Zzap! 64 Annual 2021 gets a kickstarter, pledges are soaring!

It wasn't long ago now that we were banging on about Zzap! 64 Annual 2020 ; a glorious book of goodness from Chris Wilkins as a revival of the classic Zzap magazine, wrapped up in the guise of an awesome looking hardback. Well it looks as if the C64 is about to get in on the action once again, as Chris Wilkins has launched the official Kickstarter for the ZZap! 64 Annual 2021; a Kickstarter which is already at the half way point and pledges are still soaring.

Crash Annual 2021 - Issue 101 - The latest upcoming Crash Annual smashes Kickstarter goal

Chris Wilkins has certainly been busy throughout the lifetime of Indie Retro News, launching successful Kickstarters such as The Story of the Commodore 64 in Pixels, The Story of the Oliver Twins, The Story of the ZX Spectrum in Pixels and of course multiple annuals having a pride of place on a shelf of a fellow retro gamer. But now unlike the previous write ups we've done giving you an early heads up, this time we are pleased to announce that the upcoming Crash Annual 2021 - Issue 101, has smashed its Kickstarter goal reaching an incredible £30,167 and still over 20 days to go!

Jetman - The complete published works all in one book!

When you hear the name Chris Wilkins of Fusion Retro Books, you can't help but think of great reading material such as The story of the Oliver Twins, The story of the Commodore 64 in pixels, Fusion, ZZap! and even the Great Crash Annual to name but many he's pushed through a successful Kickstarter. But now yet again he's hoping for another golden success, as through an early update in our msg box, he has told us a Kickstarter has been launched for the Jetman - The complete published works all in one book!

Florin's ZX Spectrum Haul of Games - book by Paul Davies

Hey! That guy looks kind of familiar.

It's time for another book review and as like my last book review, it's by a guy I know pretty well. It's me, in case you haven't guessed. Yes, nothing like shameless self promotion (hey, something has got to pay for the amount of coffee I consume) but where's the harm in that? It's not like I'm going to demand you go buy it (please?) but just more of a nod to let you know that just like the Predator, it's out there waiting for you and it ain't no man.....it's a book.

Better Late Than Never - Andy Green Pixel Art Book gets a BIG Florinthedwarf review!

Better late than never? Sounds like my train company's slogan.

It's finally here! Yes, Andy Green (or Sir Andy Green I like to call him - shoe size unknown) has at last put a collection of his amazing pixel art together in book form for us all to enjoy. No more having to log on to Facebook to see it, now it can sit handsomely on your bookshelf waiting for you to take out and browse at your leisure. My first impression - don't drop it on your foot. Ha, I joke of course. It's a bit of a whopper indeed, but it's what's needed to fully appreciate to grand-ness of the project. To really appreciate the detail that's gone into each image, you really do need to have a substantial size which really helps to blow you away with its majesty. Coming in at almost 140 pages, this will keep you enthralled until the last page.

The Atari ST and The Creative People Vol. 3 - The third in the Atari ST book trilogy gets a crowd funding campaign

Great news Atari ST owners as if you've been backing Marco A. Breddin's 'The Atari ST and The Creative People' book crowd funding campaigns and had already received them, you'll be pleased to know he has launched a new campaign for the third in the trilogy as The Atari ST and The Creative People Vol. 3. This book series exposes the Atari Corporation, surpasses the marketing of Atari Computers and explores the contemporary life of a demo scene, whose creative people were on a rollercoaster ride to the blooming digital entertainment industry.

8-Bit on a Budget - A book of the best budget games of the 80's needs funding

We've had countless books and magazines showing a resurgence of retro gaming and the love of all that we grew up on. But it now looks as if another book is to take center stage, as this one isn't just created by Kieren Hawken but other contributors will be involved such as our good friend Nostalgia Nerd who does some rather fine retro gaming videos. Titled as '8-Bit on a Budget ' this book that is aiming for funding, will be a fun and fascinating look back at the best 8-bit budget games of the eighties across multiple systems.

Commodore: The Final Years - Last call for Kickstarter trilogy

There's only a few days left to back the final part of Brian Bagnall's trilogy of books covering the rise and fall of Commodore with Commodore: The Final years. CBM was riding high with the success of the Amiga yet in just a few years they went from top dog to bankrupt, and this book aims to chart the events that brought the company down.

The Art of Point + Click Adventure Games - Bitmap Books fabulous retro book of adventuring

Through all these years I've always been a fan of the point and click adventure genre, from games such as Beneath of Steel Sky on the Amiga, the famous game Legend of Kyriandia, to the rather charming fantasy games of Discworld or even Simon the Sorcerer. Each one full of characters to talk to, lovely pixelated graphics, an engrossing story and the ever present need to find that next item that may or may not blend in with each together just to progress past the next screen! It is one of my famous genres and to boost it to the next level Bitmap Books have announced The Art of Point + Click Adventure Games is now open for pre-orders; a visual celebration of Adventure Games

The CRPG Book Update 19 - 528 pages of classic RPG goodness including images!

Throughout my youth I've always been an RPG gamer, I used to love playing games such as Dungeon Master, Lands of Lore, Albion or even the later style of Fallout, Baldurs Gate and Dark Messiah. Especially when I get to read a grand story of the adventures ahead, while choosing my own legendary hero to battle demon like foes and the hunt for lost treasures. There's just so many RPG's I've played and enjoyed, that it's also why I'm mentioning this latest announcement of 'The CRPG Book', which has 528 pages of highly detailed write ups about the games, including a mass load of RPG images.

C64 GOTY - We take a look at the very best of this year's Commodore 64 productions

2017 is coming to an end, so we thought we’d roundup all the major Commodore 64 releases, and announce a few of our favourite releases from the year. 2016 had some great releases, like Tiger Claw (Lazy Cow & RGCD), Quod Init Exit IIm (Retream), Donkey Kong (Oxyron) and Frogger Arcade (Digital Monastery). But I think we can regard 2017 year as one of the very best for quality C64 releases. And we’ll also take a quick look at what we can expect to see coming in 2018 and also announce Indie Retro News’ C64 Game of the Year (GOTY).  We'll also pick our favourite C64 VLOG, C64 Book, C64 documentary and our favourite "Scene Release".

The Art of Point + Click Adventure Games - Bitmap Books announces the next fabulous retro book!

Through all these years I've always been a fan of the point and click adventure genre, from games such as Beneath of Steel Sky on the Amiga, the famous game Legend of Kyriandia, to the rather charming fantasy games of Discworld or even Simon the Sorcerer. Each one full of characters to talk to, lovely pixelated graphics, an engrossing story and the ever present need to find that next item that may or may not blend in with each together just to progress past the next screen! It is one of my famous genres and this month, Bitmap Books have announced The Art of Point + Click Adventure Games, a book which celebrates all of these amazing games and more!

The Atari ST and the Creative People Vol 1 - An awesome Atari ST book is now available

Way back in 2016 we mentioned a great Kickstarter that gave the Atari ST priority over other systems we have spoken about countless times before, such as the C64, Spectrum and even the Amiga. This Kickstarter was a crowd funding campaign for 'The Atari ST and the Creative People: Anthology'; A Marco A. Breddin book that according to the creator is a captivating Demoscene story of a European swarm intelligence, which fought against a truly limited 16-bit machine to create an exceptional style of digital art. Well you'll be pleased to know that Vol 1 is now available to buy and will be shipped within 5 - 10 days!

SNES/Super Famicom Visual Compendium Kickstarter launches

Bitmap books have just launched the kickstarter campaign for the 5th book in the brilliant Visual Compendium series. This time the focus is on the much loves SNES and Super Famicom. If there's a console system more loved than this I'd be astounded, and already, after only 4 days, the book is nearly 5x funded and half way towards the (current) top stretch goal of £200K!

Commodore : The Inside Story by David John Pleasance - A book Kickstarter you really should back!

Through all these later years and Kickstarter book campaigns and documentaries, you'd probably think there wasn't anything else to write about when it comes to that historic C64 and Amiga company 'Commodore'. But that is all about to change, as here we have a brand new Kickstarter campaign for the Commodore : The Inside Story book, which is actually being told by one of the Commodore legends 'David John Pleasance', who was a former UK Managing Director of that famous company!

Saboteur spawns sci-fi comedy ebook: The Kempston Interface

It’s an age-old question: where can I find retrogaming inspired fiction featuring a sentient ZX81 and a hi-vis ninja? Well, thankfully, a Sinclair reviewer of this parish Steve Trower, has provided the answer: in The Ambivalence Chronicles - a Sci-Fi Comedy in 8 Bits.

The Warlock of Firetop Mountain - Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson's book comes to life 22nd Feb! (iPhone/iPad)

When I was a lad during the 90's my teacher used to keep telling me off for bringing in books that needed a good dice roll to turn the page. It was as if I was playing a deeply involved RPG story but kept deep within the pages was filled with tales of monsters and other such menacing foes. It was none other than the books from Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, with one such book called 'The Warlock of Firetop Mountain' which this week has been announced is coming to iPhone and iPad 22nd Feb as a combat turn based RPG.

ZX Spectrum Games Code Club - Special Spanish Edition is coming!

In 2015 Florinthedwarf did a big review write up of Gary Plowman's fabulous coding book ' ZX Spectrum Games Code club ', which is a top quality guide in programming in BASIC on the ZX Spectrum, just as many people did way back in the 80's and still do today. In actual fact the book included twenty BASIC games for you to type-in and enjoy. After each program, the book explains in great detail, how each element of the game works and much more to make this a worthy purchase at least for people who understand the English language. So today I've just been told by Gary, he is going to be launching the ZX Spectrum Games Code Club - Special Spanish Edition!

The Ambivalence Chronicles: a Sci-Fi Comedy in 8 Bits

And now for something completely different: The Chip Whisperer - Bit#1 of The Ambivalence Chronicles - is a science fiction comedy story by IRN's occasional Sinclair reviewer, Steve Trower, released as a kindle ebook. The Ambivalence Chronicles: a Sci-Fi Comedy in 8 Bits, is the retrogaming inspired, time-travelling, dimension-jumping tale of an ordinary retro collector who sets out to buy a ZX81 on eBay, and instead finds himself mixed up in the shady shenanigans of the mysterious Assembly of Newly Uplifted Systems.

The story of the Commodore Amiga in pixels - Amiga book by Chris Wilkins smashes Kickstarter goal!

Although we did not mention this glorious Kickstarter when it was first announced, we are kinda glad we didn't. Because today, there is a far better announcement to be made, as Chris Wilkins latest book, 'The story of the Commodore Amiga in pixels' has smashed its Kickstarter goal raising £28,958 pledged of a £25,000 goal so far, which puts it at the fastest retro book raising crowd funding campaign we've seen. To be honest this comes as no surprise as not only does it look like one of his best books, but its also by the same person who did ' The Little Book of ZX Spectrum Games ', 'The story of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum in pixels ' Vol 1 - 3, ' The story of the Commodore 64 in pixels ' , 'The story of the Oliver Twins' , ' History of Ocean Software ' and ' The Story of U.S Gold'!