Saturday, June 18, 2016

A Look at the Japanese Game Preservation Society - [HG101]



"A look at the Japanese Game Preservation Society's laboratory in Tokyo, as guided by Joseph Redon. This organization works to preserve Japan's software, which, like software from all over the globe, was initially distributed on rather fragile medium."

This is an excerpt from John Szczepaniak's DVD "The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers"

In 2014, HG101, launched a kickstarter that would attempt to tackle the untold history of japanese game developers. As John put it:

"Fly to Japan in September, hire the best Japanese/English interpreters money can find, and then - using my extensive list of contacts - make stuff happen. Interview as many developers as possible in less than three months, with a focus on undocumented information and developers who have never been interviewed before. Transcribe the English interpretation, then edit, design and create the most extensive, most comprehensive, most ambitious book about video games ever envisioned. This epic tome will contain trivia and stories of Japanese video game history never documented anywhere else in English."

...While the endeavour turned out to be a bit of disaster with a particular associate, the end result is an incredibly rare and unique look at the game industry overseas. 

If you grew up, playing any of the famous 16-bit jrpgs of the 90s, this is definitely worth a look.

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/books.htm