Want Your Name in The NES Omnibus: The Nintendo Entertainment System and Its Game, Volume 1 (A-L)?

If you want your name in  The NES Omnibus:The Nintendo Entertainment System and Its Game, Volume 1 (A-L), all you have to do is sign up for my Patreon page for as little as $1 per month. Your name will appear in the book with such popular industry pros and gaming celebs as  as Adam F. Goldberg (The Goldbergs creator), "8-Bit" Eric Perez (YouTube personality), "The Immortal"John Hancock (YouTuber personality), John "Gamester81" Lester (YouTube personality), David Warhol (legendary Intellivision programmer), Steve Woita (Atari, Genesis, and PS1 programmer), Sean Tiedeman (director of The King of the Arcades), Shane Stein (Executive Producer of The Game Chasers movie), and Greg Sewart (former Previews and Reviews Editor for Electronic Gaming Monthly). The book will be out in the fall.

Featuring a 1200-word foreword by The Goldbergs creator Adam F. Goldberg, The NES Omnibus: The Nintendo Entertainment System and Its Games, Vol. 1 (A-L) covers the first half of the NES library in exhaustive and engaging detail: every U.S. release from A to L. More than 350 games are featured, including such iconic titles as Castlevania, Donkey Kong, Double Dragon, Duck Hunt, Final Fantasy, and The Legend of Zelda. Each game, whether obscure or mainstream, is given the spotlight. In addition to thorough gameplay descriptions, the book includes reviews, memories, historical data, quotes from vintage magazines, and, best of all, nostalgic stories about many of the games from programmers, authors, YouTube celebs, and other industry insiders. The book also features more than 1,500 full-color images, including box art, screenshots, and vintage ads. The book is a follow-up to the critically acclaimed 2-volume SNES Omnibus set.

What people are saying about The NES Omnibus and SNES Omnibus:

"This book is not only a reference volume, but it keeps alive the spirit of Nintendo's legacy." - Walter Day, industry icon and founder of Twin Galaxies.

"Brett Weiss proves again that he is the master of game directories"- LeonardHerman, author of Phoenix IV: The History of the Videogame Industry

“Each one of Brett's books is painstakingly researched, very well-written and extremely polished.” - Dr. Roberto Dillon, author of The Golden Age of Video Games and Ready: A Commodore 64 Retrospective

“Once again, Brett Weiss has crafted a handy and useful tome that will both satisfy the hardcore gamer and be a great tool for anyone just getting into gaming.” – Rob McCallum, award-winning documentary director of Video Game Box Art and Action Figure Adventure

“Brett Weiss is providing the world a much needed and welcome service. His work detailing the video games that generations have loved not only makes for great reading but also, for fans like me, is a way to celebrate a creative medium that moves quickly and oftentimes doesn’t adequately honor its cultural resonance.” - Victor Lucas, creator of The Electric Playground

How I'm Doing During the Coronavirus Pandemic Lockdown

So, how’s it going for everyone? Good, I hope!

We're doing okay, and I'm grateful we're healthy and keeping plenty busy cooking, taking walks, watching  movies, working, cleaning, playing video games, etc. And we haven't gotten on each other's nerves too much! :) 

Since AntiqueWeek, my antique booth, and retro gaming shows are shut down, and since I'm hardly getting any dog walks from WAG, I've spent a little more time doing YouTube. You can subscribe to my channel HERE. Watch some of the videos while you’re at it—you might enjoy them! If you could recommend the channel to your video game-loving friends, that would be awesome!

If you enjoy my articles, books, and YouTube videos, you can get extra content by joining my Patreon page for as little as $1 per month. Everyone on the $3 tier or higher gets most of the perks, including digital books, exclusive articles and videos, digital magazines, behind-the-scenes info and photos, advance book chapters, and much more, including a sneak peak at Adam F. Goldberg's foreword to The NES Omnibus. Check out my Patreon HERE. Currently, I'm editing The NES Omnibus Vol. 2!

If you want to go ahead and pre-order a signed copy of my next book, The NES Omnibus: The Nintendo Entertainment System and Its Games, Volume 1 (A–L), U.S. residents can do that HERE. In addition, you can order my other books HERE, direct from me, and I will sign and send them to you right away (U.S. shipping only).

As always, thanks for reading, and thanks for your support!

I hope you guys and gals are healthy and happy!

Coronavirus Update - Working From Home - Autographed Brett Weiss Books for Sale

I'm lucky to be able to write from home. I know many others are much less fortunate. However, since many of the conventions I planned on doing this year have been cancelled, I do have extra books for sale that I can sign and ship to U.S. residents. Click HERE to order direct.

My forthcoming book, The NES Omnibus Vol. 1, remains on schedule for the fall since Schiffer Publishing is still in operation (employees are currently working remotely). Click HERE to pre-order the book.

For extra content, and to show support for my work, you can check out my Patreon page and become a member for as little as $1 per month. Click HERE.

Thanks! Like everyone else, I'm just trying to figure things out in this new/temporary economy. I hope you guys stay safe, healthy, and productive during this difficult time. If you've got extra time on your hands, check out my YouTube videos HERE.

Exclusive Interview With GameStop Employee About Staying Open

After I published my YouTube video explaining my opinion on GameStop staying open during this difficult time in our country, a GameStop employee reached out to me for an interview on the condition that he remain anonymous, and with the following disclaimer: “These are my opinions, and I'm not speaking as a representative of a GameStop store or the GameStop corporation.

Without further ado, here’s that interview.

BRETTWEISS: What were you told by management regarding keeping GameStop open?

GAMESTOP EMPLOYEE: We were told that, starting tomorrow, we will condense our hours to being open from 12-8 each day.

WEISS: What are some of the things they’ve told you to do to keep safe?

EMPLOYEE: We’re basically following CDC guidelines. We are only letting 10 people in the store at a time, including the staff. They've given us extra hours to use so we can have someone work as basically a bouncer to control the flow of people coming into the store. We also stopped taking in trade. This probably won’t have much effect on not spreading the virus from just not having the items come in, but it does limit the traffic into the store and keeps people there for much shorter amounts of time. 

WEISS: Have they supplied you with things you need to keep you and your customers safe? If so, what?

EMPLOYEE: As far as sanitation supplies, this is probably the one negative thing I've seen on social media that is true. They allotted each store money to buy disinfecting wipes and hand sanitizer, but have left us to figure out how to get it ourselves. We now have a timer that goes off every 30 minutes to remind us to wash our hands and sanitize the credit card machines, counters, and door handles.

WEISS: How is business? What have customers said about you guys staying open?

EMPLOYEE: Business is crazy. My store was projected to do $4000 in business for the day due to Animal Crossing and DOOM launches, and we had done $7000 by the time I left with eight hours still to go until closing. We have sold out of almost every game console we have. Customers in general have been extremely positive. I've had a couple ask me what will happen to their $5 pro membership rewards they get each month if we close for an extended period of time, but I haven't been given anything from higher to tell them other than we don't currently expect to close down. No one has openly criticized us in the store for being open, but I suppose that would make them look pretty hypocritical for being there shopping

WEISS: Anything else you care to share about GameStop staying open during this time?

EMPLOYEE: I'd just like to add that I don't know corporate’s true intentions for us staying open.  I'm sure it's based partially off of fear that s prolonged closing could be the death blow to the company. With that being said, I personally feel like I'm providing an essential service. I know this might sound crazy, but mental health is almost as important as physical health during times like this, and as you know video games do a lot in that regard for a whole lot of people. I served 10 years in the army, and I get a similar feeling from being able to do this as I did from protecting people while serving overseas. I also don't get the impression that anyone would get fired if they said they didn't feel comfortable coming to work. That's just my opinion about my particular store, though. Could be completely different elsewhere

WEISS: Great stuff, I really appreciate it. Any closing remarks you’d like to make?

EMPLOYEE: I think that memo that leaked could have been worded much better. Personally, I would have put that out over a conference call. I think it's a bit too important and damaging to just send as an email. We do sell webcams, mice, and keyboards, so there is some truth to the part about helping with those that are telecommuting to work. Though I think that would be a tough sell from a legal standpoint, given the fact that those items don't even make up 1% of our total revenue.

FREE BOOK! - Retro Pop Culture A to Z: From Atari 2600 to Zombie Films

Since so many people have downtime right now, I've posted a FREE digital copy of my Retro Pop Culture book for ANYONE who wants it. Since Patreon is the easiest way to distribute a PDF, I've posted it on my page, but you don't have to be a member since it's a public post. Enjoy and be safe! Click here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/free-book-for-to-34936833

Retro Pop Culture A to Z: From Atari 2600 to Zombie Films is a window to the past—a time of 8-bit video games, Silver Age super-heroes, Saturday morning cartoons, rock ’n’ roll music, and scary movies at the drive-in. The book includes 60 fun-filled, feature-length chapters on such icons of popular culture as Alien, the Batman TV show, the Beatles, Dynamite Magazine, Famous Monsters of Filmland, The Flash, Forbidden Planet, Golden Age arcade games, He-Man, the Intellivision, Jaws, MAD magazine, the Nintendo NES, Ray Bradbury, The Wizard of Oz, the X-Men, and many others. If you’ve ever stayed up all night trying to beat Super Mario Bros., dressed up as a member of KISS on Halloween, watched Thundarr the Barbarian while eating a bowl of sugary cereal, set a VCR to record your favorite show, wiled away an entire day reading a stack of old comics, or listened to Elvis or the Rolling Stones on a turntable or 8-track tape player, Retro Pop Culture A to Z is for you. If you haven’t done any of these things, no problem—feel free to dive right in and discover why your parents (or grandparents) are always talking about “the good old days.” Includes: *60 essays/articles on nostalgic pop culture favorites *More than 200 photos *More than 115,000 words *Quotes from the experts *Production histories *Collectibles pricing *Author anecdotes *And much more!

PRE-ORDER NOW - The NES Omnibus: The Nintendo Entertainment System and Its Games, Vol. 1 (A-L)

NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER IN THE U.S.!

The NES Omnibus: The Nintendo Entertainment System and Its Games, Vol. 1 (A-L), covers the first half of the NES library in exhaustive and engaging detail. More than 350 games are featured, including such iconic titles as Castlevania, Donkey Kong, Double Dragon, Duck Hunt, Final Fantasy, and The Legend of Zelda. Each game, whether obscure or mainstream, is given the spotlight. In addition to thorough gameplay descriptions, the book includes reviews, memories, historical data, quotes from vintage magazines, and, best of all, nostalgic stories about many of the games from programmers, authors, YouTube celebs, and other industry insiders. The book also features more than 1,500 full-color images, including box art, screenshots, and vintage ads. Foreword by The Goldbergs creator Adam F. Goldberg!

Pre-Order Options

With Autograph $49.99 USD No Autograph $49.99 USD

Sonic the Hedgehog - Movie Review

I thoroughly enjoyed Sonic the Hedgehog. I wasn’t expected Casablanca or The Maltese Falcon, but I was worried it would be lame, even with the character redesign. But it was a lot of fun, from the swipes at Super Mario Bros. to the speedy humor to the fantastic credits scene with the 16-bit graphics. Directed by Jeff Fowler, the film starred James Marsden, Tika Sumpter, Natasha Rothwell, Neal McDonough, Adam Pally, and Jim Carrey, and they all did a great job. Ben Schwartz was energetic and funny voicing Sonic himself, and Carrey was his maniacal, 1990s self as we knew him in The Mask and Ace Ventura Pet Detective. You can watch my full review by clicking HERE.

Conversely, Simon Abrams, writing for www.rogerebert.com, hated the movie. He wrote, “Sonic the Hedgehog is the worst kind of bad movie: it's too inoffensive to be hated and too wretched to be enjoyable. You might think that this movie’s sad limbo state has something to do with the extensive and well-publicized last-minute animation redesign that made titular woodland creature Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) look more like Sega’s famous video game character. You’d be wrong: Sonic the Hedgehog is rotten because it, like too many other modern blockbusters, was seemingly made by an imaginatively bankrupt creative committee with more ideas for jokes than actual jokes to tell, and more cookie-cutter, place-holder dialogue about the power of friendship than something (anything) to say about that boilerplate quality.”

Movies like Sonic the Hedgehog aren’t intended for critics. They’re fun popcorn movies aimed at kids, families, pop culture buffs, comedy adventure fans, and fans of the franchise. I thought it was a blast.

I reviewed another good movie recently called Not for Resale. It’s about the death of physical media and stars several of my friends, including Kelsey Lewin and Joe Santulli. You can watch my video review HERE and read my written review HERE.