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Bitmap Books SEGA® Master System: a visual compendium

Chairmanchuck (另一个我)

Chairmanchuck (另一个我)

Teyvat Traveler
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Oct 25, 2017
9,053
China
The 6th book in the visual compendium series of Bitmap Books will be about the Sega Master System. This time Sam is working together with Sega on that book, so its the first "official" visual compendium.

Kickstarter will start on 7th May.

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Tizoc

Tizoc

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,792
Oman
Somewhat tempted to get this even though I hadn't owned a Master System before.

if anything one stretch goal should be to have the book translated into languages other than English such as Portuguese.
 
Windrunner

Windrunner

Sly
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,486
Blowing up retro game screenshots to 2 A4 pages always looks like ass, I wish this trend would die.
 

rawhide

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,003
These books are always filled with interesting written content but so much of the visual content is completely uninteresting and I wish they'd offer something cheaper without all the filler.
 
Ind1fference

Ind1fference

Member
Oct 28, 2017
15
SMD said:
Psycho Fox and Ninja Gaiden wowed me at the time.
And Wonderboy...
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My SMS experience as a child began and ended with playing Alex Kidd and the Lost Stars at a friend's house twice. That is why I collect for it now. I am on the cusp of completing my US/EU Sega My Card collection......exciting!!!
 
Zonic

Zonic

Member
Oct 25, 2017
33,349
Got in minutes after it started & nabbed an early bird soft cover. Nuts/Glad to see that only after 12+ hours, they're basically at 95% of their goal (which seems to be how their previous kickstarters went). Hope it reaches all the stretch goals so it can be as big as the S/NES books.

One of these days, I need to buy their ZX Spectrum book, it's the only one I don't have & seeing 1, 2, & 4 on my shelf with 3 missing is driving the collector in me crazy.
 

mclem

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,417
Zonic said:
Got in minutes after it started & nabbed an early bird soft cover. Nuts/Glad to see that only after 12+ hours, they're basically at 95% of their goal (which seems to be how their previous kickstarters went). Hope it reaches all the stretch goals so it can be as big as the S/NES books.

One of these days, I need to buy their ZX Spectrum book, it's the only one I don't have & seeing 1, 2, & 4 on my shelf with 3 missing is driving the collector in me crazy.
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Similarly, I need to do a proper stocktake and figure out which ones I don't have. I think I'm only missing one, perhaps?

C64, Spectrum, SNES, Amiga, what else?
 
Zonic

Zonic

Member
Oct 25, 2017
33,349
mclem said:
Similarly, I need to do a proper stocktake and figure out which ones I don't have. I think I'm only missing one, perhaps?

C64, Spectrum, SNES, Amiga, what else?
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Sounds like you're only missing the NES one, which was #4. #5 was SNES, #6 will be the Master System one.
 

mclem

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,417
Zonic said:
Sounds like you're only missing the NES one, which was #4. #5 was SNES, #6 will be the Master System one.
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I might have that as well, actually. Maybe I'm complete?

I think I might have missed the KS for the Speccy one and bought it afterwards, perhaps that's what's nagging at me.
 
catpurrcat

catpurrcat

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,789
I really enjoyed the NES book. Is there anywhere other than their own store that carries the SNES compendium? Shipping to Canada is expensive so hopefully somewhere more local carries it.
 
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Chairmanchuck (另一个我)

Chairmanchuck (另一个我)

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Oct 25, 2017
9,053
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catpurrcat said:
I really enjoyed the NES book. Is there anywhere other than their own store that carries the SNES compendium? Shipping to Canada is expensive so hopefully somewhere more local carries it.
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Sadly Bitmap Books removed the SNES from Amazon, since it was available for like 20$ during preorders and they thought it was bs that Amazon set the price like that, when kickstarter backers paid far more.
 
Zonic

Zonic

Member
Oct 25, 2017
33,349
I would say Book Depository, but it seems to be out of stock. That's how I got the Commodore & Amiga books.

That reminds me that I need to get that Neogeo Visual History book as well, but nobody seems to carry it & any place that does would have to deal with shipping from the UK, which is like $20 minimum. Hell, if I order both the Neogeo & ZX Spectrum book directly from Bitmap Books, it'll still be about £11.00 or $14ish for shipping. Just the Neogeo book itself would be £8.00, or $10ish shipping, so about $50 total, but it's the cheapest I can find.

I swear, EU always gets the cooler gaming related books, but that means dealing with expensive shipping...
 
Illusionary

Illusionary

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,612
Manchester, UK
Zonic said:
Got in minutes after it started & nabbed an early bird soft cover. Nuts/Glad to see that only after 12+ hours, they're basically at 95% of their goal (which seems to be how their previous kickstarters went). Hope it reaches all the stretch goals so it can be as big as the S/NES books.

One of these days, I need to buy their ZX Spectrum book, it's the only one I don't have & seeing 1, 2, & 4 on my shelf with 3 missing is driving the collector in me crazy.
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Similarly, I was able to get an 'early bird' hardcover pledge slot, though I'm surprised (in a good way!) that they all went quite so quickly. That said, I'm expecting that the funding might not be quite as successful as it was for the NES and SNES books, lacking draw of the Nintendo name - but I'm really hoping that it gets to at least £150k for the slipcase.

£48,240 now - it's easily going to be fully-funded within a day, which is great to see!
 
Zonic

Zonic

Member
Oct 25, 2017
33,349
In a little over 16 1/2 hours, it's reached its goal, so now comes the part where we just sit & wait for the rest of the stretch goals to be reached.
 
Zonic

Zonic

Member
Oct 25, 2017
33,349
Almost 2 weeks in & we've hit 7 stretch goals (past the 85k mark). The tiers of goals have been changed as well, as explained in the newest update:

Hello everyone

So, after nearly 2 weeks, we're currently standing at £86,346. We've added the Pantone inks, bookmark ribbons, 48 extra pages and 2 gatefold pages to the original specification.

As mentioned in the last update I was going to have a play with the numbers and see if I can get the slipcases lower. I 100% understand how important the slipcase is, as it adds a lot to the overall presentation. Therefore, I'm going to lower this and recoup any shortfall in post Kickstarter sales. Below is a revised stretch goal graphic which I think is realistic based on the current activity. Essentially, I've added the slipcase at 100K and if we get funded up to £125K, the final page count will be 412 with 5 gatefolds. The lenticular slipcase is still in-play but I cannot lower that as it's so expensive to produce. If we reach the 125K, I'll re-look at things and see where I can add the lenticular in.

Hope that all makes sense. I'm just trying to make the book as big as it possibly can be for everyone and present the stretch goals in a simpler, more realistic way.

Lets keep pushing and see where the final 2 weeks take us! Thanks so much for your backing.

Thanks, Sam

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The slipcase is now 50k less & there's less goals overall at the moment.
 
Illusionary

Illusionary

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,612
Manchester, UK
Zonic said:
Almost 2 weeks in & we've hit 7 stretch goals (past the 85k mark). The tiers of goals have been changed as well, as explained in the newest update:



The slipcase is now 50k less & there's less goals overall at the moment.
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£100k is very achievable, which is great - the slipcase is probably the most significant stretch goal to meet in terms of the overall presentation of the book. I know that Sam said in an earlier update that he wanted to make sure that the slipcase happens no matter what.
 
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Zonic

Zonic

Member
Oct 25, 2017
33,349
Almost a week left. We're at £93,500+ & only need about £6,500 more for the slipcase. Plus a new update:

This week we've had some really positive and exciting news about contributors in the book that will ultimately make the content much better and interesting.

Firstly, on the game reviews front, I'm delighted to say that Ian Wall (Sega 8-Bit), Omar Cornut (SMS Power!) and Ken Horowitz (Sega-16) have agreed to cover a few games between them. I'm really happy about this as these guys run some great community SEGA sites and are super passionate about the subject. We've also been lucky to get quite a few games journalists that worked on SEGA magazines back in the day to write game reviews. These include Julian Rignall (C&VG/Mean Machines), Phil South (Sega Power), Paul Davies (C&VG/Mean Machines), Tony Takoushi (SEGA Europe/C&VG/Mean Machines), Heinrich Lenhardt (Gamers) plus others.

We've also been very lucky to get some time with Stefano Arnhold, the chairman of Tectoy which will give us some AMAZING insights into the 'Master System in Brazil' feature. Next week I'm planning chats with Nick Alexander who is the former CEO of Virgin/Mastertronic (which then became Sega Europe) who distributed the Master System throughout Europe to great success. I'm also set to chat with Steve Hanawa who not only introduced Tetris and Columns to SEGA, but also worked for SEGA and created many early arcade games. Steve will hopefully be able to give some good insights into the early SEGA days and add in any anecdotal memories.

So all in all, it's been a fantastic week. Loads of new contributors, the design is in full-flow and the campaign is slowly rising, day-by-day.

We're planning a big push for the last week to try and get that slipcase in the page and some extra pages/gatefolds.

Thanks, Sam
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Zonic

Zonic

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Oct 25, 2017
33,349
2 days left. We've passed 102k+, so we're getting the slipcase.

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Hopefully we can somehow hit 115k+ so the book total can be just over 400 pages.
 
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Chairmanchuck (另一个我)

Chairmanchuck (另一个我)

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Oct 25, 2017
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Kinda sad that this isnt as popular as the SNES one. That hit all goals and this one here is even an official SEGA one. But I guess its because the Master System was never as popular as N consoles during that time.
 
Ra

Ra

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Oct 27, 2017
12,196
Dark Space
Wow I'm glad this thread popped up, I had no idea this Kickstarter existed. Just backed for a hardcover edition.

The SMS was my early (like ages 3 through 7) childhood. I need this book.
 
Zonic

Zonic

Member
Oct 25, 2017
33,349
Chairmanchuck said:
Kinda sad that this isnt as popular as the SNES one. That hit all goals and this one here is even an official SEGA one. But I guess its because the Master System was never as popular as N consoles during that time.
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It's a shame, especially when I've been backing their S/NES ones, but at least it was able to hit double its funding goal & we got the slipcase. No idea if it'll be lenticular like previous books, but it'll still have a good amount of content.

Plus if anything, I wouldn't be surprised if the next book they worked on was a Genesis one & that did just as well as the S/NES ones.

Actually, now I wonder if they'll ever do books based on portable systems, like the Game Boy/Color or the Game Gear.
 
1upsuper

1upsuper

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Jan 30, 2018
5,485
Wow, I totally missed they were doing a Master System book. Unfortunately I'm strapped for cash at the moment so I'll have to pick it up after release. :/
 
Windrunner

Windrunner

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Oct 25, 2017
6,486
Chairmanchuck said:
Kinda sad that this isnt as popular as the SNES one. That hit all goals and this one here is even an official SEGA one. But I guess its because the Master System was never as popular as N consoles during that time.
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Yeah it's a shame as this is ostensibly a far higher quality book than either the NES or SNES ones with a much greater level of access to those behind the system back in the day. At least the 115K stretch goal is in sight now.
 
Windrunner

Windrunner

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Oct 25, 2017
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A Game Gear book wouldn't be a bad idea next as a lot of the 8bit legwork with contacts and the like will have been done already.

BTW Chairmanchuck you should put a link to the Kickstarter at the top of the OP!
 
Zonic

Zonic

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Oct 25, 2017
33,349
& done. We hit £116k, meaning we'll get 396 pages....which is sadly over 100 pages less than the NES or SNES books, but oh well.

For comparison's sake:

Master System: 232% funded
NES: 760% funded
SNES: 899% funded

I know, more obscure console & all that, but damn.
 
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