THE WELL-READ PLAYER: SENSIBLE SOFTWARE & PUNCH-OUT!! BOOKS WORTH INVESTIGATING

With roughly two weeks left to go on each, two games culture design books on Kickstarter that look well worth your support: the first, Read-Only Memory (a fantastic name for a games print house) is putting together this look back at the history of seminal UK developer Sensible Software, which, even just in preview, looks gorgeously minimalist/Swiss/grid-ed out, and comes — at higher levels — with its own 12″ LP.

(As a side note: if the Amiga slipped you by — as it did many Americans — the campaign has inspired QWOP/CLOP/GIRP developer Foddy to put together this primer on the greatest games of the platform’s past.)

Meanwhile, Melbourne designer Daniel Lanciana is working up this exhaustive look back at all aspects of Punch-Out!!s past, with an “unofficial 240-page encyclopedia” that includes a cross-platform history, biographies, strategies, merchandise & more — the hitch being that it also includes a number of copyrighted materials he’s only just beginning to receive word from Nintendo on for possible inclusion. Follow his progress on that front here.