Japanese translator, hacker, programmer – 3 for the price of 1!
My Dear Detective; Apple Children of Aeon; a handful of video games and stage plays.
性懲りもない楽天家。
Apr 23, 2021 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
I've recently seen some influential-ish people espousing this categorization, saying it's "how Japan sees it" – and… it's not!
Japan uses "adventure game" as an umbrella term for all "VN-like" games, with "novel game" as a subcategory. Let's talk Japanese genres. (1/?)
Japan has a rich history of adventure games, text and graphical. Visual novels (or "novel games") are a later invention – but far from being separate, they occupy the same spot in Japan's cultural consciousness, and it is in fact a subgenre categorized as "adventure games" there.
Oct 21, 2020 • 14 tweets • 13 min read
I recently found something unbelievable: Project EGG.
Virtual Console for vintage Japanese PC games!? A treasure trove of PC-98, MSX, X68000, etc., all digital, and there's a huge sale! amusement-center.com/project/egg/
Why does no one talk about this!?
(Highlights 'n' info thread! 1/?)
The monetization model is a bit odd, but hey: a ¥550 (~€4; ~$5) monthly subscription gives you ~130 free games and access to buying paid games. You keep your games after canceling. Here's how to start! amusement-center.com/user/month-new… amusement-center.com/member/mypage.… amusement-center.com/member/stoppro…
(2/?)
Oct 13, 2020 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
An underdocumented part of Japan's video game history: arcades had (and, to an extent, have!) communal notebooks in which people would write game tips, comments, ask questions, and generally communicate – GameFAQs before GameFAQs! These were core for Japan arcades' social aspect.
Famously, The Tower of Druaga was a “community effort” based on sharing obtuse secrets – Western historians will often say people “shared secrets on the playground”, but I talked to some old-timers in person: in reality, these notebooks were at the heart of that communication!