The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers

[johnnykonami]

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

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.

Seems kinda awkward to leave something like this in.

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!

I was aware of the situation with his translator, but I didn't know enough about either of them to know who was really in the wrong.  Is she actually alright?  Seems a huge shame to have 1.) Made the effort to talk to all of these great Japanese devs but come back with poorly written/translated/embellished copy and 2.) Make westerners look bad/like they are wasting your time and hurt future attempts to talk to these guys.

Shame, really.

I first became aware 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 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 imformation 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

I have bought a couple issues of Retro Gamer but I never really focused on any of the particular writers so I never noticed his work if in the issues that I purchased.  Like any British publication in the US, they're expensive - like $12-$15 an issue if I recall, so I only bought like 2-3 of them spaced pretty far apart.  But I agree with you, I think there might be some value in the books, I just need to take it with a grain of salt.

Also, we love you Brits here in the states - we got your fancy lingo down!  I think they even used "nutter" in one of the Harry Potter movies, and everyone in the world has seen those.

[SignOfZeta]

I didn't mention it before, but yeah, the guy is crazy so I sorta wonder how reliable his data is. He's right about one thing, this info is super hard to obtain for westerners. However, that's also the same thing that keeps anyone from realistically being able to fact check. If he had one cool true story for every three lies and then a few pages of pontification in between...how the hell would we know? Is this shit real or is he the P.H. Chada of his day?

Thank you. Thank you.

I suppose as the Internet shrinks the world ever further, some of this info will head to us down parallels paths (i.e.: circa 2020 Google Translate and just the right 2 chan forum) but until then it's his world versus nobody.

As for his translator...the way I see it the main issue was that he didn't understand what it means to hire a translator, especially from Japanese. If you've ever spent time in this situation and you can speak some of the language you'll soon realize that you don't get a %100 accurate and complete translation of every single concept expressed by the native speaker. The translator "sums up" what is considered to be not just another language but really an entirely inscrutable nihongo mistique. "You couldn't understand it, you aren't Japanese. Let me state it plainly."  That's how that world works most of the time, right or wrong. They are as protective of their culture as they are embarrassed by it...not true, but it seems that way.

So this guy hired someone who probably thought they would be doing that but instead ended up doing graduate level work in overtime quantities. The guy *really* wanted the info so he sorta trashed every convention of what it means to hire a translator and then shit talked them when they couldn't keep up with an otaku on antidepressants. Who can?

[esteban]

"Otaku on antidepressants."

Should be our slogan!

[Arkhan]

I want to touch this person.   That 80s hair and flannel.

hot damn.

and MustacheDuder.   OH LAWDY.

im retarded.


Anyway, who's to say if the stuff in the book is accurate.   It's "good", but it is also the only choice, so what's the bar really set at ? 


Sucks hes a giant knob.

I didn't like his other articles.

[johnnykonami]

Yeah, I think I will eventually buy these anyway.  Gotta be some truth in there somewhere.

[Arkhan]

Yeah, I think I will eventually buy these anyway.  Gotta be some truth in there somewhere.

Is 80s Hair McFlannel for sale? 

I'm in.

[johnnykonami]

Yeah, I think I will eventually buy these anyway.  Gotta be some truth in there somewhere.

Is 80s Hair McFlannel for sale? 

I'm in.

Hey, nothing stopping you from using those photos anyway you want to, am I right?

[jeffhlewis]

Jeff Lewis can vouch for it as he's actually read the thing, you can check in that other thread towards the end.

TL;DR version for everyone who is considering buying the (now dirt cheap) versions of vol 1 and 2  that some of us paid big bucks to Kickstart

1.) The author is a massive (and potentially schizo) knob who spent half of the Kickstarter updates post-funding complaining/whining/bitching/libeling about the translation team. So much so that people started turning against him in the comments. Guy seriously has issues; not sure how he stays employed anywhere with the attitude he has.

2.) The two books are ridiculously huge, and are written in like 12 point font with no margins. So from a certain standpoint, you're definitely getting your money's worth from the sheer amount of content

3.) Going along with #2, the books read more like an unedited draft than a final copy fit for print. A lot of the stuff could have been edited down, and there's a lot of places where text is blatantly [REDACTED]...not sure why he chose to tease people with redacted comments vs. just editing those pieces of the interviews out.

4.) That being said, for someone like me who has rose-colored glasses for the mid-80's/early-90's Japanese game development scene, there are some real nuggets in these interviews (like the Mitchell Corp. and Enix interviews) that you can't find anywhere else. It gives you the impression that making these games that we all revere so much was just a day job to these guys back in the day.

5.) PCEFX pride means that you must side with Nightwolve while reading this book (again, see point #1).

[seieienbu]

I'm not going to buy the book because this thread makes the writer sound like a tool but I am curious, what did he have to say about Nightwolve?

[NightWolve]

5.) PCEFX pride means that you must side with Nightwolve while reading this book (again, see point #1).

Haha, thanks! Well, I'm at least vindicated given what he did with Agness Kaku, and she had the money and ballz to file lawsuits which I really respect! Never saw a 4chan/GameFAQs level troll like John get held accountable like that! I only ever spoke to lawyers about XSEED, but she and her husband really sat down together, organized it remotely from Japan and forced John to spend money to answer it all in court which was really awesome regardless if they lost both times because neither French or UK courts would accept jurisdiction to handle him!

I'm not going to buy the book because this thread makes the writer sound like a tool but I am curious, what did he have to say about Nightwolve?

Sure, ask and ye shall receive. The 2009 HG101 rant/hit-piece he dedicated to me with Communist hammer and sickle symbolism over the Ys IV title screen was deleted by Kurt Kalata after I contacted him to report the bizarre lying though. BUT, 3 years later, he ranted about me again because I criticized him for it in 3-4 sentences in the Ys IV ReadMe (he found out about it almost immediately) - I saved his rants here:

http://www.ysutopia.net/uploads/PsychoJohnOnYsIVDub.htm#psychojohn1

In past times, I might've preferred that level of viciousness about me stay deleted, but it deserves preservation and I've long since gotten used to my "customers" raging about me in this way over the years... Heh-heh.

Funny thing, his "poison" and "toxic" attacks are what he also used with Agness, so those are trademarks of his about as much as my use of "hack."

Anyway, so you'll see his posts unedited, but I interjected my responses in red so it didn't go unchallenged. He's got ballz to cry "slander" for my 3-4 sentences after dropping all that nastiness! I pissed him off good, at least, and then years later he f--ked with the wrong people and caught real lawsuits, so "goes around comes around," it all worked out! 



Another thing about it, that criminal from XSEED Games showed up to help him lobby BurntLasagna (my 3rd Ys IV dub manager) into deleting those 3-4 sentences I mentioned... Lipschultz is actually the cause of John's lying when it came to Ys IV and I was amazed he wanted visible involvement in that thread given the timing was a few months after I called his company to fight back against what happened with those shameful Ys script acquisition deals... So, he "elected" himself to a committee of fan ReadMe standards and decided what I said "didn't belong" and should be deleted per John's demands... Surprise... This did result in conflict between BurntLasagna and myself because he deleted it without asking me, but I'll leave that tangent out of this.

[Koop]

I actually backed this book, no idea who the guy was but it looked really cool. Got to read awesome updates like this:

This is all from one f*cking update... I just wanted a book.

For those curious I got most of em in my archive still... Could be an entire f*cking book itself.

[NightWolve]

Hahaha, that's great stuff! So yeah, it becomes an ugly "he said/she said" fight with plenty of dirt-digging, and that's fine for forum drama or other contexts, but you're a backer that put money down waiting for a product, it's a professional/business situation now, so that's gonna make you really nervous seeing that sort of thing!! I think he was really worried things might go bad and wanted a good scapegoat/fall guy to blame so if it sucked or was delayed, you all understood why, blame Agness and her sister, NOT him!

[Koop]

Hahaha, that's great stuff! So yeah, it becomes an ugly "he said/she said" fight with plenty of dirt-digging, and that's fine for forum drama or other contexts, but you're a backer that put money down waiting for a product, it's a professional/business situation now, so that's gonna make you really nervous seeing that sort of thing!! I think he was really worried things might go bad and wanted a good scapegoat/fall guy to blame so if it sucked or was delayed, you all understood why, blame Agness and her sister, NOT him!

All it did was annoy the shit out of me and pretty much everyone else I think. One update explaining the situation I could understand- but man he did this update after update after update... Pretty obvious the guy had a problem after a while.

Needless to say I didn't buy anything else he did afterwards even after I got emails for it...

I met Kurt of HG_101 at a small con in NJ (had no idea we were in the same state) who had a key few words to say about John... Nothing too flattering. 

[Necromancer]

This did result in conflict between BurntLasagna and myself because he deleted it without asking me, but I'll leave that tangent out of this.

That's rather shitty.

[Mathius]

I own the DVD if anyone wishes to borrow it. I'm not a fan of John Szczepaniak but there is nothing else quite like it.