Kickstarter Arcade Artwork Book

Optimus Prime

This looks really cool, i havent invested in it yet, but im running it over im my head the last few hours. what do you guys think?

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/woodpunk/artcade-the-coin-op-art-book

o1s1n

Damn you keithgeo! I was trying to let the credit card cool off this month

Not something you can pass on really. Looks brilliant. Just backed it there (went with the £40 option)

o1s1n

Hah! You just inadvertently reminded me of something there, the Pier Solar posterity pack had a similar name inclusion, but it was in the game too.

I never finished it so never got to see it. Just occurred to me that obviously someone would have uploaded it to youtube.

And there it is. My name included in a 16 bit game. I can die happy now

Steve X2

Just had a quick look at it.
He's not just sticking the already freely available arcade artwork in a book and selling it is he?

Optimus Prime

I dont think so, according to the description and video anyways, he bought a load of very high res scans from a "hollywood movies prop auction" he reckons he has spent over 100 working days joining them together and fixing them up. some lads on J+ Reckon he is legit and have even bought some artwork from him in the past and said it was top quality.

Steve X2

keithgeo wrote: »

I dont think so, according to the description and video anyways, he bought a load of very high res scans from a "hollywood movies prop auction" he reckons he has spent over 100 working days joining them together and fixing them up. some lads on J+ Reckon he is legit and have even bought some artwork from him in the past and said it was top quality.

Ahh ok.
I cant watch the video at the moment as streaming is blocked in this building.

Jack burton

Even the digital copy would be a very decent library of high quality artwork for printing yourself wouldnt it?

I'll probpoly go the £40 route myself next week when i have some spare cash

KeRbDoG

Steve SI wrote: »

Just had a quick look at it.
He's not just sticking the already freely available arcade artwork in a book and selling it is he?

Isn't nearly all of that artwork copyrighted? Is he buying the right for the 10k he is after?

Wait, looks like he has written permission to use them all. Good lad

o1s1n

Interesting update for backers only;

Hello Team Artcade!

Well, it's Sunday afternoon here in sunny (and unusually, that's true!) Buckinghamshire, England and I have something important to share with you.

In a nutshell, I turned down an offer from a major publisher to take the book to market.

It's a flattering offer and it'd take care of all of the costs associated with getting the book published, it'd pay me a very healthy advance and give me access to graphic artists to take some of the pressure off, but it would also mean that this wouldn't be our project any more.

I don't want that.

LoGiE

I need one on my bookshelf!

CathalDublin

Will be backing this

Optimus Prime

Just backed it myself, would regret not getting this one i think.

CathalDublin

xmas present from the the missus to myself sorted, sometimes I think I'm just too good to her

CathalDublin

CathalDublin wrote: »

xmas present from the the missus to myself sorted, sometimes I think I'm just too good to her

Optimus Prime

This has been fully funded now so happy days!

Steve X2

Anyone else go for the pledge that includes the 20" arcade marquee print?
I'm wondering what to go for myself as he does seem to do a great job on them so I'd want to get something really nice for the man cave.

Thoughts?

Edit:
I'm think Gravitar or Battlezone at the moment.

o1s1n

I was considering it, but then decided that if I want a marquee, I'll just use the money to buy a real one!

Andrew76

Steve SI wrote: »

Anyone else go for the pledge that includes the 20" arcade marquee print?
I'm wondering what to go for myself as he does seem to do a great job on them so I'd want to get something really nice for the man cave.

Thoughts?

Edit:
I'm think Gravitar or Battlezone at the moment.

Didn't you say yourself above that all these images are freely available anyway? Not just print one yourself and save the few shillings?

Steve X2

Andrew76 wrote: »

Didn't you say yourself above that all these images are freely available anyway? Not just print one yourself and save the few shillings?

No, I asked if that's what he was using for the book. But he's done a great job restoring some of the artwork to a very high level of detail.
Plus it's a nice extra on top of the book and will look well in the man cave It's not that much extra as I was going for the £40 pledge anyway.

Andrew76

Steve SI wrote: »

No, I asked if that's what he was using for the book. But he's done a great job restoring some of the artwork to a very high level of detail.
Plus it's a nice extra on top of the book and will look well in the man cave It's not that much extra as I was going for the £40 pledge anyway.

Ah fair enough, if the images he has aren't available freely, then I guess it's worth the money.

Steve X2

I see in the latest update he was expecting most people to go for the £40 reward level and in fact most have gone for the £25 book only option which seems like it might cause issue.
I didn't expect to get it by Dec 2013 anyway, it seems just to quick for a kickstarter. I guess we will have to wait and see how it turns out.

Steve X2

So this is the framed artwork the guy has ready for me to go with the book.



Really looking forward to the book now as it sounds like he's got a good book binding company involved.

o1s1n

Some really interesting news with regards to this Artcade book. Looks like there's going to be a lot more in it than just marquees.

It's been a while since I updated everyone on what's going on with the book. That's mainly due to the fact that I've been working hard on getting the content ready for printing, and also because I wanted to wait until a couple of new developments were confirmed, before I let you know about them.

Now I can tell you the really exciting news...

As I type this message, the reprographics department of a major games company is busy scanning a collection of transparencies 'liberated' from a graphic design house that produced a huge amount of cabinet artwork for the arcade industry! The transparencies contain the original line art of the marquees and sideart from many well known arcade machines, plus some prototypes that never made it into production. I'm currently working out agreements with the rights holder(s) to include these images in the book. This is very exciting stuff, particularly when you consider that none of these images has ever been seen by anyone outside the original teams that worked on the games back in the early to mid 1980s! It's extra work that I wasn't planning on, but it's an opportunity to do something very special and it'll be worth it.

I mentioned in the original Kickstarter 'pitch' that one of my biggest regrets is that I couldn't track down or credit the original artists of the cabinet art: that's not so true any more. I'm in direct contact with three of the original artists responsible for some of the most popular games from the golden age of arcade gaming. All three are hugely supportive of the project and have contributed images and fascinating background information for the book. I'm very happy to be able to credit the artists of at least some of these fantastic images :-)

Right now, I'm putting the final touches to the page layouts, ready to turn it over to the book printer. I'll have some last-minute changes to make, in order to include the additional stuff mentioned above, but that should only delay the print run by a few days.

We're still on target to get the book shipped in December, and right now, I'm expecting to get all copies out before Christmas. I've ordered the custom shipping materials for the books/t-shirts and they'll be here next week.

I've got another survey to send out to those backers who haven't had one yet - look out for that later today.

One decision I've made, having print proofed some of the pages and had them bound into a sampler, is that I'm not going to include the technical details about each game. The book is specifically about, and is a showcase for the artwork. It just doesn't make sense to include details like number of joysticks, screen orientation, processor etc. That information relates to the game hardware rather than the artwork, and is available from many places online and in other books that are focussed on the games themselves. If anyone really doesn't want the book without the tech details included, let me know and I'll refund your pledge immediately.

I think that's everything right now, I better get back to working on the final few pages!

Thanks yet again for making this happen :-)

Tim

Steve X2

Yeah I just got that popup on the kickstarter app.
Really good news and should make it a bit more special. The nerd in me would have liked the tech details of each game, but I see why he's removed them.

Optimus Prime

Update this morning saying this book is going to print next month, and if i read it correctly he is hinting at a possible volume 2 down the road. Really looking forward to getting this one.

LoGiE

Excellent... Can't wait for it.

LoGiE

Anyone received theirs yet? I'd almost forgotten that I'd ordered one till the other half asked about it this morning.

Steve X2

LoGiE wrote: »

Anyone received theirs yet? I'd almost forgotten that I'd ordered one till the other half asked about it this morning.

Have you checked the kickstarter updates? All sorts of delays and problems

CathalDublin

Disaster of a project!

Optimus Prime

Yeh he seems to have been scammed by a printing company. Though the last update does mention he might have another company sorted.

STG.Otaku

CathalDublin wrote: »

Disaster of a project!

This.

Steve X2

Hopefully it all gets sorted as its one of the more interesting books I've backed on kickstarter. I know another backer who went a bit weird when Tim(the guy doing the book) bought a new car and posted it on twitter soon after the kickstarter was funded
But that person thinks all kickstarters are dodgy and only backed this as I said he's like it.

In fairness to Tim, he could communicate a bit more and there were mistakes and bad luck along the wa, but he isnt dodgy.

Optimus Prime

What happens if it eventually falls through and he cant deliver on it? Do we get our money back?

Steve X2

keithgeo wrote: »

What happens if it eventually falls through and he cant deliver on it? Do we get our money back?

Nope

Optimus Prime

ah well, Guess we all have a time share in his car now.

CathalDublin

Serious lack of communication is pissing some of the backers off.
It looks like he hadn't got his homework done regarding cost/quality of printing at all, I wouldn't be suprised if it never gets done, hope if that happens we at least get our framed marquees

Andrew76

Steve SI wrote: »

Hopefully it all gets sorted as its one of the more interesting books I've backed on kickstarter. I know another backer who went a bit weird when Tim(the guy doing the book) bought a new car and posted it on twitter soon after the kickstarter was funded
But that person thinks all kickstarters are dodgy and only backed this as I said he's like it.

In fairness to Tim, he could communicate a bit more and there were mistakes and bad luck along the wa, but he isnt dodgy.

That was a bit of a silly thing to do though. Especially in light of how it's turning out now. I didn't back this one myself but hopefully the Sega Megadrive one will turn out ok - think it's due sometime in August.

STG.Otaku

Andrew76 wrote: »

That was a bit of a silly thing to do though. Especially in light of how it's turning out now. I didn't back this one myself but hopefully the Sega Megadrive one will turn out ok - think it's due sometime in August.

Backed both.

The former he's an idiot if he didn't do his homework. I spent nearly a month (maybe longer I forget) on checking, re-checking, triple quadrillion checking and supernuclearbuttockingshirtironingwaftyplopfuzzlinglychecking my figures when I was working with the printers and getting quotes.

Make 9007% SURE you have your **** in check before doing ANYTHING on something of a large scale. Especially when other people's money is involved!!!

Running a Companies House check on the printers does no harm either (which I did in my case). On reflection he should have done that as soon as he saw the 'too good to be true' quote from the printer that scammed him.

Business basics. That's all it is.