Sensible Software 1986 - 1999 Book

[zapiy]

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Produced together with Sensible Software founder Jon Hare, Sensible Software 1986–1999 is the ultimate retrospective of the British software house behind some of the most groundbreaking and fondly-remembered games ever produced, including Sensible Soccer, Cannon Fodder, Mega lo Mania and Wizball.

It is the flagship title for Read-Only Memory, a new publishing company specialising in high-end books on gaming history, that combine art book production values with the very best in games journalism.

The book chronicles the rise of Sensible – from its C64 beginnings making games such as Parallax, Microprose Soccer and Wizball, to its million-copy-selling Amiga heyday in the early '90s. The narrative – guided by games industry luminary Gary Penn – tells the Sensible story through interviews and anecdotes from the team, legendary developers, industry bods and our pick of the games journalists who saw Sensible rise to world stardom, first hand.

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This is paired with an exhaustive visual tour celebrating the company's idiosyncratic style: sprites, game maps, typefaces and box art, all beautifully reproduced. We'll also be digging into the Sensible vaults to uncover a bounty of never-before-seen archival material including design documents and hand-drawn plans that show the first inklings of Sensible's most famous games.

This book was successfully crowd-funded on Kickstarter, so it is thanks to the support of hundreds of Sensible Software fans worldwide that we are able to make the project a reality. For those who missed out on the original campaign we are pleased to announce that you can now order your copy here.

[TrekMD]

Cool.  I'll check this out. 

[TL]

Oh wow!!!  ) and the many Jet Set Willy rip-offs but this is definately worth investing in!

[TrekMD]

I am now an official supporter of this project. 

[zapiy]

Me too..

[TrekMD]

Thought I'd share this update posted today:

[size=140]The Making of Wizball[/size]
Update #16 · Apr 5, 2013

I'm pleased to say we have a special Friday Sensitreat. Fellow gaming historians Anthony and Nicola Caulfield have specially produced a short film for us about the inception of Wizball. In it, our very own Jon Hare talks us through the birth of the game's control mechanic, the absurdity of even bothering to draw up a design document pre-news year's eve 1991 and his working relationship with his business partner Chris Yates.

The clip is an outtake from Anthony and Nicola's upcoming documentary movie From Bedrooms to Billions, which will chronicle the birth of the UK games industry. They've interviewed every single key figure from the era including the big kahunas like Sir Geoff Crammond, Lord David Braben and Lieutenant-general Jeff Minter. Actually, their cast list looks like our ideal publishing schedule over the next few years...

Anyway, you can imbibe plenty of 8 and 16-bit excitement over at their wildly successful Kickstarter campaign page.

This afternoon I'm working on the Cannon Fodder and Sensible World of Soccer chapters. I'll be tweeting excerpts as I go through so do drop in for a listen.

I can't link to the video directly, so here is a link to the original update:  Update 16

[onthinice]

They left Laird off the list

[TrekMD]

Here is the latest update on this project from Darren Wall:

The book finally hit the presses in Italy last week, where thousands of sheets of paper were imbued forever with our Sensible history. I took a trip to see it all happening (on my dime I should add – no Kickstarter monies were harmed in the making of this update) and it's looking excellent! The text pages in particular – printed in two inks on a thin, off-white recycled stock – look wonderfully touchy-feely.

Some pictures of sheets pulled directly from the press are below, however I should point out that I've somehow made the 8-megapixel camera on my phone look like a webcam from 2004 – the real things are fizzing with colour and life:
http://readonlymemory.vg/printer_1
http://readonlymemory.vg/printer_2
http://readonlymemory.vg/printer_3
http://readonlymemory.vg/printer_4

The final pages were printed last night, and the copies are now being bound. Our fold-out jacket is then applied to each copy by hand, after which every book is individually shrink wrapped to protect the uncoated jacket in transit to your door.

I should be informed of the exact delivery date any day now and I will issue an update as soon as I have it - we are so unbearably close to shipping your books I feel like I may strain something important. I'll be sending out surveys to you all later this afternoon so we have all your addresses at the ready!

In other news, the Sensible vinyl EPs were shipped last week and have now arrived with our backers. You can see some teasing glimpses of it below, printed using the same stock as the book itself and housing a six-track selection of Sensible's finest musical moments:




Finally, I have our last VHS archive clip to share with you all. This is a cinema-style trailer for Sensible's ill-fated swan song 'Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock 'n' Roll'. Sensible put this together to show the production company Hewland International (creators of GamesMaster) as part of a pitch to create an animated tie-in TV show. I'll let Gary and Jon take it from here...

Jon Hare: We even made a cartoon pilot and showed it to Hewland. I don't think they were very impressed with it though. We found that a lot of people didn't like the 3D art much – they thought it was a bit shit when we thought it was stylised. The reality was we were struggling with the 3D modelling.

Gary Penn: The characters in the videos always reminded me of sex dolls.

Jon Hare: [Laughs] I'd never noticed that before....
https://vimeo.com/71727572

[zapiy]

Looking forward to getting this now.

[TrekMD]

Here is the latest update:

A very quick update for you today comprising a close-up look at your soon-to-arrive 'slab o' Sensi'. I have just received the unbound pages from the printer and I couldn't resist taking a few shots to share with you, especially given my utter failure to take any decent pictures at the printer itself. I was a bit wobbly with excitement to be fair...

Anyway, I've tried not to give too much away, but hopefully this reveals enough to get you all hot and bothered about what is to come. I hope you enjoy pouring over the shots while the books are being finished off...

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[TL]

Looks fantastic! 

[TrekMD]

Yes it does!  Eagerly waiting for this! 

[TrekMD]

Here is today's update:

Just a short and simple update this Friday lunchtime, but one that will hopefully raise both pulses and eyebrows... The books are here, and shipping has begun!

Backers in the UK should begin to receive their books over the next 1-3 days while European/International backers can expect to wait for 5 to 10 working days (at the most) for their copy to arrive.

Each book comes shrink-wrapped and with a Sensible Software 1986–1999 postcard, as promised way back when the campaign began. The perfect way to save your place in our 340 page epic.

The Personalised Edition books will be shipped in the coming days as we work through them with Jon Hare, who will be signing and dedicating each copy before they are individually wrapped - swaddled, if you will - in a textured, personalised jacket, complete with edition number and pithy Sensi-phrase.

I hope this makes for exciting pre-weekend news! It's been pretty much exactly a year since our Kickstarter campaign ended and despite not leaving the house for about 10 out of those 12 months, it's been the most rewarding project I've ever worked on. Thank you to you all for your patience and support - I really do hope you enjoy your Sensi-tome.

I'll be in touch again to ensure everyone has got their copies safely and also to let you know about our launch party! Later this month we'll be packing as many Sensible book contributors as we can under one roof for your enjoyment. Expect full details in the next few days...

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[TrekMD]

Here's the latest update.  Looks like for those in London there's an live event that you can go to!

Personalised Editions Are Go! Plus, a Special Sensible Evening in London

Jon Hare paid a visit to ROM HQ yesterday to sign and dedicate our Personalised Editions. They've now been lovingly hand-wrapped in their named and numbered jackets, and are taking the postal superhighway to your homes. They should begin to arrive in the UK early next week, Europe towards the end of next week, and International locations shortly after. (PS. You'll find your name in glorious print on page 339).

To everyone who's been receiving their copies this week, I wanted to thank you for all of the lovely and overwhelming feedback. You've made me an emotional wreck (in a good way). I hope you're all enjoying the book, and as always, I'd love to hear any thoughts or comments (https://asensibleevening.eventbrite.co.uk/.

I hope to see you there to celebrate our first book launch!

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[zapiy]

If only i had time i would have loved to attend that..