Terrible Old Games You've Probably Never Heard Of
By Stuart Ashen
NOW IN PAPERBACK WITH ADDED MERCH!
Publication date: December 2015
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To celebrate the release of Terrible Old Games in paperback - we have put together some fantastic Merch! Including a tea towel of Stuart's unique and very funny index and t-shirts featuring the iconic deer from the game Hunter. You can also buy a copy of the paperback edition with a specially designed bookplate signed by Stuart. In case you are coming to the book for the first time - here is a description written by Stuart...
Video games are great! Except when they're not, of course. We've all bought a game and been utterly underwhelmed by it, dribbling buyer's remorse from every pore as we furiously shake our fist at the publishers responsible for releasing them. But have you ever bought a game so fundamentally awful that it was impossible to glean any enjoyment from it whatsoever? If so, I feel your pain, and if you'll allow me I'll also take your money and offer you a book in exchange.
Terrible Old Games You've Probably Never Heard Of is a compendium of some of the most painfully bad games available for the European home computer market from the early eighties to the mid nineties, based on my YouTube series of the same name. Everyone's heard of E.T. for the Atari 2600 and Superman for the Nintendo 64, but these are almost nothing next to the abject incompetence of Count Duckula 2 on the Amstrad CPC. There are people who seriously believe that Shaq Fu is the worst fighting game ever made, having never experienced Dangerous Streets or Barravento on the Amiga. This book will blow their very soul apart. (Not a guarantee).
There's nothing from the NES, or indeed any other dedicated games console, in this book. It's all about the home computer market during a special time when tight deadlines, tiny budgets and precious little quality control allowed some of the most egregiously horrid games to leak into the shops. As the title strongly suggests you've probably never heard of these games - who wants to retread the same old things when there's so much new horror to be discovered?
Terrible Old Games You've Probably Never Heard Of is meticulously researched and written with the dry humour you'd expect from a man who has somehow made a living by sticking rubbish on a sofa and talking about it. And it's not all from me - some people you may well have heard of will be telling us what their most disappointing game purchase was. Because, of course, there's nothing quite so entertaining as other people's misery.
If you'd like this book to exist in a tangible form, pledge now and ensure that the games mentioned inside receive the recognition and derision they deserve. Because they're terrible, they're old, and you probably haven't heard of them.
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Stuart Ashen
Hello! I'm Stuart. I make videos for YouTube and write comedy scripts and sometimes act in things.
I recently realised that I miss writing articles and stories, so have joined forces with Unbound in an attempt to rectify that by writing books.
I live in Norwich, in a house filled with all sorts of useless items that I tell myself I need for my work. I'm obsessed with old video games and things that aren't quite good enough for their intended purpose. My favourite soup is crab meat and sweetcorn.
Stuart Ashen has written 6 private updates. You can pledge to get access to them all.
26th November 2015 BOOK TOUR AMAZEMENT SUPER FUN TIME YES!Hello!
I'm going on a short book signing tour! Look, here's a picture giving you details and everything:
Do drop in if you happen to live near one of the centrally located places on our budget conscious route! You don't need to book or anything - just come along around the designated time. If you want one of the trade editions of the book for some reason, like your gran wants one for…
11th November 2015 The End is NighThe end of waiting for the book, that is! Yes.
Last week I literally jetted over to Barcelona to see the first print run of the special backer editions. The quality is astonishing - all the screenshots are super-crisp and the black is really vivid. Which is important for screenshots of old games because a lot of them had black backgrounds with very little in the way of graphics on top...
…5th August 2015 More special guest excitement! Yes.Hello loves,
As you've probably guessed I'm currently writing the book! I'm not going to add anything else to that as I don't want to spoil any surprises for what's in it. But be assured the games will be old, terrible, and you probably won't have heard of them.
Speaking of surprises, I still can't quite get over just how many truly fun-free gaming experiences were inflicted on us between…
26th June 2015 First guest interviews announcedHello!
There hasn't been much to report other than "I am writing the book" recently. And you've probably guessed that. But! I've started to receive submissions from various EXCITING GUESTS who will be telling us about the most disappointing old game they ever paid money for. I'll be revealing some of these people over the next couple of months.
First up is one many of you have predicted …These people have reserved their exclusive reward for Terrible Old Games You've Probably Never Heard Of.
Brian adams
quin s
Kelly D'Ambrosio
Jonathan Eaker
Emma Morissette
Chris Tremayne
Maciej Koszanski
Cody Miller
Chris Crowther
Thomas Weber
George Murray
Max F
Matt Cocker
Edward Brydalski
George Peter Martyr Scott
Steven Windsor
Alastair Haig
Donny Em
Tyler Post
Cameron Bissonnette
Xander Rainey
Polly Alice Russell