Chrono Trigger V-Jump Edition
This version of Chrono Trigger has never been sold and was part of a lottery event done by the Japanese gaming magaizne V-Jump!
Less than a month after the Tokyo Game Show another interesting Exhibition was held at Makuhari Messe this week: the Ceatec – Cutting Edge IT & Electronics Comprehensive Exhibition. For the most part it had little to do with videogames other then the stray Mobilegame and a few PSP Vita demo stations. But one little gadget was very interesting for videogame lovers, especially those interested in retro gaming. Micomsoft the creator of the amazing XRGB3 finally showed off its newest baby in the XRGB series the XRGB Mini Framemeister. It was first announced about a year back and was expected to be released sometime this early this year, but hardly any concrete information had been released until this week.
Last thursday we had the honor to visit the enterbrain offices and got a chance to speak to some of the editors of Famitsu, as well as the president of enterbrain, who was one of the first editors for Famitsu. For almost two decades now, Famitsu has been the biggest and best selling videogame magazine in Japan and is published on a weekly basis spanning over 300 pages each issue. Enterbrain is the publisher behind it, but is also responsible for several other magazines, as well as guidebooks and online portals, all on different topics like horse-racing, animes, computers and more.
For those interested in more cosplay photos, check out the site of a new friend of mine called Dekopon, who we met on the TGS and was the only cameraman who was willing to have us interview him in front of a camera. Unlike most of the guys showing up at those type of gatherings, he was very casual looking and super friendly. He almost felt a bit out of place except for his Canon EOS 5D Mark 2 with a huge 70-200mm f2.8 L IS II USM lens which together cost around 5000$. But judging from his pictures, it is worth every cent.
When we asked him what his motivation was behind taking pictures of cosplaying girls, he explained to us that since it was hard for guys to look good in cosplay, at least he wanted to take good pictures of his favorite characters, so he could be part of the cosplayer scene that way.
Of course we were curious to find out if that was his only motivation and asked him if he was also hoping to perhaps date one or the other girl, he was taking pictures of. He told us his motives were purely platonic and he was not interested in dating any them: “Once you start dating cosplayers, things can easily get troublesome.” he laughed “I can not recommend it!“. On further inquiry if he had experience with that kind of situation he only gave us a: “No comment!“.
Later on we started talking about what his favorite cosplay was and found out that he was a big fan of Idolmaster. It goes without saying, like any selfrespecting game otaku in Japan he owned a 360 and even a bunch of western games. Both his friends who were also big videogamers since the NES era and also owned 360s.
When we asked why they thought Japanese hardcore gamers going for the 360, they told us: “Recently, Japanese games lack innovation and are visually inferior to their western counterparts. In the last few years all we get are remakes and continuations of old franchises but nothing new.” They were very unhappy with the development of the Japnese videogame industry in recent years and wish there would come a time again with more innovative games and classic style gameplay utilizing 2D HD bitmaps for example.
Dekopon is not only a cameraman and gamer, but also the organizer of cosplay events every now and then. Check out his event page for dates and even more pictures. (Use the hyperlink in the bottom left corner to see older posts when on his blog page.)
A few pictures I took on the Tokyo Game Show this year. Unfortunately, something is wrong with my camera sensor and most of the pics ended up being slightly out of focus. Luckily some of the pics were still salvagable and ended up being pretty decent.
For some reason this year around the whole cosplay section was super overcrowded and it was really hard to get decent shots of the girls (and boys) without standing in line for several minutes. As far as I remember, people didn’t even form lines in the previous years, so either I never noticed it or this is some new rule in the scene.
One girl had so many guys taking pics of her that they had to count down and break up the masses of photographers so other cameramen could move in close to get some pics. This continued for at least an hour with dozens of sweaty guys pushing and shoving to get closer to the cosplayer. Personally, I lacked the dedication to wait and fight my way through to the center of attention and took pictures of the fanatics taking pictures instead.
Last Sunday on a stroll through Akihabara me and my buddy Marc, spotted a couple of Itashas (painmobiles, anime decorated cars) with the usual Hatsune Miku artworks on every visible side of the car and decided to chat up a few of the owners. Other then being the usual otaku suspects, they were kind enough to tell us about the ItaG Festa, which will take place in the middle of October and is considered one of the biggest Itasha get-togethers in Japan. We will definitely hit it up and check out all the crazy cars and their probably even crazier drivers. Here is a small taste of what can be expected:
Pre-order now:
This Final Fantasy Type-0 Limited Edition Collector’s Box is a Squareenix e-Store exclusive and will never be sold in normal retail stores, making it a very rare collectors item that will most likely gain a of value in the near future.
Retro!
Check out all the classic titles and restocks we just got in this week!
Last week we decided to go out and check out a couple of Hard Off stores. Hard Off is a subsidiary of Book Off which is – like the name implies to some degree – mainly a reseller of used books but also started selling DVDs, CDs and current gen videogames later on. However, unlike Book Off, is Hard Off’s focus more on hardware like fridges, hi-fi equipment, kitchen items but also clothing and most importantly old videogames and consoles. Even though, most of the games are not in the best of conditions and selection varies drastically from store to store, is there hardly anything more exciting than finding a small treasure between the piles of discarded videogames from back in the day. Here the first batch of what we found on our last trip through several stores. Most of the items are online already and can be purchased! 
Limited Offer only till next weekend! Get them while they’re cheap! Click
Limited Offer only till next weekend! Get them while they’re cheap! Click
