Tag: Boss Fight Books

David Craddock Will Explore the Many Ports of Doom for Boss Fight Books in “But Does It Run Doom?”

John Carmack, John Romero, Tom Hall, Adrian Carmack, and Sandy Petersen changed everything when they released Doom in 1993. It wasn’t the first first person shooter (nor was id Software’s earlier game, Wolfenstein 3D), but it defined what the genre would look like for years to come and led to a stampede of “Doom Clones” that continue to be produced to this very day.

Even after writing all that out, it’s still hard to believe… Doom is 30 years old.

David Craddock, the author behind Stairway to Badass: The Making and Remaking of Doom 2016 and Rocket Jump: Quake and the Golden Age of First-Person Shooters, recently moderated a discussion between Romero and Carmack that has been embedded above. The two developers touched on a lot of interesting topics as part of the anniversary celebration, and at the end, Craddock revealed that he’s cooking up another Doom-adjacent project for release in the not-too-distant future.

The author will work with Boss Fight Books to publish But Does It Run Doom?, an exploration of the many ports (both official and unofficial) that have been based on the seminal shooter. Here’s what he had to say about the new book, including a promise that it’ll also delve into some of the very weird machines Doom has appeared on…

These guys have graciously allowed me to insert a quick plug for a project I have coming out and it’s in the vein of what we’ve been talking about.

I’m partnering with Boss Fight Books to release a book called But Does It Run Doom? I’ll be writing about some of the conventional ports such as the Super Nintendo [and] PlayStation, but also some of the more out-of-leftfield ports such as on pregnancy tests, on the sheep in Minecraft…

So look for that on @BossFightBooks on Twitter [and] BossFightBooks.com. [They’ll] have information coming out.

This is somewhat of a departure for Book Fight Books, but hopefully that means they’ll have more to say about But Does It Run Doom? soon.

Boss Fight Books: Season 6 Will Include “PaRappa the Rapper,” “Animal Crossing,” “Minesweeper,” and “Day of the Tentacle”

The team at Boss Fight Books has returned from a short hiatus with the sixth season of their documentary-style books about classic video games. The season’s theme is “Here to Play,” and publisher Gabe Durham has promised that this set of titles will explore the “fun, playful, and goofy” side of video games.

Boss Fight Books: Season 6 is currently seeking funding through Kickstarter (until Tuesday, March 7), and it’ll include PaRappa the Rapper by Mike Sholars, Animal Crossing by Kelsey Lewin, Minesweeper by Kyle Orland and Day of the Tentacle by Bob Mackey. All of these authors will be making their Boss Fight Books debut during this season, but each one is also a crafty veteran of the game history game.

Mike Sholars has previously worked as an editor for Boss Fight Books. PaRappa the Rapper will be available as an ebook in April 2023 with the paperback scheduled to follow a few months later.

Kyle Orland has served as the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica since 2012. Minesweeper will plant a flag in your ebook library in May 2023 before the paperback is released this Summer.

Bob Mackey is a co-founder, co-host, and podcast producer for the Retronauts network. Day of the Tentacle will invade bookstores as an ebook in August 2023 and in paperback a month later.

And Kelsey Lewin is the Co-Director of the Video Game History Foundation and co-host of the Video Game History Hour podcast. Animal Crossing will close out Season 6 as an ebook in November 2023 and in paperback a month later.

You can learn more about all four books after the break. And be sure to read a trio of excerpts from Minesweeper at Ars Technica, Kotaku, and GamesIndustry.biz.

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Boss Fight Books Will Publish “GoldenEye 007” as a Paperback and Expanded Hardcover in 2022

Boss Fight Books will return.

The publisher isn’t quite ready to unveil the titles from the sixth season of their long-running series, but we did recently get our first look at an upcoming one-off… GoldenEye 007 by Alyse Knorr.

Boss Fight Books is currently seeking funding for GoldenEye 007 through Kickstarter, though they’ve already surpassed their initial goal at the time of this writing. Similar in structure to the books for NBA Jam and Shovel Knight before it, this entry in the series will explore the full scope of GoldenEye 007‘s creation through extensive interviews with the development team at Rare, as well as additional commentary from experts and fans:

Bond—James Bond. In the 80s and 90s, the debonair superspy’s games failed to live up to the giddy thrills of his films. That all changed when British studio Rare unleashed GoldenEye 007 in 1997. In basements and college dorms across the world, friends bumped shoulders while shooting, knifing, exploding, and slapping each other’s digital faces in the Nintendo 64 game that would redefine the modern first-person shooter genre and become the most badass party game of its generation.

But GoldenEye’s success was far from a sure thing. For years of development, GoldenEye’s team of rookie developers were shooting in the dark with no sense of what the N64 or its controller would be like, and the game’s relentless violence horrified higher-ups at squeaky clean Nintendo. As development lagged far behind the debut of the tie-in film GoldenEye, the game nearly came out an entire Bond movie too late.

Through extensive interviews with GoldenEye’s creators, writer and scholar Alyse Knorr traces the story of how this unlikely licensed game reinvigorated a franchise and a genre. Learn all the stories behind how this iconic title was developed, and why GoldenEye 007 has continued to kick the living daylights out of every other Bond game since.

In a first for the publisher, GoldenEye 007 will be released as an ebook, a paperback, and a deluxe hardcover. The deluxe hardcover will include a redesigned cover, an extra chapter about the game’s sound effects and music, and additional pages dedicated to design documents and photos from the developers.

The ebook edition of GoldenEye 007 will be available in July 2022, shortly after the conclusion of the Kickstarter campaign. Paperback copies will follow in September and the deluxe hardcover edition will arrive in December.

UPDATE (7/7/22): Ars Technica has published an excerpt from GoldenEye 007 that focuses on the game design philosophy of the development team and the unlikely inspiration for the objective-based missions.

“Nightmare Mode” Anthology is Now Available from Boss Fight Books

Promising “a fresh angle on a familiar topic,” Boss Fight Books is back with Nightmare Mode, a new ebook-exclusive anthology.

Now available to download through their official website, the collection features essays and interviews from previous Boss Fight authors David L. Craddock, Alexa Ray Corriea, Alyse Knorr, Alex Kane, Salvatore Pane, Philip J Reed, Gabe Durham, Jon Irwin, Chris Kohler, and Michael P. Williams:

  • David L. Craddock on how Shovel Knight‘s developers collaborated with speedrunners
  • Alexa Ray Corriea on the characters and themes in Kingdom Hearts III
  • Alyse Knorr on how Princess Peach’s story draws on 2000 years of women in peril
  • Alex Kane interviews the man behind Star Wars Battlefront II‘s use of motion capture technology
  • Salvatore Pane on the fan projects that have kept the Mega Man series alive
  • Philip J Reed interviews S.D. Perry about her beloved Resident Evil novels
  • Gabe Durham on how Zelda‘s fandom influenced the official Zelda timeline
  • Jon Irwin savors the anticipation of waiting for a new Mario game
  • Chris Kohler interviews Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu about his legendary soundtracks
  • Michael P. Williams on how Chrono Trigger fits into the Japanese tradition of retrofuturism

Nightmare Mode is Boss Fight’s second digital anthology, carrying on the tradition started by Continue? The Boss Fight Books Anthology, which was originally published in 2015.

Explore the Music of “Final Fantasy VI” in Boss Fight Books #28

Boss Fight Books is closing the door on their fifth “Season” of titles with today’s release of Final Fantasy VI from Sebastian Deken.

With its novel fusion of magic and technology, Square’s Final Fantasy VI (which was originally released in the US in 1994 as Final Fantasy III) helped usher in a new era for the RPG genre and turned Terra, Locke, and Kefka into household names. The epic grandeur of the story was further enhanced by the rousing character themes and operatic flourishes found in Nobuo Uematsu’s score.

Deken, who is also a musician by trade, looked at how the RPG’s world intertwined with its soundtrack, as well as how Uematsu inspired other game composers to dream a bit bigger:

Terra the magical half-human. Shadow the mysterious assassin. Celes the tough, tender general. Kefka the fool who would be god. Each of the many unforgettable characters in Final Fantasy VI has made a huge impression on a generation of players, but why do we feel such affection for these 16-bit heroes and villains as so many others fade? The credit goes to the game’s score, composed by the legendary Nobuo Uematsu.

Armed with newly translated interviews and an expert ear for sound, writer and musician Sebastian Deken conducts a critical analysis of the musical structures of FF6, the game that pushed the Super Nintendo’s sound capabilities to their absolute limits and launched Uematsu’s reputation as the “Beethoven of video game music.”

Deken ventures deep into the game’s lush soundscape—from its expertly crafted leitmotifs to its unforgettable opera sequence—exploring the soundtrack’s lasting influence and how it helped clear space for game music on classical stages around the world.

Final Fantasy VI is now available in print and as an ebook through your favorite online bookseller.

27th Release from Boss Fight Books, “Silent Hill 2,” Emerges from the Fog

Konami’s Silent Hill launched for the PlayStation in 1999 as a moodier alternative to Capcom’s Resident Evil. Created by a team of outcasts within the company known as Team Silent, the game’s potent mix of otherworldly visuals and atmospheric audio rewrote all the rules of the burgeoning “survival horror” genre.

And just two years later, the team did it again on the PS2 with a sequel.

Comedian Mike Drucker (who has credits on Full Frontal With Samantha Bee, Bill Nye Saves the World, and Adam Ruins Everything) might seem like an odd choice to explore the foggy corners of the titular town for Boss Fight Books, but that’s exactly who the publishing label turned to for their 27th book, Silent Hill 2:

A troubled man travels to a mysterious town from his past after receiving a letter from his wife… who’s been dead for years. And while our “hero” explores dark corridors and battles countless disturbing enemies, his journey offers more psychological horror than survival horror. Welcome to Silent Hill, where the monster is you.

Silent Hill 2 doubles down on what made the first game so compelling: The feeling of being lost in a foggy, upside-down town as unsettling as it is familiar. Nearly two decades after first experiencing Silent Hill 2, writer and comedian Mike Drucker returns to its dark depths to explore how this bold video game delivers an experience that is tense, nightmarish, and anything but fun.

With an in-depth and highly personal study of its tragic cast of characters, and a critical examination of developer Konami’s world design and uneven marketing strategy, Drucker examines how Silent Hill 2 forces its players to grapple with the fact that very real-world terrors of trauma, abuse, shame, and guilt are far more threatening than any pyramid-headed monster could ever be.

Silent Hill 2 is now available to purchase directly from Boss Fight Books, as well as through other online retailers.

Reyan Ali’s “NBA Jam” to Become a Feature-Length Documentary

Variety is reporting that Reyan Ali’s NBA Jam, a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of one of the greatest sports games of all time, will soon be adapted into a feature-length documentary.

BestCrosses Studios will produce the film alongside veteran documentarian Sean Menard, who previously directed 2016’s Fight Mom and 2017’s The Carter Effect.

As part of the announcement, Menard shared a few words about what NBA Jam meant to him as a basketball fan back in the early 90s:

“When ‘NBA Jam’ hit the arcade, I was barely tall enough to reach the joystick and view the screen at the same time,” says Menard. “But while literally standing on my toes, I was completely immersed in a game that allowed me the creative freedom to perform out-of-this world feats of athleticism. This was during a tipping point for the NBA as the league was bursting with excitement and culture that was appealing to a younger fan base.

“Our film is more than just an original story about the most successful sports game of all time. There are various sub-plots that detail how gaming was transitioning from arcades to home entertainment and how it would eventually lead to the demise of Midway,” adds Menard.

Reyan Ali’s NBA Jam was originally published by Boss Fight Books in 2019 and features interviews with many of the game’s developers (including Mark Turmell and Sal DiVita), announcer Tim Kitzrow, and NBA greats such as Shaquille O’Neal. In a perfect world, all of these larger-than-life personalities should get a call to appear in the documentary.

It’s unknown when (or where) we’ll be able to see the film, but I know my anticipation for its debut is certainly heating up.

Boss Fight Books Will Republish “Pilgrim in the Microworld” in 2020

David Sudnow’s Pilgrim in the Microworld sought to examine the inner workings of Atari’s Breakout (and the people who obsessively played it) when it was first published in 1983. Out of print for decades, Sudnow’s quest to unlock “the essence of video skill” will finally be republished in 2020 by Boss Fight Books.

The indie publisher has turned to Kickstarter to help fund this new printing of Pilgrim in the Microworld (now titled Breakout: Pilgrim in the Microworld), and they’ve already smashed their campaign goal, receiving pledges from more than 150 backers as of this writing:

Originally released under the title Pilgrim in the Microworld, Sudnow’s groundbreaking longform criticism of a single game predates the rise of game studies by decades. While its earliest critics often scorned the idea of a serious book about an object of play, the book’s modern readers remain fascinated by an obsessive, brilliant, and often hilarious quest to learn to play Breakout just as one would learn the piano.

Featuring a new foreword and freshly edited text, Breakout makes a perfect addition to Boss Fight’s lineup of critical, historical, and personal looks at single video games. We’re proud to restore this classic to print and share with new audiences Sudnow’s wild pilgrimage into the limitless microworld of play.

Pilgrim in the Microworld was one of the first books to focus on a single game, and it’ll be released in a “sleek new paperback” edition and as a DRM-free ebook in January 2020.