RolandYear: 2014, Arcade: Taito Station Shinjuku Minamiguchi, Subject: Winning Eleven, Location: Shinjuku, Developer: Konami

Winning Eleven Arcade Championship 2014

RolandYear: 2014, Arcade: Taito Station Shinjuku Minamiguchi, Subject: Winning Eleven, Location: Shinjuku, Developer: Konami
Winning Eleven Arcade Championship 2014
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If Tokyo is the future of the 90s playground, whatever happened to International Superstar Soccer?

Amazing to think what you’ve been doing since you were playing on the SNES in 1994. ISS just bummed around in Osaka, partying, getting ported to any console going. In the early 2000s, it moved to Tokyo and reinvented itself, started going by “Pro Evo” and “Winning Eleven”.

And now, after all these years, of all the games in all the arcade basements in all the metropolis, who do you run into?

What’s it been? 20 years? You have a joystick now! It really suits you. Me? Still gaming, still dreaming. Never really grew up in a way. Have you seen that PS4 they have now? Really? You always did get around. A match? Now? Ha ha… I mean, we could…

👟⚽️

Feels like we’re kids again.

Photographer and writer covering Tokyo arcade life – the videogames, the metropolis and the people

RolandLocation: Shinjuku, Developer: Konami, Arcade: Taito Station Shinjuku Minamiguchi Game World, Year: 2014, Subject: Winning Eleven, Subject: Arcade ArtefactComment

How to Ashtray

Japanese arcades are dripping with tar and nicotine. In fact, it’s said that the reason nineties candy cabinets keep going so long is that the plastics have transformed into a super-strengthened resin after decades of suspension in cigarette tar.

RolandLocation: Shinjuku, Developer: Konami, Arcade: Taito Station Shinjuku Minamiguchi Game World, Year: 2014, Subject: Winning Eleven, Subject: Arcade ArtefactComment
How to Ashtray
RolandArcade: Club Sega Shinjuku Nishiguchi, Location: Shinjuku, Developer: Sega, Year: 2011, Subject: ToyletsComment

Now Wash Your Hands

There has long been a trend of reporting on Japan that selects and spins niche, non-news stories to contribute to a collaborative caricature of “Weird Japan”. One popular pastime is to point at sexual perversions – where many “perversions” are merely wayward of Western norms, presented absent acknowledgement or awareness of the imperfections in how we all cope with sex the world over.

RolandArcade: Club Sega Shinjuku Nishiguchi, Location: Shinjuku, Developer: Sega, Year: 2011, Subject: ToyletsComment
Now Wash Your Hands
RolandSubject: Dragon Ball: Zenkai Battle Royale, Developer: Bandai Namco, Year: 2011, Arcade: Taito Station Shinjuku Minamiguchi Game World, Location: Shinjuku

Dragon Ball Zenkai Battle

Dragon Ball is one of those franchises where you could easily spit out another something at a fingerclick. Everyone wants to make it; everyone wants to publish it; everyone wants to buy it. How many decades and a bottomless appetite. Click! Dragon Ball Zenkai Battle.

RolandSubject: Dragon Ball: Zenkai Battle Royale, Developer: Bandai Namco, Year: 2011, Arcade: Taito Station Shinjuku Minamiguchi Game World, Location: Shinjuku
Dragon Ball Zenkai Battle