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[transience]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1748556728/the-untold-history-of-japanese-game-developers

This is really ambitious. John Szczepaniak is looking to fly to Japan, hire a top-notch interpreter and interview people nonstop for a month, making sure that each page of his forthcoming book has a piece of information that has never been written about before.

The recent Scroll got some kickstarter love here -- will this one? It's a lot more ambitious, maybe even crazy.

 

[Dwayne]

Will buy.

At a sane retail price.

 

[wrowa]

Want.

 

[AzureSkies]

While it seems way too amibitious, if it's certain that he will be able to use his contacts to inteview people I will happily fund it, and it sure is looking this way.

I have loved reading Hardcore Gaming 101 for the past few years, so I will happily support this.

 

[News Bot]

Awesome. Hopefully I'll be able to pledge a sizable amount by the end of the week. I think I can also get him some more interviewees.

 

[Jac_Solar]

I think this is the best, most deserving Kickstarter project I've yet come across, and I'm not really a fan of KS. If he manages to do what he says he will do, this will indeed be one of the most important works in gaming.

 

[Kade]

HG101 does good work. Definitely pledging.

 

[Celine]

If he can interview Miyazaki / Hashimoto, former key figure at Falcom and especially Quintet I would gladly donate 30 bucks.

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

Holy shit. Yuichi Toyama?! John knows the guy who designed the original Herzog game and worked at Technosoft? That's it: I must fund this. That alone is reason enough to make sure this project happens. He can do it. John's one of the best investigative journalists in the industry; if this works out, he'll be more than just my favorite.

 

[A Sentient Keyboard]

People seem pretty pumped about this, and the kickstarter has a long way to go before it reaches it's goal, so I figured this deserved a bump.

I must admit I have no idea who most of these people are though.

 

[dallow_bg]

Deserves it way more than Scroll. Hope he gets it.

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

Deserves it way more than Scroll. Hope he gets it.

No, the SCROLL Kickstarter is valid too. This is just far more important. This is like that issue 100x.

 

[Tagg9]

I'd buy it, but not at 25 quid.

 

[Takuhi]

This seems interesting, and I'll probably support it.

The one thing that bugs me is, why hire western artists to do covers for a book exclusively about Japanese games? I'd be much more excited for this if he'd attempt to get some of the artists who worked on the games involved.

 

[A Black Falcon]

Backed. Fantastic idea; I really hope that it reaches its goal, this kind of work is needed.

 

[IrishNinja]

just saw this on HG101's twitter (why are they still banned here?!)

glad there's a month left, i wanna back the £35 ($53) tier for that retro gamer cover, will be backing.

 

[Aeana]

just saw this on HG101's twitter (why are they still banned here?!)

glad there's a month left, i wanna back the £35 ($53) tier for that retro gamer cover, will be backing.

I'm not positive, but I believe that the reason they were banned was for the "super megaton Konami news" debacle that got people inordinately hyped up and then just ended up just being an interview with the translator of MGS.

 

[lunchwithyuzo]

Backed. Gimme dat Gold cover.

just saw this on HG101's twitter (why are they still banned here?!)

What?! Seriously?

 

[GDGF]

Totally down for this.

 

[IrishNinja]

I'm not positive, but I believe that the reason they were banned was for the "super megaton Konami news" debacle that got people inordinately hyped up and then just ended up just being an interview with the translator of MGS.

that's possible too, i reached out to stumpkapow and he indicated it had to do with them being compromised a little while back, they were marked as such by google if i recall correctly...but the issue's been resolved since. he said he's messaged upper management to get them off the blacklist but no reply yet, sadly....it's a great site, i hate seeing them blocked here.

 

[ASTROID2]

Would totally buy.

 

[randomkid]

that's possible too, i reached out to stumpkapow and he indicated it had to do with them being compromised a little while back, they were marked as such by google if i recall correctly...but the issue's been resolved since. he said he's messaged upper management to get them off the blacklist but no reply yet, sadly....it's a great site, i hate seeing them blocked here.

Yeah hopefully this gets fast-tracked, it's pretty silly that a site like HG101 of all places has been banned this long.

 

[encephalon]

On one hand, the site is a great compendium of Japanese games and some or their articles are good. On the other hand, not all of their articles are good.

 

[@MUWANdo]

On one hand, the site is a great compendium of Japanese games and some or their articles are good. On the other hand, not all of their articles are good.

Yeah, a lot of their stuff is amateurish, it's a total crapshoot.

 

[Biker19]

I'm all for it.

 

[News Bot]

I'd buy it, but not at 25 quid.

You mustn't have purchased much video game books before if you think that's unreasonable.

 

[danmaku]

HG101 is awesome, I love their articles. I'm backing this.

 

[LiK]

just saw this on HG101's twitter (why are they still banned here?!)

glad there's a month left, i wanna back the £35 ($53) tier for that retro gamer cover, will be backing.

I asked a few weeks ago and this was the response on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/HG_101/status/327531288749805568

the Soul Hackers OT linked to images on HG101 server. When we were hacked 2 weeks back...

https://twitter.com/HG_101/status/327531579016609792

...even linked images trigger malware warnings on the page. It was a precautionary measure

 

[IrishNinja]

...that's it? pretty crazy, think i'm gonna PM bish and see if the matter can be cleared up now.

 

[@MUWANdo]

I still get random malware warnings from HG101 all the time, no idea what's triggering them (if anything).

 

[Riposte]

How many pages dedicated to character bios?

 

[Shining]

Totally want this.

 

[gingerbeardman]

I'm in.

I still get random malware warnings from HG101 all the time, no idea what's triggering them (if anything).

They were hacked a while back and are still recovering. Let them know what page and they'll get on it.

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

How many pages dedicated to character bios?

lol, I wouldn't put it past him to write any bios at all. If this basically an enormous HG101 project, then that could be the case (he's just focusing on the general history, however).

 

[discoalucard]

John continues to impress me with the number of Japanese developers he digs up. I often turn to him for advice when conducting interviews myself, so if there's anyone cut out for a project like this, it's definitely him.

I still get random malware warnings from HG101 all the time, no idea what's triggering them (if anything).

As noted above, we got hacked last month, and got MOSTLY cleaned up. But it turns out there was a file we missed in a subdirectory that wouldn't be accessed by readers. Google hadn't found it originally, but one of their bots stumbled across it and tossed up a warning last week. It got fixed pretty quickly and wouldn't have affected anyone anyway, but it was still annoying. If you still get warnings, either clear your cache, or drop me a line if there's a specific page that's still triggering it.

Thanks to Stump and Nirolak for trying to get the domain cleared up here, but it looks like it's up to the admins at this point.

 

[Canadian Psycho]

I think this is the best, most deserving Kickstarter project I've yet come across, and I'm not really a fan of KS. If he manages to do what he says he will do, this will indeed be one of the most important works in gaming.

I totally agree. For all of Japan's invaluable contributions to gaming (not to mention entirely resurrecting the home console industry in NA), way too little is known about our favourite series, be it mainstream hits or cult hits. As a fan and collector of almost only Japanese games, I would definitely buy such a book (should it meet expectations).

 

[Splash Wave]

I totally agree. For all of Japan's invaluable contributions to gaming (not to mention entirely resurrecting the home console industry in NA), way too little is known about our favourite series, be it mainstream hits or cult hits. As a fan and collector of almost only Japanese games, I would definitely buy such a book (should it meet expectations).

I would also most certainly buy this. Let's hope he gets funded.

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

John continues to impress me with the number of Japanese developers he digs up. I often turn to him for advice when conducting interviews myself, so if there's anyone cut out for a project like this, it's definitely him.

If he can get access to Yuichi Toyama, he can get access to anyone (including the former J-PC game designer turned college professor). I hope this means coverage of Game Freak, Artdink, and HUMAN Entertainment, too.

 

[Marty Chinn]

In for the £80 level. This is too important not to support.

 

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, a lot of their stuff is amateurish, it's a total crapshoot.

That's true, but since this is interviews and not articles, hopefully it'll be more consistent.

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

John's articles are always solid, as are his features and interviews. Judging this project based on the work of affiliated writers, who nonetheless are not main contributors, is rather silly.

 

[BobbyRobby]

Sounds like an awesome project. I can't tell from the kickstarter page if there's any difference between the interiors of the gold and silver editions of the book.

will it be like the sega arcade book where one has a color interior and the other does not, or is strictly the covers that differ?

 

[BOTEC]

I've always wanted a book like this, and am glad dude is giving it a serious shot. He does do good work on HG101, so I'm In for the DVD set.

 

[Empty]

this is really cool.

i swore i would hold back on kickstarting as i was spending too much money but i love the ambition and think i'd enjoy the book a lot. will think about it.

 

[Zeouterlimits]

Yeah, I'm up for it, I'd love to this to live up to my lofty hopes of a good and fascinating read.

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

I love how the highest tier conveniently leaves out the previous guest editing role and additional questions. John's a sneaky guy.

 

[djtiesto]

Sounds incredible, I love this kind of super-obscure news about super-obscure NES games and their developers... it's why I tune to Chrontendo religiously. Definitely kicking over some $$.

 

[cj_iwakura]

I'm not positive, but I believe that the reason they were banned was for the "super megaton Konami news" debacle that got people inordinately hyped up and then just ended up just being an interview with the translator of MGS.

No, that's not why. The site was banned because it got hacked and flagged as malware.
(I think that interview was a pretty big deal since it caused Konami to send us a C&D, but that's another story.)

Beated. Anyway, book sounds great.

 

[GhaleonQ]

I think this is the best, most deserving Kickstarter project I've yet come across, and I'm not really a fan of KS. If he manages to do what he says he will do, this will indeed be one of the most important works in gaming.

I am going to hold them hostage *waves Ben Franklin around* unless they do Lovedelic. (Square Enix Music has been waiting for a translated music interview for 3/4 of a year, for crying out loud!)

That said, agreed with the above. This is the kind of journalism for which people should clamor. Moreover, if it works, it will be the only English-language source for a lot of it.

(That said, I get that he should definitely have had more prospective interviews confirmed before launching this. I get if people pass on donating.)

No, that's not why. The site was banned because it got hacked and flagged as malware.

Which is peculiar.

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

Don't get your hopes up about anything SEMO-related for a while, GQ. I'm not even as involved as I used to be.

Love-de-Lic will be very important to all this, I hope. But Artdink's more dear to me.