Joystick Gamers! Ver. 2.0

I got another little care package from Japan which included this fun little independently produced photo magazine. It features artistic photographs of some of Japan's more grimy independently run game centers.

Game centers like the one's featured in this magazine were always my favorite. Unlike Taito Station or Club Sega,these smoke filled establishments cater to the older gamer looking to fill their evenings after work. No puricura or UFO catchers, just great games from the past.

So filthy and grimy, I love it! Game centers like the ones in this magazine are slowly becoming a dying breed in Japan. I actually used to live literally 5 mins from a great game center in Shin-Koshigaya, Saitama, Play Spot Big One. Maybe I'll blog about that in the future. 

Random Game Center Photos

I found a few pics from my time living in Japan on my hard drive that I thought I'd dump here. I took this picture of Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition the first day it hit the arcades. The Viewlix cabinet is really a sleek looking machine.

This snap from Warzard was taken strictly for the password. Though I don't think I ever ended up using it, what a cool feature to have in an arcade game.

 I found this sad Neo Geo cab all by itself in the corner of a game center I used to frequent
close to a school I taught at. The manager of this place gave me my arcade stools for free!

Even more shocking than the Double Dragon intro, the Japanese version of Final Fight is pretty crazy. Only in Japan could they get away with stuff like this.