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Beyond the NES is a new book exploring the original Japanese model of Nintendo’s 8-bit home console, the Famicom, which, of course, was released in a different form factor worldwide as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).
The book aims to be: “an English-speaker’s guide to enjoying the Nintendo Family Computer (Famicom), the Japanese version of the NES.”
The book will review hundreds of Famicom games that were never released for the NES, but which are playable with no knowledge of the Japanese language, as well as explaining how to navigate Japanese language menus and explaining how to recognize commonly-used Japanese elements, in order to open up even more Famicom games to non-Japanese speakers, as well as exploring the world of fan translations of Famicom games, plus more.
The book’s author, Joe Bourrie, summarizes Beyond the NES by saying that the “goal of this book isn’t just to talk about the games; it’s to instill an appreciation for the Famicom as a console with its own distinct personality rather than just “the Japanese NES.””
The finished book will be over 330 pages in length, and perks on offer in the Kickstarter campaign include Beyond the NES as either a hardcover physical book, or as digitally as a PDF.
Beyond the NES was fully funded in just four hours, and at the time of writing, the Kickstarter campaign for the book has already raised £19,438 from 438 backers, against a goal of £3,664, with 15 days left to run.
