a beguiling stream of unsullied strangeness
April 20, 2015 9:23 PM Subscribe
Kill Screen Daily has an interview with FM Towns Marty (NSFW), who posts images and gifs from otherwise inaccessible retro Japanese computer games. His images were controversially used in Jon Rafman's video for Oneohtrix Point Never's song Still Life (Betamale) (NSFW).
Are there any good histories of the Japanese game industry?
If you are willing to read through a tome of haphazardly-translated interviews conducted by a guy who has repeatedly proved himself to be a total prick (and who also at some point kowtowed to Gamergate) there's The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers.
posted by griphus at 7:20 AM on April 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
If you are willing to read through a tome of haphazardly-translated interviews conducted by a guy who has repeatedly proved himself to be a total prick (and who also at some point kowtowed to Gamergate) there's The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers.
posted by griphus at 7:20 AM on April 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
Was there ever an fpp on that Oneohtrix Point Never video? I thought I remembered one, but now I can't find it. That video is something else.
posted by One Second Before Awakening at 9:18 AM on April 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by One Second Before Awakening at 9:18 AM on April 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
a guy who has repeatedly proved himself to be a total prick
Holy cats, had no idea about any of this. I am now sad and hesitant to point people toward that and a few other resources.
I'm not aware of any other overall industry histories (which would be totally fascinating, if crushingly daunting to produce), but there are quite a lot of interesting stories for individual creators and studios. Since LSD jumped out at you, you might want to look up Osamu Sato (bio from a compilation album, self link sorry); he's more of an artist/musician than a games developer, so he tends to stay out of sight somewhat, but he's got a very unique mind and body of work.
posted by byanyothername at 4:05 PM on April 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
Holy cats, had no idea about any of this. I am now sad and hesitant to point people toward that and a few other resources.
I'm not aware of any other overall industry histories (which would be totally fascinating, if crushingly daunting to produce), but there are quite a lot of interesting stories for individual creators and studios. Since LSD jumped out at you, you might want to look up Osamu Sato (bio from a compilation album, self link sorry); he's more of an artist/musician than a games developer, so he tends to stay out of sight somewhat, but he's got a very unique mind and body of work.
posted by byanyothername at 4:05 PM on April 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
Oh, and LSD was a multimedia project spanning the game, a soundtrack/IDM album featuring the likes of μ-Ziq and also an art/coffee table book with work by a whooooole bunch of fantastic Japanese artists (bumping into D'holbachie Yoko in there was an unexpected delight) and recollections of their dreams: Lovely Sweet Dream
posted by byanyothername at 4:14 PM on April 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by byanyothername at 4:14 PM on April 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
Wasn't LSD on the Playstation? HG101 has a book review section. I've found that just browsing Tumblr is giving me so much awesome strange game images.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 4:32 PM on April 21, 2015
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 4:32 PM on April 21, 2015
The one of the dreadlocked bartender in mirrorshades reminds me of a still from the 8-bit Neuromancer adventure game, which I saw in various 8-bit (Commodore 64?) magazines. Could it be from the same game?
posted by acb at 6:29 PM on April 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by acb at 6:29 PM on April 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
Unless there's a port I've never heard of, the graphics in Neuromancer were not remotely that good.
posted by griphus at 7:32 PM on April 21, 2015
posted by griphus at 7:32 PM on April 21, 2015
« Older Bitcoin done (or at least demo'd) Right | Why Zev Love X became MF Doom and put on that... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
PS Are there any good histories of the Japanese game industry? It's a strange beast, to say the least. Japanese Rock Star Game Designers (complete with entourage)... just awesome.
posted by emmet at 7:05 AM on April 21, 2015