Arcade Mania: The Turbo-charged World of Japan's Game Centers - Softcover

Ashcraft, Brian

3.65

182 ratings by Goodreads

9784770030788: Arcade Mania: The Turbo-charged World of Japan's Game Centers

Softcover

ISBN 10: 4770030789 ISBN 13: 9784770030788

Publisher: Kodansha USA, 2009

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Home of Sega, Nintendo, and Sony, Japan has a unique and powerful presence in the world of video games. Another thing that makes Japan unique in the gaming world is the prevalence of game arcades. While the game arcade scene has died in the U.S., there are 9,500 "game centers" in Japan with more than 445,000 game machines.
Arcade Mania introduces overseas readers to the fascinating world of the Japanese gemu senta. Organized as a guided tour of a typical game center, the book is divided into nine chapters, each of which deals with a different kind of game, starting with the UFO catchers and print club machines at the entrance and continuing through rhythm games, fighting games, shooting games, retro games, gambling games, card-based games, and only-in-Japan games.
Covering classic games from Space Invaders to Street Fighter, games that are familiar to Americans in their home console versions (Rock Band, Guitar Hero and Dance, Dance Revolution), as well as the unique, quirky games found only in Japan, Arcade Mania is crammed full of interviews with game makers and star players, and packed with facts about the history, background and characteristics of each game, all lavishly illustrated with photographs and game graphics. This book is a must-have for gamers everywhere.

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About the Author:

Osaka-based co-author BRIAN ASHCRAFT is the editor of Kotaku, one of the biggest gaming blogs on the net (one of the top 20 most popular blogs in the world, according to the website Technorati: http://technorati.com/pop/blogs/) with approximately 750,000 hits (23 million readers) per day.

Based in Tokyo, JEAN SNOWs art, design, and media-themed blog (www.jeansnow.net) boasts about 3,000 readers per day. Both are experts on the Japanese gaming scene, and are experienced writers: in addition to their blogging activities, Ashcraft is a contributor toWired Magazine, and Snow has a column on design in The Japan Times.

Review:

"A delightfultour of the most innovative, unusual, and dow nright bizarre stuff you can find in a Japanese arcade."
—Chris Baker, Wired Magazine

"A fascinating, funny, and sharp-eyed look at the place where they play-test the future."
—Warren Ellis, author of Crooked Little Vein and Transmetropolitan

"Arcade Mania! is the definitive history for anyone who's ever been ensnared by a UFO catcher, lost in Rhythm Heaven, or drained of time and money spent because of a great game arcade. And for those of us who don't quite fit that description, it's a tantalizing tour of what we've been missing."
—Stephen Totilo, MTV News

"...his writing style is as fast and furious as the pixilated, fantastical landscapes he evokes."
—The Christian Science MonitorM

"It's an essential work for anyone curious about the technological and cultural evolution of arcade games in Japan."
—The Dallas Morning News