SNES Omnibus Contributor Spotlight #3 - Cat DeSpira

Never one shy to give her opinion, Cat DeSpira is a passionate gamer and arcade aficionado. She's also a gifted writer who has penned a number of very personal, very interesting stories for my forthcoming book, The SNES Omnibus: The Super Nintendo and Its Games, Vol. 1 (A-M). Cat captures the zeitgeist like few others, taking readers back to the 1990s in colorful, vivid, memorable fashion. She's also been a stronger supporter of the SNES Omnibus project. Here's her bio as it will appear in the book:

Cat DeSpira is a Pacific Northwest writer, researcher and preservationist whose work uncovering the lost history of gaming has been featured in documentaries, podcasts and several publications. She is most known for her investigation into the urban legend of Polybius and her role in the documentary, TheVideo Craze: Where Were You In ’82? An avid arcade game collector, Cat is convinced that every room dreams of becoming an arcade.

The Arcade and Other Strange Tales - Signed Copies Now Available

My new book of short stories and essays, The Arcade and Other Strange Tales, is now available. You can order a signed copy direct from me or get one on Amazon. To order direct, simply PayPal $12.95 (this includes shipping) to brettw105@sbcglobal.net, and I will mail you a signed book right away. For a limited time, I will include a free digital copy (PDF) of the book with your direct order.

TheArcade and Other Strange Tales takes readers down a rabbit hole of fear, wonder and imagination. From the nostalgic "The Arcade" to the Orwellian "Filtered Future" and "What Do They Do While We Sleep?" to the deadly dark "Strange Children" and "Wormboy," this book will keep anyone with a taste for "stranger things" reading late into the night (and the next night and the next). You can read one story from the book, “Old Friend, Old Relic,” for free HERE.

Full Table of Contents for the book:

Introduction

FICTION

The Arcade

Wormboy

Filtered Future

What Do They Do While We Sleep?

Strange Children

The Creation Proclamation

I Have No TV, and I Must Watch

Washed in the Blood

Old Friend, Old Relic

The Eternal Bigot from Down the Street

The Lady Loves Dancing

A New Kind of Light

NON-FICTION

The Retro Video Game Craze                      

KISS Pinball Machines and Video Games

Video Game Movies

Retro Gaming Non-Fiction Books

Uncovering the Mystery Behind Stephen King's First Published Story

Interview with Horror Novelist Bentley Little

Interview with the Author

Paperback: 110 pages; 6 x 0.2 x 9 inches

SNES Omnibus Contributor Spotlight #2 - John Riggs

I met John Riggs at the 2017 Portland Retro Gaming Expo, and he's just as nice in person as he is on his YouTube channel. We had only corresponded online prior to this, but it felt like he was an old friend, a tribute to his affable, approachable manner. (Pro tip--John is much taller in person than he appears to be on the YouTubes.) John, whose videos show you how to repair your video games, contributed quality stories to both volumes of The SNES Omnibus, including a hilarious anecdote about Mario Paint. John, how could you taint/paint Mario so?

Below this video, you can read John's bio as it appears in The SNES Omnibus:

John Riggs grew from being completely unknown in the gaming industry to being moderately obscure. He’s been a featured guest on the Metal Jesus Rocks YouTube channel and hosts his own humble channel (RIGG’d Games) showing tutorials on how to fix and save your old video games. Riggs loves the new games, but you can still find him digging through boxes of Famicom carts or filing through PC Engine CD games at various video game conventions. He’s a sucker for the classics.

Stone Age Gamer Podcast - New Episode!

The guys at the Stone Age Gamer Podcast invited me to be a guest on a recent episode. We had a blast and a few laughs discussing my gaming history, my books, pinball, retro gaming, modern gaming, and much more. Click HERE to listen.

SNES Omnibus Contributor Spotlight #1: Michael Thomasson

One of the more enthusiastic supporters of the SNES Omnibus project, and of retro gaming in general, Michael Thomasson wrote more entries for The SNES Omnibus: The Super Nintendo and Its Games, Vol. 1 (A-M) than any other contributor, and he's killin' it on Vol. 2. I’ve known Michael since the 2003 Classic Gaming Expo, and he’s been a good friend ever since. He’s a devoted family man, a fine writer, a big ColecoVision fan, and an all-around nice guy. He even designed the cover for one of my books. And he’ll talk your ear off with all kinds of interesting stories from the video game industry and from life in general. I consider myself lucky to call Michael a friend and colleague.

Here's his bio that will appear in The SNES Omnibus:

Michael Thomasson is one of the most widely respected video game historians in the field today. He currently teaches college-level video game history, design and graphics courses. For television, Michael conducted research for MTV’s video game-related program, Video MODS. In print, he authored Downright Bizarre Games, and has contributed to nearly a dozen textbooks. Michael’s historical columns have been distributed in newspapers and magazines worldwide. He has written business plans for several vendors and managed a dozen game-related retail stores spanning three decades. Michael consults for multiple video game and computer museums and has worked on nearly 100 game titles on Atari, Coleco, Sega and other console platforms. In 2014, the Guinness Book of World Records declared that Thomasson had “The Largest Video Game Collection” in the world. His businesses sponsor gaming tradeshows and expos across the U.S. and Canada.  Visit Good Deal Games.

SNES Omnibus Update: New York Times Best Selling Author John Jackson Miller

New York Times bestselling author John Jackson Miller is a contributing writer for The SNES Omnibus: The Super Nintendo and Its Games, Vol. 2 (N-Z), which will release April 28. He's written an informative essay on the turn-based strategy game, Super Conflict. Like me, John used to write for the late, lamented Comics Buyer's Guide and The All Game Guide (his specialty was the Intellivision). However, instead of laboring in relative obscurity like a certain other writer who shall remain nameless, he's now a big time celebrity in the field, penning highly acclaimed Star Wars and Star Trek novels. I'm super excited JJM took the time to contribute a story to my book. Here's his bio that will appear in Vol. 2.:

John Jackson Miller is a New York Times bestselling author. He has spent a lifetime immersed in science fiction. His Star Wars novels include Star Wars: A New Dawn, Kenobi, Knight Errant, and Lost Tribe of the Sith. He also wrote the Knights of the Old Republic comics, available from Marvel as Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic. For Star Trek’s 50th anniversary, he wrote the monthly Star Trek novel trilogy Prey. His most recent Star Wars work appears in Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View, Star Wars: Canto Bight, and IDW’s Star Wars Adventures comics. He’s written about games for the All Game Guide and as editor of Scrye magazine, and he’s has written comics and prose for Halo, Iron Man, Simpsons, Conan, Planet of the Apes, and Mass Effect. Miller writes about comics history on his Comichron website, www.comichron.com. His fiction website is www.farawaypress.com.

Celebrity Deaths of 2017 - The Ones that Impacted Me the Most

Similar to 2016, it seems like an inordinate number of celebrities diedlast year, most notably actors and musicians. Also like last year, I’ve cataloged the eight celebrity deaths that affected me the most, in order of importance. All human life is valuable, but, like everyone, I felt the sting of certain deaths more than others.

1. Adam West. During the early 1990s, when I was the co-owner of two comic book stores in the Fort Worth, Texas area, my business partner and I worked out a deal with the owner of the Dallas Fantasy Fair to have Adam West out to our store to meet and greet fans and sign autographs. Our cost was $500 to have him out for two hours, and it was well worth it. He was funny, friendly, and engaging, and his appearance generated a lot of good will for our business.

Years later, I spoke with Mr. West over the phone for an article, and he gave a great interview. If you would have told my Batman-loving nine-year-old self that I would do business with the Caped Crusader someday, I wouldn’t have believed you. Dreams do come true. R.I.P., Batman.

2. Tom Petty. When I was in high school in the early to mid-1980s, I, like many people, would purchase blank cassettes in order to record a collection of songs. These, of course, were called “mix tapes,” which were a great way to have a variety of my favorite tunes on the go, long before the era of iPods and downloads.

My best friend and I created a series of mixed tapes we called “The Ultimate Tape” (volumes 1, 2, and 3), which included tracks by KISS, Van Halen, the Rolling Stones, and others, including southern rocker Tom Petty. We listened to “Stop Draggin' My Heart Around,” one of Petty’s duets with Stevie Nicks, over and over again, and to this day it’s one of my favorite songs. I could go on and on about the greatness of the southern rocker, but I’ll let Netflix do the talking. Next time you have four hours to kill, watch the excellent documentary, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin’ Down a Dream.

3. David Cassidy. As a kid during the 1970s, I spent plenty of time outside, riding my bike, going on adventures, and playing sports with friends, but TV was a steady part of my life as well, especially during cold, windy, winter months when bronchitis kept me inside. I wasted way too much time watching sitcoms, including The Brady Bunch, I Dream of Jennie, Bewitched, and, yes, The Partridge Family.

I thought Keith Partridge, as played by Cassidy, was the epitome of cool. He had perfect hair and a perfect smile, he was a rock star, and of course the ladies loved him. As someone who liked girls (a lot), but was clueless about them, and as someone who loved rock and roll but couldn’t sing or play an instrument, I would have given all my comic books, Hot Wheels, and everything else I owned to be the frontman for what I thought was a really groovy band.

4. Glen Cambell. My siblings are several years older than me and were into rock music, so as a young kid I grew up listening to such great bands as Queen, Styx, Heart, Rush, KISS, AC/DC, Jethro Tull, and Led Zeppelin. My dad was a country music fan, so I had a good education in both genres. The soundtrack for our trips to the candy store in my dad’s truck comprised such classic acts as Merle Haggard, Charlie Pride, Tom T. Hall, Johnny Cash, and Glen Campbell.

I loved songs like “Galveston” and “Rhinestone Cowboy,” and as I grew up I discovered that Mr. Campbell was not only a great singer/songwriter, but also a terrific guitarist, lending his talents as a session musician to such bands as the Beatles, the Monkees, and the First Edition. My first brush with fame was meeting Glen Campbell at a small Church of Christ in Southern Arkansas, where his brother Lindell was a preacher. We were in town visiting my grandmother for the holidays.

5. Martin Landau. I’ve never known anyone who liked Space: 1999, which features Martin Landau as Commander John Koenig, more than Star Trek, and this applies to me as well. Although it could be interesting at times, Space: 1999 was a dull show overall, especially for younger viewers. Koenig seemed dry and lifeless compared to space cowboy Captain Kirk (to be fair, this had more to do with the scripts than Landau’s likability as an actor).

However, I later became a big Landau fan, thanks primarily to his prominent role in two excellent films: Woody Allen’s Crimes & Misdemeanors (1989), where he played guilt-ridden Judah Rosenthal; and Tim Burton’s Ed Wood (1994), in which he did a dead-on impersonation of the great Bela Lugosi. The actor, who’s probably best known for the classic Mission: Impossible TV show, was also great in Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (1959).

6. Bernie Wrightson. Comic book artist Bernie Wrightson co-created DC’s muck monster the Swamp Thing, who first appeared in House of Secrets #92 (July 1971), with writer Len Wein. Wrightson’s detailed, spooky, atmospheric pencils were perfect for horror comics, and he later worked on several projects involving my favorite horror novelist Stephen King, including illustrations for the novella Cycle of the Werewolf, the comic book adaptation of George Romero’s King-scripted Creepshow (1982), and the fifth volume of the Dark Tower novel series.

Among many other projects, Wrightson also did production art for Ivan Reitman’s Ghostbusters (1984) and created 50 pen-and-ink drawings for an illustrated edition of Mary Shelley's classic Frankenstein novel. He was a true legend of the industry.

7. Bill Paxton. Born in my hometown of Fort Worth, where he promoted the film industry there up until his untimely passing, Bill Paxton was a fine actor. He not only shined in dramatic roles in such movies as Tombstone (1993), Apollo 13 (1995), Twister (1996), Titanic (1997), and the criminally underseen Frailty (2001), his comic turns in such films as Weird Science (1985), where he played the obnoxious Chet Donnelly, and Aliens (1986), where he was in a state of eternal panic as Private William Hudson, gave him a well-roundedness few actors possess.

8.Hugh Hefner . In this era of the #metoo movement, a guy like Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner is difficult to admire publicly as he’s been accused of exploiting women and sexual harassment. Also, he was kinda icky. However, as is customary when someone dies, it’s time to focus on the positive, at least for a moment. Hef was a trailblazer in the magazine industry, publishing in-depth articles (yes, many people do actually read Playboy) on a variety of topics and literary fiction by the likes of Ray Bradbury, Jack Kerouac, Norman Mailer, Vladimir Nabokov, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. He was also a fierce advocate for free speech.

For better or for worse, the first time I ever saw a nude adult female was in a Playboy magazine when I was about 8 or 9. I would sneak into my teenage cousin’s room and go through the ones he had stashed in his dresser drawer. I don’t recall reading any of the articles or stories, but I do remember gazing at a busty brunette who wore nothing but red socks. What an education that was.