SMS Encyclopedia - Match 5 for Intellivision - Sonic Book

One of the benefits of being a writer is getting review copies of games, books, and other items. Last week I got a nifty new puzzle game for the Intellivision and two really cool books. I plan to review them at some point, but wanted to go ahead and mention them on my blog as each are worthy projects that deserve attention.

Match 5 is a brand new Intellivision game, complete with professionally produced box, manual, and keypad overlays. It's a puzzler in which, as the title suggests, players match rows of five items to make them disappear. You can order the game, which I've played and thoroughly enjoyed, on the Elektronite website.

Freelancer Derek Slaton, who I met at the Retro Game Fest in Austin, has written reviews of every U.S.-released Sega Master System and published it as The Sega Master System Encyclopedia. Unlike most self-published books, this one has full color illustrations throughout (though you can order a cheaper black and white version). Derek is a nice guy, and you can order his book through his website. 

The History of Sonic The Hedgehog is a gorgeous hardcover that does an excellent job giving a certain Sega mascot his due. Every great video game character, from Pac-Man to Mr. Do! to Q*bert, deserves such a book. You can order The History of Sonic The Hedgehog here.

Atari Inc.—Business is Fun

Atari Inc.—Business is Fun

Syzygy Company Press

Written by Marty Goldberg and Curt Vendel

$39.99, softcover, 796 pgs.

Grade: 4.5 Stars (out of 5)

The publication of AtariInc.—Business is Fun is, among other things, the answer to a question that has been posed to me more than once. When talking about my own Classic Home Video Games book series (McFarland Publishers), which is comprised of Leonard Maltin-type reference guides, people have asked me if I will ever write a full-blown video game history book.

I always answer “no” to this question, explaining that there are others more connected to the industry better suited to write such a book. In fact, several people have, most notably Leonard Herman with Phoenix: The Fall & Rise of Video Games and Steven L. Kent with The UltimateHistory of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon--The Story Behind the Craze ThatTouched Our Lives and Changed the World.

And now Mary Goldberg and Curt Vendel with Atari Inc.—Business is Fun, a massive tome weighing in at 796 self-published pages. As with many so-called “vanity press” books, Atari Inc. has its share of typos, along with certain relatively minor structural and flow problems, but these can easily be overlooked because of the sheer detail and scope of the project, which covers the pre-history of Atari—Ted Dabney and Nolan Bushnell at Ampex—up to Jack Tramiel purchasing the company in 1984. Two subsequent volumes are in the works.

Video game history books (as opposed to buyer’s or reference guides) date back at least as far as Zap:The Rise and Fall of Atari (1984) by Scott Cohen, but Atari Inc. delves much deeper than any other book on the subject. The authors went above and beyond to collect as much data and anecdotal information as humanly possible, pouring over old documents and interviewing numerous luminaries, such as Steve Wozniak, who discusses Steve Jobs’ involvement with the company, and Ted Dabney, who provides one of the book’s four forewords (Ralph Baer provides another). Nolan Bushnell, who is often shown in a negative light in the book (though the authors clearly respective his visionary business sense), was interviewed for the project, but he ignored a request to write a foreword. 

Atari Inc.—Business is Fun devotes a lot of time to clearing up Atari history, including the myths and legends surrounding the fact that thousands of Pac-Man and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial cartridges were buried in a landfill. Countless lesser-known-to-the-general-public topics are covered as well, such as the creation of Atari 2600 Chess (which is more interesting than you might think), the rationale behind the confounding, non-centering Atari 5200 controllers, and the story of how General Computer Corp. became a developer for Atari.

This book is indeed a treasure trove of behind-the-scenes information, which you will feel confident as being accurate thanks to the many former Atari employees quoted, and to the qualifications of the authors. A former site director of IGN/GameSpy's ClassicGaming.Com and a current freelancer for Retro Gamer magazine, Goldberg is the founder of the Electronic Entertainment Museum.

As for Vendel, he’s essentially the Forrest J Ackerman (Famous Monsters of Filmland) of the video game industry, collecting Atari drawings, engineering logs, schematics, and technical materials for years. Similar to Ackerman, who rescued and preserved monster movie lobby cards, one-sheets, and the like long before it was considered cool (or important) to do so, Vendel made “trips to Atari's buildings in California to salvage Atari's valuable history from its dumpsters.”

Atari Inc. lacks an index, which is especially regrettable for a volume of its size, but, on a more positive note, each chapter ends with a photo section featuring advertisements, rare prototypes, multi-machine arcade trailers, inter-office memos, memorabilia, offices, programmers, and other nifty images. The pictures are in black-and-white, but that’s hardly unusual for a self-published book.

Atari Inc.—Business is Fun is a monumental work that reveals newly disclosed stories behind Atari, and it clears up misconceptions regarding the company, its people (who truly did have fun working at Atari), and its arcade, console, handheld, and computer games. The book is highly recommended for anyone even remotely interested in maneuvering onscreen images with a joystick and fire button.

My latest book, Classic Home Video Games, 1989-1990: A CompleteGuide to Sega Genesis, Neo Geo and TurboGrafx-16 Games, is on sale through Amazon for $36, which is pretty cheap for a hardcover from McFarland Publishers (the book was $55 when first published in 2011).

Here's the publisher description of the book:

The third in a series about home video games, this detailed reference work features descriptions and reviews of every official U.S.-released game for the Neo Geo, Sega Genesis and TurboGrafx-16, which, in 1989, ushered in the 16-bit era of gaming. Organized alphabetically by console brand, each chapter includes a description of the game system followed by substantive entries for every game released for that console. Video game entries include historical information, gameplay details, the author's critique, and, when appropriate, comparisons to similar games. Appendices list and offer brief descriptions of all the games for the Atari Lynx and Nintendo Game Boy, and catalogue and describe the add-ons to the consoles covered herein--Neo Geo CD, Sega CD, Sega 32X and TurboGrafx-CD. HC, 344 pgs, B&W photos. Foreword by Leonard Herman.

Here are a couple of Amazon reviews of the book:

"The third installment in an outstanding book series that comprehensively chronicles the systems and games released during given eras. Like its predecessors, this book thoroughly informs while entertaining the reader. For me personally, it has expanded my knowledge of the libraries for each console, and in some cases, has sparked a desire to acquire certain systems and game titles that I had previously overlooked."

***

"With Classic Home Video Games, 1989-1990, Brett Weiss continues his exhaustive coverage of the videogame systems of yesteryear. Here Weiss writes about every single one of the games that came out for three historically important consoles: Sega Genesis, Neo Geo, and TurboGrafx.

Since there were so many games released for the Genesis, the bulk of the book covers that system, which was far more popular than the other two. Writing in a clear, concise, descriptive style, Weiss describes each game in detail and critiques most of the games in terms of graphics, sounds, and fun factor. Historical info is included as well.

If you are shopping for retro games online or at a videogame convention, Weiss's book is good to have on hand. It's also a book you can flip through in order to discover games that you've never played before, but might want to. It's also useful as a research tool, and it's fun to play a game and then read what Weiss has to say about it to see if your opinion matches his.

At $55 suggested retail, it's a little pricey, but sturdy hardcover binding and professional authorship make it easily worth the money."

Oklahoma Video Game Expo Sept. 21 in Tulsa

The 100 Greatest Console Video Games: 1977-1987

In addition to working on the next volume in my Classic Home Video Games series, I've completed a book for Schiffer Publishing covering the greatest console video games released from 1977-1987. The working title is The 100 Greatest Console Video Games: 1977-1987. (You can see that I need a long nap after working on the book, which took more than a year to write, including more 12- and 16-hour days than I care to remember.) 

The book, which is scheduled for release sometime next year, will include, obviously, games for the Atari 2600, on up through some of the early titles for the NES. Cartridges for the Atari 5200, ColecoVision, Intellivision, Odyssey2, Sega Master System, and Atari 7800 will also be included, along with various dark horse entries.

The 100 Greatest Console Video Games: 1977-1987 features anecdotes, collector pricing, publishing histories, extensive gameplay details, tips and tricks, fun facts, my opinions on the games, quotes from other sources (magazines, books, and websites), full color photography (including screenshots), and more. Each of the 100 chapters is approximately 850-1500 words in length.

The book will also contain 100 honorable mentions, listed in an appendix near the back. Breaking down the book to 200 titles was a blast, but some painful decisions had to be made regarding titles that I enjoy, but that didn't quite make the cut. The bottom line consideration was how much fun the game is today, but I also took into account historical importance, graphics, sounds, and the like.

The Classic Home Video Games series, now at three books and counting, is a reference tool like Leonard Maltin's movie books, but this new volume for Schiffer will be a lavish coffee table book with lengthy entries, bookstore distribution, full-color photography, and all the trimmings.

Opening a Booth in an Antique Mall

As regular readers of this blog know, I recently opened a booth at LoneStar Antiques in Haltom City near Fort Worth. The name of my booth, which stocks retro pop culture, is The Time Machine. I wrote about opening this booth in a recent issue of AntiqueWeek, and I've reprinted that article here for your perusal:

So you want to open a booth in an antique mall.

Before following your dream, there are a few things you may want to consider. I don’t have all the answers, of course, but I can tell you what I did when I opened my first booth a few months ago, and maybe you can pick up a few pointers along the way.

I live in a major metropolitan area, , so there are several antique malls within 20 minutes or so of my house. Before I talked to anyone about signing a lease, I spent a couple of months browsing the malls, getting display ideas, making notes of what types of items each mall sold, and paying attention to customer traffic.  

Further, whenever I would see a vendor working in a booth, straightening up or adding more items (something any dealer should do on a regular basis), I would talk to them about that mall, tell them I was considering opening a space, and ask them how their booth was doing. This turned up a lot of useful information, especially regarding which malls were the busiest. One person in particular had booths in three different malls in the area, so what he had to say was especially insightful.

 As luck would have it, the antique mall right around the corner from my house—LoneStar Antiques—was a perfect fit. Not only was it close, but it was usually busy when I would go there, and every single one of the vendors I spoke with said they were happy with their sales. They also liked the staff and the facility’s reasonable rental rates. LoneStar wasn’t the cheapest antique mall I looked into, but it was definitely the busiest.

So I was ready to rent a booth. Since I do shows on the weekends, I already had plenty of stock—boxes and boxes of comics, action figures, retro technology (laser discs, old video games, and the like), vintage paperbacks, and collectibles, and much more. LoneStar had a couple of other booths with pop culture items of relatively recent vintage, so I knew they were allowable (certain malls only allow fine antiques and/or items 50 years old or older), but I wouldn’t have too much competition in this regard.

Unfortunately, when I went to reserve a booth—this was in June of 2012—they said there was at least a four-month wait before I could get a space. I was disappointed, but at least I had my name on the list.

It turns out I had to wait six months before any spaces were available. This was frustrating, but it turned out to be a good thing. During that six-month waiting period, I went to auctions, garage sales, thrift stores, second hand bookstores, and the like, looking for additional stock and, more importantly, fixtures. My plan all along was to build my booth on the cheap, and some of the bigger thrift stores in my area frequently sell and various other types of display fixtures.

During one of my outings, I went to a used bookstore and found more than 100 in near mint condition priced at just a dollar apiece (they typically sell for $5-$25 each in the collector’s market). I bought almost every one of them. My next stop on that trip was a nearby thrift store, where I stumbled across a vertical rack designed for displaying record albums, which are the same size as . The rack was made of welded steel, but only cost $10. Since I also plan to sell in my booth, purchasing the rack was a no-brainer of the highest order.

On another outing, I went into a  store and discovered a great way to display comic books in a lateral filing cabinet, a method that saves tons of space (you can read about this in the “Insights” column in AntiqueWeek #2280).

Another happy accident occurred when I helped a friend move. As “payment” for helping him relocate from an apartment to a house that was already furnished, he gave me two custom-made bookshelves that were perfect for displaying mass market paperbacks in an efficient manner (most store-bought bookshelves are designed to fit trade  and hardcovers).

By the time the manager at LoneStar Antiques called to say a couple of booths would soon be available, I had a garage full of bookshelves, racks, and other fixtures, plus plenty of fresh stock. However, I needed one more item: a glass showcase for displaying small, expensive items.

Fortunately, I found the perfect glass showcase at LoneStar.

After LoneStar called, I went in and looked at the two 12’ x 8’ spaces. One appeared freshly painted, had tons of peg board, and was fully finished out. The other needed a fresh coat of paint and had a large pole in the middle, stretching from the ground to the ceiling. Needless to say, I chose the former.

The current tenant was going to move out of the space at the end of the month, so I had to wait a couple of weeks before I could begin setting up. I noticed there were fixtures for sale in the booth, and it occurred to me that other booths might have fixtures for sale as well, so I walked the mall looking for just that.

Much to my delight, I found a large, horizontal glass showcase with sliding doors in the front, meaning I could situate the showcase at the front of the booth and place the lateral filing cabinet directly behind it. The showcase was in excellent condition and only cost $100. And, since it was already at LoneStar, I wouldn’t have to go through the arduous task of loading it into a truck and moving it.

Once all my fixtures were in place, I spent a couple of days pricing items (if you do use glass a showcase, make sure the prices on your items are visible as customers are much more likely to inquire about said items if they can see much they cost), arranging pegs in the peg boards, stocking shelves, and creating signs. One sign I recommend for any dealer to make is SMILE, YOU ARE ON CAMERA or a similar message letting the customers know their activities are being monitored (most antique malls have security cameras in place).

Opening a booth at an antique mall can be fun, rewarding, and profitable. While I was scouting out a location, several dealers told me “none of us are in this to get rich.” This may be true, but if you plan ahead, refresh your stock frequently, and follow a few other simple guidelines, you could turn your favorite hobby into a nice little business venture.

Collecting VHS Video

(this article originally appeared in a recent issue of AntiqueWeek)

Walk into most any thrift store and you’ll see piles and piles of VHS videos for 50 cents or a dollar apiece. Some places even sell them four or five for a dollar. If you ask nicely, certain businesses would probably just give them to you.

Short for Video Home System, the VHS format, which debuted in the late 1970s and became ubiquitous during the 1980s, has been dead for years, thanks in large part to the proliferation of the DVD (Digital Versatile Disc), which was invented in 1995 and introduced to the American consumer in 1997. Unlike the clunky and fragile VHS video, the DVD disc is slick, compact, and durable (video tape has the potential for wearing out much more quickly than the disc).

Moreover, the DVD has superior picture quality and sound, and most DVDs have special features, such as alternate languages, trailers, commentary tracks, and/or documentaries. Many DVDs offer interactivity as well, such as games and trivia.

In 2006, the even higher quality Blu-ray disc was introduced, putting the VHS video further in the rearview mirror.

Video tapes may be long extinct—the last major release to be issued on VHS was David Cronenberg's A History of Violence in 2005—but don’t tell that to Dan Kinem, co-director (with Levi Dabeedo) of a new documentary called Adjust Your Tracking: The Untold Story of the VHS Collector.

Kinem, who calls DVDs nothing more than a “disposable, flimsy, and convenient way to watch a movie,” loves VHS because of the many obscure titles that were produced. “You can find so many movies and TV shows that have not made the jump to DVD,” he said in a recent interview published on www.frank151.com. “That was my main draw to VHS from the beginning. I was able to watch tons of stuff that never made the jump to any digital format.”

During the filming of Adjust Your Tracking, Kinem and company interviewed more than 100 collectors, including Blood Slaughter Massacre (2011) director Manny Serrano. In the documentary, Serrano is shown waxing eloquent about the tangibility of VHS as he rattles and shakes a tape: “It has sound, it has weight,” he said. “You could kill somebody with this.”

Tony Timpone, editor of Fangoria magazine from 1985-2010, was also interviewed for the film. He remembers what it was like when VHS was the latest and greatest in home movie technology. “It was always a bit of a thrill to pop one of these VHSs into your machine and see a film you couldn’t see anywhere else,” he said.

As with many other collecting endeavors, the thrill of the chase is a big part of the appeal of acquiring VHS tapes. “As I got deeper and deeper into the collecting world I fell in love with the hunting aspect of it,” Kinem said. “I could travel and dig through thrift stores, video stores, and flea markets [looking] for rare and interesting movies that I didn't have.”

VHS copies of movies and TV shows that have never appeared on DVD, or that are out of print, can command hundreds of dollars on eBay. Hard-to-find exploitative and low budget horror films are especially sought after. A recent search of completed auctions turned up the following:

Black Devil Doll (1984): $666.67

The Flintstone Kids: Just Say No Special (1988, factory sealed): $501

Splatter Farm (1990, factory sealed): $327.29

Attack of the Killer Refrigerator (1990): $212.49

Inquisition (1984): $202.50

The Mummy’s Revenge (1973): $165

Warlock Moon (1973): $162.50

Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977, factory sealed): $149.99

The Abomination (1988): $149.29

Death of a Hooker (1971): $112.49

Dark Harvest (1992): $107.50

Phantom Brother (1989): $102.50

Collectability notwithstanding, most movie watchers prefer the quality of the DVD. This includes Lloyd Kaufman of Troma Entertainment, an independent film production and distribution company. “I personally don’t care for VHS,” he said. “The DVD is infinitely better because you’ve got the commentary tracks, and you get the history. I just got the full collection of Laurel and Hardy, and it’s terrific because yet get all sorts of history”

But if the movie or TV show in question has never been released on DVD (or in any other digital format), you may have to stick with a good old fashioned VHS tape—you might even find a copy for 50 cents or a dollar. Better yet, someone may give it to you.