The Ultimate Visual History (June 2014)

[Andrew Farago]

I'm sorry I wasn't able to get more information on the video games into the book, although I'm glad I was able to score an interview with one of the programmers who worked on the first TMNT games. The folks at Surge and Mirage weren't very hands-on in the game development process and didn't have many stories to tell beyond "we gave Konami the license to make some video games," and Konami's story didn't go much beyond "we got the license to make some games, and then we did that."

In the end, it made sense to treat the games the same as the other non-Playmates merchandise, since the alternative would have been holding the book up another few months while I locked myself in my house playing video games. (As it was, I spent more time than I should have playing Turtles games on my NES.)

[Chuquison]

Originally Posted by Andrew Farago

I'm sorry I wasn't able to get more information on the video games into the book, although I'm glad I was able to score an interview with one of the programmers who worked on the first TMNT games. The folks at Surge and Mirage weren't very hands-on in the game development process and didn't have many stories to tell beyond "we gave Konami the license to make some video games," and Konami's story didn't go much beyond "we got the license to make some games, and then we did that."

In the end, it made sense to treat the games the same as the other non-Playmates merchandise, since the alternative would have been holding the book up another few months while I locked myself in my house playing video games. (As it was, I spent more time than I should have playing Turtles games on my NES.)

I got mine last week, I picked it up yesterday after work and was only going to thumb through it but damn you guys did a good job on the book I read it all and got to bed around 3am, I couldn't put it down.. I learned a lot of things I never even imagine happened.. Good job on a great book... I now just got to get them signed

[tinlunlau]

Originally Posted by Andrew Farago

I'm sorry I wasn't able to get more information on the video games into the book, although I'm glad I was able to score an interview with one of the programmers who worked on the first TMNT games. The folks at Surge and Mirage weren't very hands-on in the game development process and didn't have many stories to tell beyond "we gave Konami the license to make some video games," and Konami's story didn't go much beyond "we got the license to make some games, and then we did that."

In the end, it made sense to treat the games the same as the other non-Playmates merchandise, since the alternative would have been holding the book up another few months while I locked myself in my house playing video games. (As it was, I spent more time than I should have playing Turtles games on my NES.)

The book is more than packed enough. Maybe you can save that for a 35th anniversary book in the future?

And getting more inside info on the games could be tough since the games were mostly Japanese developed and a translator will become necessary.

Random fact but the cantonese dub of the original 1990 classic film featured the voices of hong kong rock band Beyond with the late Wong Ka Kui as Raphael. He died while performing in Japan just before tmnt 3 was coming. Don't think he reprised the role for tmnt3 though. Would've actually wanted to buy the hong kong dvd re-releases of the tmnt trilogy. That trilogy dvd release wouldn't be possible if it weren't for me. I used ti work for Joy Sales who owned exclusive video distribution rights to the Fortune Star Collection which consisted old 80s and 90s Hong Kong films that included all the tmnt movies. I spoke with my boss William Lau at the time and strongly suggested to him to re-release the tmnt trilogy as the 2007 tmnt movie was coming out. And so they did, too bad I never managed to pick up those dvd's when they were all widely available. And as part of the fortune star collection, we have both hong kong theatrical posters as interchangeable cover box art.

They're out of stock now except for the first film which is still available at yesasia.

[TheBlueTurtle1]

I am really trying not to rush through the book, but I ve nearly complete my first read through. It's really cleared up many details I wondered about over the years. Iam just loving it!

[Sophie Campbell]

i still haven't gotten mine yet, i'm so jealous! T_T it sounds great.

[Venom]

I crack open the latest issue of Game Informer and what do I see in the sidebar of page 39? A nice plug for Andrew's book and a link to insighteditions.com!

[Zulithe]

Just want to pop back in to correct something I said earlier... I said I paid $35 for the book on amazon, and, while that is partly true (my invoice shows I paid that price), I just got an e-mail from amazon saying they are refunding me some of the cost so I actually only paid $30.00 + tax.

I did not contact amazon about this... they did it somehow on their own, even though I *thought* i ordered it at the $35 price, I guess at some point they did mark it down and I didn't notice. Though I thought that with the Pre-Order Price Guarantee they would charge me the lower price when they ship it, not refund the difference after it ships. Not sure what is going on there.

So yeah, cool!

Best in class customer service from amazon as usual

[Chuquison]

Originally Posted by Zulithe

Just want to pop back in to correct something I said earlier... I said I paid $35 for the book on amazon, and, while that is partly true (my invoice shows I paid that price), I just got an e-mail from amazon saying they are refunding me some of the cost so I actually only paid $30.00 + tax.

I did not contact amazon about this... they did it somehow on their own, even though I *thought* i ordered it at the $35 price, I guess at some point they did mark it down and I didn't notice. Though I thought that with the Pre-Order Price Guarantee they would charge me the lower price when they ship it, not refund the difference after it ships. Not sure what is going on there.

So yeah, cool!

Best in class customer service from amazon as usual

samer here since I ordered it when it first came ot for pre orders I got 5 bucks back

[TigerClaw]

The book is finally in my possession.

[zodiac brave]

Originally Posted by Zulithe

Just want to pop back in to correct something I said earlier... I said I paid $35 for the book on amazon, and, while that is partly true (my invoice shows I paid that price), I just got an e-mail from amazon saying they are refunding me some of the cost so I actually only paid $30.00 + tax.

I did not contact amazon about this... they did it somehow on their own, even though I *thought* i ordered it at the $35 price, I guess at some point they did mark it down and I didn't notice. Though I thought that with the Pre-Order Price Guarantee they would charge me the lower price when they ship it, not refund the difference after it ships. Not sure what is going on there.

So yeah, cool!

Best in class customer service from amazon as usual

Originally Posted by Chuquison

samer here since I ordered it when it first came ot for pre orders I got 5 bucks back

me three!

[Venom]

I paid $31.83 with Amazon Prime in the wee hours this morning!

[RatKingLeo]

I paid 31.21 on Barnes and Noble with free shipping got it next day.

I can't wait to get home to read it but flipping through it here at work I am really impressed.

[Andrew Farago]

Sending a copy off to Rob Paulsen today! He saw it a couple of weeks ago, and is excited to get his own copy. Interviewing him was one of the real highlights of the book--when you've got an incoming call from an unknown person, you never expect it to be Pinky.

[Green Machine]

Originally Posted by Andrew Farago

Sending a copy off to Rob Paulsen today! He saw it a couple of weeks ago, and is excited to get his own copy. Interviewing him was one of the real highlights of the book--when you've got an incoming call from an unknown person, you never expect it to be Pinky.

That's awesome!!!!

[Roseangelo]

Still waiting for mine...

[Powder]

Ditto...

[bridgegrn]

Are there any cool pictures and info on the original turtle movies in the book?

[Ninjinister]

So tired of pre-ordering things months in advance and then not getting them in a timely manner. Thankfully, based on what I've seen, this'll be worth the wait.

[Andrew Farago]

Originally Posted by bridgegrn

Are there any cool pictures and info on the original turtle movies in the book?

Tons. I was fortunate enough to do really lengthy interviews with Brian Henson and with Peter Brooke, the puppeteer who designed Splinter. The Henson Creature Workshop provided us with a lot of great photos for that chapter, too.

[bridgegrn]

Originally Posted by Andrew Farago

Tons. I was fortunate enough to do really lengthy interviews with Brian Henson and with Peter Brooke, the puppeteer who designed Splinter. The Henson Creature Workshop provided us with a lot of great photos for that chapter, too.

Awesome! Significant behind the scenes info for the movies are really hard to come by