We've made no secret here about the book that Matt Barton and I are presently working on for Focal Press (Elsevier) on some of the most greatest and most influential (that's key) videogames of all time regardless of platform. It also explains why things have been a bit quiet around here from our end. We'd like to change that though and kind of give everyone at least a partial glance into the trials and tribulations of the process and perhaps even get some much needed help with certain parts. Hopefully it will be interesting for you and ultimately helpful for us, making a better book.

First off, let me start out by saying that if anyone has any questions about anything, just ask, and, if possible, we'll definitely answer whatever we can. With that all said, I'll just start things off by saying that the chapters on Dune II and Dance Dance Revolution are in the hands of our new tech reviewer, and I'm presently trying to finish up the chapter on Defender. Matt just finished off his part on Final Fantasy VII, and I just need to do my work on it and convert it to publisher's Word template before getting it off to the tech reviewer. Matt is now diving into the Pac-Man chapter.

By the way, Matt and I are doing our initial work in Google Docs, which is an easy way for us to collaborate from anywhere. Once the text is reasonably settled, meaning both Matt and I have done what we wanted to it, I convert it to the publisher's Word template. After that happens it goes over to the tech reviewer, who provides her comments/corrections, then we fix whatever we deem necessary. Matt and I then work on the images, I insert the captions and image references into the document, then zip the Word document together with a folder containing all the images (this usually works out to a 30 - 60MB file). I then pass that on to the publisher. Easy, right? ;-)

Finally, as part of the contract with Focal, we'll need to make a portion of Armchair Arcade dedicated to the book. That should be a lot of fun, as there will be lots of bonus content that simply wouldn't be able to make it in book form. I'd like to see Matt's first book get a similar treatment, right around the same time!