Bitmap Books makes some stunning visual compendiums celebrating the visual style and culture of retro video games. To date, they’ve published seven titles: Commodore 64: a visual Compendium, Commodore Amiga: a visual Commpendium, Sinclair ZX Spectrum: a visual compensium, Generation 64 – How the Commodore 64 inspired a generation of Swedish gamers, Artcade – The Book of Classic Arcade Game Art, A Gremlin in the Works, and Super Famicom: The Box Art Collection . The latter work is a gorgeous collection of Super Famicom box art from some of the most popular games that defined the 16-bit generation. It was on the heels of that book that Bitmap started its Kickstarter campaign for Nintendo Entertainment System visual compendium .
Unlike the Super Famicom book, the NES visual compendium consisted of mostly in-game screenshots and concept art. The Kickstarter campaign was just days away from being successfully funded before Nintendo shut it down for copyright violation. The notice states that the Kickstarter project “…makes unauthorized use of Nintendo’s copyrights” for several games, including Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, and Donkey Kong . It doesn’t help that the book sports a modified version of the “Official Nintendo Seal,” which Nintendo thinks will confuse consumers into thinking that the project is sponsored or licensed by Nintendo, which it isn’t. Oh well. The book looked wonderful, but I’m honestly surprised the campaign got as far as it did without Nintendo’s permission or consent.
Source: Game Informer