VIC 20 book on Kickstarter

[oldcomputr]

Hi all,
I have launched a Kickstarter campaign for a book about the VIC 20: please take a look!
Comments are very welcome.

This is an excerpt of the description:

Commodore VIC 20: a visual history is a book about the computer that made Commodore enter the home market, with all its early peripherals. The VIC 20 was the first colour home computer to cost less than $300, the first to sell one million units, the first to have a modem for under $100, and the first approach to personal computing for a whole generation.

Many books celebrate the even more successful Commodore 64, but I felt that its little brother deserved some attention too.

“A visual history” doesn't mean that there won't be any text: every chapter will have an introduction, and many pictures will be described with a caption. "Visual" just means that the pictures are what makes this book special.

These are a few mock-ups I prepared for Kickstarter:









Hope you like it, back it, and share it :-) Thanks!

[merman]

Good luck with the book!

[mrr19121970]

How many pages approx are you planning?

[oldcomputr]

Good luck with the book!

Thanks :-)

[oldcomputr]

How many pages approx are you planning?

Around 200, probably a bit more.

[mrr19121970]

OK, pledged. Personally I'd prefer A4 rather than A5.

[joshuadenmark]

I'm up for a copy too, really fine looking project.

[mrr19121970]

35th anniversary.

I also posted a link here I hope they don't ban me again. Seem to be a miserable bunch over there.

[oldcomputr]

Thanks for pledging and sharing.

[akator]

This book looks great! Are there any plans for this to be available for sale to others and not just as an "award" to Kickstarter backers?

[oldcomputr]

This book looks great! Are there any plans for this to be available for sale to others and not just as an "award" to Kickstarter backers?

The question is quite simple, but the answer is not :-)

The 20,000€ (about 500 copies) goal is a big challenge, the VIC 20 is not as common as the C64.
If I decide that the book will be available for sale for everyone after the campaign, I risk that some people will not back it; but by doing so the Kickstarter campaign could not reach its goal, and I won't be able to print the book at all. I don't have sponsors, I can't anticipate any money by printing the book in advance and then trying to sell it.

But if the project gets funded, I could be forced to print more copies of the book to reach the minimum asked by the printing facility. Probably that will happen for the Italian version, not for the English one: the Italian version is only sold in Italy (or to Italians around the globe...) while the English one is sold worldwide.

So, in the end: probably not :-)

[litody]

Pledged

I really hope this gets funded as it looks stunning. There have been lots of retro books recently and it is about time the VIC got it's own publication. Good luck with the campaign.

[Mayhem]

I've posted about the KS in a couple of other places, so doing my bit to spread the word

Adding to what I posted on the KS, I haven't yet got my hands on a proper Japanese release game yet CIB. One of the few things left to find heh. Jupiter Lander also came out as Super Lander, and there's Road Race and Midnight Drive, and Mission Impossible and Atomic Mission. Games with the same artwork but different names. Aside from the last one (the licence expired to use the MI name), I'm not sure why the name changes.

I've also got some "interesting" artwork sleeves used by Commodore in Australia, I might send you a photo of those if you haven't seen them before.

[English Invader]

Backed.

[oldcomputr]

I've posted about the KS in a couple of other places, so doing my bit to spread the word ;)

Adding to what I posted on the KS, I haven't yet got my hands on a proper Japanese release game yet CIB. One of the few things left to find heh. Jupiter Lander also came out as Super Lander, and there's Road Race and Midnight Drive, and Mission Impossible and Atomic Mission. Games with the same artwork but different names. Aside from the last one (the licence expired to use the MI name), I'm not sure why the name changes.

I've also got some "interesting" artwork sleeves used by Commodore in Australia, I might send you a photo of those if you haven't seen them before.

Thanks for sharing, Mat.
I replied on KS about my decision on the game variations... here's what I posted:

Regarding the variants, I have 5 different boxes for Jupiter Lander, not counting the German "Landung auf Jupiter" and the Japanese "anonymous" package :-)
The book will show the box version without the sliding cover and with the text in English only (not the Canadian English/French variant). The only exception is Jelly Monsters, that only had a sliding cover version before being pulled from the market.

I haven't any Japanese VIC game (yet? mmm... so rare).
I've seen some time ago the Australian versions on the Internet archive, in my opinion they're really ugly :-)
The sky is falling Mole attack is there some other?