This insert will be available in all first-run copies bought from me, Butt Douglas, in person. This is posted here for those of you who've purchased the book online, either in physical form or e-book. Thank you again for your support.
Dear Reader,
Thank you for purchasing this copy of ‘The Book of Tecmo’ and allowing me to transfer the proceeds to charity. It truly was a labor of love.
But it was also a labor of folly.
I had all but given up on the project in the early Summer of 2013. In fact, I’d basically forgotten about it until Gannonball Run was officially announced in early January—that’s when everything changed.
Soon, I was facing a monumental task the likes of this story’s protagonist, QB Browns. I had 8k words typed, and knew I’d need more than 50k to complete the story I wanted to tell. So on January 18th, 2014, I went to work.
It was a scramble. I barely took time to read over what I’d written to get back into the groove, leading to perhaps more than a few continuity issues. But thanks to the patience of my wife and endless amounts of Caribou coffee, I was somehow able to miraculously finish the book, only able to write on the weekends, in 5 weeks. My own little TecMoWriMo (see: NaNoWriMo) as I called it.
Unfortunately, despite this accomplishment, I had actually hoped to finish earlier in order to give it the proper amounts of editing. This was a luxury I could not afford, however, in order to have printed copies ready for the Madison tournament.
Therefore, I ask you to please excuse all my little typos and grammatical brain farts. I hope to have these corrected in a 2nd edition for the generations of little Tecmoers to come along.
I also have to ask you to excuse a glaring mistake I made early on in the book, referencing the ‘Run 2’ code that the players use to find the secret loft of the hotel. It was originally planned to be ‘Run 4’ (hence the combination the players use of the ‘A’ button and ‘Down’ arrow) but was changed to ‘Run 2’ due to the overwhelming preference for that play. While I fixed that with a simple Find and Replace, I made the editorial miscue of not fixing the combination. My face is full of egg knowing that this error exists in a book meant for faithful Tecmoers. It will be corrected in future editions.
Not that I think I’m some Tecmo extraordinaire who can even successfully run that play…
Anyway, thank you again for your purchasing this work and supporting me in this weird task I gave myself. It does not go unnoticed. I did it for you, the person still playing this seemingly simple game over 20 years later, with a love and dedication that is deserving of a work such as this—something you can curl up with in between rousing games with your buddies or online, or to read to your children (not recommended) as they drift off to sleep, dreaming one day that they could be a Tecmo Champion.
Sincerely,
Butt Douglas/Erik Bergstrom
