Hi,
I am the author of a book called High Score: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games. The book is currently out of print, but not for much longer if I can complete my current tasks, one of which is to complete recreate the complex layout that the original publisher lost.

One of my large sections was on game development history in the UK, and I had a lot of great graphical material to accompany the stories. Much of that material has been lost, and I'm trying to restore it. I am trying to reach collectors and other historians, such as Dave Moore, who might be able to help me replace some missing (and sometimes rare) images.

If anyone can help in any way, I will be grateful.

Thank you,
Rusel DeMaria

Can't help with Dave More, but I have been writing games for over 30 years and have quite a few "old" friends who I am sure would like to help.

Is there anything specific that you are looking for, or do we need to start trawling second hand book shops to find old copies of your book?

It might be worth mentioning to those who don't know that the book is being done as a Kickstarter fundraising effort, or at least is assisted by it. I'm not sure if that will help or hinder you in your search for old material.

You mention that you need to recreate the layout. Do you mean that you have the images and text, but not the layout files, or that you need to recover everything? Do you have access to any kind of document files for the book?

First, there are several images I haven't been able to find, or find in the quality I had originally. Many of my original files for the UK section seem to have been lost when I archived them years ago.

As for the question about recreating the layout, I am recreating the entire layout in InDesign from scratch, although I do have most of the graphics I originally used in raw form and most of the text. Still, I have been at it for nearly 2 months now, and am almost done with the first pass. What I'm hoping to do is find someone, or some people, who have access to original material and can help me with high resolution images suitable for print. I can post a list of specific images if there is anyone who might be able to help.

And yes, I did raise some funds on Kickstarter to help me work on this since I lost my job late last year. The Kickstarter backers were generous, and I hope to fulfill their faith with a new version of High Score 2 and a new book that takes the story through the past decade or so. First step is to recreate High Score at all.

Thanks,
Rusel

That's a shame. Archival is something that some of the contributors here (and on the stardot forum - see below) have been working really hard at.



Although there's an overlap in forum contributors, you might have better luck posting on the stardot forums. It's customary to introduce yourself on the introduce yourself forum to start with.



I don't have a problem with that, but I thought it might be good for people to know about it. If anything, it shows that you're serious about delivering an end product, and people might be more motivated to help in that case.

Thanks David. I'll follow your suggestions and compile a short list of images I most need. And I am quite serious about my work. The first edition of High Score entailed a solid year of work, travel and research. The UK version came later, but I was able to reach many of the pioneers of development in the UK and interview them. I felt very fortunate that they were so accessible and helpful, and I'm distressed and confused at the fact that so much material turned up missing. I appreciate people's help - greatly - and there are over 400 people mentioned in my acknowledgments section of the book.
Rusel