by Loops San
Arcade Mania is focused around the arcade game center – it’s origins and how it stands now, a concept where people get together in a place that’s filled with arcade game cabinets, compete for those prestigious high-scores and test your skill against other players. This concept has been dead in Europe for quite a while and it’s virtually extinct in the other Western countries with a few places in America putting a fight; one things for sure it hell as ain’t as mainstream in the west as it used to be, however in the land where the most video games and video game trend originate from; Japan ? Arcade’s are still alive, kicking and evolving.
Arcade mania is quite the attractive book with it’s hip layout mixing large multi-colored pages with aptly cut black and white images and is written with some tongue-in-cheek humor.
Consisting of nine distinct chapters, each covering specific aspects of a typical type of game you’d expect to find in a Japanese arcade, SHMUPs, UFO catchers, card-based games and more.
Chapters start off with an interview with a star player each in his or her respective field which provides alot of depth and insight, next talented authors Brian Ashcraft (editor of Kotaku) and Jean Snow provides their own analysis and a wealth of information and background regarding the discussed subjects.
by dianaschnuth
The information provided was simply stunning, I’veve recently had the opportunity to go to Tokyo and have experienced what’s written for a fact and it’s depicted in an extremely realistic manner in this book just what makes a modern arcade in Japan these days. Being a book filled with background and history expect to get schooled on things you thought you knew. I never imagined Sega`s origins dated back some 50 or so years ago, when the company started to do entertainment based relief in the post world-war 2 depression that Japan faced.
It all made sense how Sega is still a popular giant in the land of the rising sun with ties so deeply rooted into their society. Read about coverage from classic games ranging from the iconic Space Invaders that actually caused a coin shortage in Japan back in the day all the way to the latest Street Fighter incarnation (SF4)
Discover the Japanese arcade origins of games that are familiar to us Westies on our home consoles like Rock Band, Guitar Hero and DDR, the discussions on the arcade to console cross-overs are also very interesting.
I’ve read quite a few gaming books but this one is definitely on top of it’s game.
A highly recommended read for anybody interested in arcades should buy it !
This post is tagged Arcade, Japan, retro, space invaders, Tokyo