Tony is the current Missile Command champ.
https://arcadeblogger.com/mcbookusa/
Format: Hardback. 267 Pages. 160mm x 235mm. 57 colour photos, many previously unpublished.

Missile Commander is a memoir of one player’s forty-year journey with Atari’s legendary arcade title, Missile Command,

He is over on KLOV too...

https://forums.arcade-museum.com/threads/new-book-missile-commander-available-now.480535/

Is it possible that Paperflock is a Secret Santa and everyone will get their gift before Christmas?

Maybe more like a secret...SATAN.

church-lady (resized).jpg

Historical, with some color pics , drawings, and photos. But not stuffy history, more like a buddy with inside knowledge telling a story. Definitely a required read for atari enthusiasts. Not to hijack the thread, but just wanted to show some people know how to ship trans atlantic for pennies compared to joedp.

04242AEE-73F9-4A84-8EB7-61D0B0129589 (resized).jpeg

Big difference is that guy is doing right by his backers rather than taking a big cut out of shipping like the P-Fluckers. Got to pay for that next vacation...

I bought multiple items and my shipping was $35, I don’t think they are making money on shipping. Even on the international shipping, if they are sending multiple boxes internationally that could quickly add up. I think the hate and nastiness here is overboard. They finished the book and are delivering on the project.. This was backing an unmade project not ordering off a shelf.

I listened to the podcast and given the issues they ran into I’m not surprised this took a long time. Four years and shipping costs have gone up astronomically, backerkit stopped handling shipping, lack of resources of photos they thought, they had, etc. Shipping is way more expensive today than it was four years ago. I know because it affects my business.

Four years may be a bit much but given they went in thinking that they would have access to a library useable images and instead had to hunt down and photograph each machine I cannot imagine he made anything on the project. The sheer mount of work that would go into just locating all 90 machines, communicating with owners, traveling to locations, cleaning, lighting, and then photographing each game is incredible. Then post processing all of those photos. Then laying them out in indesign. Then proofing, editing, proofing again and test printing.

Could they have done more from the start and better planned this? sure. It was a badly managed project and they were new to book making and most users were new to kickstarter who backed it. Given they only raised $50k the people that made this book donated a lot of time to make this happen, it had to be a labor of love because no one is making money with this level of work. The printing would cost quite a lot given the quality of what I see in the photos.

I’m not affiliated with them, other than buying some books and other things from this kickstarter. I guess I’m just thankful it was actually made given it was backing an unmade product and they hit so many issues. They have offered up refunds to those that don’t want it so at this point the hate is just well, pointless.

Also, I hope Stern photographs all their future works so that future books can be made more easily including the game they made in the last few years.

I can confidently say, having done many in China at much higher quality - hardcover with foil stamped and embossed covers with dust jackets. That the book they showed is a $2 book to print, all in, $3 max with shipping. I'm being generous with that estimate, too, given the low quantity printed, they probably paid more than I would have printing thousands.

So, no, unless they're total morons, the printing is the cheapest part of the project and it shouldn't have been much at all.

I have printed a number of books in China and the US and there is no way you are getting a book of this quality for a few dollars, even ordering in massive quantities is not getting you a large format book with nice paper and a hard cover, even in China. You have lost all credibility here because that’s just nonsense. You might get a small book printed for a few dollars but nothing close to this. Maybe your browser lets you time travel back to 2000 to order the book and you can get it for $3. LOL

Also 500 books comes at a premium price, not like ordering 1,000s which is where the real price breaks kick in.

I didn't realize that was him, I've been following his blog for years. I will have to check the book out.

And yeah I get a lot of premium books that were printed in China and they aren't secretly cheap there.

Dude, you need to get a new printer in China if you think I'm blowing smoke. I absolutely have done MANY books of this quality for that price. The last one I did was more extravagant, but almost exactly the same size as the paperflock one and was saddle stitched, included faux-leather cover with gold foil-stamped front and spine, full color dust jacket, 3 color ribbons to hold your place, and gold foil-edged pages. It was also 25% more pages than the paperflock one and more extravagant than usual, so it was $4.50/unit, all-in, delivered our warehouse (I literally looked up the invoices to make sure). I GUARANTEE it blows away the quality of whatever paperflock is fleecing people into thinking cost them a fortune to print. If I dialed back the upgrades and page count to match the paperflock one, I could have gotten that book done for $3/unit, no problem, especially if there was no rush on the sea shipping (paperflock time, FTW) and I could wait for a container remnant deal to get it from China to Oakland.

Here's a picture of a stack of them, since you're concerned about my "credibility."

ArtBook-no-dust-jacket-small (resized).jpg

Damn that looks like a lot of books. What are those?

Game art/character books.

I was not claiming they were spending $40 on book printing. Even if they only spent say $5k for manufacturing, including proofing and a QA service. How much time and expense do you think was used arranging, flying to multiple locations, lighting, photographing, processing images, then laying out a book, creating the content, then all the extra work you know goes into a book. I don’t see a huge payday here. Seems to me they probably worked for some low ass wages given the amount of time going into it.

No one was pulling in a high wage or frankly making jack on this project unless you think they should have made $0 on it. Seems like people think they some how got away with fleecing people but the size of this project was not worth $50k, or $45k in terms of work load and I’m sure they had some expenses related to the project other than just printing. I guess we will see when we get the books. If its all pictures like a children’s book or badly edited I’ll eat my words. I’ll be sad. I’ll be here agreeing with it all.

I am happy they finished it. Hopefully I will still be happy they finished it when I receive it.

I just want confirmation they shipped my book.... Nothing so far

Me too... was hoping to give one as a gift.

Same no shipping info yet, this is crazy.

No, but you were claiming I was essentially lying by saying I could get that book printed and delivered for about $3 each. Remember this gem:

So, yeah, that was the thrust of your message and it was total BS. You happened to be talking to someone with a LOT of experience manufacturing in China, often with deluxe books. I wasn't lying about what I've done printing similar and much better books, but that was your CLEAR implication. It was not welcome, so don't try to dial it back now. A direct apology is much less ass-like than trying to move the goalposts. You're going to look better admitting you were wrong than pretending you didn't make the accusation you did.

I personally don't care what they paid. I'm just pointing out from a position of experience with book printing overseas that they're either really stupid at printing books or lying. Take your pick.

I’m still shocked at the $3 yes, I figured small run high quality maybe $10-20 a book. I also mentioned the other factors previously. I have printed a lot of trade paperbacks and specialty spiral books.

You and others insinuated they were somehow making bank on this, they clearly are not. Even if they managed a $3 print price.

You can be shocked. You cannot, however, imply I'm a liar and expect me to ignore it. And I would not call what I've seen of the book they did "high quality." It looks average at best.

I don't think I ever said they were making bank. But they certainly are wasting money left and right. The grade school photo retouching sample they supplied that was TERRIBLE is another clue that they had little idea what they're doing. You can't make those kinds of mistakes when you're working with a small budget.

Just curious, PinMonk what is the MSRP of your book and where can it be purchased?

You can't buy just the book, sorry. It's just one component of a deluxe PS4/PSVita video game release I did.

Damn, that would’ve been awesome!

Well, I know I was fleeced pretty thoroughly by Joe. I was late to the project, Kickstarter had already closed, and Joe pm’d me to just pay him directly through PayPal and he’d get me added to the Kickstarter (I still have the pm chain). I paid Joe directly, and no word from Joe now that the book is ready. At least I can’t be ripped off on shipping...I guess...but yea, I’d say they should have made $0 off of my money for this project.

Not worth the hassle. Just the filing fees and service fees would make it not worth the pursuit. I’ve written the money off in my mind long ago...just wanted to point out that some people were absolutely fleeced during the course and scope of this project, myself included.

What a f*ckjng low life scumbag. I can’t stand the fact he got to “tell his side of the story” on Franchis podcast and seems to have received some sympathy and support from it. I can think if a lot of other things this guy deserves - sympathy and support are not on the list.

I bet Franchi like Jack Danger already got a book

What makes you think you are not going to get your book? I'd wait until they ship out to be certain of that.

After paying a shipping ransom, when are they going to start shipping??!!

lack of communication, if they got people's additional money they should promptly send the goods or at least give them an update...

over the years of making snackbar mods, I don't take money until the item is finished, tested and sitting in a box, then I contact the person to pay and it is shipped within 24hrs in most cases on receipt of payment.

Whaat!? After spending the weekly grocery money for shipping, you want the Paperflucks to actually box your stuff up and ship it? That might be asking too much from them.

Good question. I’ve received no message about shipping costs, so I think it’s pretty likely that no book will materialize.

What makes you think TigerLaw will if there has been no communication so far?

That sucks, have you reached out to him again to make it right? I would create a thread about him and this if that's the case, he may fix it if called out. Sucks you have to do that. Again I have no affiliation with them other than buying some books. Stern made a mistake in using people who had no experience or connections in the industry. They seemingly also chose people who were not up to the task of managing a project of this size.

If even THIS thread here doesn`t make im fix anything, what possibly will? It just screams „called out“, but to no avail.

is anyone else as excited as I am to have the book under the Christmas tree finally?

I spoke too soon. I thought if I paid up I can put this thing behind me, but nope.

Surely you can’t even try to be this incompetent. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, wellll....

no books yet for anyone else, eh?

Oh, I learned some lessons from this. I'll never be part of a kickstarter again, and I've never been part of one since. Even if I get my book, this simply wasn't a fun experience.

Feels like Deja Vu...

paper (resized).JPG

I continue to press for the remaining backers, but still no reply a week later

joe blows (resized).png

I couldn't say no to supporting https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arcadedreams/Arcade-Dreams-The-Definitive-Arcade-Documentary-Series

I was originally boycotting KS because of their union busting tactics, but now that the union has formed I'm interested in them as a company again. https://www.wired.com/story/how-kickstarter-employees-formed-union/

But I still think KS stinks as a pre-order model, but I'm fine with the "toss money at projects I want to exist in the world" model, because there's no stress for me there.

Apparantly, according to the Franchi interview of these deadsh*ts, pinball collectors are the only people who dont understand Kickstarter. This whole charade is part of the deal.

It's not about the end product at all. You should be viewing the pledge money as the price of admission to years of entertainment. The longer this sh*tshow goes on, the better value it is.

Someone on Facebook is saying that the email address no longer exists?

I got a reply the other day from Emma.

What is stupid about this is that I didn’t order anything extra. Just the book. I smell excuses. Yet they still couldn’t ship my book for some reason. If you believe her, shipping starts in a week and will take weeks from there to complete. Mark your calendars.

70B47BAC-99FA-4153-8FD7-4FEDA3E4B58B (resized).png

So Damien is now getting a cut out of the shipping on top of Joe. Swell. Where are the interns when you need them?

I received almost that same email from Emma a month ago.