Bitmap Books' series of visual compendiums already has a strong following amount retro gamers but its latest iteration has been perhaps the most notable yet, for two key reasons. Firstly, it utterly smashed its Kickstarter goal of £25,000 and eventually raised a whopping £190,000, and secondly, it very nearly didn't happen as Nintendo stepped in just before the campaign was due to end with an IP dispute.

Thankfully it all got sorted out amicably and the book is now winging its way to the 4,129 people who were keen enough to back the project during its crowdfunding drive - and we've been lucky enough to get our hands on an advance copy as well.

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Set across 536 rather lovely pages, this chunky tome features contributions from the likes of Kev Bayliss (Rare / Playtonic), Ste and John Pickford (Rare, Zee-3), David Darling (Codemasters) and many more besides. It features in-depth articles on notable developers of the period as well as profiles of over 170 different NES and Famicom classics.

NES / Famicom: A Visual Compendium launches next week for £29.99 and can be ordered directly from the publisher.

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