Another Day, Another Book...

While trawling the interwebs the other week I stumbled across this:

It's a lovely wee book written by co-founder of Nufekop Scott Elder that tells the story of the company from it's inception in the brothers' bedroom until their unfortunate demise in '84.

In case you don't know Nufekop were there at the very beginning of the VIC's life and produced some great games for it.  These include Anti-Matter Splatter, The Catch, Dodgecars, Alien Panic and loads of other titles.  Most of these were released here in the UK and mainland Europe under the Bubble Bus or Rabbit label.

The book is quite short at 90 pages but it's full of anecdotes and heretofore (love that word!) unseen photos and pictures.  It's a great read and really shows just how innocent the beginning of the home computer gaming industry was.

Here's the link to Scott's site:  Nufekop

Follow Up On Home Computer Wars

After posting the other day about Michael Tomczyk's book I decided to make contact with him and ask about any future plans regarding his book publishing.  He kindly replied and informed me that he's finishing up his new book "Nanoinnovation: What Every Manager Needs to Know" and should be available this summer. Here's a link to his site:

http://www.michaeltomczyk.com/

What's this got to do with The Home Computer Wars?  Well, he also mentioned that he was hoping to have an ebook version ready by the Autumn!  Good news, eh?  I do hope this comes to fruition. :)

The Home Computer Wars (Book)

Michael Tomczyk was instrumental in creating the public image of the Vic and helped to create the initial batch of first party software and literature...  He even came up with the Vic 20 name.

Another particularly interesting fact is that he was close with Commodore boss Jack Tramiel.  He even wrote a book about it.  This book (sadly, long out of print) is certainly an interesting read.  It's not your run of the mill biography.  It's written in a playful and sometimes whimsical maner.  It's a personal account of the early days of what Tomczyk calls the Home Computer Wars.  And war it was!

The 1980s

The book describes the way Commodore and Jack worked and captures the atmosphere of the times well giong into some detail about the birth of the Vic 20 (and other machines) and the though processes of those involved.  It spans the US, Europe and Japan - truly for the masses not just the classes!

  I have read the book twice and I'm now reading it a third time and I'm enjoying it now as much as I did the first time through.  It certainly makes a change to reading all the revisionist Apple fanboy guff out there!

Though out of print for years there are a couple of PDF version floating around the interwebs.  As for an official (read: legal) version Michael Tomczyk mentioned in passing in a recent in Scene World interview that he's at least thought about doing an ebook version.  Here's hoping... :)

Scene World Interview