Bitmap books always produce quality products that are obvious labours of love. The materials used are fantastic and the content always top notch.

I've purchased a few of their products over the years, starting I believe with their first Kickstarter many years ago...

However I try and really limit myself, as it would be all too easy to purchase most of their collection. There was one book of their I've been thinking about for a long time and recently finally decided to pull the trigger and enjoy it.

It's a collection of interviews with industry veterans along with (unsurprisingly) some high quality artwork from various games in the genre.

I was hoping to see Teen Agent make an appearance, which I wouldn't say was a partiually high quality game - but certainly one that 

As many of the entries brought a jolt of nostalgia, I must admit quite a few others were unknown to me. Although one common thread through all the entries was their own unique visual style and identity.

My PC growing up for a key part of my childhood had an 16 colour EGA monitor, so I always remember how much of a step up the 256 VGA palette was. 

For instance I first saw Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis at a friend house and found the warm colours used to convey the grounds of Barnett college oh so inviting. Something I particularly enjoyed about the opening sequence from that game was the lack of verbs and inventory panel, meaning that the whole screen was used to portray the beautiful environment.

I've got fond memories of browsing the official Lucasarts website to download MP3 clips of some of the amazing music from Grim Fandango. After playing the demo I was very taken with amazingly stylised world it had shown me a glimpse of.

I must have watched the outro teaser movie for the full game at least a dozen times. 

I think that sums up a lot of childhood experiences with games. Falling in love with a brief demo or shareware version and dreaming of what it would be like to play the full game, which seemed like an impossibility without any real income.

Adulthood certainly brings more control and agency, but it sure seems to lose a fair bit of magic in the process.