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Untold History of Japanese Game Developers #2
The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers Volume 2: Monochrome
Nearly 400 pages and over 30 interviews, with exclusive content on the history of Japanese games. The origins of Hudson, Masaya's epic robot sagas, Nintendo's funding of a PlayStation RTS, detailed history of Westone Entertainment, and a diverse range of unreleased games. Includes exclusive office layout maps, design documents, and archive photos.
In a world first - something no other journalist has dared examine - there's candid discussion on the involvement of Japan's yakuza in the industry.
Forewords by Retro Gamer founding editor Martyn Carroll and game history professor Martin Picard.
In a world first - something no other journalist has dared examine - there's candid discussion on the involvement of Japan's yakuza in the industry.
Forewords by Retro Gamer founding editor Martyn Carroll and game history professor Martin Picard.
396 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2015
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177 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 20, 2025
Interviews are such a pain to read and include so many unnecessary, almost annoying things, that I was really struggling to continue reading. I paid money for the interviews with the developer and was hoping to read nice book about development, not things around it. Instead I got a mess: and not only visual side but, what is much more worse, content mess.
Book is full of weird statements & forced questions, each interview feels like if two people were locked in the room and were asked to talk about something which they don't really care about now but they have to still do it. Are you a kid trying to write something or adult writing serious book? Why the hell didn't the author take a small effort to be professional and really prepare instead of shooting questions based on what he is currently thinking about, furniture next to the developer, or what lies on the table in the room? There's no concept, everything is written so randomly and in an annoying style! Almost like the author wants to patronize his readers by pretending not to know anything about game dev and asking for any stupid thing he thinks of. Writing is at a middle school entry-level; it hurts your eyes and brain the more you try to read, and you want to be over with it ASAP and do something else.
Avoid, not worth of your time even if given for free. Yes, not guilty pleasure bad, just plain bad. I think there are better books from other authors, or read some nice short & focused interviews on internet.
(This reviews is for the first 3 volumes.)
Book is full of weird statements & forced questions, each interview feels like if two people were locked in the room and were asked to talk about something which they don't really care about now but they have to still do it. Are you a kid trying to write something or adult writing serious book? Why the hell didn't the author take a small effort to be professional and really prepare instead of shooting questions based on what he is currently thinking about, furniture next to the developer, or what lies on the table in the room? There's no concept, everything is written so randomly and in an annoying style! Almost like the author wants to patronize his readers by pretending not to know anything about game dev and asking for any stupid thing he thinks of. Writing is at a middle school entry-level; it hurts your eyes and brain the more you try to read, and you want to be over with it ASAP and do something else.
Avoid, not worth of your time even if given for free. Yes, not guilty pleasure bad, just plain bad. I think there are better books from other authors, or read some nice short & focused interviews on internet.
(This reviews is for the first 3 volumes.)
October 27, 2018
The editing is really amateurish.. It's just several hundred pages of verbatim transcriptions of several interviews. Lots of unnecessary footnotes and random black and white images throughout. The content is interesting though, in the end.
January 31, 2016
More of the same from volume 1 so that means lots of interesting behind the scenes stuff and information about classic games, but it also means some odd editorial choices, weird need to have everyone draw their old office layouts, and lack of real broad discussion about the overall theme.
He lets the interviews tell the story, which is fine, but sometimes he leaves in things that should have been taken out, like a page of conversation where interview subjects talks about the autograph book they're signing during the interview.
Also, there are a few strange rant chapters where he rages against SJW's, and the idea that Japan is declining in game production. Again, both valid points but they seem almost like forum entries rather than something that belongs in here.
I think that this is a case where the subject is so niche that most people won't care, but a "better" writer could have probably shrunk this project into one book that focused more on historical perspective using the interviews as background, rather than just dumping the translated interviews and leaving that as the book.
An example of why crowd funding can be a boon and a curse at the same time.
Worth reading and buying though! I want part 3 to come out!
He lets the interviews tell the story, which is fine, but sometimes he leaves in things that should have been taken out, like a page of conversation where interview subjects talks about the autograph book they're signing during the interview.
Also, there are a few strange rant chapters where he rages against SJW's, and the idea that Japan is declining in game production. Again, both valid points but they seem almost like forum entries rather than something that belongs in here.
I think that this is a case where the subject is so niche that most people won't care, but a "better" writer could have probably shrunk this project into one book that focused more on historical perspective using the interviews as background, rather than just dumping the translated interviews and leaving that as the book.
An example of why crowd funding can be a boon and a curse at the same time.
Worth reading and buying though! I want part 3 to come out!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews