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Limited Run Games on launching the Press Run book label & NES Works 1987

We sat down with LRG media curator Jeremy Parish to talk about the Press Run book publishing label and its latest launch, NES Works 1987.

TJ Denzer

November 1, 2022 11:00 AM

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Jeremy Parish is no stranger to writing print books in the video game space. Before he was Limited Run Games’ Media Curator, he already had a history of delving deep into video games and writing books about them. In this way, he might be the perfect person (alongside fellow lead Jared Petty) to take charge of a new book publishing wing Limited Run Games is kicking off, aptly named Press Run. We got to talk to Jeremy, not only about the launch of Press Run, but also its latest title: Parish’s own NES Works 1987.

As mentioned, Parish has an extensive history of writing and publishing books, as one can see on sites like GoodReads. His works range between examinations of classic consoles, various console libraries, and specific iconic games, including a YouTube series and various print books based on them. The Press Run label is launching NES Works 1987 soon, but Parish already has plans for a 1988 edition, another book on the Sega SG-1000. Jeremy hopes to launch the SG-1000 book by the console’s 40^th anniversary in July 2023.

NES Works 1987 will detail a lot of stories about how games were made, the different editions of popular titles, retrospective looks at various games’ impact, and more topics covering one of the NES’ best years. One major feature is the comparison photography of NES games that had multiple releases, such as when Nintendo replaced Mike Tyson in Punch-Out!! with the fictional Mr. Dream.

“There’s a lot of comparison photography of different games that had multiple releases. Punch-Out!! is one of those where you had two different versions of that [game]. With Zelda you had the gold cart and the gray cart. Metroid came out with kind of the silver box, but then also the Player’s Choice box that was yellow and had a different label. So I tried to find as many of these games as I could and pull them all together to kind of show their evolution and show the different kinds of packaging. This is not really a collector-oriented book… It’s not that granular, but it does kind of showcase the broad strokes of how these things worked.”

Below, you can check out a detailed excerpt from the upcoming NES Works 1987 book:

That said, Press Run isn’t just about Parish. It’s about bringing many more authors to print through the company. The company has already published a few authors already, including Stefan Gancer’s The History of Sunsoft Vol. 1. Ultimately, once Press Run is fully operational, Parish wants to get to a place where the company is publishing about a book a month. Parish will still be continuing his projects, but the publishing label will carry a number of authors whose books Parish will work to edit, arrange, and offer general guidance. The main goal, as Parish puts it, is to create a home for great books about video games, including not just history, but video game culture, design, memoirs, and further interesting topics from the community and the industry.

“These books are good,” Parish said on the planned titles for Press Run. “They’re by talented authors, and cover a lot of great information, and they deserve better than to be print-on-demand, lost in the shuffle, in the backend of Amazon or some other self-publishing house, or sold at conventions only. They need a little more love and care than that, and to go through a proper process to be printed in a high-quality book form and have marketing behind them.”

Press Run launches NES Works 1987 this November 2022. Be sure to check out the Limited Run Games website for further details and stay tuned for what comes next in Press Run books.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.