Back in 2014, Sam Dyer launched a visual companion book for the Commodore 64, an old gaming PC that was huge in Britain. It was successfully funded, and met with huge praise according to the developer. Again Dyer used Kickstarter to launch his second book, Commodore Amiga: A Visual Commpendium. It was twice the size as the 64 book but was just as successful.
That’s why Dyer is back to Kickstarter with Commodore 64: A Visual Commpendium Second Edition.
It’s a lot like the original edition, but with more content and different games. At the beginning of the Kickstarter page, Dyer makes it clear that the original backers of the first edition will be getting a copy of the second edition for free. It’ll release as its own book, and will come will a little case so you can stack the two together. Aw, it’s pretty.
Being a game critic, I clearly have no idea what “books” are, but it looks pretty, so that’s cool! It’ll feature 220 pages of full color (colour, in this case) pages with screenshots from various Commodore 64 games and text inserts about them. This second edition will also have sections written by journalists who originally covered these games, and some of the developers who worked on them.
No need to worry about his one getting funded, as it’s already exploded past its initial goal of $28,000, nabbing well over $42,000 at time of writing.
Coffee table books definitely aren’t for everyone, but a well-made one is always nice to experience. What better way to learn the history of an old console you might not know a lot about then by picking something like this up? Other than actually buying the console, of course, but good luck with that.
I have to commend Dyer for giving away this second edition for free to those who backed the original edition. This is basically a second book with new content, both in terms of games and contributors, so it would have been easy to force those backers to donate again.
Commodore 64: A Visual Commpendium will release June 2016.
