Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love

Completely out of the blue, I received a preview build of Sakura Wars in the mail the other day. I say “completely out of the blue” because this is the first time I’ve received a preview build of anything since I got laid off from ADV in June of 2008. I honestly didn’t realize that the PR department of NIS America knew my home address. Are they spying on me??!! Wait. Maybe not. If so, they woulda known that my modded PS2 is somewhere in the closet, buried under a bunch of winter clothing, and I have too much work today to dig it out! (I have a vague memory of telling my old PR contacts to send their email blasts to an address I created for that purpose, but man, I haven’t checked it in about a year. Sorry, video-game industry.)

All I can say today about this game is that it has Gemini Sunrise in it. That’s all that needs to be said, right? Hiroi-ohji made an offhand comment half a decade ago about how this character will serve to introduce the series to overseas audiences — apparently he was looking even further ahead than I ever imagined!

The ferret gives the bubble wrap 8.2/10.

“The Phantom of Akihabara,” Chapter 7: “A Well-Adjusted World”

“You were never part of it in the first place. Besides, could you really say the game industry had it right, ever? Every hardware maker having their own network? No synchronization between development and sales? Huge gluts of titles; top-brand games all coming out at the same time and eating into each other’s profits? There’s a lot to gain from stabilizing distribution, even if means a little more regulation than what they had before. The industry’s never enjoyed anything like it. A lot of them are looking forward to it.”

Here is chapter seven (“A Well-Adjusted World”) of The Phantom of Akihabara: GAME OVER, a serial novel written by Yoshitaka Ohsawa between 2002 and 2004. You’ll want to start at chapter one if you’re new to the tale.

The move to regulate and control games and otaku culture, a mission led by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, is rapidly approaching its final stages. Secretly, behind the spotlights, the government has acted to take over game distribution, the central core that makes entertainment an economically viable industry. Ryohei Takamizawa, the hero, has made contact with Saeko Kanoura, an informant (?) within the ministry, to get to the bottom of this operation.

Happy readin’.

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“The Phantom of Akihabara,” Chapter 6: “Endless Game”

“So you’re cosplaying and everything whenever you go undercover like that?”
“Yes, sir. I didn’t think I’d be able to pull it off past thirty, but it keeps people’s eyes off me all the same. In fact, it’s gotten me a lot of side benefits. People brag to me; they reveal details; they give me their life stories.”
“What were you dressed as?”
“I’m sorry, sir; that’s kind of a personal question.”

Here is chapter six (“Endless Game”) of The Phantom of Akihabara: GAME OVER, a serial novel written by Yoshitaka Ohsawa between 2002 and 2004. You’ll want to start at chapter one if you’re new to the tale.

On a visit to the twice-yearly underground Comic Market, illicit used-game broker Ryohei Takamizawa runs into the shadowy owner of Sofmap #666, a “game buyer” he’s known for his entire career. The man is neck-deep in the underground game business, and he has bad news: the Japanese government is set to clamp down on every aspect of otaku culture, from what it can depict to how it’s distributed. If they succeed, then otaku-dom has no future, and Ryohei is sent by the man to meet up with a certain someone and figure out a way to stop them.

Happy readin’.

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Yuji Naka discusses SMS programming

Following up my post about the PCE version of Space Harrier, here is a bit from an interview with Yuji Naka printed in Sega Consumer History, a book published by Enterbrain in 2002:

I did a lot of testing to figure out how best to port Space Harrier to the Mark III, but the hardware had very strict sprite limits and I really couldn’t show much more than the player and his bullets. If I was going to port this game, I naturally wanted to retain all of the impact of the original at all costs, but if I had rely on sprites for that, the results would’ve been pretty depressing.

That’s when I began coding a system that drew [enemies] directly onto background tiles instead. That let me retain at least a bit of the original’s high speed, and it was ultimately what made Space Harrier possible on the Mark III. But I still kick myself over the square tiles that overlap all over the bosses! I tried really hard to come up with a software solution to this issue, but I just hit a wall when it came to CPU power.

OutRun started out the same way, in that I knew I wanted to recreate the up-and-down motion of the original no matter what. I coded it so that it pretty much redrew the entire screen to create the effect, but it wasn’t everything it should’ve been. It was close, but not close enough. I don’t know if it was my fault or the Mark III’s, but it was probably somewhere between the two of us.

Really, figuring out what game to port to which hardware at which time was a very important thing back then. You had to consider the development skills you had at hand very carefully, especially because the really flashy full-cabinet games like Space Harrier, OutRun and After Burner were coming out one after another that whole time. I pushed myself really hard from a technical standpoint during that era, so the time still conjures up a lot of memories for me.

“The Phantom of Akihabara,” Chapter 5: “Like the River Flow”

“You know how I’m helping out with the Comiket down below, right?”
“Uh-huh. That, and how you worked with the closet otaku in Urban Planning to keep it from attracting any attention.”
“Yeah, well, the honeymoon’s just about over with that. I think they’re gonna do away with Comiket, and they’re gonna take down every damn store in this building along with it.”

Here is chapter five (“Like the River Flow”) of The Phantom of Akihabara: GAME OVER, a serial novel written by Yoshitaka Ohsawa between 2002 and 2004. You’ll want to start at chapter one if you’re new to the tale.

With an economy in shambles and a nation in chaos, the Japanese government has forced peace and goodwill upon its people — a movement that dovetailed all too well with media’s tendency to censor itself, starting in the 1990s. With all the “poison” sucked out of their popular entertainment, how can Japan’s game nerds continue to exist…if they can at all?

Happy readin’.

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An exciting preview

Coming soon: A video game so tough that VideoGames & Computer Entertainment couldn’t even figure out a strategy for defeating the next-to-last boss.

Your reading 090707 edition

Top 10 Bad Things the Internet Brought to Gaming Journalism

I love that ex-EGM-boss Shoe’s number-one choice is “people.” I can’t stand ‘em either!

“The Phantom of Akihabara,” Chapter 4: “The Blindfolded”

The publishers, meanwhile, throw millions into each project, the price of staying ahead in the industry. There is simply too much at stake for both creator and consumer to do anything creative. No. Games aren’t creative works of art. Deep down, both sides of the bargain know that games are products of precise engineering, like a car or your washing machine.

Here is chapter four (“The Blindfolded”) of The Phantom of Akihabara: GAME OVER, a serial novel written by Yoshitaka Ohsawa between 2002 and 2004. You’ll want to start at chapter one if you’re new to the tale.

With an economy in shambles and a nation in chaos, the Japanese government has forced peace and goodwill upon its people — a movement that dovetailed all too well with media’s tendency to censor itself, starting in the 1990s. With all the “poison” sucked out of their popular entertainment, how can Japan’s game nerds continue to exist…if they can at all?

Happy readin’.

Read the rest of this entry »

“The Phantom of Akihabara,” Chapter 3: “Taboos”

The history buff sighed. “What does freedom of speech mean, anyway? Is anything okay as long as you claim that it’s fiction? Or as long as the opposition groups don’t find you? Either way, the developers never bothered facing facts. Any form of entertainment’s going to offend someone, somewhere out there, but they kept on revising and recalling their work whenever any crap popped up. That’s why we’re all in this pile right now.”

Here is chapter three (“Taboos”) of The Phantom of Akihabara: GAME OVER, a serial novel written by Yoshitaka Ohsawa between 2002 and 2004. You’ll want to start at chapter one if you’re new to the tale.

In a collapsed Japan where all the “poison” has been removed from mass media, the otaku culture of the past finds a way to survive in the wreckage. Ryohei Takamizawa’s job is to find rare and out-of-print games for his nostalgia-happy clients. What’s he up to this chapter?

Happy readin’.

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“The Phantom of Akihabara,” Chapter 2

Looking back, I was amazed I holed myself up in there, ten hours or so at a time, open to close, despite how unhealthy it all was. Odd how it didn’t bother me at all. I was knee-deep in that realm on a daily basis. But the hours spent playing filled me. The feeling I got with every cheer that leapt from the audience when I landed an extended combo, with every complimentary wry smile I shared with my opponent regardless of who won or lost, was indescribable.

Here is chapter two of The Phantom of Akihabara: GAME OVER, a serial novel written by Yoshitaka Ohsawa that takes retro games and uses them to weave a tale of suspense and post-apocalyptic sullenness. In a collapsed Japan where all the “poison” has been removed from mass media, the otaku culture of the past finds a way to survive in the wreckage. Ryohei Takamizawa’s job is to find rare and out-of-print games for his nostalgia-happy clients. What’s he up to this chapter?

Happy readin’.

Read the rest of this entry »