With a book about software publishing house Ocean, an upcoming Kickstarter-funded Commodore 64 in Pixels book and a highly popular ZX Spectrum in Pixels duo already their belts, there seems to be no stopping the publishing powerhouse that is Fusion Retro Books and its owner Chris Wilkins.
Our reviews of the first two volumes of The ZX Spectrum in Pixels threw up full scores, but can this book keep a clean sheet?
Partnering with Chris on The Story of US Gold is Roger Kean who many of you will know from his days running Newsfield and their legendary Crash and Zzap! 64 magazines. With the input of Roger’s experience this book promises much and you don’t have to venture far into its 231 full colour pages to find that promise is fulfilled.
I never really meant to create an international video game publishing and distribution business… it just grew like a beanstalk that I kept climbing.
Geoff Brown
I’m not quite sure what I was expecting, well a story of US Gold the software house for sure, but never one so comprehensive and full of the tiniest details. Details told by the people who were there; of a sometimes fun, sometimes manic but almost always cut-throat business that grows from nothing into a public limited company with a turnover in the tens of millions of pounds.
Inside the book
We had the softback version of the The Story of US Gold for review but there is also a hardback version available.The cover of this book sets the tone. With an overall matt laminated finish and a shiny spot varnish over the embossed US Gold logo it just looks a quality publication.
The Foreword is by founder, Geoff Brown and roughly the first half of the book is taken up by the history of the company which is brought to life by plenty of input from those involved in the running of US Gold. Seemingly, nothing appears to have been omitted and it covers the birth of US Gold in 1983 up until the sell off of the whole group of companies in 1996. From their (sometimes petty) rivalry with local rivals Elite, though to the Artic Computing World Cup Carnival debacle and their groundbreaking partnership with Sega, it is all here in the greatest of detail with first hand accounts from those involved.
Here at US Gold we have the task of converting 64 games onto the Spectrum, and believe me it’s like drinking champagne and then drinking house wine afterwards.
Tim Chaney in an interview with Zzap! 64
The second half of the book takes its cue from previous Fusion Retro titles and contains individual memoirs from the authors of the software that US Gold published such as David Anderson (Beach-Head, Raid Over Moscow), Mick West (U.N. Squadron) and John Ludin (The Goonies). There are also first hand accounts (no pun intended) of life at US Gold by their financial director Tim O’Connell and musician Matt Furniss who composed the music for titles such as Out Run Europa (Sega consoles) and Gunship (Megadrive).
In summary
The book itself is surprisingly thorough; an in-depth history of a fascinating company that rose to dizzying heights in just a few years. Well written and lavishly illustrated throughout, it is a book that is hard to put down due in part to the many contributions from those who were there, which lends credibility to the stories within. A fantastic read and highly recommended.
