Numskull Publishing are thrilled to announce our next Kickstarter project: Arcade Decades – 80s Edition, a heartfelt endeavour to celebrate the artistry and nostalgia of 1980s arcade cabinets. Driven by our deep love for gaming, we noticed a surprising gap in the market with no books comprehensively capturing the iconic era of arcade gaming – books that have covered arcade games look dated and lack high-quality photographs to showcase the stunning artwork and craftsmanship behind these beloved machines.
As a team of passionate enthusiasts, we aim to fill this void. We’re dedicated to capturing these masterpieces of innovation, art and engineering for both current and future generations to admire and enjoy. People who choose to support this project on Kickstarter are not just helping to celebrate the arcade cabinets that we cherish, but are also contributing towards documenting and preserving their legacy for generations to come.
This book is just the beginning. We envision it as the first in a series that will eventually cover the entire evolution of arcade gaming from the 1970s through to the 1990s. With your support and if we surpass our goal, we will bring further editions to life.
The book will provide a deep dive into the history of this hugely significant period – telling the story of the people behind the games and the trailblazing companies that started a gaming revolution, all accompanied by original, professionally shot photography of one hundred arcade cabinets.
Each title from the one hundred carefully chosen games will be covered by a double-page spread going into detail and covering the following key areas:
Introducing the game and company behind it
Cabinet, build and hardware descriptions
Review of the games including details of the gameplay
Insights on the game, people and trivia
Legacy of the game beyond its release
Arcade Decades – 80s Edition is written by Kim Justice, a journalist and creator who has been writing and editing retro gaming and computing video documentaries on YouTube since 2012. Kim has previously written for Retro Gamer, Wireframe, and Retronauts. For Kim, the experience of growing up around the arcades in a seaside town started a passion that led to a career, and eventually to this book.
he Kickstarter campaign for Arcade Decades – 80s Edition is now live with a target of £25,000 with the campaign ending at 10pm (BST) 30th September 2024. If successfully funded, the book is expected to be delivered to backers in March 2025. Numskull Publishing’s first Kickstarter book ‘From Coin-Ops to Table-Tops: The Essential Electronic Games Guide’ launched in September 2023 and proved to be very successful, hitting its funding target ahead of schedule and was delivered to backers in August of this year.
