I just completed the second volume of John Szczepaniak’s The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers and much like the first volume, I found myself astonished at some of the details revealed in several interviews the book has in it. I’ve read through many books on the topic of video games and I find these days that they rarely offer new insight on the topic. Both volumes of The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers keep the topic fresh and left me eager to to pick up the next volume. If you have any sort of interest in the history of Japanese game development from past and present, you must certainly pick up these books.

One of the most interesting topics of these books is a behind the scenes look at the Game Preservation Society. (https://www.gamepres.org/en/) The Society is meticulously saving the history of Japanese video games by archiving and restoring these games. If you thought bit-rot was a terrifying thing, wait until you read just how often mold and disk degradation resides on floppy disks. This is just one topic of interest though, there is SO much more to these books.

I read the Kindle versions of these books, but physical versions do exist as well. Both formats can be picked up at Amazon at the following links:

Volume 1: https://www.amazon.com/Untold-History-Japanese-Game-Developers/dp/0992926009

Volume 2: https://www.amazon.com/Untold-History-Japanese-Game-Developers/dp/1518655319

I can’t recommend these books enough and look forward to volume 3 when its released.