5 ms·

Raw footage of the Japanese games industry

238 points by Mauricio_ 10y ago

ayuvar 10y ago
I'm usually not one for office perks, but a miniature train track would be alright with me. Hudson actually had a bunch of other train-related stuff in their R&D offices, if memory serves. It's a shame to see it abandoned like this.
minikomi 10y ago
You may also enjoy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECLEAzsh2eg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECLEAzsh2eg the making of Norimaro - lots of footage from within capcom offices. Amazing clunky CRT displays and hand drawn art. Some ridiculous motion capture and voice recording footage towards the end too.
- erdevs 10y ago
  Wow. I'm a pretty big MvC fan, but never knew about this guy. http://marvelvscapcom.wikia.com/wiki/Norimaro http://marvelvscapcom.wikia.com/wiki/Norimaro Thanks for sharing!
- asimuvPR 10y ago
  Thanks for sharing the link. It was great to see where some of my favorite childhood games were made. 90s Capcom will always have a place in my heart.
- boondaburrah 10y ago
  I wish whatever anti-shake filter hadn't been applied (does youtube do this automatically now? I've noticed a scourge). Still, I'm totally bookmarking this to watch later when my limited Japanese comes back online. Thanks for posting it! There wouldn't happen to be an original somewhere without the filter applied?
Karuma 10y ago
You may also enjoy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu4k1DhKJNU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu4k1DhKJNU the making of Super Bomberman 3. Several interviews with the programmers and amazing footage of the technology they used to make SNES games at the time. And other random stuff. All in Japanese, unfortunately.
eropple 10y ago
I have the book he mentions, The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers, Volume Two. It is a fantastic book and worth your time if this stuff interests you.
- Hitard 10y ago
  I've looked through a friend's copy and I have to say, it's pretty amateurish work. Not worth the asking price, imo. These interview vids are actually more interesting than what I saw in Volume I.
  - city41 10y ago
    It's done by the guy who runs hardcoregaming101.net. He has an insane amount of knowledge about gaming, but he tends to prefer quantity over quality in his writing. All in all though, his knowledge is great and appreciated, so I still enjoy his stuff.
buzzybee 10y ago
The new documentary "Branching Paths" covers the independent part of the contemporary industry and the interactions between the older "doujin" model and the newer Western-inspired "indie" concept. [0] http://indiegames.com/2016/07/branching_paths.html http://indiegames.com/2016/07/branching_paths.html
thomasfl 10y ago
There's been some talk about digital preservation of games and other software. I wonder if there are ant international projects on digital preservations.
- musha68k 10y ago
  I would love to visit a museum where I could experience old development software/hardware from Japan. Check out this great article about the seemingly endless creativity at SEGA during the 80s/90s: http://shmuplations.com/segahistory/ http://shmuplations.com/segahistory/ It would be so cool to have the original source code to those games available as well - let the kids (and adults:) at the museum edit/draw their own sprites, make modifications (jumping higher, etc) and let them collaboratively compile & run on original arcade cabinets.. One can dream :)
brandonheato 10y ago
Am totally awed by the devotion and passion of Toru Hidaka.
cm3 10y ago
Not Japanese, but very rare insight into id software in its heyday: https://vimeo.com/4022128 https://vimeo.com/4022128 These clips ought to be put on archive.org.
corysama 10y ago
Love this kind of material. Myself and many other people have been collecting it in https://www.reddit.com/r/TheMakingOfGames/ https://www.reddit.com/r/TheMakingOfGames/
MarkSweep 10y ago
You may also enjoy this documentary about game music in old Japanese video games: http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2014/10/diggin-in-the-carts-series http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2014/10/diggin-in-the-c... One moment that stands out was a composer showing her old graph paper notebook of waveforms.

238 points by Mauricio_ 10y ago

I'm usually not one for office perks, but a miniature train track would be alright with me. Hudson actually had a bunch of other train-related stuff in their R&D offices, if memory serves. It's a shame to see it abandoned like this.

minikomi 10y ago

You may also enjoy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECLEAzsh2eg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECLEAzsh2eg the making of Norimaro - lots of footage from within capcom offices. Amazing clunky CRT displays and hand drawn art. Some ridiculous motion capture and voice recording footage towards the end too.

erdevs 10y ago
Wow. I'm a pretty big MvC fan, but never knew about this guy. http://marvelvscapcom.wikia.com/wiki/Norimaro http://marvelvscapcom.wikia.com/wiki/Norimaro Thanks for sharing!
asimuvPR 10y ago
Thanks for sharing the link. It was great to see where some of my favorite childhood games were made. 90s Capcom will always have a place in my heart.
boondaburrah 10y ago
I wish whatever anti-shake filter hadn't been applied (does youtube do this automatically now? I've noticed a scourge). Still, I'm totally bookmarking this to watch later when my limited Japanese comes back online. Thanks for posting it! There wouldn't happen to be an original somewhere without the filter applied?

Karuma 10y ago

You may also enjoy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu4k1DhKJNU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu4k1DhKJNU the making of Super Bomberman 3. Several interviews with the programmers and amazing footage of the technology they used to make SNES games at the time. And other random stuff. All in Japanese, unfortunately.

eropple 10y ago

I have the book he mentions, The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers, Volume Two. It is a fantastic book and worth your time if this stuff interests you.

Hitard 10y ago
I've looked through a friend's copy and I have to say, it's pretty amateurish work. Not worth the asking price, imo. These interview vids are actually more interesting than what I saw in Volume I.
- city41 10y ago
  It's done by the guy who runs hardcoregaming101.net. He has an insane amount of knowledge about gaming, but he tends to prefer quantity over quality in his writing. All in all though, his knowledge is great and appreciated, so I still enjoy his stuff.

buzzybee 10y ago

The new documentary "Branching Paths" covers the independent part of the contemporary industry and the interactions between the older "doujin" model and the newer Western-inspired "indie" concept. [0] http://indiegames.com/2016/07/branching_paths.html http://indiegames.com/2016/07/branching_paths.html

thomasfl 10y ago

There's been some talk about digital preservation of games and other software. I wonder if there are ant international projects on digital preservations.

musha68k 10y ago
I would love to visit a museum where I could experience old development software/hardware from Japan. Check out this great article about the seemingly endless creativity at SEGA during the 80s/90s: http://shmuplations.com/segahistory/ http://shmuplations.com/segahistory/ It would be so cool to have the original source code to those games available as well - let the kids (and adults:) at the museum edit/draw their own sprites, make modifications (jumping higher, etc) and let them collaboratively compile & run on original arcade cabinets.. One can dream :)

brandonheato 10y ago

Am totally awed by the devotion and passion of Toru Hidaka.

cm3 10y ago

Not Japanese, but very rare insight into id software in its heyday: https://vimeo.com/4022128 https://vimeo.com/4022128 These clips ought to be put on archive.org.

corysama 10y ago

Love this kind of material. Myself and many other people have been collecting it in https://www.reddit.com/r/TheMakingOfGames/ https://www.reddit.com/r/TheMakingOfGames/

MarkSweep 10y ago

You may also enjoy this documentary about game music in old Japanese video games: http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2014/10/diggin-in-the-carts-series http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2014/10/diggin-in-the-c... One moment that stands out was a composer showing her old graph paper notebook of waveforms.