Armed with an NES controller and his signature bow-tie, Howard Phillips isn’t someone you can easily forget, especially if you grew up during the spectacular rise of the Nintendo Entertainment System. Like many others, I first came to know of Howard Phillips through Nintendo Power magazine, and after finding out he got to play Nintendo games for a living, I wanted to be just like Howard. Howard started his career at Nintendo of America’s warehouse in New Jersey but would eventually “warp” to higher levels within the company as a director. Howard’s contributions to Nintendo played a crucial factor in what games we got to play in North America for the Nintendo Entertainment system, as well as what we read in Nintendo Power magazine.
If you’ve read a book or watched a documentary that focuses on classic video games in the last ten years, then what you just read about Howard Phillips isn’t anything new. Howard’s story has been covered in many different capacities but never has Howard Phillips told the story himself, in his own words. Today that changes with the Kickstarter announcement of Gamemaster Classified, a tell-all book straight from Howard Phillip and Matthew Taranto.
Gamemaster Classified will cover Howard Phillips’ entire career at Nintendo of America, while Matthew Taranto will provide his own gaming experiences as a kid growing up in the NES era. A quick look at the Kickstarter pitch video shows that Matthew is doing far more than just telling stories as he’s providing some fantastic illustrations and the design of the book. His passion for this project shines through on the video, and it will be fascinating to see the final result from this project.
Gamemaster Classified has already hit its Kickstarter goal of $23,000 in less than one day and still has over 29 days to go. The book is currently scheduled for a February 2022 release date, and backers can choose from some very affordable options if they’d like to support the project.
Check out the official Kickstarter page for Gamemaster Classified here: http://kck.st/2N8vlD5
http://kck.st/36XIFRI
