Konami's MSX Legacy: the unofficial story now available

I suppose it's a matter of preference, l would always choose the hard copy

I ordered my copy on January 04th and Today I got an e-mail from Amazon:

I'll wait until it's available through Amazon Spain or Germany and we have reviews from the people who actually received it. At the moment only the UK site seems to accept orders, and if the system is gonna be 'print on demand', I can't understand why it can't even be 'demanded' from the others.

Yes guys it's expensive. But my profit on this book is literally 0,0 euro. I'm giving it away for free after three years of hard work. 50 euro is simply the price you have to pay for such a huge book. If anyone can give me a better option, feel free. Most of you guys wanted a hardcopy book and not a PDF version (on which I probably make profit and get something in return). You should be realistic here guys, the price is as low as it can go and only covers the printing costs.

The price isn't a problem for me, just a bit surprised I have to go via a UK retailer for this.

If you can make more money off a pdf, by all means go for it.

I have zero influence on where the book can be bought. It has an official ISBN number so in theory you could even order it from your local book store.

If I took 840 pages of screenshots it would cost way more than that...
But you can always take yours for free.

Calling this a book full of screenshots is not fair... There's much more in it than screenshots, I can promise you.

I tried to use the amazon and amazon uk links, but they seem not to be correct. I try to seach for it but can't find it. Who has the correct link.

Proud to announce the book reached position 32 in Amazon's Best Sellers in PC & Video Games, which is quite amazing for a book on MSX games. Thank you all for ordering!

For this who can't find the book, use Amazon's search engine and search for the ISBN number: 1644673525

In the video showing the book there was very little text and a lot of full page screenshots. I am pretty sure that there are some useful hints and maps inside the book. I am in no way trying to criticize the author's hard work. But I think he would get more profit if he would be selling the PDF directly to those who wanted to have it. I would be one of them. But now all the profit goes to the publishing house.

Personally I dislike having any books in my hands because they are bulky and don't have the search function, so I always prefer a PDF or another electronic format.

Btw, this book is not available on the German Amazon for some reason...

Not available either on French Amazon but I hope it will be soon
Thanks a lot for this masterpiece!

I cannot find the book on amazon uk, spain, germany.
I wait for germany, i order always there.
I prefer pdf......

Search for "Konami's Legacy".

I can't wait to get my hands on it. I don't buy real books anymore these days (only e-books for my Kobo), unless they're special and loaded with pictures. I don't think I would be very excited about a pdf-version of this book.

I love the idea (and will most likely order it at some point), but a preview PDF would work much better to give us an idea of what the book is like. The YT video is way too zoomed in, and the pages are flipped way too quickly for it to be useful.

Please consider a preview PDF with a sample of 10 or more pages.

I agree with uberjack; a preview PDF, or being able to view inside the book through Amazon, would definitely be very nice to get a better idea of the book.

I saw some images from MSX Magazine. Are they for grabs?

Tried to ordem on Amazon Brazil and it shows as “unavailable”.

I’ll try later this week. Worst case scenario, I’ll get it from Amazon UK later on.

I've seen that a few people were interested in the PDF version. I am not sure the author can sell it directly because usually the publishing house gets all the rights to distribute the content.

I would still like to buy the PDF version of the book if that is possible.

I've just ordered my copy, thank you very much for your fantastic job!!!

I'm not much of a bookshelve person and quite much in favour of a PDF with its zoom and ctrl+f advantages. When(if)ever that's possible (watermarks are no problem) I'd surely buy one... For now I think it's too much hassle for a format (paper) I don't value. Learning that the author does not get a cent for the hard work makes me want to buy a PDF straight from the author even more so he at least can take the wive out for diner.
If amazon does not allow the author to do so, I can image. I could respect the choice not to sell "grey" PDFs. But then again, how would amazon ever find out.

I've not yet seen a reply (here) of Wim concerning this. I'd like to know for my, an a couple of others, sake. I wouldn't mind throwing € 30 euros at the (watermarked) PDF.

First of: congrats on realizing the book.

So how does this work, does the printing company periodically print a number of books, or does it wait until a certain no. of orders are received, or a combination of those 2 perhaps?

Yeah, would be great to have some (well, I think you could go for at least 20?) copies @ Nijmegen fair. I'm pretty confident (talking a bit on his behalf now.. ) hamlet, as stand holder, would be happy to play middleman(?)

Another thing I was wondering about: is it just okay to use all these images / Konami copyrighted material? ('Fair use'?) (I assume you don't have official clearance/approval from Konami, right?) (Simply interested )

@ren Good point. Entire magazines are filled these days with info on old eighties games and none of them have licenses. The book is an unofficial work of journalism, which is clearly mentioned in the book. There are of course screenshots and box shots of the game in the book, and if Konami really wants, I suppose they can ask me to stop selling the book. So be it. It's a possibility. But then again, they didn't do that with the Mantra Konami book.

I can certainly understand the kick of releasing a real book. That's about every writers' big wet dream, a real paper book.

Ordered from Amazon.uk from Jan 6. Not ship yet for Switzerland.
Not available in Amazon.fr.
So Happy because obviously these times not so many books about MSX.
The Konami book from Spain "Matra" now sold out, was great then I can imagine this one excellent with maybe few informations about games not released (Tentochito, Break-Shot)

To whoever wrote the initial article on the book: The links to the "The Big Peeks, Pokes and Tricks" book series (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) in the article are all referring to the first book only.

Ordered mine from Amazon UK. 9 pound postage to Brazil.

Amazon USA crossed the 100 dollars barrier; Amazon Brazil apparently won´t handle it.

Ordering from UK was the cheapest, most straightforward way.

I did. Thanks for the wink!

yup, ordered 3 copies for an uncle, nephew and myself. It's too bad none of that money goes to wim. Expected delivery date is 29 januari - 12 februari. So that is going to be stalking the mailman the couple of weeks

Me too, but unfortunally it is still not there yet

Thanks man! Order complete!

Ordered via bol.com

Received my copy of the book today (via Amazon UK). Paper, printing and binding are of good quality. Content-wise I am very impressed. The book is extremely detailed/thorough and of got tons of box art, screens, maps and textual descriptions. You can call it a magnum opus indeed Thanks for the great work Wim!

Mine arrived today from Amazon Spain. I'm pretty sure I'll never need another book on MSX Konami games ever again; It's absolutely stunning. Thanks Wim!

I think there's issues on manufacturing quality and packaging. I have received my book today, it is alittle bit crumpled at one corner because of improper packaging and also have stains of glue on the front. I'm not sure if i just try to remove glue stains and get used to corner (it is not too much, but noticeable), or try contacting Amazon and ask for replacement. I remember someone on forum got simiilar issue. But it seems that might be the reason for book is not being available (i think replacement in UK is much easier because of low postage costs while for outer lands it is quite a loss)

@Wim: the book is great, thank you again! I think i might try playing some games which i passed aside after reading

Packaging from Amazon Spain was definitely crap. It came tossed in a box with no wrapping or protection. The box was bigger than the book in all dimensions, so it must have been bouncing around during the entire transport. A little bit of damage was visible on the corners. But all in all I was very surprised it wasn't worse than that.

There also was just a tiny bit of glue ( or something else ) on the cover. Really have to look at it in the right light at the right angle to see it.

So I'm not going to ask for a replacement. It's not 100% perfect, but perfectly acceptable. And I'm very pleased with it

My copy will be delivered today, ordered on Jan 9th. I'll keep you informed, I'm very excited!!!!

Let me say that the book is really-really-really amazing and it´s worth every page but be careful with “Amazon Spain”. I had no choice (after a looongg internal fight against myself) and I had to return it.

Here some pictures how I received:

The worst of everything was the comment of the delivery man when my wife asked for the “outsides” condition: “Who cares! It´s just a book!".

Obviously I leave my feedback in the site two days ago but I think that they´re not too much interested in post it.

Yesterday I´ve received a message that the book is available again …… probably the same I return.

I´m, planning to order through other sites now.

So seems to be a problem with Amazon everywhere

Available on Amazon USA too if I'm correct

Ordered!

OK, found the glitch... :-) Will be corrected.

@uninteresting We've been in contact in the mean while, thanks.

A new request for the upcoming update: does anyone have コンピュータビリヤード, which is the Japanese version of Sony's Computer Billiards? That box is missing in the book and I need a picture from the side of the box. I'm unable to find one.

I'm also looking for a good picture of the metal version of Hyper Shot.

@Wimpie3, I can send you (this week end) pictures of JE 502, the metal version of Hyper Shot.

Some small remarks:
KV2 MSX mini euro is missing
Not only Nemesis 2 but also Salamander came with telephone cards

The phone cards of Salamander are mentioned in the book, right?

Just got my copy. Exceeded expectations - thank you!
It cost me ~$40 less to buy it from amazon.co.uk than local (I'm in the US) - even with the international shipping cost. As others mentioned, mine arrived in a mangled package as well (though the book was OK, luckily).

Could I suggest a Table of Contents for a future revision (unless I missed it?)?

Thanks again

I got my copy two weeks ago. I bought it from blackwells in uk. The package was perfect and it came very fast. Great book!

I think the info on Generation MSX is wrong, but if someone has a European Cabbage Patch Kids, please speak out.

I bought another one in early may, which was still the first revision.

Firefox would not display the page, states "Warning: Potential Security Risk Ahead". Even clicking "Accept the risk and continue" does not display the page

Do you have any control over the colour scheme of your blog, or is that all Destructoid? If you do, I would suggest increasing the contrast between fore- and background colour a bit, as that would improve legibility some.

Nice book! I have it!

For those reading the magazine Retro Gamer, the latest issue (number 202) has a review of my book.
You can also read the review here

Great book, I read it a lot. Thank you!

I have got it for christmas. Was the only good present for me:-)
Very nice and a good collection...

Hey, that is a very good idea! A book of all-time-best MSX games… One for me please!

Yes, what about Pooyan? The game can be found in the book.

Mine arriving tomorrow!

Thanks. Very proud of the reviews on Amazon by the way!

What!? Like what??

OMG! A BIGGER KONAMI BOOK!!!!????