Robot Claw – Page 129 – “Life In The So-Called Space Age”

Japan Pickups: FF Books

January 19, 2023

The Fighting Fantasy series was popular in Japan in its heyday, and the first 33 titles were translated and released in the early to mid 1980s. As a diehard collector of FF books I’ve been lucky enough to obtain a few of these Japanese versions over the years, but this past trip was by far my most successful in terms of new additions.

The above four were purchased at RPG bookshops (yes, that’s a thing in Japan) in Nakano and Akihabara. Collectively they cost me about $130, with half that being Creature of Havoc (the lower right book). All are in exceptional condition for 35+ year old books, and the (2nd edition) of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain even included a small cardboard ‘postcard’ that can be used to make dice if you don’t have any handy:

Incidentally the obi (paper wraparound) on the cover of Warlock identifies it as a worldwide bestseller, which was absolutely true when this 1984 edition was published.

Creature of Havoc includes images and writeups of the preceeding 23 volumes, as well as adverts for other gamebook series the publisher also licensed (such as Tunnels & Trolls and what looks to be a Japanese book called ‘Dice Fantasy’). It also includes the above advert for a Japanese release of Tasks of Tantalon! I wasn’t aware it had ever been translated; I suppose it now gets added to my ‘list’ 🙂

In addition to the four original FF books, I also bought 4 books in the Sorcery! series: original 1984 imprints and reprints from 2002. As an offshoot from the FF line these are a little bit less expensive these days, and the four in total cost me about $70. As with the FF books these are in pristine condition, with nary a hint they’ve ever been read.

Each of the original books includes a pull-out adventure sheet printed on ‘vellum’ paper with this lovely translated map on the back!

The Shamutanti Hills included this! One of the delights of buying used books is often finding unusual bookmarks from the previous owner inside, and in this case it seems they were using what seems (according to google translate) to be a coupon for a student discount on a ticket to see the Ghibli film Nausicaa upon its original cinematic release in 1984!

One thing I love about Japanese imprints of the FF books is that they are physically smaller than the western ones (even the US versions) and therefore a bit more pocket-sized. And yet the print quality is exceptional and the fine line-art characteristic of the books is reproduced beautifully. In 2000 the (new) Japanese licensor started reprinting some books in a much larger format, and I have to say they look even prettier! You’ll also note an inclusion in the above photo of one of the 2002 reprints: a quick-reference for section numbers on the left side! Why didn’t English versions ever implement this?

In 2021, the Japanese licensor (Group SNE) published a box-set of five new imprints of classic FF books. I really wanted to find this in Japan but failed. Happily though, I found this:

It’s the second box set, which was only released very shortly before we arrived! It reprints Appointment with F.E.A.R., House of Hell, Deathtrap Dungeon, The Port of Peril and Stealer of Souls. It’s a beautiful box, and it’s obvious this collection was produced by a company deeply respectful of the series heritage and importance. It cost ¥8250, or about $64.

The inclusion of Stealer of Souls is notable, since this was book 34 of the original FF line. Japan stopped at book 33 (Sky Lord), so this is the first time this one has even been translated.

Each book includes a pull out ‘vellum’ character sheet and the print quality and ‘feel’ of the volumes is magnificent: many levels above the recent Scholastic versions. Japanese fans of the series are receiving a real treat with this release!

It also includes a small booklet history of the FF series, as well as a general critique of the books and their historical importance. This is the first time I’ve ever seen all the books – including the new ones published in recent years – numbered together in one chronology. This book (which is entirely in Japanese but google translate is magic these days) also mentions that the 2021 box set was ‘printed to order’ and sold out due to ‘high demand from loyal fans’ which explains why I couldn’t find it.

Lastly – and most unexpectedly – I got the above. It’s a Back To The Future choose-your-own-adventure style gamebook published by the licensor of the FF series and using a similar trade dress! It’s rare that I ever discover a book not on gamebooks.org, but here you go! I would imagine this would be of a lot of interest to many different collectors, and yet this was dirt cheap (about $6) compared to everything else in this post.

The entries – 565 in total – are accompanied by stills from the film, and the blurb on the back suggests the goal of the player is to essentially do what Marty accomplished in the movie. It would be interesting to see how the author invented a gamebook out of the plot, but to give you an idea here’s a translation of a random page:

As I said google translate is a wizard these days, and I suspect I could actually play this entire book via the translator. Maybe I should?

I bought every FF (or related) book I saw this past trip, and these are amongst my most prized possessions. They’re not cheap (for books I can’t technically read) but I’ve developed a new approach to my collections recently after having sold out of MTG and a good chunk of my video games. It makes me wonder, had I found myself once again faced with the bounty of pricey Japanese books I saw in 2017, how much less daunting those prices would have been…?

Homeward Bound

January 12, 2023

Yesterday was supposed to be our last day here, and we split up with me returning to Akihabara and KLS shopping in the massive Tokyo Station complex. We both shopped until we nearly dropped, and met back at the hotel. I made some extraordinary purchases, which I’m sure I’ll blog about in time.

Neither of us took many photos, so the ones on this entry are ‘out-takes’ from previous days.

Late last night we received a text from the airline: our flight home was significantly delayed, and the delay was long enough that we’d miss our connecting flight home and have to spend the night at Atlanta airport. Apparently this was due to a ‘computer glitch’, which we later learned was the FAA glitch in the USA that affected nearly 10,000 flights.

This is not the sort of news anyone wants to hear on the night before their departure home, but we decided on a plan quickly. We extended our hotel another day, booked an Atlanta hotel, and made the most of it! We now had nearly an entire extra day in Tokyo (and in addition are booked for tonight in two separate hotels in two countries)!

So we had an unplanned full day today. We visited some giant Game Centers, had a nice lunch and did a leisurely walk back to our hotel from Ueno, stopping in many shops along the way. It was far more relaxing than most days of this trip, and we ended up turning an unexpected delay into a nice day in the city.

It’s now late at night and we’re at the airport waiting to depart. We’re tired and have a long trip ahead of us, and are both hoping we can get some sleep on the flight.

As always Japan was welcoming and modern and convenient and surprising and efficient and a wonderful place to take a vacation. It’s interesting to see how the country has evolved in the over 20 years I’ve been visiting, and even in the pandemic years since my last trip it seems to have taken significant steps into the future (compared to the USA) while keeping in touch with its rich history and traditions.

I already look forward to what I will see when next I visit 🙂

The Arcades

January 10, 2023

I’ve heard that arcades here were affected by Covid, with some closing for good and others shrinking. From what I’ve seen in Tokyo, this doesn’t seem to be the case and there’s still lots of games present in most ‘game centers’.

Of course arcades have changed profoundly since the 1980s, and very few (if any?) these days are simple solo play cabinets. They still exist in certain Akiba arcades, but the majority of video games today are dedicated machines, often internet connected and multiplayer.

To make money arcades need to offer experiences the player can’t have at home, and the companies that make the games continue to innovate here in ways alien to the rest of the world. We don’t even have game centers in America, much less ones that can accommodate a half dozen of the above Gundam machine all connected together both locally and online.

The above is a quiz game that up to 99 players can play online. The arcade I was in at the time (Round 1 Kyoto) had about 20 of these machines in rows, as well as a separate machine for signing up or creating accounts. You can even win real-world prizes if you do well. Amazing!

Here’s one of those (addictive) fishing games where you hold a fake reel and wind in the fish when you catch it. This schoolgirl was playing all alone and as we walked past she was reeling in a gigantic ‘boss fish’!

This is a RTS game where you control the action using a joystick and a ‘light pen’. The graphics are amazingly good and nearby is a dedicated terminal where you can view player records and even replays! Once again the game is linked online so you can play against those in other game centers across Japan.

I don’t know much about this one since it didn’t have an attract mode but I’m guessing some sort of FPS moba (like Overwatch). As you can see it’s brand new and it’s even possible it was being tested (they had four cabinets) since I haven’t seen it elsewhere.

This was a curiosity: at a tiny Game Center in Kyoto we saw candy cabs modified to display the output from PCs (or even Misters) running Touhou doujin games. And if that sentence doesn’t mean much to you don’t worry: the gist is that some arcades these days even include ‘independent’ games! I saw similar in Nakano yesterday, and it’s reassuring to think that if brand new ‘official’ machines are all about multiplayer and dedicated cabs, then it’s nice to think of enthusiasts repurposing the old-style cabinets for retro-style gaming.

I played Bombergirl today which was a bit of a moba-rework of the old multiplayer game. You may also notice the graphics have received an… update. It wasn’t great, but it was fun, and once again you can see the cabinet was needlessly custom, with a tall vertical main screen, a lower touch screen, three buttons with their own screens and a strange thumb-joystick.

Music games remain ever-popular, and in fact are the most common type of machine in every arcade we’ve visited. If an arcade has only one single game, it will be a music game. As with other types of game they also have become fabulously customized and dedicated, with many features you’d never see at home such as circular touchscreens or unusual control systems.

The taiko drumming games are always popular and almost always being played. Many photos in this blog don’t have players in them because I was in the arcades very early, but even then the drum games are usually busy.

The music levels of arcades (and yes I mean level: the arcades are often multi-floored in Tokyo) are cacophonous and brilliant with flashing lights and vivid colour. Even if you don’t play the games it’s an exhilarating experience walking through one.

Here’s me playing an IC card game ‘for kids’. This one is based on Ultraman, and you put your IC cards of the Ultramen you want on your team on the game console, and the game ‘scans’ them in for the game. Of course it uses NFC chips in the cards and scanning is immediate, but kids must get a massive thrill getting a new card in a wafer pack or from the toy store and looking forward to using it on the machine to beat the next difficulty level! The game is a lot of fun to play as well, and naturally you can see I got an S-Rank my first try 🙂

I took many photos and this post could be twice as long, but you get the idea. Video games in arcades are far from dead in Japan, and in fact are still innovating. If I lived here I don’t doubt I’d go far down the rabbit hole the IC based RPG strategy games, but as it is I find it yet another aspect of this country that fascinates me every time I visit.