As some of you might know Bitmap Books have a new book on the way dedicated to exploring Japanese RPGs. Apparently they have received early preview copies, so it shouldn't be long. I will definitely be getting a copy as soon as stock arrives.

A lot of their existing books have been out of stock for quite some time thanks to recent lockdowns making people gain interest and start buying more. But last week they finally got their first new stock of reprint runs in. So I grabbed a couple of the books I've wanted for some time.

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The first is Point and Click Adventures. This is an amazing book. So much love and care has been put into creating this. Loads of interviews with developers, plus exploring the best of them over the years. Well worth buying for all Adventure fans.

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The second book is an officially licensed history of the SNK Neogeo system.

Being Japanese only, like many, I never owned any of the NeoGeo systems. I've always been fascinated with them because unlike other consoles they designed them to run perfect arcade versions of their games. I know it's possible to buy them via imports and within the retro community, but they are very expensive (one of the reasons it was actually seen as a failed system) and the games are hard to obtain. So I've only ever played a few originals in the arcades, and those that were later ported to the Dreamcast, PSX and PC. And others via emulation.

This book is really nice. It goes into great detail. Showing the system's development. Concent development. Interviews with lots of developers. There are whole sections dedicated to screenshots, box art, posters, magazines. This is a really nice book. Very high quality.

There are still a few of Bitmap books I want to buy, but they are currently unavailable. I'm closing in on nearly having the whole set. All brilliant and lovingly crafted.
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