NES Oddities & the Homebrew Revolution - Now Available!
The Kickstarter is live from now until March 1st at 6PM EST!
https://hagens-alley-books.myshopify.com/collections/hagens-alley-books/products/nes-oddities-the-homebrew-revolution-hardcover-book-pre-order
Here is the cover drawn by one of the artist's from the original Dragon's Lair, Space Ace and Dragon's Lair II arcade games!
![]()
![]()
Last year I did a book just on Officially Licensed NES games, which was the set I was completing at the time. After finishing both SNES books this year, the first thing I'm going to do next year is go back to the NES and finish out all the different aspects to that library in a followup book. The book will be called "NES Oddities & the Homebrew Revolution: Games You Haven't Played" and will cover everything not in my first book. So Unlicensed, PAL Exclusives, Grails, Major Variants, English-Friendly Famicom/FDS and finally the NES Homebrew Revolution. That's where I think NA members will be the most helpful, as here and nesdev is where NES Homebrew thrives. Here are my thoughts for the Homebrew Section:
Let me know what you think and any recommendations that you have. I haven't set anything in stone yet, but I do have everything pretty much written for all the sections but the Homebrew Games.
https://hagens-alley-books.myshopify.com/collections/hagens-alley-books/products/nes-oddities-the-homebrew-revolution-hardcover-book-pre-order
Here is the cover drawn by one of the artist's from the original Dragon's Lair, Space Ace and Dragon's Lair II arcade games!
Last year I did a book just on Officially Licensed NES games, which was the set I was completing at the time. After finishing both SNES books this year, the first thing I'm going to do next year is go back to the NES and finish out all the different aspects to that library in a followup book. The book will be called "NES Oddities & the Homebrew Revolution: Games You Haven't Played" and will cover everything not in my first book. So Unlicensed, PAL Exclusives, Grails, Major Variants, English-Friendly Famicom/FDS and finally the NES Homebrew Revolution. That's where I think NA members will be the most helpful, as here and nesdev is where NES Homebrew thrives. Here are my thoughts for the Homebrew Section:
- Do an introduction explaining what NES Homebrew games are, misconceptions and a history of how the community has evolved over the past 14 years.
- Interviews with Homebrew developers, musicians, artists, etc.
- Definitive highlights of the homebrew games available to collect (In the same format as the Complete NES with box art, screenshot, summary etc)
- Quick listing of everything else available to play. (think ROMs and smaller game releases that haven't been made available to all gamers)
- Section for limited edition releases, showing the creativity in some of these projects as this is a unique aspect to NES homebrews
- Finally, an "on the horizon" section with highlights of upcoming games per developer (think Nintendo Power PAK Watch, with 1-2 pages per developer with quick previews with screenshots if available)
Let me know what you think and any recommendations that you have. I haven't set anything in stone yet, but I do have everything pretty much written for all the sections but the Homebrew Games.
Comments
Seems like a good inclusion. I think any book on retro consoles should include the thriving homebrew scenes. It shouldn't be too hard to find content for this section.
Thanks! I've been collecting and following the NES scene since I joined NA, so I have a very concise list. I covered the few SNES homebrews that exist in The Complete SNES and was planning on a stand alone book for the NES. However, incorporating it in to the Oddities book will allow a lot more people to be exposed to it, which is something that all the hardworking developers definitely need!
I'm sure I'll be picking this up when available. Good luck!
I agree it's a good idea to include it in a larger book for exposure. If you just wrote a book on homebrews, only us enthusiasts would get it.
I'm sure I'll be picking this up when available. Good luck!
Exactly what KHAN said too when we chatted in Florida this year. All the enthusiasts already know about it, the key here is for people who don't know about it to get their minds blown!
My goal is to just have fun with it and highlight as much as I can about the community. This will likely be at least half of the book, so it'll be great!
I have begun formatting the sections for the Homebrew aspects of my next book. I have decided to have 4 sections to categorize the games into different realms of collecting and experiencing homebrew games. That way if someone is just looking for the games they can physically own, that's a section!
The sections consist of: Physical Releases, Limited Editions, Digital-Only and Upcoming Releases; which should allow all of the releases to get covered, including situations where games have both a normal and limited release.
The things to keep in mind:
#1 I only can include what I know about in regards to digital, limited and upcoming releases. I have been part of the community forever, but scouring for the extra research my list is currently over 450 games. Something could have been overlooked though....
#2 I am not going to be able to add in all the one-offs that people have been making recently in the Limited Edition section. Those will be mentioned that they exist, however trying to track down every custom cartridge gift that has been created would be near impossible.
If you know of anything something special, then I'll definitely add it though, just shoot me a PM or e-mail!
Finally, I already reached out to everyone that I could find with my interview questions for that section. I have had a lot of amazing stories for responses. If I haven't contacted you, shoot me a message as it has been hard to track down everyone!
You can check out my Kickstarter Campaign early at:
www.tinyurl.com/nesoddities
Looks great! Keep up the great work!
Thanks!
I added the current version of the book's cover! It's done by a legend in the gaming world and it has turned out pretty rad!
Also, at hagensalley.com in my store I added a lot of NES Homebrew games (I will be doing a separate post about this). These are priced exactly as the people selling them and I either directly pay the people creating the games, or use their website. This is to get more exposure for all the great work people are doing and hopefully to get them more game sales through this as people check out my site during the Kickstarter. If you want your games on the site just let me know!
First post is updated, but the link is the same as the preview one.
Just backed Oddities! Excited to see everything this contains. Good to see you hit your goal so quickly!
Thanks man! Project is already successful! Currently working on the upcoming Homebrew games section. I can post a few screenshots as I create layouts if people want me to. Let me know!
That being said, I'm likely going to move the NES Homebrew Interview to the Compendium, that way I don't have to cut down the responses as much as the stories from everyone programming NES Homebrew games are amazing!
New update!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thesubcon3/nintendo-oddities-and-the-homebrew-revolution-vide/posts/1809609
https://hagens-alley-books.myshopify.com/collections/hagens-alley-books/products/nes-oddities-the-homebrew-revolution-hardcover-book-pre-order
Well over 500 NES Homebrew games are covered along with tons of other aspects like Famicom games that don't require knowing Japanese to enjoy. Check it out!
I have really been enjoying the NES Oddities Book. There's so much content! One mistake I noticed is you listed Big Box Gyromite as PAL only which is not the case. There is a NTSC version as well I have one
Gah! You are 100% right! I actually noted that with my editing run and meant to fix that before I published!
That is the craziness of having so much going in to a book and why I've reached out to a editor for my future books who is also a gamer. I haven't had one since Sergio with my original book, so it'll be nice to have another set of eyes look it over.
I'm glad you are enjoying it though. What's your favorite part?
I have really been enjoying the NES Oddities Book. There's so much content! One mistake I noticed is you listed Big Box Gyromite as PAL only which is not the case. There is a NTSC version as well I have one
Gah! You are 100% right! I actually noted that with my editing run and meant to fix that before I published!
That is the craziness of having so much going in to a book and why I've reached out to a editor for my future books who is also a gamer. I haven't had one since Sergio with my original book, so it'll be nice to have another set of eyes look it over.
I'm glad you are enjoying it though. What's your favorite part?
I really liked the Famicom section. I guess doing a complete Famicom book would be pretty difficult.
I have really been enjoying the NES Oddities Book. There's so much content! One mistake I noticed is you listed Big Box Gyromite as PAL only which is not the case. There is a NTSC version as well I have one
Gah! You are 100% right! I actually noted that with my editing run and meant to fix that before I published!
That is the craziness of having so much going in to a book and why I've reached out to a editor for my future books who is also a gamer. I haven't had one since Sergio with my original book, so it'll be nice to have another set of eyes look it over.
I'm glad you are enjoying it though. What's your favorite part?
I really liked the Famicom section. I guess doing a complete Famicom book would be pretty difficult.
That section was definitely fun! Actually it wouldn't have been too bad, however I'm personally only interested in collecting those games that don't have a heavy amount of Japanese. It's why I created it like I did.