At roughly 19x20x2cm, this is not a small book by any means, and as soon as you pick it up, you know you've got a decent quality tome in your hands. It's in full colour and the dusk jacket displays the famous King Tut image that defined the Amiga to prospective users (or at least those that remember Deluxe Paint II). There are about 290 pages and very nicely laid out, with plenty of screenshots, photographs and the like.
It begins with a forward by David Pleasance, whose name may be familiar to those who've been reading this blog for a while - I've reviewed two of his books here and here). The proper start of the book is a history of the Amiga stretching to 54 pages and interspaced with two page spreads of specific machines. This is a bit of a potted history, but respectable, and if this were your only book on the Amiga, you'd be pretty well served. I do have two minor niggles though. The C64GS was never high-tech. NEVER! And I question Windows 95's affect in the Amiga market. Anyhoo...
The next section is all about creativity and graphics, being divided into four main areas: PD (Public Domain) and Shareware, Anarchy and the Demoscene, Scoopex and the Demoscene, and AGA - too little too late. Each of these was, for me, extremely enlightening, as I never knew much about either the PD or demo scene apart from what I read in magazines at the time. The 28 pages dedicated to these subjects are an eye opener and give you a real feel as to how wild and passionate coders were, and where it could go wrong. Some of the demo's created were breathtaking at the time and still, to this day, are bloody impressive. The last ten pages, on the subject of the AGA chipset, is another useful section. I was surprised as to how few genuine AGA titles actually existed - I had always presumed there were more.
The following 90 pages are dedicated to games from throughout the Amiga's history. Each gets two pages, pictures of their artwork and some screenshots. You get a brief write up and sometimes a piece of trivia. What is particularly nice is that it's not just the usual suspects, though they do make up the majority of the titles covered. Sure, you get Lemmings, Populous, Xenon 2 and the like, but you also get the likes of Wings of Death, Airball and Lionheart.
The last section is the largest, at just under one hundred pages, and this covers the memories. I'll put a picture below of the contents page, but as you can see, there are some familiar and maybe not-so familiar names here. What it does mean is that you get a lovely range of stories about the Amiga from a period of home computer development that is long gone. Truly, every single entry has its worth and I would say that this section makes the book worth the cover price alone.
The Story of the Amiga in Pixels is a lovingly produced look at, what was for many people, the pinnacle of home computers. Alongside the Atari ST and, to a degree, the Acorn range, this was the golden era of relatively powerful and productive machines before the PC and Mac took over Yes, I have said this book has niggles (still not letting go of that C64GS description...) but these are teensy compared to the stories and wealth of knowledge contained within. The physical quality shows off the artwork and screenshots brilliantly and, to be honest, I would have happily paid full price.
You can buy your own copy of The Story of the Commodore Amiga in Pixels directly from Fusion Retro Books here, and I would recommend signing up for their email service in case they do have flash sales on their other titles. It is also worth noting that there is a Kickstarter ongoing for their latest title: The Commodore 64 Collector's Guide to Mastertronic. This is another title by Chris Wilkins and I have already pledged for my copy. There's only a week or so left and it looks to be another corker.
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