LudoScience

La Bible Super Nintendo (Book reference)

This bible is dedicated to the Super Nintendo home console (also known as Super Famicom and SNES). The first part of the book tells the history of this console through a quite detailed chapter featuring a lot of pictures. The second and main part of the book is dedicated to a list of every game ever released for this console. Each one of the 2000 games is presented through a couple of screenshots alongside with a small description text. The book then details a selection of "coll [...]

Keywords : bible, history, encyclopedia, super nintendo, super famicom, snes

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Japanmanship - The ultimate guide book to working in video game development in Japan (Book reference)

This one-of-a-kind book is guide for any foreigner who wants to work in the Japanese video game industry. James Kay, the British-born author of the book, has personally made this move: he worked for different Japanese video games studios during 10 years, and then founded his own studio there. Over 300 pages, he tackles all the questions one could ask: Why go to Japan to create video games? How to get hired in a Japanese studio? How to find a place to live? And how is the day-to-day life in a Jap [...]

Keywords : japan, video game, industry, guidebook, job

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Yoshihisa Kishimoto : Enter the Double Dragon (Book reference)

The biography of Yoshihisa Kishimoto, a japanese game creator unknown by the general public, although he created one of the most famous videogame series: "Double Dragon". This well written book is full of pictures and starts by telling you the childhood of this little-known genius, alongside with his thug-like youth where he was always eager to fight inside and outside of school. He hopefully changed his lifestyle before becoming a real criminal. Fond of movies, he then started to crea [...]

Keywords : yoshihisa kishimoto, double dragon, kunio-kun, renegade, thunder strom, road avenger, vier, biography

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Nolife Story (Book reference)

This book tells the story of the french TV channel Nolife, dedicated to the japanese culture, and more specifically to mangas, animes and videogames. Thanks to numerous in-depth interviews and several photos, the author of this book invite us to a journey through the main steps that led to the creation of Nolife in 2007: the childhood of Sébastien Ruchet and Alex Pilot (the two charismatic creators of the channel) ; the creation of their first TV documentaries for Game One (a french telev [...]

Keywords : nolife, television, manga, anime, videogame, game one, japan

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The History of Mario - published by Pix N'Love editions (Blog post)

On the french version of this blog , I posted an in-depth critic of a (french-written) book about the history of Mario. Far from being a simple "illustrated books for fans" filled with nostalgia, l'Histoire de Mario by William Audureau and published by Pix N'Love is one on the most interesting books about the genesis of Mario. It's not an history book, it's an analytical book that tries to answer one simple question : "Why Mario?". After all, when Nintendo picked a masc [...]

Keywords : mario, history, nintendo, analysis

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L'Histoire de Nintendo - volume 3 : 1983-2003 (Book reference)

Over a series of 7 books, Florent Gorges wrote the most complete history of Nintendo. The texts are easy to read and full of unique information, and are illustrated with many pictures of all the games and toys created by the company. This third book in the series is focused on the most famous home console built by Nintendo: the NES / Famicom, and reveals much details about the birth of this machine and its impact in Japan, US and France. An  absolutely recommended book to read. 

Keywords : history, nintendo, famicom, nes

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Takahashi Meijin : Autobiographie d'une idole du jeu vidéo au Japon (Book reference)

The autobiography of Takahashi Meigin, someone relatively unknown here but known by every gamer in Japan. He spent most of his career as a employee in Hudson Soft, a game development studio who created the "Bomberman" and the "Mario Party" series, among many others popular titles. But Takashi Meijin wasn't a regular employee: instead of designing videogames, he was hired to advertise them. A remarkably skilled videogame player, he was casted as living legend during the NES/Fa [...]

Keywords : biography, takahashi meijin, hudson soft, japon, nes, pc engine, 16 shot

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NOLIFE (Link)

French TV chanel dedicated to the video games and to the Japan culture

Keywords : Television

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Japan Arcade Mania! The Turbo-Charged World of Japan's Game Centers (Book reference)

This book is dedicated to arcade video games in Japan. Each of the 9 chapters of this book is dedicated to a specific kind of arcade game: UFO Catchers (mechanical games where you have to catch objects with a grip), Puriruka (improved photo booths loved by teenagers girls), rhythm games, shoot'em ups, fighting games, games of chance (Pachinko, Mahjong...), dedicated arcade games (for those seeking adrenaline through Taikan games), retrogaming (arcade games from the 80's and 90's still played tod [...]

Keywords : arcade, japan, versus fighting, shoot'em up, ufo catcher, rythm game, purikura, players

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Smartbomb: The Quest for Art, Entertainment, and Big Bucks in the Videogame Revolution (Book reference)

This book gives a portrayal of several famous video game creators: Cliff Bleszinski (Unreal Tournament, Gears of War), Shigeru Miyamoto (Mario, Zelda...), Will Wright (Sim City, The Sims...), John Romero and John Carmack, alongside with three bonus chapters dedicated to the first video games, to military Serious Games (America's Army) and to MMORPG players (Anarchy Online, Star Wars Galaxies). Overall, the book is very pleasant to read and filled with interesting information. The portraits of c [...]

Keywords : history, cliff bleszinski, will wright, america's army, star wars galaxies, anarchy online

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