fcgamer | 4,965 Posted April 13, 2022 Share Posted April 13, 2022 (edited) Guys, the first volume of Family Bits is now available for sale. The games covered in this volume are from Taiwanense companies, such as Sachen, Bit Corp (known in the Atari days), Idea-Tek (made stuff for AVE in the States), etc. @OptOutdid the foreword.  https://www.amazon.com/Family-Bits-1-Dave-Allwein/dp/B09X5QWB74/ family bits volume 1 is on sale this weekend! Edited May 21, 2022 by fcgamer 1 1 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DefaultGen | 5,714 Posted April 13, 2022 Share Posted April 13, 2022 Oh shit 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkchylde28 | 1,546 Posted April 13, 2022 Share Posted April 13, 2022 Congrats on getting it done and out the door! GLWS! Hopefully someone I know will pick this (and subsequent volumes) up and loan it to me to read, as $69 for one volume and (I believe) an expected additional 5-6 volumes puts this straight out for me, unless a softcover or digital version shows up for significantly less down the road. (Not meant as a dig or complaint, just an up front explanation regarding why I've shown enthusiasm for this project in other threads but haven't and won't be picking up a copy for the foreseeable future.) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fcgamer | 4,965 Posted April 13, 2022 Author Share Posted April 13, 2022 5 minutes ago, darkchylde28 said: Congrats on getting it done and out the door! GLWS! Hopefully someone I know will pick this (and subsequent volumes) up and loan it to me to read, as $69 for one volume and (I believe) an expected additional 5-6 volumes puts this straight out for me, unless a softcover or digital version shows up for significantly less down the road. (Not meant as a dig or complaint, just an up front explanation regarding why I've shown enthusiasm for this project in other threads but haven't and won't be picking up a copy for the foreseeable future.) Thanks for the kind words! Definitely no worries about the cost issue, different volumes will have different (hopefully cheaper) prices, Amazon really does f*** you when it comes to taking their share / printing costs. That's why I'm trying to look into a direct sales option for Americans, but as I'm in Taiwan it makes it hard for me to know how accurate the shipping rates are on the USPS website (my family would be handling the shipping from Pennsylvania to wherever). Softcover, I'm working on that too, though I think for digital, it would be a huge mess. I need to look into that more, though if there's enough interest, I'd consider. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkchylde28 | 1,546 Posted April 13, 2022 Share Posted April 13, 2022 20 minutes ago, fcgamer said: Softcover, I'm working on that too, though I think for digital, it would be a huge mess. I need to look into that more, though if there's enough interest, I'd consider. Just a heads up, for digital, unless you specifically did all of your editing, arranging, etc. on Amazon's site versus offline then doing minor tweaks on their site, 99% of your digital prep is already done. And actually, if you sold it through Amazon, it's already 100% done IIRC, as they can just flip the "print this as-is" data they already have into their ebook container file format and have it ready to go for Kindle pretty much immediately.  Basically once it's set up right once to look correct on a printed page, it's just a matter of sending the finished product through pre-existing software to port it to various formats. The consumer level stuff is incredibly versatile and easy to use, so the stuff being used to do the same job on a professional level is guaranteed to be better, and anyone telling you that digital stuff has to be "totally re-done" after you've gotten something formatted to print properly is basically lying, as once it's input digitally, it's just a few button presses and moments to reformat it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OptOut | 8,951 Posted April 13, 2022 Share Posted April 13, 2022 Congrats dude, I can't wait to get hold of the finished product! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fcgamer | 4,965 Posted April 13, 2022 Author Share Posted April 13, 2022 40 minutes ago, darkchylde28 said: Just a heads up, for digital, unless you specifically did all of your editing, arranging, etc. on Amazon's site versus offline then doing minor tweaks on their site, 99% of your digital prep is already done. And actually, if you sold it through Amazon, it's already 100% done IIRC, as they can just flip the "print this as-is" data they already have into their ebook container file format and have it ready to go for Kindle pretty much immediately.  Basically once it's set up right once to look correct on a printed page, it's just a matter of sending the finished product through pre-existing software to port it to various formats. The consumer level stuff is incredibly versatile and easy to use, so the stuff being used to do the same job on a professional level is guaranteed to be better, and anyone telling you that digital stuff has to be "totally re-done" after you've gotten something formatted to print properly is basically lying, as once it's input digitally, it's just a few button presses and moments to reformat it. I'm not 100% sure about this though. I have a manuscript for a friend's book, and when it digitalises for eBook, it looks horrible. But if what you're saying is correct (I hope it is), then yeah I'd offer digitalised versions at some point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mega Tank | 1,090 Posted April 13, 2022 Share Posted April 13, 2022 Why don't you print the text, throw one of those heavy duty clips and call it the unlicensed version. *BOOM. Money. 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkchylde28 | 1,546 Posted April 13, 2022 Share Posted April 13, 2022 1 minute ago, fcgamer said: I'm not 100% sure about this though. I have a manuscript for a friend's book, and when it digitalises for eBook, it looks horrible. But if what you're saying is correct (I hope it is), then yeah I'd offer digitalised versions at some point. When what digitizes it? With anything, not all software should be considered equal. With that being said, if you haven't already, take whatever format you've got locally and feed it into the eBook management/conversion program Calibre and see what it looks like. Unless you've deliberately put a bunch of spaces and tabs and such in place to move stuff around on the page (or your own chapter names at top/page numbers at bottom, for example), converting from one digital format to another should be relatively seamless, with minimal tweaking needing to be done (save for the cases where a word gets split at the end of a line or page, for example). If all the formatting is normal, such conversion will even be simple when converting from one viewable size (hardback book / full size iPad) to another (paperback book / standard Kindle), as the same tech that does word wrapping in stuff like Notepad on your PC does the exact same thing when converting eBook texts. Basically the only time I ever had any issues with converting stuff for use on an eBook was when I scanned my own stuff and had to go through and remove stuff like I mentioned above (titles at the top of each page, page numbers at the bottom, etc.). The rest of the formatting was picked up by OCR and already done by whoever had formatted the thing for print to begin with. Since virtually all things going to print these days are being passed to the printers digitally, there's very little need for additional/re-formatting to get a purely digital copy suitable for modern e-readers, at least if you're making it consumer friendly anyway (each page consisting of actual text versus each page being a static image where text can't be highlighted, copied, bookmarked, etc.). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strange | 1,727 Posted April 14, 2022 Share Posted April 14, 2022 Congrats! Looking forward to grabbing a copy. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePhleo | 2,256 Posted April 14, 2022 Share Posted April 14, 2022 Congrats on the launch! I remember sending you the template so long ago! Just bought one on Amazon. Can’t wait for the rest of them to come out! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank | 5 Posted April 17, 2022 Share Posted April 17, 2022 Congrats on launching your book! That's a really impressive feat! If you work out how you're planning to do direct sales, I would be interested in adding this to accompany my NES Oddities book! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fcgamer | 4,965 Posted April 25, 2022 Author Share Posted April 25, 2022 On 4/14/2022 at 8:58 AM, ThePhleo said: Congrats on the launch! I remember sending you the template so long ago! Just bought one on Amazon. Can’t wait for the rest of them to come out! Thanks so much @ThePhleo ! I remember that too, man those were days.  Already started obsessing over the next one, uh oh!  No break or rest for fcgamer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fcgamer | 4,965 Posted April 25, 2022 Author Share Posted April 25, 2022 On 4/17/2022 at 11:17 PM, Frank said: Congrats on launching your book! That's a really impressive feat! If you work out how you're planning to do direct sales, I would be interested in adding this to accompany my NES Oddities book! Thanks Frank, those kind words mean a lot to me! I'll definitely let you know once I get the direct sales bit ironed out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fcgamer | 4,965 Posted April 25, 2022 Author Share Posted April 25, 2022 On 4/14/2022 at 8:10 AM, Strange said: Congrats! Looking forward to grabbing a copy. Awesome, thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drxandy | 3,277 Posted April 25, 2022 Share Posted April 25, 2022 Nice on getting it out!! Congrats doood! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePhleo | 2,256 Posted April 30, 2022 Share Posted April 30, 2022 Just got my copy in. Thanks again Dave 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fcgamer | 4,965 Posted May 7, 2022 Author Share Posted May 7, 2022 On 5/1/2022 at 7:00 AM, ThePhleo said: Just got my copy in. Thanks again Dave No no, thank you Jose for the initial design, the purchase, but even more important than that, the inspiration... God bless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fcgamer | 4,965 Posted May 7, 2022 Author Share Posted May 7, 2022 Also, @ThePhleo and @DefaultGen - Thanks so much for the support, and also for the amazing reviews on Amazon. Not to sound corny, but my mom has been watching that page like a hawk, even more than me, and she is just stunned... for my folks the insane purchases and money spent has been a waste, they don't get it, generation gap - but they're shocked now to see this sort of reception. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fcgamer | 4,965 Posted May 9, 2022 Author Share Posted May 9, 2022 Bump! Also have tons more goodies up for grabs here: https://www.instagram.com/tvgamefoundationformosa/ Just message me what you like and we'll work something out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deadeye | 1,601 Homebrew Team · Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 Super Jeff in vol. 2?? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fcgamer | 4,965 Posted May 9, 2022 Author Share Posted May 9, 2022 2 hours ago, Deadeye said: Super Jeff in vol. 2?? Not volume 2, but it is going to be in the same volume as the spiders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fcgamer | 4,965 Posted May 21, 2022 Author Share Posted May 21, 2022 Bump! Price lowered for the weekend only! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloves | 12,231 Administrator · Posted May 21, 2022 Share Posted May 21, 2022 I prefer the original $69 price tag. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fcgamer | 4,965 Posted May 21, 2022 Author Share Posted May 21, 2022 1 hour ago, Gloves said: I prefer the original $69 price tag. Trust me, both my bank account and my sex drive do too  Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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