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NFG Forums => NFGgames - The Site => Topic started by: NFG on July 28, 2006, 08:34:35 PM

Title: The NFG Book
Post by: NFG on July 28, 2006, 08:34:35 PM
Some of you know how much of an ordeal this book was for me.  To cut the story short, I was given almost no support from my editor, was ignored for weeks on end, and had to rush to get things done at the very end, only to find that many of my comments and corrections were ignored in the final version.  Deleted segments reappeared, and I'm sure there's stuff missing as well.  

I apologize to everyone who contributed to this book.  It started off well, but fell apart at the end, and to be fair some of the blame is mine.  If I'd been allowed to proofread it before it went to print I might have caught some of the errors, but time was short, and the errors abound.  Some parts of the book are awesome, some merely mediocre, and some of them were badly written indeed.  The errors though are really unfortunate.  I'm sorry.

Here's the official errata, I'll update it as I find the errors.

Cover:
They used NFGMan instead of my real name.  Why ask me what I want if they're not going to listen?  Grr.

Page 7:
Center row, the right image is from Super Mario Bros, not Super Mario World.

Page 9:
the source of this image should have read Donkey Kong, by Nintendo.  Not just 'Mario'.

Page 12:
Caption 2.  The game is Mutant Night, not Mutant Storm.  It even says that in the screenshot at the bottom of the page.  (holy crap, it's my error.  I'd have caught it if they let me proof read it!!)

Another error by me: Squid Love, an image full of jellyfish.  Stupid - it should be called Jellyfish Love.  Sorry elend!

Page 16:
Caption 1: Oil panic, not Oil Panic 2.

Page 14:
Caption 4: Milton Bradley, not Bradlay.  My error.

Page 15:
These items should all have been identified, but they're lazy and didn't bother.  They are:

15, row by row, left to right
Coleco Total Control, Texas Instruments Speak & Math
Coleco Total Control, Parker Bros. Merlin
Sears 7-in-1, Coleco Total Control
Microvision with Bowling game, Microvision
Microvision, Coleco Total Control
Tiger Playmaker, Texas Instruments Speak & Math

Page 20:
Caption 1: GameBoy Color, not GameBoy Pocket.

Page 29:
I supplied images that didn't look like ass when printed.  The only one they used was "Gates of Zendocon".

Page 30:
Brandon of insert credit wrote this segment.  He informs me the Wonder Swan was designed not by Gunpei Yokoi, but his company Koto.

Page 31:
Bad editing all around, the insertion of the two gentlemen and ABA games is completely out of place.

Page 40:
This segment was to be removed!  Great photos though, don't you think?  ;)

Page 42:
Where did all these images come from?  I had nothing to do with these.

Page 43:
WTF, they just gave up labelling the pics after #5?  #6 would have been Last Duel, the rest had nothing to do with me.

Page 46 + 47:
What the hell happened here?  Die Hard, on the C64, NES and TG16?  Are they just make this shit up randomly now?

Page 50 + 51:
I took the pics on this page, for better or worse.
Caption 2: TurboExpress?  That's not a platform, TurboGrafx-16.

Page 54 + 55:
This section really didn't come out well, my bad.  The images are pretty nonsensical.

Page 59:
Images two and four have swapped labels.

Page 74 + 75:
Why did they use background images for a book on character design?  Seriously.

Page 78 - 103:
This section was put together by Brandon from insertcredit.com, he should have been credited.

Page 106:
What happened to the numbers here?  1, 2, 1, 2+3 overlaid on each other?

Page 110:
Jan Halfar, aka Riva.  Not 'Riva Jan Halfer'.  I corrected this before it was printed, to no avail obviously.

Page 112:
Thanks again to Brandon for sourcing this interview, and to (I forget who) for gathering the screenshots for me.

Page 118:
The image on the left is from the Genesis, the one on the right from the Master System.

Page 128:
Both these images are from the SNES version, image 2 is oddly stretched.

Page 129:
Images 2 and 3 are from the arcade, not the NES.

Page 146:
They didn't use many of the great sprites I provided.  I'll post them online soon.

Page 160:
More unlabelled sprites.  Left to right, top to bottom:
Donkey Kong (arcade), Mario Bros (arcade), Super Mario Land (GB), Super Mario Bros (NES).  Many of these sprites repeat on the next page for no good reason.

Page 161:
More unlabelled sprites.  Left to right, top to bottom:
Donkey Kong (arcade), Super Mario Bros (NES), Super Mario Bros 2 (NES), Super Mario Land (GB), Super Mario Bros 2 (again!?), Super Mario Bros 3 (NES), Super Mario World (SNES)

Page 162:
Unreal.  Didn't they do ANYTHING right?  These unlabelled sprites are from (top row, left to right:)
Donkey Kong (GB), Super Mario Land 2 (GB), Super Mario World (SNES), Yoshi's Island (SNES), Super Mario Bros 2 + 3 (SNES), Super Mario World (SNES).

Page 163:
More unlabelled sprites: Mario RPG (SNES) on the left, Wrecking Crew '98 (SNES) on the right.

Page 168:
From left to right: Sonic 1, 2, 3, Spinball.  All from the Genesis/MegaDrive.

Page 170:
Unfortunately none of these were labelled.  They're from all the Sonic games on the Master System and Game Gear, including Sonic 1, 2, Spinball, and Chaos.

Page 171:
Useless labels here.  The first two images are from Sonic on the GBA, the next four are from Sonic 3D, on the Master System (top row) and Genesis (lower row).

Page 172:
The last sprite is from Super Bonk, not 'Bonk 1'.

Page 173:
The first two rows are from the PC Engine, not the 'PC'.

Page 175:
These images are mislabelled.  The top row is Bonk's Adventure on the PCEngine, the second row is Bonk's Revenge on the PCEngine, and the last row is PC Genjin, Arcade (by Kaneko).  You'll note the text at the bottom of the page is correct.

Page 176:
These sprites run the gamut of GnG games on most platforms.  Forgive me, I don't have their labels handy.  Why oh why didn't the publisher apply them as I told them to?  

Page 178:
Why'd they leave these unlabelled?  I spent AGES on this stuff.  Here are the proper captions:
The top row shows Arthur as he would have appeared onscreen in the first two arcade games, and the SNES game (left to right).  Both the SNES game and the first arcade release had low-res screen images that were stretched across the monitor by altering the pixel clock, stretching the images horizontally quite a bit (Simulated appearance).  

The second row shows how the images look in an emulator, skinny and ill proportioned.

The third row shows Arthur from other platforms.  If memory serves: Arcade (Ghouls), Genesis, SuperGrafx, Atari ST.

The large sprite is Arthur from the NGPC game Millenium Fighters, in the mini-game Ghost Trick.

Page 179:
image 1 is from Marvel vs Capcom, not Ghost Trick.

Page 183:
Image 5 (Dracula X, SNES) and 6 (Symphony of the Night, PSX) were unlabelled.  Lazy buggers.

Issues:

Page 8:
I don't know where this image came from..
Title: The NFG Book
Post by: atom on August 01, 2006, 05:49:29 AM
This sucks Lawrence; it's too bad your book didnt get the respect it deserved. Just for kicks though I'll look for it.
Title: Re: The NFG Book
Post by: NFG on February 14, 2008, 09:36:48 AM
I've been contacted by Indara Rodr�guez Fern�ndez,  a delightful girl who has had the unpleasant job of translating my book into Spanish.

She's indicated that they will be incorporating some of this errata into the Spanish edition, which pleases me greatly.
Title: Re: The NFG Book
Post by: phreak97 on February 17, 2008, 09:34:53 PM
shouldnt they do another run for you if they ruined this one so badly?
Title: Re: The NFG Book
Post by: NFG on February 17, 2008, 11:16:17 PM
I think they were contractually obligated to finish it, they weren't required to do a good job.  I dunno, they barely talked to me while I was writing it, they talk to me even less now it's done.
Title: Re: The NFG Book
Post by: timofonic on February 28, 2008, 04:50:33 AM
I didn't know this before, it seems interesting.

Are there some more info about your book? I'm interested in the Spanish version but not problem if being in English.

Ok, I found the info by using Google. I'm a lazy ass, sorry a lot :P

http://nfggames.com/neography/pivot/entry.php?id=397&w=nfg_games

Some of the erratas? Why not all of them? :(