Planning PSX Book (Updated - See Last Page)

[Dangerboy]

Hello everyone,

So, I have been meaning to post this for a long time now, perhaps afraid to, because it would probably never get done anyway. Lately though, I think it is because I have no direction yet in how to approach such a beast. By beast, I mean the largest behemoth-like project I have ever tackled in my life.

That is, simply put, to write the ultimate PlayStation book(s) or 'guide'.

By ultimate, I do not necessarily mean “everything you could possibly know about each game”, but instead by actual enlightenment and entertainment value. With a library of over 1270 games, 130+ demos, 100+ Lightspan, and god knows what else, this could never be an encyclopedia; no one’s that bored or sits that long on the toilet.

So I do have a few ideas of what I’d like to do, and that’s have fun with it. It wouldn’t be a replacement for Game-Rave.com, but more like a companion to the ship. I could work on both pages (a title’s web-page and in-book page) at the same time to help try and speed up both. I know how the outside would look; how the set of books would look were it needed, and I’m starting to get a feel for the layout possibilities. However, one can not layout what one does not have – and that is a focus on content.

So I leave it to you, dear peers. If you had to spend your money on a book or series of books that covered the 2nd largest gaming catalog in US history, what would you want in it? I don’t mean like, “Reviews and stuff” I mean like:

a. Would you prefer flatbed scans of the box and CD, or just a single group photograph of the manual, disc, case?
b. Are you looking for humor, or serious banter?
c. How many screenshots for a game is too few? Or too many?
d. Just what information about a game are you looking for?
e. Do you care about variants? Sub-genres? Etc…
f. One insanely huge book, or smaller, say alphabetical sections (A-F, F-O, etc)
g. Fun things? Personal stories? Comics? Little mascot like character running around? etc...

Any all comments will be saved to text file and sorted. No honest comments will be shunned, and I will most likely use this as an open forum for further discussion of suggestions and the like. Be as specific as possible! Right now there is no definitive answer, only creative input.

Here’s to passion...

Thank you in advance,
Jason
www.game-rave.com

[strassy]

an apology for killing cartridge gaming! ha

[Dangerboy]

That's hysterical

And quick! Duly noted.

[Haoie]

If you or someone else is really working on this, you should strive to work with Playstationmuseum.org.

It's got invalulable data, and a lot of usable images [once you get permission anyway].

As a collector, I feel it's 1 of the few good PS1 tribute sites out there.

[thetoxicone]

an apology for killing cartridge gaming! ha

That definately is great. I'm not much of a playstation fan so I probably can't add much insight but if I were to pick something like that up I'd prefer it contain all that it could about the subject including variants and all the like. I wouldn't want to be reading something and then have to go elsewhere for the rest of the information that wasn't included.

[j_factor]

Actually, I think a full encyclopedia would be awesome. You don't even need screenshots. Just information on every single game (release date, publisher, developer, etc., you know, the basics), with cover scans, variant information, and so on. Preferably with your impressions on the games themselves. I would buy that.

[bcks007]

a: flatbed scans of the box and CD(s), and back of box, and manual.

b: either is good, both is better.

c: Unless the screen shot is showing a variant of the game, then just skip that. Box scans and cd(s), possibly manual scans are very important though.

d: Rarity, release date, company that released it, variants, product codes(slus, scus, and pdss, etc.), upc on back of box.

e: Do you care about variants? Yes very much so.
Sub-genres? Like listing them in rpg, action, fps categories? Its alright, but I would prefer in alphabetical order, or chronology(sp?) order. That would make it better, you could give each game there genre, but don't put each game on a certain section based on that.

f: Huge book.

g: Maybe a interesting facts like your website, those are nice reads.



Dangerboy, i read your latest front page post.
"Today's the day! Metal Gear Solid: Essentials Collection is released for the PlayStation 2, and it contains Metal Gear Solid in its original, 2 Disc PlayStation form! This is the first time a video game has had a variant release on a different system, on the same media."

Cough there was kinda one before this. Do you collect ps2 games? If not, you might not know this, but for Hitman Trilogy, it comes with a bonus disc, thats inside the case for Hitman: Blood Money, its the Kane & Lynch: Dead Men (demo), as you know thats a ps3 game. You can't play the demo, but it still should be on a blueray disc right, it was put on a dvd. If your aware of this already, whoops.

[evil_genius]

Info on variants might be cool.

[Blitzwing256]

if you're going to do screenshots, DON'T just do a couple from the first 5 minutes of a game, really go the extra mile and get shots from the more interesting parts of each game, more time consuming but really would add alot of readability to the book, espeicaally if you had some interesting shots of say the debug rooms in ff7 ff8 and tactics, or even that one unused area in ff7, just some interesting screenshots that would make people go "hey wheres that from? i need to play that again " etc etc. also a 4 page spread on how awesome hooters road trip is would be cool too ;-)

[PapaStu]

@ Blitzwing

He never has. If you look at the games he has posted reviews of on www.game-rave.com you'll notice that DB actually plays through the games and screen caps through out and not just in the first 5 minutes.

4 pages on Hooters Road Trip? I don't think one could even HOPE to type 2 paragraphs about how bad it really is, let alone 4 pages.

[Oobgarm]

@ Blitzwing

He

@ Blitzwing

He never has. If you look at the games he has posted on www.game-rave.com you'll

@ Blitzwing

He never has. If you look at the games he has posted on www.game-rave.com you'll notice that

Quoting a rare triple-post.

[PapaStu]

Quoting a rare triple-post.

Dude, it wasn't a triple post it was like a ZOMG R@R3 15X post. I don't know what happened there

[Dangerboy]

If you or someone else is really working on this, you should strive to work with Playstationmuseum.org.

Haoie, I'm in contact with David on a not-quite-every-so-often basis. However, he and I are on different paths. His site is invaluable for the development / import side of the PSX, where I focus on the retail, actually released side. He helped out with another PSX Book that came before, and I would not want to soil the previous book's partnership.

Toxiclone, J_Factor
Noted. Thank you ^_^

bcks007
First full game then. Very interesting about the Demo though, I had no clue!

Excellent feedback so far guys! Keep it up.

[Flack]

Off the cuff I'd say I'd be much more likely to buy one book than a series of books, although I understand that this might limit the amount of information contained. I'm not sure how feasable a 1,000+ page book is, and if you want color ... yikes. I'm sure you can find cheaper printers, but at Lulu they charge you around $4 + .15 cents per page for a color book. That's $154 per book! (Black and white would only run you $24/book).

As far as content, I'd like all the standard info (name, developer, genre, etc.) followed by two or three paragraphs about the game. What I'd really like it stuff I can't find by simply playing the game. For example, maybe a paragraph about the developer or how the game came out or what it was based on, etc, followed by a paragraph about the gameplay and a final paragraph about the company, any sequels, etc. Maybe a note about any easter eggs or anything interesting like that. At the end of each one you could mentioned the variants briefly, like "Variants: 2 (big cover, small cover)" or something like that.

Of course I'd also like to read about the development of the PSX, the different models, and have pictures of all the 3rd party accessories and stuff.

Oh, and I'd like someone to help me carry this thick ass book around!!!

Let me know if I can help you along your journey.

[Dangerboy]

Of course I'd also like to read about the development of the PSX, the different models, and have pictures of all the 3rd party accessories and stuff.

System models I could do...there's no way all of the 3rd party accessory stuff could be tracked...there were insane amounts of shit cranked out for the PSX, and to a small degree there still is. I'd probably focus on the interesting ones / nifty ones (Dex Drive, Disc Drive, rumble based guncons, etc).

Sadly, it's have to be a black and white book. Readers could always go to the web-site to see the full color.

[Vectorman0]

I don't know if you are familiar with it, but ABC to the VCS is a good book that has a good concept that could be applied to the PSX library. I have never read it cover to cover, but I often flip through it or reference it. It basically covers every single 2600 game (some games multiple times for different game variations), and for each game it described the gameplay; many of the games have a screenshot. The only complaint I have about this book, is that it doesn't really discuss the quality of the games at all. While I realize this is hard to do in many cases as opinions vary, in many cases some games are just bad. Another downfall is that you will come across entries that you already know about, like combat. I think it would be good if you did something like this in your book, but kept it as simple as possible and added additional more specific information to keep the attention of those who are already familiar with it.

I think you should do something like ABC to the VCS, but do more, such as listing information about the game and other details you wouldn't be able to find anywhere else.


a. Would you prefer flatbed scans of the box and CD, or just a single group photograph of the manual, disc, case?

I think disc photos are overkill, unless there is something notable about a specific game. The front of the manual, or front insert is enough. The back inserts would be good too, but only if you could actually read the description; this seems unlikely since you will be cramming hundreds of them in there and shrinking them to conserve space.

b. Are you looking for humor, or serious banter?

It should be done seriously, but jokes thrown around can keep it fresh, sort of like DP guide entries. If you tried too hard to make jokes and they didn't go well, the book will be worse than with no jokes at all.

c. How many screenshots for a game is too few? Or too many?

I would say it varies from game to game depending on how many aspects of it you think need to be seen by the reader. For a shooter, one picture mid-gameplay could be enough; if you wanted more you could do a picture of a boss. For an RPG, you might want to have a cutscene picture, battle picture, world overview picture, etc. At a page per game, you are looking at over 600 pages. Pictures are definitely necessary, but should be kept to a minimum. I would say fewer bigger pictures are also better than more smaller ones.

d. Just what information about a game are you looking for?

This is the hardest thing of all your questions for me to nail down. Going back to ABC to the VCS, it would be good to hear how many of the games work. There are about 1300 PSX games, and I only know about a fraction of them and have played a much smaller amount. How the game works and plays should only be a part of each entry. I agree with what Flack suggested. Discuss everything from the gameplay to how the game came about and what followed it, or interesting related tidbits.

e. Do you care about variants? Sub-genres? Etc…

Variants aren't very important to most people, as they usually aren't that interesting. I wouldn't cover all of them in detail. You can mention them briefly in most cases, but it would be much better to save that space to talk more specifically about the ones that are more special, such as the Assassins Case, that MK variant that took you years to find, the seemingly non-existent Space Hulk longbox, etc.

f. One insanely huge book, or smaller, say alphabetical sections (A-F, F-O, etc)

One book is definitely better. If you did multiple books, I would prefer each book covered a different aspect of every psx game title, not only a portion of the library.

g. Fun things? Personal stories? Comics? Little mascot like character running around? etc...

Don't clutter the pages with pictures of Cloud and video game sprites. I would keep it simple. If you really wanted to do something like that, put them all together on some giant fold-out spread at the end of the book. Other sections like lore or trivia would be good, especially the trivia section. I'm not sure if I answered your question or not, let me know!

[Vectorman0]

Of course I'd also like to read about the development of the PSX, the different models, and have pictures of all the 3rd party accessories and stuff.

System models I could do...there's no way all of the 3rd party accessory stuff could be tracked...there were insane amounts of shit cranked out for the PSX, and to a small degree there still is. I'd probably focus on the interesting ones / nifty ones (Dex Drive, Disc Drive, rumble based guncons, etc).

Sadly, it's have to be a black and white book. Readers could always go to the web-site to see the full color.

You don't need to catalog all third party stuff, no one wants to read about crappy third party memory cards. Well, besides you.

You should at least do a section on it and the notable, unique, stupid and crazy accessories the system has seen. You could also probably do a section on official ones since that would be small as well.

[Dangerboy]

You could also probably do a section on official ones since that would be small as well.


That would be a good idea. Especially since the PSX was the first with two memory card slots...or was it?

[Haoie]

Well, it's good to see you guys know each other and have worked on projects before, but I still make my point, if only for ease sake.

Anyway, 1 of my suggestions for this book/series is not to make it US centric. This is the way quite often.

There are lots of non US release titles too that are certainly worth your time too!!

And I don't just mean Japan, I mean PAL regions too [of which I'm a part of].

[Cinder6]

I like a lot of the suggestions so far. I'd rather not just hear your views on how the game is, but if you can find a general opinion on the game, that is fine. Talk about success and critical acclaim, if applicable. But in particular I'd want to know what to expect from each game.

I'd prefer to have one big book, but I do sort of like the idea of different books that look at different aspects of the entire library (one for variants, one for trivia, one for gameplay, etc.).

One thing I'd be really interested in is learning about influences in the game. For instance, finding out about various references to Greek, Norse, etc. mythology would be cool (obviously, where applicable).

As for scans, I'd prefer a flatbed scan of the front of the manual. If the game has notable variants (such as different disc arts and rear inserts for Working Designs games), you could show them. Screenshots, maybe one per game, or three or four for RPGs. If there's something particularly notable about one aspect of a game, an extra picture of that would suffice.

If you go through with this, good luck!