Nintendo product codes. The Palmtree Panic boss is named EGG-HVC-001. HVC = Famicom SHVC = Super Famicom DMG = Game Boy Can't make out the other ones...
573(Assuming that's a 3) and 765 are Konami and Namco's goroawase numbers. SFX probably refers to the Sony SFX-100, aka the Nintendo Playstation. Or the Super FX chip. One of those.
My copied arrived. This book has some beautiful concept art. Unfortunately, they tend to place several items on a single spread, so some of them are a bit smaller than they should be. Worse still a couple of pieces are obscured by the center binding. I could understand if this was due to space issues, but then the book has several pages which contain nothing more than single sprite that's been scaled up so large it looses all recognition. Couldn't they have done it the other way around and given more space to the art and less for the sprites and emulator screenshots? I suppose the large sprite artwork has been done to appeal to casual fans, but the concept art is so beautiful that I think that casuals will gain as much enjoyment from it as the hardcores. There's extensive commentary from Sonic Team, but this tends to focus on the history of Sonic, so it's stuff we've heard before. They really should have got Sonic Team to talk about the artwork, especially some of the unused concepts. They also should have got English translations of the Japanese notes on the concept art. Hopefully the community can do this, as I'd love to know what some of the notes say (especially for Mecha Sonic, which makes reference to a 'Fox'). I think I was also unlucky, as one of the pages has lots of scratches on it, but I've email them about this. Overall, it's an excellent book and it's a must have for Sonic fans. I believe there's only a few copies left, so don't wait to get one. Even despite the problems (which are only minor anyway), it certainly something that belongs in every Sonic fan's collection.
My copy's on it's way and I've been looking at the tracking page constantly. Can't wait! Shame about a few of the things. Not sure we need to be reminded how iconic the original Sonic 1 sprite is for the 600th time, but ah well. Out of curiosity, how recent does the artwork go? And what's the ratio of new and classic concept art? (I recall Zelda's Hyrule Historia book ended up being more of a Skyward Sword artbook than a balanced look at the previous games..) Also, I wonder if this will just be a one-off, or like Mega Man, Capcom will release premium artbooks every 5 years or so?
Yes, that was another issue I forget to mention. Most of the concept art is from Classic and Adventure, which is of course very welcome. But, there's very little post Adventure (outside of character art for characters like Silver, Blaze and Cream, which is really lovely, especially for Cream, because it seems they didn't know what animal to make her!). I'd have love to seen some concept art from Colours and Generations. There is a lot of stock Modern art (e.g. which you see on game boxes), but I wish they had omitted all this and made just a concept art book (Although I appreciate that this has to appeal to all audiences, so doing just concept art might not be economically viable.)
They said it might happen when they announced that they found a printer they liked. You'll still get it.
Compared to the Mega Drive Collected Works this book is a little disappointing, I guess. It's beautifully presented but it kind of feels like they gave up half way through and there's a lot of pages that are just wasted...like do we really need a whole page for a blown up sprite of a single badnik? It's nice and I'm glad I got it but it could have done with a little more content, I think.
I also notice Sonic 06 is more or less non-existent in this book, which is a shame as that's a game I'm always happy to hear more behind-the-scenes info about. Also it would be great to see more concept art to see what could have been!
There's no concept art. I am not sure if the book even makes any references to the game (I don't have it at hand at the moment).
I preordered the book, but since Brazil's mailing service is totally shit, I possible will receive it in August :v: But so far, the few photos I saw of it the content is incredible.
I also pre-ordered in December and received no tracking number. As well, my order status still says "In process." Just gotta wait, I guess.
I double checked. There's one a bit paragraphs about Xtreme, but no artwork. The text is just generic stuff about it being cancelled.
Lembre-se que como livros não tem taxas de impostos geralmente demoram menos tempo na alfândega! [Books are not taxed here, so they won't be at customs check for too long]
