If you're over the age of 30, you might well have fond memories of the Commodore 64. Personally, I owned a ZX Spectrum instead, so I have a deeply ingrained bias that still tries to argue sprites that overlap properly aren't that big a deal. Truthfully, though, they are. And C64's iconic and properly-overlapping 8-bit graphics are celebrated beautifully in 'Commodore 64: a visual Commpendium' from Bitmap Books.
While there are some short anecdotes from industry specialists and developers, plus release details for the featured games, this is a visual compendium, and therefore image-heavy. So you get gorgeous, full-page 8-bit screenshots, vintage loading screens, Zzap!64 magazine covers by Oliver Frey, and the full world map of Fantasy World Dizzy. Yes, you're right, that is awesome. There's even a page for CJ's Elephant Antics. Anyone who reads GamesRadar regularly will know why this excites me.
Keep in mind there were some 10,000 C64 games released, so this book isn't exhaustive, but the important ones are all in here. The book was designed by Sam Dyer and edited by Steve Jarratt--the same Steve Jarratt who not only launched T3, Official PlayStation Magazine UK and was Edge's first editor, but also was editor of Commodore Format. That's authenticity for you.
It's £24.99 from Funstock, which is admittedly a tad pricey (getting on for the price of an actual Commodore 64 on eBay), but it's clearly a labour of love. It's out on October 3, so you've got a couple of days to mull it over and (ahem) 'commodore to a conclusion'.
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