Announcing PSX: Guide to the Sony Playstation book!

[kevincure]

So all that info that we deciphered for the Playstation Rarity List seemed a terrible thing to waste on simple text. And, with ~1270 titles, the Playstation needs a proper tribute. Therefore, I'm proud to announce the forthcoming book PSX: The Guide to the Sony Playstation, a full-color tome for dedicated Playstation collectors that's being put together in association with the Digital Press. I hope to have this ready to go around New Year's Day. I've also had tons of help from Dangerboy and Papastu (as well as other non-DP Playstation collectors) with the goods that went into the book, and if anyone knows their Playstation info, it's those guys.

Here's what you'll find:
- For every US PSX title: Name, Rarity, Price, SLUS, Developer, Publisher, Genre, Greatest Hits?, Longbox?, Collectors Edition?, Cover variations, disc variations, pack-ins, the works.
- Lists of games by Publsher, Genre, and SLUS
- Lists of Demos, Lightspan titles and Box sets
- A history of the system's development
- Interviews with a number of people from the PSX era, including Chris Charla from Next Generation magazine and the producers of Tony Hawk Pro Skater and Fear Effect.
- Information on all the system variations
- A number of images from the Playstation era
- In-depth articles about the major series on the PS, as well as shorter capsules about many more titles
- Sections of peripherals and rare import games

140 pages. Full color. Hopefully the halfway point between the breadth of DP Advance Guide and the depth of Dangerboy's Playstation Perfect Guide. You can check out a pdf sample at http://people.bu.edu/cure/psxsample.pdf . It includes the cover, the fly-leaf, the contents page, 2 pages from the introduction and 2 interior pages. I'll let you guys know more about where to get it when it's closer to publication.

[Ed Oscuro]

Sounds good!

[The Brown Eye]

I look forward to it Kevin. Just don't forget Mortal Kombat II this time LOL .

[zmweasel]

Sounds great, and I look forward to hitting you up for a review copy that I can plug in Video Game Collector and PSE2. Just make sure to spell it "PlayStation" with a capital S. (The sample pages use both "Playstation" and "PlayStation.")

-- Z.

[SoulBlazer]

Hell, I'm surprised YOU were'nt interviewed! LOL

[Gemini-Phoenix]

Now if the barcode numbers were also included too, then that could be helpful! maybe... To someone... I guess???

[jdc]

Great idea.

I'd be up to owning one!!

There're enough PSX games in the wild that I may look at collecting it....again. LOL

[Oobgarm]

The announcement of this book makes me happy, as I intend on getting into collecting PSX myself sometime.

I'll definitely pick one up.

[toddst]

Nice work! Will it be ready in time for the next NECG (whenever that will be)?

-Todd

[Mayhem]

Well if you need a pic of my PAL debug unit, let me know :)

[kevincure]

Thanks, Mayhem. I actually already acquired some pretty massive pal debug photos, and I just bought an NTSC debug, though if anyone has any pics of the green (1201) debug, the only ones I have of that are pretty poor quality.

And good call, Zach. I actually haven't edited yet, so I'm sure there are other mistakes here and there. I have a mini-style guide, and I was using "Playstation" everywhere except the fly-leaf; the font on the fly leaf is the Playstation font, and it didn't look right with the lower case S.

[maxlords]

Sweet! Looking good guys! I'll buy one! Also...I want those sweet ass controllers (the proto ones shown in the pdf)!

[tholly]

any idea on a price....based on that, you can count me in to pre-order a copy

[TheSmirk]

Sounds like it will be a great book! I'll be getting one for sure

[kevincure]

As for price, it will be a bit more expensive that you're used to because it's very expensive to print color books in small short runs. 25-30 bucks is my guess (and I'm doing this not-for-profit - that's just the direct cost). I'm doing the book under a Creative Commons license and will eventually get the pdf up online for free for those people who wouldn't mind checking out the info but don't want to have the book on their coffeetable.

[Ed Oscuro]

Is the text in the online PDF different from what's going to be in the final version? What I see on the first page of text needs some work.

[kevincure]

Yeah, Ed, nothing has been edited. I just threw some pages into my templates so people could have a feel for what the book is going to look like and the type of context it will have. But no worries - the text will be silky smooth in the final version.

[Ed Oscuro]

Good game. I figured that was the case :)

[Aussie2B]

Very cool. :) I'm definitely interested (a few more PSX games, and I'll have more for PlayStation than any other single console O_O ).

[Queen Of The Felines]

Are Dangerboy and PapaStu going to get a cut of this?

Kristine

[tholly]

Are Dangerboy and PapaStu going to get a cut of this?

Kristine

As for price, it will be a bit more expensive that you're used to because it's very expensive to print color books in small short runs. 25-30 bucks is my guess (and I'm doing this not-for-profit - that's just the direct cost)


so, i doubt there is going to be a cut for them if there is no profit to be had

[Queen Of The Felines]

Well I hope they get something, considering all the work they've done to contribute to it.

Kristine

[tritium]

I dont collect psone, but I'd definately buy.. FUll color? Sounds nice... Now if I could only finda GH checklist...

-Tritium

[kevincure]

Yup, I'll get Jason and Steve a full cut, but as tholly noted, I'm not making any money on the book. It's being sold at cost, and will be available free on the net in pdf form.

[zmweasel]

Hell, I'm surprised YOU were'nt interviewed! LOL

Actually, I'd love to see 'em interview Victor Ireland, who I imagine would be up for it. Have you contacted him yet, Kevin?

-- Z.

[kevincure]

I actually interviewed Vic 4 or 5 years ago for a story at Gaming Age - unlike most guys in the videogame world, he actually gets back to you in a reasonable time! I've already got the sections layouts and the like ready to go, so I'm not sure where I could fit him in, but if the book does well and a second edition is prepared, I'll definitely have to contact him.

[PapaStu]

Hell, I'm surprised YOU were'nt interviewed! LOL

Actually, I'd love to see 'em interview Victor Ireland, who I imagine would be up for it. Have you contacted him yet, Kevin?

-- Z.

You know that as ive been talking to him about cracking the WD PlayStation variants and whatnot, ive not thought about asking for an interview. I know that ive got a semi open Dialogue with him, i think ill ask him when I rack his brains over the next batch of inserts and game discs, be it for the PlayStation lovers of DP or for some sort of print/web media.

[lendelin]

Looks very good, I like especially the clear consistency of the data given for each game.

If it is possible (costs), make sure to write one or two sentences about the game content and the overall quality for each game not covered in depth by a separate article. This will help also to set yourself apart from the DigitalPress guide.

The only very minor criticism I have are some questionable styles in the text (easy to clean up), and the inconsistency that Playstation is sometimes spelled with a lower case S and a capital S. (should be always capital S).

Make also sure that the introduction to the PlayStation has very good quality. The red line for the text should be one question: WHY was the PS so successful? Don't be satisfied with the common answers, ask again and again WHY.

Great project!!

[PapaStu]

Yup, I'll get Jason and Steve a full cut, but as tholly noted, I'm not making any money on the book. It's being sold at cost, and will be available free on the net in pdf form.

Much appreciated Kevin. Like ive said when I was brought to this site in the first place, I'm here to help where I can, as much as I can and as positivly as possible.

[Spartacus]

If it is possible (costs), make sure to write one or two sentences about the game content and the overall quality for each game not covered in depth by a separate article. This will help also to set yourself apart from the DigitalPress guide.


I'd like to second this suggestion. Having a few lines devoted to what the game is about, some interesting tid bits of information where available, and some review scores would go a long way to making this a "must have" edition. I look forward to seeing your results and you can count me in as someone who would be very interested in purchasing a copy.

[kevincure]

I thought a lot about having a "short description" of each game, but I don't think it's feasible, time-wise, for this edition. There are 60 games/series with capsule articles, 15 of which have a full page. I think the true must-play titles are covered there. I've also put in a list, by genre, in the data section of the book at the back, so if you were interested only in, say, tennis titles, you could look that up.

I think Dangerboy's Playstation Guide is a better guide for players than anything I could put together in any reasonable time (remember, it's taken almost 3 years just to get the *data* ready!). I would like to, though, include short descriptions and a secreencap of each game in a future edition, as well as more interviews and a list of exclusive PAL titles. That's well off in the future though.

[Dangerboy]

Thanks for the kind words, Kevin. That made my day. :drinking:

Good luck with the book!