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Friday, February 15, 2019
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Tuesday, February 12, 2019
FREE BOOK for Reviewers and YouTubers - The SNES Omnibus: The Super Nintendo and Its Games, Vol. 2 (N–Z)
Attention writers/journalists and YouTubers: If you would like to review The SNES Omnibus: The Super Nintendo and Its Games, Vol. 2 (N–Z) in advance of its April 28 release date, please email me your request and the URL of the site where the review will appear. I will have my publisher email you a PDF of the book. You can reach me at brettw105@sbcglobal.net. Thanks!
Volume 2 of The SNES Omnibus is a fun and informative look at ALL the original Super Nintendo games released in the US starting with the letters N-Z. More than 375 games are featured, including such iconic titles as Star Fox, Street Fighter II, Super Mario Kart, Super Mario World, Super Metroid, Tetris Attack, and Zombies Ate My Neighbors. Each game, whether obscure or mainstream, is covered in exhaustive detail. In addition to thorough gameplay descriptions, the book includes reviews, fun facts, historical data, quotes from vintage magazines, and, best of all, nostalgic stories about many of the games from programmers, authors, convention exhibitors, video game store owners, YouTube celebs, and other industry insiders. The book also features more than 2,000 full-color images, including box art, cartridges, screenshots, and vintage ads. Plus, there’s a gorgeous centerfold starring your favorite SNES characters. Includes nostalgic stories by such gaming celebs as John Jackson Miller (best-selling author of Star Trek and Star Wars novels), David Warhol (Intellivision programmer), Steve Woita (Genesis and Atari 2600 programmer), Rusel DeMaria (author of SNES strategy guides), Kelsey Lewin (popular YouTuber), John Riggs (popular YouTuber), John Lester (popular YouTuber), and many others.
Thursday, February 7, 2019
SNES Omnibus Writer Spotlight #40: Erin Hawley
Erin
Hawley, a.k.a. The Geeky Gimp, is one of many gifted contributing writers for
The SNES Omnibus project, but her stories stand out because they are directly
tied into her physical limitations. This not only gives the stories added weight
and poignance, but makes a strong case for video games being a positive force
for good. Further, she’s a terrific writer, as you can see from her story about
F-Zero, reprinted from The SNES Omnibus: The Super Nintendo and Its Games, Vol.1 (A–M):

The
clearest and most nostalgic memories of my childhood took place in front of our
friend’s TV, sitting crossed-legged on their carpeted floor, playing F-Zero. My
brother and our pals would race the tracks, trying to beat each other’s high
scores. I would repeatedly win, expertly dodging those bumpers and taking
curves like a master pilot. Years of driving my motorized wheelchair gave me
the skills to outplay everyone on those retro highways.
Maneuvering
F-Zero’s hovercars felt natural and gave me the same thrills as driving my
chair down a steep blacktop driveway. In F-Zero, when you pull to the side of
the track to recharge, there’s a risk of losing control of your vehicle or
slowing down enough for other cars to pass. You’d either take that chance or
pray you don’t bang into another wall in the next lap. It was exhilarating to
make such a decision in that instant, and it mimicked the choices I made when I
went “off-roading” in my chair. Of course, I wasn’t flying at F-Zero speed, but
the danger was real. Over 20 years later, I’ve slowed down and put safety
first, but my driving hand is still flying. - Erin Hawley
Here's
Erin’s bio from the SNES Omnibus books:
Erin Hawley is a
writer, editor, and digital content producer living in New Jersey. She started
playing games on the Atari 2600 and Commodore 64, and now spends her extra time
streaming PC games on Twitch. Erin’s blog, The Geeky Gimp, focuses on
disability representation and accessibility in nerdy media. You can find her
work at geekygimp.com, and follow her on Twitter @geekygimp.
Sunday, February 3, 2019
Review Fix Interview with Brett Weiss - SNES Omnibus Vol. 2
I
was recently interviewed by Patrick Hickey Jr. of Review Fix, and he was kind
enough to let me reprint it here for your perusal. Enjoy the interview!
ReviewFix chats with author Brett Weiss, who discusses the creative process, vision
and goals for his new book, The SNES Omnibus: The Super Nintendo and ItsGames, Vol. 2 (N–Z).
Review
Fix: What was the reception like for The SNES Omnibus Vol. 1?

Readers
have also told me that they discovered games they didn’t know about through the
book, and that they like the fact that even the obscure games get at least one
page of content.
Review
Fix: How did that influence Vol 2?
Weiss:
The books were basically written concurrently, so the format is essentially the
same. However, I did spend a little more time working with the publisher on the
positioning of the photos, so readers may notice that. This book has more pages
and text because of all those “Super” games, and I made sure to include more
photos.
Review
Fix: What games in this volume do you think stand out the most?
Weiss:
Most of the triple-A titles get two full pages, such as Star Fox, Super
Bomberman, Super Castlevania IV, Super Mario All-Stars, Super Mario Kart, Super
Mario World 1 and 2, and each of the titles in the Star Wars trilogy. Certain
other titles that you might not think of right away get two pages as well, such
as Q*bert 3, Shadowrun, and Phalanx. Not only are these great games, I really
like the two-page spreads.
Review
Fix: What’s your favorite entry? Why?
Weiss:
That would have to be Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting. Not only is it a
nice two-page layout, it’s got a great story written by my wife about how we
would pummel the hell out of each other and how we decided to stop because it
wasn’t the best thing for our relationship (we started playing Donkey Kong Country instead). The vast majority of insider insights were written by
industry people, but my wife’s story was too strong to leave out of the book.
And besides, she’s an insider by marriage and a terrific writer. My son’s got a
couple of stories in the book as well. As I’ve said before, you could argue
that I’m only the second or third best writer in the family.
Review
Fix: What did you feel like once all the work was done?
Weiss:
A great sense of relief and accomplishment. Writing a book like this, if you’re
doing it right, is a massive undertaking. It can be a lot of fun, but those
weeks leading up to the deadline are brutal. It’s tedious going over each page
again and again to make sure everything is accurate, concise, and grammatically
correct, but it’s very important for posterity’s sake and for the reader. When
customers are shelling out their hard-earned money, I want them to be happy
with their purchase.
Review
Fix: Bottom line, why must someone pick this one up?
Weiss:
The nostalgic stories. They’re like a trip back in time to the 1990s, not only
in terms of gaming, but the general zeitgeist. Also, instead of slogging
through a lot of poorly-written crowd-sourced stuff online, you can read game
write-ups that are concise and accurate. The quotes from old issues of
Electronic Games Monthly and other magazines are also pretty cool.
Review
Fix: What’s next?
Weiss:
Good question. Maybe a Sega Genesis Omnibus, if the Super Nintendo books sell
well enough. Or maybe a sequel to The 100 Greatest Console Video Games:1977-1987. I think it would be fun to cover the next decade. I’m also busy
writing for a variety of magazines, websites, and newspapers, including OldSchool Gamer, CultureMap Fort Worth, CultureMap Dallas, and AntiqueWeek, where I have a national
column called The Pop Culture Collective.
Review
Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?
Weiss:
We live in an age where some people don’t “get” books. People will ask, “Why
should I buy a book? I can just find that stuff online.” Not true. The
nostalgic stories in the SNES Omnibus books are original and exclusive to this
project. Also, reading a professionally written, professionally edited,
professionally published hardcover book you can hold in your hands is a much
different experience than reading a bunch of crowd-sourced stuff online.
Volume 2 of SNES Omnibus is a fun and informative look at ALL the original Super Nintendo games released in the US starting with the letters N-Z. More than 375 games are featured, including such iconic titles as Star Fox, Super Mario Kart, Super Mario World, Super Metroid, Tetris Attack, and Zombies Ate My Neighbors. Each game, whether obscure or mainstream, is covered in exhaustive detail. In addition to thorough gameplay descriptions, the book includes reviews, fun facts, historical data, quotes from vintage magazines, and, best of all, nostalgic stories about many of the games from programmers, authors, convention exhibitors, video game store owners, YouTube celebs, and other industry insiders. The book also features more than 2,000 full-color images, including box art, cartridges, screenshots, and vintage ads. Plus, there’s a gorgeous centerfold starring your favorite SNES characters.
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
Sunday, January 20, 2019
Rawson Stovall: The First Nationally Syndicated Video Game Columnist
The name “Rawson Stovall” may not mean anything to you, but it should. Back in a time when video game reviews were seldom seen outside of such magazines as Electronic Games and JoyStik, he wrote a syndicated column published in more than 40 newspapers around the country. In fact, he was the first nationally syndicated reviewer of video games in the United States.
Remarkably,
Stovall was only 10 years old when the first installment of his column, “Video
Beat,” appeared in 1982 in the West Texas newspaper the Abilene Reporter-News.
A
published writer at an age when many kids have a hard time simply paying
attention in English class, Stovall was a true phenomenon, appearing on such television
programs as The Tonight Show, Hour Magazine, That's Incredible!, and The
Today Show. Stovall cemented his reputation as a wunderkind in 1984 when
Doubleday published his book, The VidKid’s Book of Home Video Games (a now-hard-to-find tome that sells for
around $70 on eBay), where he analyzed 80 video games for such consoles as the
Atari 2600, ColecoVision, and Intellivision. He also reviewed the consoles
themselves and even offered tips on many of the games.
For
many of us who grew up during the 80s, playing video games and dreaming of one
day becoming a professional writer, Stovall is something of a legend, so
imagine my surprise when he reached out to me via Facebook recently and asked
if I wanted to grab some breakfast. He was in town for the holidays (his mother
lives near me in a suburb of Fort Worth, Texas) and had some time to kill
before heading back to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he works as a video game designer. I had to work late the night before, but I wasn’t about to pass up
this opportunity, so of course I said yes.
Stovall
and I hit it off right away, sharing industry trade stories and some laughs. I
told him how I broke into writing about video games in 1997 for the now-defunct
All Game Guide (a sister website of allmusic.com), and how I wrote the
first-ever video game book for McFarland Publishers in 2007 (the company now
has an entire division of video game books), among other bona fides, while he
revealed how he got his first video game console, and how he came to be a young
reviewer. I even got him to sign my copy of his book.
I
wasn’t meeting Stovall for breakfast as a journalist or with an article in
mind—just as a fellow video game fan and writer—so I didn’t take notes or
record our conversation. Fortunately, the introduction to his book contains plenty
of info on how Stovall became a whiz kid (ahem, “Vid Kid”) and the first video
game columnist in the United States, so I’ll summarize that for you here.

“Those
first games gave me the start I needed,” Stovall wrote. “I played them until I
knew them backward and forward and then loaned them to friends, who in exchange
loaned me some of their games.”
Later
that year, Stovall’s reading teacher assigned the class a project where they
would get into groups and do a mock TV program. Stovall and his crew decided to
do a show on video games.
“For
each show, we reviewed around three games, told of the games to be released,
and had a quiz contest,” Stovall wrote. “We also invited guest speakers such as
Mr. Jack Williams, owner of the Abilene Video Library, a retail store where I
got much of my information, and Mr. Max Martin, manager of the local Chuck E.Cheese Pizza Time Theatre. Mr. Martin caused quite a stir when he brought all of
the Pizza Time characters with him.”
One
day, as Stovall was talking to Williams about video games in his store,
Williams suggested to the young boy that he write an article on the subject
since he knew so much about it. Stovall’s mom suggested that he make it a
column. Not only would a recurring column give Stovall more room to write about
his favorite topic, it would earn him money to purchase a computer. After
writing several sample columns, Stovall took his idea to Dick Tarpley,
executive editor of the Abilene Reporter-News,
and he readily accepted Stovall’s proposal.

In
1985, Stovall, appearing at a public relations event, was the first person to
demonstrate the Nintendo Entertainment System (released in 1983 in Japan as the
Famicom) to the U.S. media. Stovall, whose writing also appeared in such
publications as Family Circle, Omni, and Woman’s Day, continued writing his column until 1990, when he
enrolled in college at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas.

Thursday, January 17, 2019
DFW Record Show - Saturday, January 19 - I'LL BE THERE!

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