This being the time of year for such things, I have a little surprise that I hope some of you might really enjoy.
I get asked on a fairly regular basis whether this blog will ever become a book — or, more likely, a series of books. While I do have aspirations in that direction, producing even one proper book is a big task that’s hard to turn to now when I’m so focused on this chronological journey we’re on. In the meantime, I can now at least offer you a series of ebooks that simply compile my older articles. Their existence is entirely down to the efforts of reader Richard Lindner, who developed all of the tools to automatically convert the blog’s articles.
Despite his talents, the ebooks are inevitably a little rough around the edges. In particular, multimedia elements — pictures, screenshots, movies, audio — may display imperfectly or not at all on many e-readers. Nevertheless, I hope some of you will find them handy for reading in bed or taking to the beach without bullies kicking sand in your laptop. Richard and I couldn’t quite decide whether to include readers comments or not — they’re a huge and hugely appreciated part of the online experience, but arguably ruin the flow of the ebook versions — so we decided to let you decide, by offering versions both with and without them. You can also choose between Kindle and epub versions, whichever suits your device or software. More ebooks will be appearing as I finish writing about each historical year. I just have a few articles to go to finish up 1987, so you can expect that volume to be joining the others quite soon.
Thanks for being such amazing readers! Your support means the world to me. If you are a regular reader who’s made this blog a part of your weekly routine and you haven’t yet pitched in, please do think about starting the new year with a Patreon pledge or a one-time PayPal donation — assuming, of course, that your personal circumstances permit. For the price of a good cup of coffee each month you can support this ongoing serious, nuanced examination of the history of gaming, and contribute to my own slow crawl toward earning a living wage from what’s long since become as time-consuming as any other full-time job.
To the 160 of you (as of this writing) who have signed up through Patreon and the many others who have donated through PayPal:an extra special thank you! It warms my writerly heart to know that so many of you like what I do enough to voluntarily pay for it. I’ll continue to strive to be worthy of your support.
I wish you all a great Christmas or winter holiday of your choice, and a happy New Year to boot. And I’ll see you all again in a couple of days, with a proper article this time.
Wojtek
December 23, 2015 at 6:55 pm
Thanks Jimmy,
Just found out about your site from http://www.vintageisthenewold.com. Very informative and well written at the same time. With these epubs you must have read my mind (just tried to make them out of two recently published Dungeon Master articles.
Happy Christmas and best luck on keeping it up next year :).
Guillermo Crespi
December 24, 2015 at 1:37 am
I believe this is as good time as ever to finally take a couple of minutes and send you some words of mine after enjoying yours for so many months now. My name is Guillermo, I live in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I’m a screenwriter and I work in a local game development company called HeavyBoat.
I also teach screenwriting at some Film Schools/Universities, and the last couple of years I’ve been able to put together a couple of brief seminars on videogame writing there too. I came across your webpage only recently, considering how long you’ve been writing. To say your work has been invaluable in my own research into the subject would be an understatement, particularly as you’ve covered many genres that as a writer you can imagine I’m particularly fond of (I’ve myself also written an IF I hope I finish translating into english in a couple of months!).
I’ve practically devoured every article you’ve posted, and now that I finally have some free time on my hands (and that our local economy is going through a “calm before the storm” period) I promise to look into the whole Patreon/PayPal thing so that I can throw in a little long-overdue help of my own.
I’d love to do for videogame history in spanish what you’ve done in english, for many more people to enjoy. Time will tell. For the moment, my most sincere appreciation, a huge thank you for your continuous effort, and I hope you have a merry christmas and a happy new year.
Nico
December 24, 2015 at 6:59 am
Ah, that’ll save me having to save each individual article into Pocket to read it on my Kobo!
Thanks, and Merry Christmas!
Rubes
December 24, 2015 at 4:13 pm
Great idea, looking forward to it. And keep doing what you do, it’s unique, important, and excellent.
G Grobbelaar
December 27, 2015 at 12:41 pm
Me again! Thanx a million for these ebooks! I am getting them as I type this! I just want to say as well that as you are aware of my circumstances, as much as I want to, but can’t send you anything on either those ways, I want to at least give you something. So here it goes: for all the times that the hours in the graveyard shifts and other times as well, those hours are yours by the grace of all that still good and right and sacred as no one can take them away, NOT only for me but others as well! The fact that those times are spend reading and so see the fruit of YOUR hard work is more valuable than any riches in the world! It comes down to this: By Your Words You are Now immortal! Far in the future people will be able to read this and You will still be in the minds of those people! You have done what few people can say they have done! So Thank You!