Over the last decade or so, Bitmap Books has established itself as one of the leading publishers of video game books.
In the past, the UK-based publisher has released books on a range of retro topics, covering everything from Japanese role-playing games to in-depth histories of iconic studios, and fascinating deep dives into unreleased and unrealized video games. And truth be told, that's only really scratching the surface of its impressive output over the years, with the publisher also being behind countless other books documenting the history of first-person shooters, football games, and a large number of other specialised subjects.
With all of that in mind, you might be excited, then, to hear that, earlier today, it revealed the first official look at its next big project, announcing that it is currently working on a brand new 556 page book called The Definitive Book Of SNES RPGs Vol. 1, scheduled to go on pre-order on October 1st.
The Definitive Book Of SNES RPGs Vol. 1 was announced earlier today on the publisher's Twitter/X account and, as the name suggests, will focus on chronicling some of the biggest and most important role-playing games developed for Nintendo's 16-bit console, including anecdotes and stories about titles such as ActRaiser, Eye of the Beholder, Breath of Fire, Chrono Trigger, EarthBound, Final Fantasy III, and Illusion of Gaia.
Throughout its pages, it aims to dive deep into the "philosophies" that guided the design and creation of these games, and explore why they still matter today, through a series of essays.
The main author of the book is the Hawaiian writer Moses Norton (otherwise known as the Well-Red Mage online), who is video game critic, researcher, and essayist, while the writer and editor Alex Donaldson (who is the creator of RPG Site) is providing its foreword, and the professional artist Stephen Sitton, aka Stumpyfongo, is also on board to offer his artwork.
No price has been revealed just yet, but if all of this sounds good to you and you want to be alerted when the book goes live, Bitmap Books is currently encouraging people to sign up to its mailing list over on its website.