Game Over

As soon as Jonathan Green asked me to contribute a story to his Game Over anthology (stories inspired by the arcade games of our youth) memories of my favourite games came flooding back and enough story ideas were popping into my brain I could have filled the whole book myself. Gauntlet, Operation Wolf, and Space Harrier, along with countless others, all took up hours of my teenage years.

My contribution to the anthology, It Was Beauty… is based on… actually, we’ll see if you can work it out for yourself – an extract is available here. The book also contains tales from the likes of James Swallow, James Wallis, Jonathan Green (with whom we had a mini flash-mob at Nine Worlds Geekfest) and many others.

The first reviews are now up, including one in the Financial Times – that’s a first for me!

“The stories delve beneath the clunky graphics to find paranoia, madness, murder and ghosts.”

– James Lovegrove, Financial Times

“Creepily odd – if you like horror stories with an angle, or you enjoy arcade games, or remember those smelly places – then this is definitely for you.”

– Gameing Weirdness, Amazon

“All the stories are excellent and involving. It Was Beauty by Gav Thorpe pulls your heart strings when you least expect it.” 5 stars

– Daryl Smith, Amazon

The book is available as both paperback and eBook – full details can be found here.

Which video game from your youth would inspire you to write a story?

If you’ve read Game Over, I’d love to know what you thought of it. Please let me have details of any reviews you’ve written, or leave a message in the comments. Thanks.

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