Interview started to measure game love!
Shito (laugh), please tell me the "first impact" with the video game.
In 1980, in the era of the birth of the television game industry I began to be interested in TV games as a member of the Goethe tribe. It was around time I had not been to school yet. I was playing and immediately realized that there were games that seemed much more attractive than other games. All the games were Japanese games. From that time on, my impression has not changed all the time, I still think so strongly.
Please tell us the most unique episode in your gamer life.
It is undeniably the day when I was greeted as a fan at SNK Playmore's headquarters in Esaka. While talking to me, SNK staff was surprised that I knew everything from SNK 's game production, history and every detail to far out of my imagination. Perhaps you saw me as the best fans of SNK ... (laugh).
Which is the most important game for you?
It may be difficult to name concrete titles. But it is one word to say reliably. That is "Neo Geo". I feel that the game machine represents the gamer's experience and the story that I am the most representative.
What do you think Japanese games have added value to Western games?
First of all, I think that it is very different in style. Japanese graphics style focuses on styling, designing, symbolism rather than realism. Therefore, in the early days of video games, when hard limitations were many, very attractive sprites were made. I believe that the creative style in Japan has reached such an area that Westerners can not enter and has created distinctive descriptive power.
Do you want Japanese manufacturers to make sequels and remakes of which games?
My beloved NeoGeo is considered as an experience that was completed at the time. From now on, there will be no point in keeping asking for new work for that hard. In other words, I would like to see the sequel of "The King of Fighters XIII". In that game, I think that SNK Playmore created a new masterpiece, reached outstanding artistry, and succeeded in rebuilding not only the series but also the fight genre.
Although it is a totally different game, I hope for the long time since the sequel of Sega's "Burning Ranger" comes. For example, I think that two screens and 3DS utilizing touch operation are very suitable for this game.
What do you think the current game has lost compared to past games?
I think that is the necessity of designing. We believe that human art arises from the necessity of circumventing technical limitations. Naturally, if you lose all technical limitations, you will reach ordinary realism. However, I think there is no art in the realism itself.
Art is born by wrist of an artist who depicts reality symbolically through a brush. It is painting, manga, animation, or video game. The 2D stage is an obvious graphic design of reality that is originally 3D. I think that designing the pattern will lead to the unique nature and descriptive power of the video game.
Let's get into the topic of Neo Geo in full swing. Why did you first touched it?
Just like the rest of the world gamers, the first time I learned about Neo Geo was when I met MVS for the game center. To be precise, in 1991, MVS debuted the following year. I just started to go to high school. I still remember everything clearly like yesterday's thing.
One day, I discovered "Magician Road", "Cyber Lip", "Sengoku Transfer" and "King of the Monsters" at the small game center which was the only one in my small town where I lived. That game's style caught my interest instantaneously. And when the fighting game boom began, the "founder" of SNK's famous series such as "Fatal Fury", "Ryuu Tiger Fist", "SAMURAI SPIRITS" came. From that time on, I became an enthusiastic fan!
What characteristics did you most love about the neo - geo games?
From the first moment SNK game's unique style attracted me. I liked the game from a young age, but I always found a "plus α" worthy value for NeoGeo games. There was a pop design and a dark street culture-like trace.
At that time, I did not know anything about Osaka's American village, and I could not grasp the "quotation" that was in "Burning Fight". Still, the darkness of SNK work was transmitted. I could not buy it with my own money, but I also knew that Neo Geo was used as a home system.
I think that having any game (not a transplant version) with the game center at their own house was a forbidden dream of any Gersen tribe at that time. In other words, NeoGeo was born to realize the dream, it became legendary for the Gersen like me. "Let 's take a great game, let' s go home.
Are there any favorite games and series in NeoGeo's lineup?
The work that feels the most emotional ties is "The King of Fighters". I am an absolute fan of Kyo Kusanagi. I especially liked the epic element which was the background of the pretext of the tournament, which can be thought of as the interpretation of the "eight huge big snake" myth. At that time also strongly interested in Japanese history and culture, an epic background attracted me even more.
Moreover, "KOF" thinks that it was modern all the time, unlike "Fatal Fury" and "Fist of the Dragon Tiger" that had been aesthetically showing strong ties to the 1980s movies and Yankee fashion. "KOF" was really a product of the 1990s! Likewise, the series I loved so much was "SAMURAI SPIRITS". The reason is the same. It is a reason for Japanese culture and history to love.
What do you think is the difference between SNK and another manufacturer's fighting game?
I think that SNK is always a manufacturer sensitive to "attractiveness of products" to designs and users. In other words, rather than refining gaming, SNK thinks that aesthetic factors have been respected up to the limit. As an example, at Athena (ATHENA), as the design of the character clearly shows, we adopted the fashion called "Bikini Armor" which began with the boom of "Yendai war record Leda". In addition, at 'Psycho Soldier' which is the sequel to 'Athena', SNK showed the song with the first singing voice in the history of the arcade game.
Terry キ Bogard's Yankee fashion, characters that fight in uniforms and school runs reminiscent of the 1990s, techno and gothic fashion listed by "KOF '99" and "KOF 2000", SNK is not only an enthusiastic geek but also a casual gamer I have made only characters that will get favorable. Through the aesthetic evolution of neo-geo games, you can estimate fashion and style that young people gather every year from Osaka's street.
When did the hobby named NeoGio collector began?
When I was a young man, it was impossible to buy neo - geo. Because, in consideration at the time of the day, one cartridge was over 60,000 yen. For me who was just a student, it was a dream I could not imagine very much. In high school and college years I was playing in the game NeoGeo in the gamesen. And I endured it with a ported version of Sega Saturn, my favorite game machine.
In 2000, I became a full-fledged social worker, started work and earned income. Since I had not gone to gohseen anymore, I started collecting NeoGeo cartridges in the second hand market to realize that dream of the past. The more the game software gathered, the stronger the desire of complete completion.
It seems that your collection is made up of Japanese version of game software and various items, but did not you think to collect game software of Western version, for example?
Neo Geo is an SNK game machine. In other words, it is a Japanese company, and all developers are Japanese. I know that there is an official Western version, but I think that it does not have originality or purity, that is, the original essence. What I am interested in is the most "telling the truth" of loved ones. In order to feel the essence, I had to go back to the origin by all means. Origin, that which symbolizes the truth. Speaking of Japanese video games, it was a Japanese game software.
Is it difficult to get the Japanese version of NeoGeo's game software etc in Italy?
As I said earlier, I started collecting the game of NeoGeo in 2000. At that time, the used market of the game was already very active on the Internet. Contacts with Japan that we have been building year by year also helped us. In that year, a retro game boom in Japan was about to start, for reasons related to gamer generation change. In the 1980s and 1990s gamers like myself became a fine society person, now I think that there was such a boom as the environment for setting up a hobby called the NeoGeo collection is in place.
Which items are most difficult to obtain as a collector and are proud?
Even now, it is a well-known fact that certain neo-geo game software is expensive. Obtaining such items was never easy. Also it was difficult to find very old game software in a good preservation state. Still, not only did he completed all the complete game software and hardware collection, but also the rare item named after Neo Geo was available.
For example, we have "RENTAL OPTION TOOLS" such as "Rental Plate" for stores and "Renting Rope". I believe this item has genuine historical value for me. I feel that owning that item gives the collection a museum-like added value. I am really proud.
I heard that I wrote a book called "NEO GEO COLLECTOR'S BIBLE", but would you explain what it is?
"NEO GEO COLLECTOR'S BIBLE" is a book I wrote amateurly. As the title suggests, it deals with many themes related to the NeoGeo collection. While collecting all the material, data and information related to neojyo year by year, I noticed that there are many data that would confuse the history of this game system on the Internet.
For example, many people in Europe and the United States seem to have misunderstood that MVS was released before the NeoGeo for home use. But that is wrong. The two systems are on sale at the same time. Actually, there seems to be unclear information in Japan.
So, I gathered formal information on my own and decided to put it in one book. In order to confirm each data, I gathered game magazines of the time, flyers for advertisement, documents and so on. While making full use of my publishing industry experience, I was able to realize graphically attractive books, working together with friends with the same hobby.
As for the layout of this book, I was inspired by the then Japanese Mook (a book between books and magazines). The goal of this book is to spread the culture called NeoGio in Italy. At the present stage I made more than 100 Vol. 1, but in order to complete the work, I'd like to write Vol.