“What kind of game centre blasts out James Blunt – You’re Beautiful over the sound system?”

So I’m here, I’m in Japan and I’ve an itinerary as long as Santa’s address book of what will be seen and what will done during such a short period of vacation time. Gaming-wise, Akihabara is the obvious priority but no visit would be complete without dropping a few ¥100 coins in a game centre or two.

The game centre. The last true outpost of, what is for many, now a relic of the past. Ancient history. Around the world, almost anywhere you care to visit in fact, the game centre (aka ‘the video arcade’) has virtually disappeared from public life. Once a thriving hotspot for many a person of the 1980’s and 1990’s, the humble game centre has lost out to the convenience of the Internet and … Read More »

I am 32 years old, I’ve wanted a robot since I was 6 and have dreamed of visiting Japan since the very first time I leafed through the ‘Live From Hell City‘ articles by Peter Evans in Super Play magazine some 19 years ago now. In the small hours of the morning on Sunday July 8th, 2012, nearly two decades after my first real exposure to Tokyo, at a time where I was old enough to grasp and completely understand the messages being conveyed through this and other journals of the day, I will be boarding a flight to Tokyo.

Holiday snaps

These are my ‘memoirs’ of my vacation to Japan, July 2012. I hope you enjoy this series.

Finally, I’m making the pilgrimage that all gaijin gamers and Japanophiles desire to make before they get too old, die alone … Read More »

“All the romance of trout fishing exists in the mind of the angler and is in no way shared by the fish.” – Harold F. Blaisdell, ‘The Philosophical Fisherman’, 1969

Early December 2011, slightly bored, I puh-roozed the Internet with absolutely zero intention of looking for anything gaming-related to purchase. Reading this you can most likely conjure up the scenario. Tapping a few keys in to your search engine of choice, scouring the results and then click… click… click… click click click… Five minutes have passed and your web browser suddenly has approximately 40 tabs open and you’re a million miles away from what you were searching for in the first place because every page you opened had something instantly more interesting to look at than the original page you wanted to look at.

Somehow you, sorry, I, am now staring at … Read More »

“SHMUPS are perfect for pick-up-and-play, and it’s easy to find yourself playing DoDonPachi on the phone while waiting to check out at the store.” – Mike Walz.

Microsoft really did deal a winning hand to the console market with their XBOX Live program by reserving a shelf for indie developers to showcase their wares. For me I think it’s not only a real acknowledgement of the sheer talent out there but a great showcase of some fine video games from teams and individuals who would otherwise not be able to afford to get their work out there. In honesty, the future of product acquisition, in most markets, is digital. Many have embraced the mainstream indie games distribution market, such as Steam and it’s equivalents. But no other service, in my opinion, has made such huge leaps forward in this area as XBOX Live … Read More »