The Man Who Created Space Invaders: Interviews with Tomohiro Nishikado
スペースインベーダーを創った男西角友宏に聞く
Interview book with Space Invaders creator Tomohiro Nishikado by French game historian Florent Gorges; Japanese translation of a French original, produced by Ambit and distributed by Tokuma Shoten.
ABOUT
A book length interview with Tomohiro Nishikado, the designer of Space Invaders, conducted by the French game historian Florent Gorges and translated into Japanese by Mizuki Gorges. The NDL record confirms it is a translation of a French original and runs 188 pages; five chapters follow Nishikado from Taito's electromechanical era through Speed Race and Western Gun to the 1978 invader boom, illustrated with flyers and other period documents. Published by Ambit and distributed through Tokuma Shoten in February 2018.
DESCRIPTION
The arcade video game Space Invaders was a worldwide smash hit. This book traces the origins of its creator Tomohiro Nishikado and the untold stories of the early days, through interviews by the French game historian Florent Gorges, illustrated with many rare materials such as flyers, across five chapters. Chapter 1 covers his childhood and student years, tracing his roots as a creator. Chapter 2 looks back at his debut and the electromechanical arcade era with games such as Sky Fighter and Borderline. Chapter 3 covers the dawn of arcade video games, from the imported Pong onward, including Japan's first domestically made video game Soccer and development stories of Speed Race and Western Gun. Chapter 4 recounts the birth of Space Invaders, its graphic design, rules and sound, and the invader boom. Chapter 5 covers his work toward the future: his memories of the years after he left arcade video game development to work on new products, and his path after founding his own game software company. The book is the Japanese edition of the French publication Space Invaders: Comment Tomohiro Nishikado a donne naissance au jeu video Japonais.
世界中で大ヒットを記録した業務用ビデオゲーム『スペースインベーダー』。このゲームを生み出したクリエイター西角友宏氏の原点や草創期の秘話を、フランス人ゲーム史研究家フロラン・ゴルジュ氏によるインタビューと、フライヤーなど数多くの貴重な図版を掲載して、全5章構成で足跡を紹介。・第1章 ：幼少期から学生時代。学生時代に体験した趣味や遊びからクリエイターとしてのルーツを探る。・第2章：クリエイターデビュー当初。 『スカイファイター』や『ボーダーライン』など、初期に手がけた業務用アーケードゲーム（エレメカ）時代を振り返る。・第3章 アーケード版ビデオゲーム黎明期。アメリカから輸入されたブロック崩し『ポン』から始まるビデオゲームの萌芽を解説。氏が手掛けた日本製初のビデオゲーム『サッカー』を始めドライブゲームの『スピードレース』や『ウエスタンガン』などの開発秘話、アタリ社がもたらしたゲームの基盤の進化などを描く。・第4章：『スペースインベーダー』誕生。『スペースインベーダー』のグラフィックデザインやルール、サウンドデザインなどの誕生秘話をもとに「インベーダーブーム」を振り返る。・第5章：未来へ向けた作品開発。業務用テレビゲーム開発を離れ、未来に向けた新しい商品を開発していた時代の思い出や独立してゲームソフト開発会社を興した後の足跡など、そのキャリアを振り返る。※本書はフランスで刊行された「Space Invaders - Comment Tomohiro Nishikado a donné naissance au jeu vidéo Japonais !」の日本語版となります。 (C)2017 Florent GORGES (C)TAITO CORPORATION (C)ambit 2018
Translated by this site from the publisher's Japanese blurb.
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Searched by ISBN, so a shop that has this exact edition will show it and one that does not will come back empty. Most of these were printed in Japan and never distributed elsewhere.