Supercade: 1985-2001

Fans of video game art books may well be aware of the name Supercade; written by Van Burnham (Wired, Electronic Gaming Monthly, Official US PlayStation Magazine, Retro Gamer), the first volume charted the period between 1971-1984, when arcade gaming drove video games into popular culture. Packed with written history, full-colour images, promotional material and much more, Supercade was named one of the Top Ten Books of 2001 by LA Weekly and was also nominated for an IPPY Award.

After almost two decades, Burnham is back with a second volume, covering the period between 1985 and 2001. The book will document the rise of consoles and the ascension of Nintendo via its NES, and will take the reader up to the turn of the millennium with the arrival of the Xbox and the exit of Sega from the hardware arena.

An impressive list of contributors has been confirmed for the book, including Art of Atari author Tim Lapetino, Edge magazine contributing editor Chris Schilling, Kotaku co-founder Brian Crecente, author and game designer Ian Bogost, journalist Chris Kohler and developer Mike Mika. Developers such as Tim Schafer, Tomonobu Itagaki, Eugene Jarvis, Masaya Matsuura, John Romero and Warren Spector have also agreed to make smaller contributions to the publication.

Sadly, despite negotiating with publishers, Burnham was unable to come to an agreement and is therefore publishing the book herself – and she's using Kickstarter to make it a reality. The good news is that with 9 days remaining, the book has already smashed its initial goal of $34,000 and currently stands at just over $97,000.

The book looks impressive, and while we certainly wouldn't want to sway any purchasing decision you might make, it's worth noting that Arcade Tokyo owner and Nintendo Life contributor Roland Ingram has supplied many photos for this edition, including the eye-catching cover image of Japanese arcade games.

This article was originally published by nintendolife.com on Mon 22nd June, 2020.

[source kickstarter.com]