WARNING! A huge event: Comiket 84 is approaching fast! and a shout out to gamers evolution.

to start off, Comiket is a Japanese manga and anime convention and is held 2 times a year. Comiket is hosted at the Tokyo Big Sight building. Comiket sells Doujin items such as video games, manga, art, and many other formats. The term Doujin (同人) or Doujin circles  is a group of people or just one person who distributes their amateur work. Doujin works are similar to independent production such as independent games. One very known example of a doujin franchise is the Touhou Project (東方 Project) created by ZUN from the Doujin circle, Team Shanghai Alice. The series gained good reception because the Touhou franchise contains many characters and the series detailed storyline. I am looking forward to a Doujin game called Astebreed which is a 2.5D shooting game. here is a Youtube video of Comiket 83

 I would like to shout out to the other video gaming blog, Gamer's Evolution. http://unitedsacntuary.blogspot.com/ I decided to select that blog because my blog and his are the only gaming based blogs from Ms. G's class. I would consider that as Joshua and me sticking together. :) The common themes that my blog and Joshua's is we both talk about retro games, but I talk about retrogaming the most, while Joshua talks about modern games as well. I am glad that Joshua linked to my blog too. Joshua I have a doujin game trailer for you. Here you go Astebreed.

Nihon の arcade gaming in San Francisco

After this semester ends, I will be going to San Francisco with my mother and my brother. while i'm there, I wanted to check out some arcades there. Remember in the first post where I had a Youtube video of an japanese arcade? There are some arcades that have Japanese arcade style machines here in America. The first one I would like to go is Playland Japan. The arcade is located in Japantown in San Francisco. The arcade machines are are imported straight from Japan and the text is in Japanese. The arcade games have a variety of game genres. The second arcade That I want to visit is game center that is located at San Mateo CA near the Caltrain train station. This arcade is similar to Playland Japan, but this arcade is more popular with fighting game fans. but this arcade does have a few racing games.

Arcade gaming blogs to read and learn.

I have added two blogs that I like to read sometimes relating to my blog; they are Arcadefever and 1 play 100 yen.  Both blogs are focus in to mainly arcade hardware and arcade gaming. Both blogs talk mainly about there recent arcade purchases includes: arcade PCBs, arcade cabinets, etc. They also talk about the type of arcade games they like to enjoy. If you want to know about the arcade culture, take a look.

the University of Pinball and Arcade in Philadelphia

After going to the Ramen Bar in Penn University area last Saturday, I decided to go to an arcade called University Pinball. The arcade mostly consists of fighting games, some classic arcade games, Pinball machines, gun shooting arcade machines, etc. On that day I have beaten a horror themed Gun shooting game called Carnevil. Whenever I come to the arcade I would play it. If you are interested in going to the arcade, the arcade is located at 4006 Spruce Street in Philadelphia. The best way to get here is taking the subway trolleys routes: 11, 13, 34, and 36. Get off at 37th street trolley station, and walk westward on Spruce Street. I do like this arcade, but the problem is there are lack of 2d shooting games. As of now they have only one 2d shooter called Raiden Fighters 2. If you like fighting games and gun shooting games, come take a visit.

The Classic Game Junkies

Last Friday before going to an Italian restaurant in Paoli, I decided to go shopping at a video game store that specializes in selling retro games called Classic Game Junkie. Classic game junkie is located in Glenside PA near the Septa Glenside station up north. They offer old video game consoles and games such as Dreamcast, Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, etc. The store also do repair services on video game discs, video game cartridges, and consoles. The store even offers imported Japanese version games. On that Friday, I bought 2 Japanese PS2 games: Metal slug 6 and Bloody Roar 3. The staff at the store treated me well and they are friendly. I would recommend checking it out. Here are the videos for the games. and I will also give you a picture of the store

 

"Hey where can I find this Japanese game? Could u send me a link plz?"

During my teenage years, I started to import Japanese version games for consoles and PC. The reason why like Japanese version games is because I want to hear Japanese voice-overs in the games and I want to see the regional differences with Japanese version games comparing American Version of released Japanese games. another reason why I like to import Japanese games is because I want to play Japanese only released games. Where can you find them?  I will give you my recommendations for sites that sells Japanese version games.

1) you can start with Ebay because the prices are cheaper and it will be more easier to find Japanese games. For example type on the search box "Japanese Sega Megadrive console" I suggest that you not bid on Ebay but click the add to cart button. Look for used games for cheaper prices.

2) Play-Asia 
This was the website when I first got my Japanese PS2 and 2 Japanese PS2 games. I suggest this site because the site ships products quicker and cheaper. Play Asia also has non Japanese version games too. 

Gradius The Intersellar assault for Game Boy and impressions.

The game depicted in the picture is called Gradius Interstellar Assault. The game is part of Konami's Gradius series. The genre of the Gradius is a 2d shoot em up game (known as Shmups in the 2D gaming community) The game was developed and published by Konami, and it was released on the Nintendo Game Boy in 1991. As you see in the cartridge artwork, the artwork depicts the Player's ship in the center of the picture, the Vic Viper is being shot at by a green battleship seen on the top right of the picture. I got this game at Jay Street Video Games in the King of Prussia Mall last Friday. So far I am enjoying the game. I have completed the game on normal and on hard without using a continue. The only thing that I don't like about this game is there is only five stages, and it could use like 2 or 4 more levels. Visit http://gradius.wikia.com/wiki/Gradius_Wiki if you want to learn more about the Gradius series.