The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers

[ParanoiaDragon]

Does anyone have either of these books, what's your impression, worth getting?  They sound interesting, lot's of stuff about Falcom, Hudson, Telenet, NCS, Westone, Human, Irem, etc.

http://www.amazon.com/Untold-History-Japanese-Game-Developers/dp/0992926025/ref=pd_bxgy_14_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=08XR1VR859167PHYF35B

http://www.amazon.com/Untold-History-Japanese-Developers-Volume/dp/1518655319/ref=pd_cp_14_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1HQG3H9HDCJQWZA2J2Z9&tag=viglink24327-20

[sirhcman]

Isn't this the guy who wasted a bunch of kickstarter money? I remember there being a thread about it here (somewhere)

Edit here it is: https://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=14787.msg298987#msg298987

[Otaking]

Yeah I got the first book, I was impressed, thought it was a good read.

There was so much drama surrounding the books/DVDs though, there's some threads on here.

EDIT sirhcman posted as I was typing this answer.

 

[esteban]

I want these books. I remember the drama, though.

[xelement5x]

They were giving away free digital versions for awhile, I snagged the first one then but am working on other stuff now.

[NightWolve]

Isn't this the guy who wasted a bunch of kickstarter money? I remember there being a thread about it here (somewhere)

Edit here it is: https://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=14787.msg298987#msg298987

Yeah, we had a whole thread on the history of Psycho John Schizomaniak who made this book and got sued twice for libel by the Metal Gear Solid 2 translator, Agness Kaku. I too was a target of his once, and can vouch for his willingness to fabricate quotes, to outright lie about people in order to heckle/irritate them. He's a real piece of work.

Also, I did manage to get the book for free with Kindle a couple of months ago when HG101 mentioned the freebie special. The window was short, maybe a day or so. Anyway, there is an interview with Quintet and surely other interesting stuff. Jeff Lewis can vouch for it as he's actually read the thing, you can check in that other thread towards the end.

[johnnykonami]

can vouch for his willingness to fabricate quotes

This doesn't apply to the interviews in the book, I hope right?  I've been wanting to get these since the Kickstarter but I waited until it was available on Amazon.  Then I passed on it because I thought the cover artwork looked so amateur (the blue one with the map of Japan), to me that said something about the quality of the book on the inside also.  Since then they've released the "gold" cover which looks much nicer, but the images I've seen on the layout inside make it seem like it would be hard to read.  Those HCG101 books seem to have the same problem.  I generally like HCG101 (I stay out of the squabbling but the site is fun to browse) but I passed on most of those too.

These are still on my wishlist though, I mean how can I pass on all of these interviews from Hudson, Westone, Telenet Japan and others that I loved.. can't get that elsewhere so I figure it's at least worth it for this, that is if the interviews are factual.

[Necromancer]

I don't know if I'd bother reading this even if it were free.

[SignOfZeta]

Aparently the book is good, perhaps really good, but the guy is a true psycho with legit mental health problems. He basically tortured his translators and complained about it in a way that betrays a total lack of self awareness - that is, if you or I behaved like such a huge a$$hole we'd be ashamed to admit it, but this guy told the whole self incriminating story in his own posts. Weird.

[johnnykonami]

I don't know if I'd bother reading this even if it were free.

I mean, supposedly the guy went around and got brand new interview material from employees who used to work at these companies, so aside from the all the drama surrounding the book, that sounds at least worthwhile.

[NightWolve]

can vouch for his willingness to fabricate quotes

This doesn't apply to the interviews in the book, I hope right?

I should hope so if he cares about his credibility. As for libel, I did contact and inform Agness after I downloaded the book and I searched around, finding that he referred to her and her sister as "sabotaging malcontents" basically. But he was smart with it this time, he didn't name names. Only those of us that know of all the drama he caused know who he is referring to.

"that ultimately saved the project when it was faced with sabotage by malcontents."

Szczepaniak, S.M.G (2014-11-26). The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers: Gold Edition (Kindle Location 8154). SMG Szczepaniak. Kindle Edition.

[Necromancer]

I mean, supposedly the guy went around and got brand new interview material from employees who used to work at these companies, so aside from the all the drama surrounding the book, that sounds at least worthwhile.

Except the guy is delusional and often full of beans, leading me to question the veracity of the writings.  I don't want to waste my time reading something where half of it is poorly translated responses and made up shit.

[NightWolve]

Here's a full excerpt from that page, to get a taste. Someone that goes back to Falcom, Quintet, Telenet, etc.

Interview with Kouji Yokota – (contains Lunar: Eternal Blue ending SPOILERS)
27 September & 10 October 2013, Shade company offices, Tokyo

When starting this project there were several names which readers repeatedly requested coverage on. One was Super Famicom-era developers Quintet, which spun off from Nihon Falcom. Another was Nihon Falcom itself, plus Nihon Telenet and Game Arts. Mr Yokota has worked for all four of these companies, in addition to being head of Shade, which itself spun off from Quintet. Originally I contacted a member of staff from Terranigma, via his brother on Twitter. The Terranigma developer said he could be interviewed and promised to put me in touch with a colleague. This plan fizzled out, but determined to get some Quintet coverage I contacted fellow writer Sorrel Tilley, who put me in touch with Mr Yokota, who in turn invited me to join him at the Sony Indies Stream party, which led to some valuable business card exchanges that ultimately saved the project when it was faced with sabotage by malcontents. In fact I interviewed Mr Yokota twice. There were difficulties with the material from the first interview, so it was worth visiting again. The two interviews have been edited into one – additionally, two fluent Japanese speakers gave the audio and text another pass. As a neat bonus I also met the developer of Popful Mail, Jun Nagashima. As it turned out, several former Falcom employees were now at Shade. Joining me on the day was Preservation Society President Joseph Redon, who brought with archive materials related to Mr Yokota’s career. When we walked into the meeting room we spotted something special…

JS: There’s a PC-88FH Black model over there!

KY: < laughs > Yes, that’s right.

JS: Boxes of floppies! Can you tell us about this?

KY: Actually, I tried to activate them and they still work. Would you like to see it?

JS: I’d love to. Can I shoot some video?

< Mr Yokota moves over to the machine >

KY: I don’t want any video to be linked with me. So whatever you shoot… If you post it somewhere, I don’t want to be mentioned.

< the PC-88 comes to life, playing the classic opening track to Falcom’s Ys III, loud and rich >

KY: You can turn down the volume.

JS: Was this your personal machine? Did you develop on it?

KY: This is the machine I used to use at work. More than 20 years ago.

JS: Do you still have your development materials?

KY: We needed a PC-9801 in addition to this, but I don’t have that.

< JR explains Game Preservation Society >

Szczepaniak, S.M.G (2014-11-26). The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers: Gold Edition (Kindle Locations 8146-8171). SMG Szczepaniak. Kindle Edition.

JR: At the Game Preservation Society we’re putting a lot of effort into preserving your work.

KY: I actually have a lot of these. < refers to old development floppy disks > But I don’t have the hardware to play them.

JR: We have all the needed hardware at the Game Preservation Society. We have developed unique techniques to preserve old games.

KY: I have all the old games, but I’m not making any use of them. So maybe there’s certain things I can donate.

JR: This would be very helpful, but on the contrary, we already have a huge archive of games, including yours. So in fact, if sometime you need your own work for anything, we would be happy to help you.

KY: Thank you very much.

JS: What was the first game you saw?

KY: If you’re talking about videogames, it was Space Invaders. And there used to be an upright driving game, I think that probably was the first game I was exposed to.

JS: When did you want to join the industry?

KY: I actually had my first computer at around the age of 20. So I was already interested in that kind of field. And I really like arcade games; Space Harrier by Sega I found very impressive, so I was very much attracted to the industry.

JS: Was your first job at Nihon Telenet?

KY: My first job, yes.

JS: Many answered wanted adverts when joining companies. How did you join Telenet?

KY: My friend was already working there and so he introduced me to the company.

JS: Who was your friend?

KY: Not really a friend, but someone who was senior in age. We had a common friend from school, or acquaintance, through which I came to know that person, but he was older than me. So he wasn’t really a friend of mine. He suggested there were some software houses I could try for an interview, so I decided to take some interviews. Back then, the titles of Nihon Telenet were quite attractive, so I chose that company as the first one I had an interview with. Then I was fortunate to be recruited. JS: Nihon Telenet had a strong visual style.

KY: Yes, they did! < laughs >

JS: Which other companies did you apply for?

KY: Well, actually… Game Arts… There were some other candidates that I wanted to try, but Nihon Telenet was the first company I tried and I was hired, so I didn’t get to.

JS: Nihon Telenet had a bit of a rivalry with Nihon Falcom and Zainsoft, didn’t it?

< We look through Comtiq magazine, at the Zainsoft spread, showing Jun Mukai and the CEO, Mr Miyamoto, learing over him >

KY: He’s 16. Japanese regulations say you’re not allowed to work too much. But he worked all the time! < laughs > He got Telenet into big trouble – the police visited the office!

Szczepaniak, S.M.G (2014-11-26). The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers: Gold Edition (Kindle Locations 8183-8202). SMG Szczepaniak. Kindle Edition.

Meh, actually I could've spared myself some trouble by just taking screenshots...

Except the guy is delusional and often full of beans, leading me to question the veracity of the writings.  I don't want to waste my time reading something where half of it is poorly translated responses and made up shit.

It is a fair position to take with this guy, yeah!

[Necromancer]

That's not a promising excerpt for anyone looking for insightful interviews and amusing anecdotes.

Falcom used a PC-88/98 to develop a PC-88/98 game?  The hell you say!

[Otaking]

I first became aware of Szczepaniak back when he was a writer for Retro Gamer magazine. His work was excellent, the articles were very well written and he covered mainly import and Japanese originated games. I thought the book was written to the same high standard.

It turns out in real life he seems to be a bit of a nutter from all the drama that ensued around his book. But still holds up that the book is excellent, and who else in the English speaking world is traveling to Japan and interviewing these people from the golden era. I do get the impression if he hadn't had done it this information would have been lost to us forever. So it's comendable that he's documented this stuff for the English speaking world.

Edit. just realised peeps in the US wouldn't know what I meant by "nutter"
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=nutter