John Szczepaniak's Blog
I am the author of The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers trilogy of books. Excerpts from the books, and other articles I've written, can be found below.
For anyone interested in commissioning me to write something, please contact me via my Hardcore Gaming 101 email:
[email protected]
All three volumes are now published. They are not chronological, so you jump right into whatever volume has your favourite interviewees or games.
Volume 1 is available on Amazon US, and Amazon UK, and probably all the other Amazons too. Available in print and Kindle.
Volume 2
Volume 3 - published February 2018!
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John Szczepaniak has been a journalist for over 15 years and has interviewed over 180 people. He is also a novelist and copy editor. He's written for Gamasutra, Game Developer Magazine, Retro Gamer, GamesTM, Official PlayStation Magazine, The Escapist, plus over a dozen other publications. He frequently contributes to Hardcore Gaming 101, where he helped put together The Guide to Classic Graphic Adventures book and was managing editor on the Sega Arcade Classics Vol. 1 book.
Licensed by Great Britain's Royal Yachting Association as a naval skipper, John also holds a Marine Radio Operator's license. MENSA certified, speaks Japanese, programs indie games, brews wine.
Member Blogs
Creator of Sonic the Hedgehog, Naoto Ohshima, reveals the plans for Michael Jackson to create music for Sonic 3. Jackson was creating the music as a human beat box! In this video Ohshima also does impressions of this "a cappella" music
On Friday 29 September 2017 no one on Earth will be able to buy anything on Xbox Live Indie Games. Here are the facts...
An examination of the controversial underworld of the Japanese videogame industry
A collection of short videos documenting the history of Japanese console and computer games.
Project yourself astrally through space and time, and imagine what it was like standing inside a game developer's studio from the past
Resident Evil concept and character artist collaborating on new Italian survival horror - read an interview on his life in games! (Warning: article contains nudity)
John Szczepaniak's Comments
Comment In:
[Feature - 09/19/2012 - 04:00]
I doubt anyone will read ...
I doubt anyone will read this but... r n r nI recently played through the original Crackdown on X360 for the first time, and was astounded to discover that it 's basically a remake of Immercenary. Sci-fi futuristic setting, orbs to increase stats, generic fodder enemies over an entire giant ...
Comment In:
[News - 04/03/2018 - 06:46]
Very sad to hear this. ...
Very sad to hear this. He was a multi-talented creator and fun to interview. Besides games he also worked as a journalist, strategy guide writer, book author, and was involved in the screenplay adaptation of Otogirisou.
Comment In:
[Blog - 02/27/2018 - 10:04]
My primary takeaway from this ...
My primary takeaway from this is that we need socialism across the whole of Europe so that no student ever needs pay tuition fees. And instead this should be funded through the heavy taxation of corporations. Heavy socialism would improve things for everyone across the board really. You story is ...
Comment In:
[News - 02/22/2018 - 04:57]
As a long time fan ...
As a long time fan of the series, the developer TFB, and both Reiche and Ford, this is riveting stuff. I had been curious about this series reboot, but the fact they 're trying to sue Reiche and Ford has completely soured me on supporting Stardock or its products. r ...
Comment In:
[Blog - 09/27/2017 - 09:34]
Also, I stated 3398, but ...
Also, I stated 3398, but that 's for the UK store. Apparently in the USA the number of games is 3404 Whatever. That 's a lot of games I got all that I wanted this past week, plus a ton of demos for stuff which I don 't want to ...
Comment In:
[Blog - 10/10/2016 - 03:44]
Wonderful write up, funny and ...
Wonderful write up, funny and informative. Thanks for the links to HG101 and my book. r n r nI was actually transcribing Yoshi Kiya 's interview for Volume 3 when this article went live. He speaks about how basically no one had any concrete design plans when making games, they ...
