Arcade Mania! The Turbo-Charged World of Japan's Game Centers Brian Ashcraft with Jean Snow review by Zube (zube@stat.colostate.edu) Created: Jun 6, 2009 Updated: Jun 8, 2009 http://www.stat.colostate.edu/~zube/arcademania.txt _Arcade Mania!_ is another in a long line of video game books that are described by the equation: interesting premise + poor execution = mediocre book + disappointed reader The reader is taken, as if on a tour, through each section of a Japanese arcade or game center. Accompanying the author is a specific "player", usually an expert of the genre, who offers insight and tips. Each of the nine chapters considers a different gaming type: Crane Games Sticker-Picture Machines Rhythm Games Shooting Games Fighting Games Games of Chance Dedicated Games (racing games are covered here too) Retro Games Card-Based Games For a scant few areas of the book, I couldn't help but exclaim "Cool!": * Sticker machines that blow a puff of air at the precise moment to give one's hair that wind-swept look. * A company called INH that sells Superplay DVDs, recordings of the performances of expert shoot-em-up players. * A House of the Dead 4 Special cabinet "in which players ... [are] fully immersed in an enclosed space, sitting down on force-feedback chairs with safety bars that could rotate to face one of two 100-inch monitors placed both in front and in back of players". * Some terrific pictures of Japanese arcades, both inside and outside. For a brief moment I've returned to my youth, immersed in the memories of arcades of yore, drifting wordlessly and happily ... then the moment passes and I'm left with only the book and a residue of dull pain, not unlike a hangover. There are two levels of badness to this book, which might be called Moderate and Fundamental or perhaps Not Good and Very Bad. Let's start with the ... Not Good -------- * Words directly from the text are enlarged and splashed in the middle of a page. I've never understood why this technique is used unless the author/editor/publisher believes that the text itself is incidental. * Word choice is really something. Skipping over the forever-present hyperbole, here are some phrases and words out of context: whole damn country ginormous geddit? whole damn thing 'splosions vomit comet reeked of yuppies blah, blah, blah close enough to smack talk ya gotta do what ya gotta do bleed you dry still putting asses in front of arcade cabinets dudes with balls Dusting off an old joke, I'd guess that the author was not writing for the Ages, but for the ages of 8-15. * Despite the author's use of "damn", the author uses "Heck, no!" and "Shoot". It's an odd contrast. * The importance of bad puns to the author cannot be overstated. The discussion of Virtua Fighter must have the line "Sega brought another dimension to fighters". A discussion of Pokemon must include "Pokemon did monster business worldwide". * Sweeping generalizations and berating things the author does not understand: "Think fishing is exciting? It's not." Champion Boxing was a "completely forgettable" game. ParaParaParadise featured "unnecessarily complex dance moves" and the music could be thought of as "trashy techno tunes". * Use of the moronic rhetorical device, "If you think X, then think again!". * Flub of the chapter/player headings. For example, "player 1" is introduced in chapter one, "player 2" in chapter two, etc. Sadly, chapters 4 and 5 must have been switched at the last minute as player 5 is introduced in chapter 4 and vice-versa. At least, I hope that is what happened. * Just how many times must the author remind me that Namco is no longer Namco, but Namco Bandai Games Inc (NBGI)? * Kevin Williams and Brian Crecente are given space to write forwards and while not wishing disrespect to either, I wonder when exactly the forward section of video game books became the place to talk of oneself and to wave one's credentials in the face of the reader instead of talking about, you know, the book. These issues aren't good, but perhaps they aren't bad. So what about the ... Very Bad -------- * Fact checking or lack thereof. There are several errors of this type, but the funniest is this one, regarding the Pac-Man split screen that occurs on the 256th board: "Since there wasn't enough memory on the arcade circuit board ...." No, no, no, wrong, wrong, wrong. For the very last word on this topic, see Don Hodges' site: http://www.donhodges.com/how_high_can_you_get2.htm which details the code fix that can be used in MAME to get around the split screen. What makes this so funny is that Mr. Hodges' work was featured on the home page of kotaku.com on April 21, 2008. So what, you say? The back flap of _Arcade Mania!_ has this blurb about the author: "... Brian Ashcraft is well-known for his witty and insightful daily posts on Kotaku, one of the net's biggest gaming blogs ...." Perhaps the author should read kotaku.com rather than just write for it. Also, could we please get names right? The Taito EM that _Space Invaders_ may have been based on is _Space Monster_. There is no 's'. There is no excuse for such easily avoidable errors. * Inconsistencies My notes for _Arcade Mania!_ contain many WTF?s. For example, we are told that US arcades are dead. OK, mostly true. Then we are lead through the first two chapters of Crane Games and Sticker-Picture booths. Fine, fine. Finally, in both chapters, our "players" present the top 5 tips for playing crane games and for getting good pictures out of the picture booths. So, if arcades in the US are dead, where exactly am I going to try out these tips? Is the target audience of the book those people in the US who will be visiting a Japanese arcade or game center? Also, at the beginning of the book, we are told that: "Facing competition from home consoles like never before, Japanese arcades ... keep on keepin' on, knowing that the game center experience can never be replicated in the home." Uh, huh. An article from Feb 7, 2008 (more than 10 months before the Jan 1, 2009 publication date listed for the book at amazon.com): http://uk.reuters.com/article/technology-media-telco-SP/idUKT21027320080207 titled _Nintendo's Wii claims more victims; Japan arcades hurt_ quotes a spokesman from Namco, I mean Namco Bandai: "A lot of the types of games that people played at an arcade can now be done at home," company spokesman Yuji Machida said." * Focus Along with writing WTF? over and over, I kept wanting to slap the author's knuckles with a ruler and tell him to focus. Why, I kept asking myself, am I reading about home console ports or SNK's home business model or about the Famicom and its modem? What's the title of the book again? * The Ending The ninth chapter ends and that's it. There is no wrap-up of any kind. After the index, the picture credits and the Thanks page, we do, however, get: Game Over! Continue? No thanks. I'll let the timer run down to zero and instead play something else. ******* In short, _Arcade Mania!_ reads somewhat like _Power-Up_ with the topics partially restricted to game centers and contains all the subtle, nuanced writing of _Arcade Fever_, meaning none. _Arcade Mania!_ offers a precious few interesting tidbits and is fun to look at but is not fun to read. Recommended as a library checkout only.