Felipe Pepe

I've visited many castles in Japan, but Himeji really stands out. Not only it's huge, but it really feels like the inspiration for countless games.

Seriously, the way you move across multiple gated courtyards & small areas with weird angles feels just like Onimusha, Nioh, Ninja Gaiden, etc

A photo of the seat cover for the One Piece-themed shinkansen, showing the character Luffy.

On happier news, I'm currently cruising the grand line lol

Reminder that the CRPG Book is freely available as PDF. That's how the whole project started, I edited & designed it

But the difference in awareness when it went from a free ebook to a hardcover was gigantic. I hope Bitmap recovers from this mess, publishers are important to reach the mainstream :/

The Video Game History Booklist The Video Game History Book List is a chronological list of books in physical, digital, and webpage format which aspiring game researchers can use to find reading material related to the developmen…

I've neglected updating the Video Game History Booklist for a while.

thehistoryofhowweplay.wordpress.com/2020/08/27/t...

Anybody remember some of what came out this year or is forthcoming? Not review or reminiscence books - history (any language).

Rique Sampaio's "Primeiro Contato" book on the arrival of hoke computers & PC gaming in Brazil| Amazon.com.br share.google/gzW1P6vAOlVU...

Was published on May 2025

System Shock 2 (1999) is being delisted on October 10 for PC for standalone purchases | RPG Site It will be included with System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster going forward for new and existing owners.

If you want to own System Shock 2 but aren’t interested in the Nightdive remake, act now because it’s about to be delisted as a standalone product.

www.rpgsite.net/news/18648-s...

For anyone lamenting how some goon was able to get a publishing deal - put together your own book! Create a solid concept, do some planning, create a design, and pitch it! Most publishers don't have open pitch seasons. They want to see someone that can see a full project to completion.

give greta thunberg a gundam

Truly, what a shitty week for those who care about video game books.

I have the privilege of writing as a hobby, but life got way harder for those trying to make a living out of it.

We at WarpZone are a publishing company that writes and register the history of video games in Brazil. We have already published over 60 books on the subject. Here it is for anyone interested.

Fun fact: To my knowledge, 1995 and 1996 was the Peak of Japan's FPS development era.

To my knowledge, Japan made a whopping 14 First Person Shooters during period

My friends from Brazil came to visit and bought with them @riquesampaio.com.br's new book on the history of PCs & PC gaming arriving in Brazil, based on a documentary series he did. ❤️

Again, there's great "local" research being done, the problem is making it accessible & incorporated globally.

Valeu 🥲

No full books on the topic, but there's some articles I can recommend - the same author above also translated an article to ROMchip:
romchip.org/index.php/ro...

And "Video Games and the Global South" is a great free book that has a chapter on Brazil by José Messias: kilthub.cmu.edu/articles/boo...

My friends from Brazil came to visit and bought with them @riquesampaio.com.br's new book on the history of PCs & PC gaming arriving in Brazil, based on a documentary series he did. ❤️

Again, there's great "local" research being done, the problem is making it accessible & incorporated globally.

Yeah, it's an update of the series! They added way more games, with stuff like PLATO RPGs that they learned from the CRPG Addict's blog :)

Some kids in my school owned a PS1 memory card without owning any console or games, just to save their progress at these places

In just a few hours people commented seeing this everywhere, from Korea to Zanzibar, from Hungary to India. Again, I believe it was the most common experience.

I really want to collect & share this shared history. I'm working on something cool in this sense, hope to announce it in a month or so! ❤️

Yup, even on the photos above you can see that in the two console ones everyone is playing soccer lol

Was basically just that, fighting games and platformers. Kinda like an arcade, really. Once in a while had an insane person who owned a memory card and played RPGs lol

YouTube video by Um real a hora DOCUMENTÁRIO | Um real a hora (2022)

There's not much in English about these, people tend to focus on LAN parties (which are an entirely different thing) or just on Korea's PC Bangs...

But @andrealcantarajor.bsky.social made a documentary called "um real a hora" (~"1 dollar per hour") with English subtitles:
youtu.be/H4ZAEhuZpjA?...

Obrigado por compartilhar, acho interessantíssimo isso. Pena q é tão pouco documentado... acredito q foi quedra de preços e chegada de mobile q matou isso globalmente, mas adoraria ler mais sobre

Playing console & PC games at home is seen as the default experience, but I'd bet that the majority of people in the 2000s experienced games in these social places, paying by the hour.

It's vastly underrepresented in academia & retrogaming debates but it's key to understanding things like F2P games

Thank you for the shoutout! But just to be clear, the 1st edition of the CRPG Book took me "only" 4 years to make, then 5 more years to finish the Expanded Edition XD

Save 50% on Stellar Tactics on Steam A Sci-Fi role-playing game featuring turn-based ground combat, space exploration, deep character customization and a massive living universe with over 160,000 star systems. Equip your ships with the b...

Oh wow, Stellar Tactics is now content complete after almost a decade in Early Access:
store.steampowered.com/app/465490/S...

It's a mostly-solo dev doing a massive space CRPG that goes from tactical ground combat to free space exploration. Very complex, bold and janky, might please spacesim sickos

This is very cool to see. @lagshowcase.bsky.social Creator Fest is having a great first day 🫶🏻

Cara, ele é bem "castlevania", sendo mais lento e sem grandes desafios de plataforma. Mas pega muito de Dark Souls no sentido da construção de mundo, dos atributos/ classes/ equipamento, seguindo aquela lógica de hubs com bonfire e ir abrindo atalhos. Mas vc tbm libera novas abilidades de movimento.

As far as I know, there's no digital version :/

BTW, this is part of a long series on video game history, they also have similar books on adventure games, fighting games, sim games, arcades, etc...

I really wish we had more books on video games being translated into English, bringing fresh perspectives.

For example, the 甦る伝説のRPG大全 is a Japanese 3-part collection on RPG history from 1975-2000. The games it covers and its perspectives are quite different from what the CRPG & JRPG Book cover.

My favorite game on Steam under 50 reviews for sure is Fire in the Beastlands: store.steampowered.com/app/1814870/...

It's a 2D metroidvania / soulslike in the style of Salt & Sanctuary, set in pre-historic times. It's a solo dev project, janky and with some amateur art, but it's a joy to explore.

Fala com a Anna q ela tem. Tbm tem o do 中村 彰憲 sobre China e o do Marcin sobre Polônia.