A few years back, I took a look at Rey Esteban's excellent NES Endings Compendium Vol. 1, a book which – just as it says on the cover – takes a look at the final moments of a bunch of classic 8-bit Nintendo games.
Esteban (owner of the excellent vgmuseum.com) is back with a second volume, which covers games released during 1990.
This new book – which was crowdfunded this year to the tune of $45,775 – is even bigger than the previous one, boasting 368 pages of NES goodness. The reason for this is simple: more games were released for the console in 1990 than in the five previous years combined.
NF Publishing has taken over distribution and production from Limited Run Games this time around, but the book retains the same look and style as its predecessor; in fact, if you have the hardback edition of volume one, it will sit perfectly next to this sequel on your shelf.
While the main focus is on displaying the end sequences for these games, Esteban goes into quite a bit of detail about each title, even digging into the development history of certain games to explain why the endings are the way they are – including explanations of how each conclusion differs depending on which region you're playing the game in.
On top of that, Esteban has even spoken to Ken Lobb, who worked at NES developer Taxan and, later, with Rare. There's also a Q&A section, some tips and more.
Some might argue that such a book spoils one of the biggest motivators when it comes to finishing classic games, but, given my old age and rapidly diminishing joypad skills, I've made peace with the fact that I'll never reach the ending of Ninja Gaiden II, so this lovely tome is the next best thing.
You can pre-order a copy of NES Endings Compendium Vol. 2: 1990 here. It costs $34. Alternatively, the digital copy is $19.