John Andersen

アミューズメント・マシンの覇者とは…心強い… (1976年12月の雑誌広告より) #SEGA #1976

Second Screen Archive is preserving the pixel art of the Dreamcast's iconic memory card, the VMU, one game at a time. From Soulcalibur to Shenmue, rediscover the forgotten art of gaming's second screens! The site's creator explains more: www.thedreamcastjunkyard.co.uk/2026/10/seco...

New Toaplan collection from Kumagumi includes official Zero Wing “All your base are belong to us” t-shirt. kumagumi.com/product/zero...

This is so awesome!

Part of my literal job is to fly out to physical game studios to rescue and recover historical materials that might be endangered and put them in a permanent archive. @gamehistoryorg.bsky.social is a 501(c)3 publicly funded to do that, my DMs are open, and I'm free for the next couple weeks...

Random thought: It’d be interesting to survey or interview veteran game developers in Japan to see how working in the city versus working in the country impacted game production quality. Country (inaka) developers: HAL Labs, CAProduction. Hudson Soft, the satellite offices of Data East and Technos.

The NES turns 41 today (launched Oct. 18, 1985). As revealed at @retrogamingexpo.bsky.social, @winterion.com, James (legendofNES.com), and I found and documented the Hackensack, NJ, warehouse Nintendo used for its test-market launch. It’s still standing and looks nearly identical.

….annnnd the video game Christmas ornaments are in early this year at Walmart.

Random thought: Given all of the pinball games they once developed, I wonder if HAL Labs ever bought a pinball machine for their office for “research” purposes?

Rest in Peace.

Chomp.

In 1994 you could order a five-pack of COMPILE Okonomiyaki Sauce via postal mail. Only 500 sets were made at a price of 3000 yen with a Hiroshima okonomiyaki recipe included, (Hiroshima being famous for the dish, and the headquarters of game developer COMPILE at the time). Via: Disc Station 04.

Linking up SEGA Game Gear's during a hot summer day in July of 1994 for a Puyo Puyo battle in front of Shibuya 109 in Tokyo. Via: Disc Station 04.

Early-2005: The SEGA-AM2 team in charge of developing arcade game "Quest of D", posing in front of SEGA Building #3 in Tokyo. Producer Hiroshi Kataoka poses with an Arcadia Magazine award for the card-based action-RPG game. Via: Arcadia 0057.

July 1994: Idol Mami Inoue visits Compile's new high-rise office in Hiroshima to see Puyo Puyo Tsu nearing the end of development and gets to try it out. Those are a lot of Carbuncle (Kaa-kun) plushies. Puyo Puyo Tsu would be released to arcades in Japan by SEGA two months later. Via:Disc Station 04

Game developers need to step up and notify players they need to take a break and drink coffee. Just like IREM/IPM did with their Space Invaders arcade game clone back in 1979. #CoffeeBreak #IPMInvader

Scrubbing through this video made me really sad. Imagine missing a storage unit payment and suddenly your entire career is stripped naked and splayed out butt naked for a few YouTube views before being parceled out. I'm not saying they did anything wrong, it's just deeply unsettling to think about.

The Resident Evil CAKE at RetroGameCon Syracuse is insane. I’m gonna eat the whole damn thing

I spotted a black & white photograph of what appears to be a SEGA factory that may date back to 1979, workers are assembling cocktail cabinets. The interior matches photos on the 1979 SEGA/Sovoda flyer from France. It's via a 1991 Mega Drive feature discussing 1979: archive.org/details/mega...

1997: (Left) CAPCOM game designer and producer Noritaka Funamizu stands next to an unnamed Sound Effects team member. (Right) Two unnamed CAPCOM staff members, one of whom looks a lot like Keiji Inafune, work on Mega Man Legends on the 11th floor of the CAPCOM R&D building. Via: Jugemu, Jan 1998.

Tora-san presents the IBM Multistation 5550. Why have just two disk drives when you can have three?

CAPCOM (Late-1997): 9th floor: The desks of Akiman (Akira Yasuda) and Kinu Nishimura (busy at work-back turned to camera). Akiman posing with "the designer of Mega Man Legends", this appears to be Kazunori Kadoi who just recently directed the Resident Evil 4 2023 remake. Via Jugemu, Jan 1998.

Late-1997: Bug-checking Mega Man Legends for the PSX and (I believe) Rival Schools for the arcade at CAPCOM's Osaka development building (4th floor). CAPCOM Programmers on the 5th floor above work on Rival Schools and Star Gladiator 2 (Plasma Sword: Nightmare of Bilstein). Via Jugemu, January 1998.

MACC (content branch of Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs) has kicked off an interview series covering the archival initiatives being conducted within various legacy game studios, starting with Mari Kurashima of Taito's legal/IP dept https://macc.bunka.go.jp/7455/ 🇯🇵

On May 10, 1987, the Japanese TV show PC Sunday (パソコンサンデー) featured two robots at Namco’s headquarters. Uketsuke Komachi was the front-desk receptionist and Kyūji-kun, a smaller robot that served tea to visitors. Both robots were featured in the Namco Museum series and Marvel Land.

A blogger by the name or Reassembler, translated the first TWO chapters of Yu Suzuki Game Works book that came out years ago Thought I'd post if anyone was interested in reading them (the book also came w/a DC game disc w/many of his Arcade games on it) reassembler.blogspot.com/search/label...

Just heard the very sad news that a former Software Creations friend passed away recently. All of his friends knew him as 'Bone'. He was a friendly, fun, knowledgeable guy who started in QA at Creations back in the early 90s, and was recently working on Star Citizen. RIP @bone6502.bsky.social

1992: Game developer Pack In Video. Programmer Toru Miyazawa (responsible for programming Rambo and Thunderbirds on the NES) and Yasuhiro Wada (working in publicity, going on to design Harvest Moon on SNES, GB, N64, then CEO of Marvelous, and then establishing TOYBOX Inc. in 2011).

Just a quick note about how I'm citing photo, image, media sources. I am citing those sources within the ALT text in the photo. I simply run out of space here within the post and have to resort to putting it in the ALT caption.

Production staff at BPS (Bullet-Proof Software) in Yokohama (1993). BPS employed their own designers, producers, and QA staff known as the "BPS Bug Hunters" but may have started outsourcing programming after Hatris and Battle Storm on the NES/Famicom? BPS closed their Japan office in 2001.

Our partnership with Taito Corporation deepens 🙇‍♂️💙 Two new collaborations are set to be announced very soon! Tune in to the PC Gaming Show Direct THIS EVENING to witness the first of these reveals. A separate announcement will be given on 30th September in celebration of a special anniversary.

35th anniversary of Rent A Hero for the Mega Drive. Here are some documents. x.com/SEGA__UNIVER...

The former classy Rongo Rongo Ginza game center. This place feels like you could just sit down and order a cup of coffee with your game.☕ Via: Jugemu Magazine - August 1995.

The jagged eye of JALECO HQ watches over Tokyo. Via: Super Famicom Magazine, 3/22/91, Number 8, Volume 2, Issue 5.

Here's the first footage of the cancelled SNES/SFC port of Railroad Tycoon to ever be posted online, captured from my promotional tape made by the would-be Japanese publisher. For a long time, the only evidence of the game's existence was two blurry Nintendo Power screenshots!

Nobuo Uematsu: On the Record Grab the hardcover or digital book here: www.viz.com/manga-books/...

Do I know anyone out there with a working Segasonic the Hedgehog PCB conversion who could do me a favor?

At least we have the schematics for Heavyweight Champ. Trying to get the museum to scan them.