Awesome!  I'm really excited, and I love how detailed you are gonna be with this (these? hehe) book.  I always think going big is better.

 

Thanks! Speaking of which, here's an update to the cover sketch.

It's an amalgam of the "Arcade" series blackbox NES games, and the "Big Box Gyromite" as well as the red stripe at the top.

I threw in some fanart in that blankspace of the artist I'm interested in, and it looks AMAZING, I just wish I can upload it.




Aww...eff it, it's too awesome not to share. Here's the style I'm going for. Obviously I didn't license the image yet and It's not the exact image I want either, but I want to commission this artist to do the cover art with more than just Mario characters (Specifically, some elements of the top NES games like Mario, Metroid, Mega Man, Zelda, Tetris, Contra, etc. all represented somehow someway)




 

Oh man, that looks amazing!

So I've played (not finished) about 30 NES games over the weekend that I've never played before. I've gotta say, the overall quality of the NES library is actually about what I expected. There's a reason that fan favorites are fan favorites, and why "hidden gems" are a thing for the system. I've played some really shitty games this weekend, as well as the Kunio-kun games, some games that are considered "hidden gems" by most, and some "grail" titles too.

Not going to review a single thing until I play 100 games I've never played for the NES. Why? So I can have a more level head when actually doing my reviews. I won't be finishing the games, only playing them. Reviews will come from game completion.

It seems the current total unique game review count is 807 NES games.

• 670 Licensed NTSC-USA
• 32 Licensed PAL
• 1 Licensed Asian Exclusive (Mah Jong)
• 83 Unlicensed NTSC-USA
• 18 Unlicensed PAL (9 HES, 9 Gluk)
• 1 Unlicensed Brazilian Exclusive (Crime Busters)
• 2 Competition Carts (NWC & Campus Challenge)

I still haven't gone through the SACHEN list to see what is 100% exclusive to them, but something that concerns me is that games like "Middle School English" aren't available, and are in Chinese (Mandarin?) only. How am I supposed to review it!? Maybe pay someone to sit with me who can read it and translate it in real time?

Meh. Sachen, I hate you so much.

Try to have someone else understand Chinese/English (not easy, I know) playing the game and making you a report of it somehow. Wait to have some material to show him so he can grasp your general method of reviewing.

Or, accept the language barrier and be upfront about it in your book (can't compute that game because Chinese). But I admit it goes against the philosophy of your book.

Skipping it all together is an option too   (not really)

I've played a few of the Sachen games too, which is how this specific title became problematic. The only game I've enjoyed (mildly) from Sachen so far is Huge Insect...I knew the unlicensed library would be hard, but man the Sachen games we didn't get in Color Dreams, HES, or other forms takes it to another level.

@Joseph: I can help you with this. I can read enough Chinese to play these, and also need to play through them for my own project.

Dave to the rescue, isn't this wonderful!

Whoo! Dave and me are in discussion now and that's some exciting news.

A minor update on top of that is the book is officially going to be in three distinct sections.

The NES Atlas - provides detailed pixel perfect maps of the top NES games while also providing strategy for gamers.

The NES Guide - provides gamers and collectors with feel good articles on topics like collecting, gaming, history, and other fun stuff related to the NES. Currently sitting at over 50 different articles to be written.

The NES Index - a guide of 800+ NES games that shares detailed reviews, known variants and region differences, and basic information.

Now that the book has a solid foundation I have the time to start making content!

Little update, the book is underway.

Tomorrow I should have the first article done, and I'm going to begin writing my first reviews. Unfortunately the guy who I want to do the cover art is out of my budget by quite a bit so I'll have to find another artist instead. Still, this guy does nostalgia and whimsy like no other I've ever seen so maybe it'd be worth the money.

Been a while since an update and I thought I'd fill you guys in. The first 25 reviews are officially done, and in the book. Those first 25 games are all non-Fan Favorite Nintendo titles, listed as follows:

1. 10-Yard Fight
2. Anticipation
3. Balloon Fight
4. Baseball
5. Clu Clu Land
6. Cobra Triangle
7. Excitebike
8. Faxanadu
9. Golf
10. Ice Hockey
11. Kung Fu
12. Mach Rider
13. Pin-Bot
14. Popeye
15. Pro Wrestling
16. R.C. Pro-Am
17. Rad Racer
18. Slalom
19. Snake Rattle n Roll
20. Soccer
21. Super Spike V'Ball
22. Tennis
23. Urban Champion
24. Volleyball
25. Nintendo World Cup

I also would like you guys to know that the first 100+ish reviews will be REREVIEWED. This is so I get a better feel for reviewing the library, and to see whether or not I favored/disliked anything without merit.

I'm also not reviewing ANY "major" fan favorite games until the very end. Those games are all games in the following series including the bad ones: Battletoads, Bionic Commando, Bubble Bobble, Castlevania, Contra, Donkey Kong, Double Dragon, Dragon Warrior Final Fantasy, Ghosts 'n Goblins, Ice Climber, Kid Icarus, Kirby, Legend of Zelda, Mario, Mega Man, Metal Gear, Metroid, Ninja Gaiden, Punch-Out!!, River City Ransom, Tetris, TMNT, and Disney stuff.

Lastly, take a look at the near-final layout for the review section of the book. No, I haven't obviously reviewed SMB1 & 2 yet. That's all just placeholder text. Also, again, some games will get long reviews and others short ones. They will all get release info, rarity info, title screenshot, level 1 screenshot, boxart, cart art, title and aka titles, and the breakdown of overall quality.



 

Looks good! Thanks for the update!

Thanks, as a side note I'm also doing "longplay" recordings for every game. It's a bit redundant since they already exist but I figure why the heck not since I'm playing the games all the way through anyway.

Next update is probably 50 reviewed games, and 10 complete articles...I'm up to 5 completed articles out of what is now scheduled to be 63, as I go that number will go up and down since I'm seeing some articles can sort of merge into one another. Example being, I had "Color TV Game", "Duck Hunt - Beam Gun Toy" as separate entries instead of being in the "The History of Nintendo" article. Sure they're planned to take up a bit of room, but the articles aren't going to exactly be single page articles to begin with.

Looks great!!!! I wold love to see a pic of the Famicom cart next to the US NES carts. That would be great for people that might be interested in getting the Famicom version instead. That way they know what a real cart looks like. Not a bootleg.

There will be a section like that. Pictures of every major box-art and cart-art variant. I will not be including all 1000+ famicom boxes though, only the ones with NTSC or PAL equals.

 

Agree, just those. That is awesome!!!!! I can't wait!!!

It's a good thing I don't need your money then.   And the insult is cute. I should alert a mod- oh wait.
 
No toes being stepped on - the more NES books, the merrier. Best of luck on the project - I dig the layout. One of the reasons I could not go for something fancier was I had to keep the page count to a reasonable amount due to the massive amount of text, otherwise the book would have been 750 pages long. Which brings me to this point: I would strongly caution against the sheer size/mass of a book that you think will be 800-1100 pages long. If it's constructed similarly to mine in quality/page weight, it will weigh somewhere from 12-18 pounds and will be ridiculous for readers to deal with. You may also have a tough time finding an independent printer that will print a hardcover book 1000 pages long.

My advice in terms of writing is to pace yourself. If you think you can complete this in one year, that is admirable, but it may take 2-3x longer than you think. You want to stay fresh when writing, and burning out can be easy. Feel free to reach out privately if you'd like any other advice.

Thanks Pat, I was waiting to get your attention before I picked your brain a bit.

Whether a couple of the guys here like to admit it or not, you obviously have experience with exactly this type of material. I have a moderate background in the printing industry so I know a few various companies who are able to handle orders from just a single book, or tens of thousands in a single print run, I can also give the book to a print broker who will just send the order out to China and get me down to like $15 a book even at 1,000 pages but then the crate costs....and who knows what's going to happen with imports and tarrifs with the next president, oi...I've also got most of my order fulfillment in place as I have a ton of empty warehouse space just sitting unoccupied ready to be filled with pallets, boxes, tape, styrofoam, and peanuts.

I estimate a year, but fully expect it to take longer. I'm going to *hopefully* go at a pace of 20 games per week to keep it at a year. But the RPG's will slow me down, I've never actually played Dragon Warrior II, III, or IV either. Never beat Metroid or Zelda II either! Basically, instead of enjoying my free time with modern games, tinkering with my pc, or going to the gym (yay weight gain) I've been doing nothing but playing NES. I am taking breaks though, don't want to get those 8-bit music headaches.

Anyway, thanks for the support Pat. I'll be picking up a copy of your book once things settle down.

Well with full respect to the other mods on the site, that comment was a personal opinion, and was made a good 6 weeks before I was even made a mod.

I know you've had a pretty rough ride around here, and I have no intention of making things any worse, but if you want to drag someone's name through the mud over it, it should be mine and not the mod staff as a whole.

This looks amazing. I was about to back Pat's Kickstarter until I noticed shipping to Canada was $45 so if you can avoid that I'll buy a copy.

Thanks, but it's far from finished. Earliest estimate is in your hands Late Fall 2017. As far as shipping goes, who knows by next year, but I can send a shipment of them to a Canada book fulfillment company and let them handle Canadian orders for cheap.

Small update: I'm considering launching a Kickstarter for a little mini book that I want to do as well. It would help fund this book and I can complete the book I want to do in about two weeks time since most of the work is already done for it.

I also need to come up with about $3000 to get the artwork I need done for the main BOOKS (with an S) and subsequent posters that will be included.

Then there's the couple grand I need for games I just can't find ROMs for like Crimebusters, a couple HES and Sachen games, or aren't feasible emulating (Powerpad games, ROB games, Zapper games, Arkanoid, etc)

Anyway thought I'd fill y'all in, not like anyone's gonna read this considering the Nintendo Switch news.

Starting to mark down the rarities of every game within the book now, including relative rarities across major variants (Screw variants, HT variants, Labels) and I'd like to share with you my rarity scale. I sit in the camp that "rare" isn't what we here at NintendoAge think it is. A rare game should be something that you would have difficulty finding locally, yet still be able to expect to find with some effort and luck.

My rarity titles may change from here to the print date, but the list is complete and it's not exactly up for debate since it's not public until I release the book.

Here's the list!

1. Common
An item that is easily located with light effort. Many are found in gamers childhood collections.
Examples: Zelda, SMB/DH, Mega Man 2, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out, Super Mario Bros. 3

2. Uncommon
An item that is located with moderate effort. A few items will be found in gamers childhood collections just by chance.
Examples: Wrecking Crew, Balloon Fight, Solomon's Key, Mega Man 6

3. Rare
An item that is located with heavy effort. Rarely found in gamers childhood collections.
Examples: Motor City Patrol, Jetson's, Duck Tales 2, Battletoads Double Dragon

4. Exotic
An item that is difficult to locate locally. Almost never found in gamers childhood collections.
Examples: Gun Nac, Bubble Bobble 2, Zombie Nation

5. Legendary
An item that is nearly impossible to locate locally. Very few people ever owned this game as a child.
Examples: Little Samson, Dinosaur Peak, Panic Restaurant, Bonk's Adventure

6. Sacred
An item that is impossible to locate locally. Virtually no-one owned this game as a child.
Examples: Stadium Events, Nintendo World Championships (Any variant)

X. Undiscovered
An item that is theorized to exist but has yet to surface, but is reasonable to believe it exists.
Examples: AGCI Wally Bear Box/Manual, Sharedata Chiller Box/Manual, NWC Gold Manual

I want one too when you're done. Nice job so far, digging the look!!!

Thanks. I'm still not even done counting how many games there actually *are* for the system. I think I've counted every unique game that's included in every multicart including the Sachen ones.

I can't review every homebrew since I don't own them all, so I'm only going to review what I can get my hands on. Also, I can't review every Famicom exclusive, and the Test cartridges aren't exactly reviewable, then there's the other miscellaneous stuff like popular reproductions of prototypes and ROM hacks that will need reviewing also. All-in-all, I think the list will top out around 1200 games for the system...that's a lot of reviews!