonderful Atari 2600 accessories - that’s issue 245 that came out around April time this year if you want to check it out.
Again, Lewis did all of the actual work but quite a lot of the photos are mine as are some of the bits and pieces of information.
Hey! That’s my hand!
Anyway, back onto the book - this week we’re very proud to announce that preorders are open for “Curious Video Game Machines - A Compendium Of Rare And Unusual Consoles, Computers And Coin-Ops”.
Now, I don’t have a physical copy that I can show to you as this is literally hot off the press, but there is a preview on Google Books if you want to check out some of the pages and this is going to be a pretty weighty tome - with over 200 pages in total, covering a lot of weird stuff that even I haven’t heard of like the Kimtanktics, Interton consoles, and MB Microvision, as well as some more familiar weird and wonderful stuff like the Super Cassette Vision, Barcode Battler, Virtuality (remember when I had a go on one of those?), Prop Cycle and… Well, there’s absolutely loads more besides.
You can see the fruits of my contribution in chapter 2 which covers Atari’s Pong, Video Pinball, Stunt Cycle and the Atari Video Music.
The book is published by Pen and Sword books and is available to preorder direct from them for delivery after November 30th, and it’s also available on Amazon - either way, it’ll be in your letterbox in time for Christmas and what a fantastic and thoughtful Christmas gift it would make.
Joking aside, as you can probably tell I’m really proud to have been involved with this, I know Lewis has put a huge amount of work into it and I can’t wait to get my hands on the finished product myself. If you’d like to preorder a copy I’ll put the links down in the description as well as a link to that issue of Retro Gamer magazine.
So I just want to say a big thankyou to everyone who has supported the channel over the past 4 years - I can honestly say that opportunities like this wouldn’t have come along if it wasn’t for you - and of course an extra special thanks to my supporters on Patreon, Ko-Fi and my YouTube channel members that really help to justify the time that I spend on all of this stuff.
So there we have it, just a quick announcement and normal service shall resume shortly.
Original Video Links
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Relevant Links:
Preorder on Pen and Sword: https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Curious-Video-Game-Machines-Hardback/p/24332
Preorder on Amazon (Affiliate Link): https://geni.us/DxVs
Google Books Preview: https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Curious_Video_Game_Machines/lrfSEAAAQBAJ
Retro Gamer Issue 245: https://pocketmags.com/retro-gamer-magazine/issue-245
Lewis Packwood Twitter: https://twitter.com/LewisPackwood
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