100 Yen: The Japanese Arcade Experience

Taito was founded 60 years ago.

We started as an import goods company.

We would bring in items from overseas like Pinball Games.

Our president then decided that arcades

seemed to be working well in America,

and that they would suit Japan equally well.

We created our first arcade store and it was a success.

That made us say, why don't we start making our own games?

1978,

Space Invaders was born.

The programmer and Director of the game was Nishikado.

In a standard arcade there were Space Invader cabinets

and various other games, usually around fifty

to one hundred games throughout the arcade.

but customers really only wanted to play Space Invaders

and the other games were only taking up space

so we decided to make arcades with only Space Invader cabinets

these became known as Invader Houses.

it turned out to be a great idea.

A game of Space Invaders cost a single 100 yen coin per play

and customers would pump their coins into the machines

spending hundreds of coins per person, every day.

It became such an epidemic that Japan

actually ran out of 100 yen coins.

Historical records show that

while the banks did their best to keep up

they couldn't print coins fast enough

causing this incredible shortage.

Of course shooting games are my first love.

Instead of a human running around with a gun,

we have these futuristic space ships shooting aliens.

That idea alone was so new

and such a romantic concept.

Of course Space Invaders is one of

the most recognized Japanese games.

but when you mention the word game

to someone who grew up at the time,

they immediately think of a space ship

moving across the x and y axis' and shooting bullets.

Hi, I'm the owner of Game-Inn Ebisen.

Ebihara-san aka The Shrimp Boss.

This isn't your standard Japanese Arcade,

we don't have modern mainstream games,

it's more of a retro arcade

we focus more on the retro games.

I also provide a service

where you choose the game you would like to play

and i'll swap it out in the machine.

At my arcade, vertical and side scrolling shooting games

are the most popular, other than those...

maybe just Tetris.

Basically the people who play here,

I'd say about 90 percent...

90 percent of my customers

are hardcore...

Hardcore gamers.

My alias is Clover-TAC

I pretty much just play shooting games.

The idea behind shooting games,

which of course was born from Space Invaders,

are based on a concept that is easy to understand

anyone who is watching can see

you shoot bullets to hit your enemies

and then at the same time

if you are hit by a bullet you explode, ending the game.

These rules haven't changed since shooting games' inception.

It is these simple rules

and ease of comprehension

that have kept these games popular

for so many years.

'That's good enough'

doesn't exist in these guys' vocabulary

down to the last detail, they keep fighting.

Of course I feel a lot of pressure to succeed

but once the game starts the nerves disappear.

Not only that

but you can only reach your peak performance from experience,

it's similar to a test you've been studying for in school

you can't suddenly start playing these games and be amazing.

It just won't happen like that, you need to work up your skill level

to become good at these games.

Lately, you know...

How do you say...

the best shooting game players

don't necessarily have insane reactionary reflexes

instead it's more about logical thinking and strategy

that's more the norm now, more the focus.

Find your strategy and keep building and

building and building on that foundation.

After all that, you can't just wait for a perfect score to arrive

you have to want it and push for it to happen.

It is this type of mindset that these players all maintain

especially someone like Clover-TAC.

Of course...

Of course I remember the first time Clover-TAC came to Ebi-sen.

Naru-kun, a top player...

A really good shooting game player who frequents this arcade...

He was the one who brought Clover-TAC along

and right from the beginning I could see...

this guy was really good.

Ahh... this guy... there's something different about this guy.

I believe the first time that I had one of my high scores published

was a score from a game called ESP Ra. De.

My scores now, at least compared to my first published high score,

while I've gotten much higher scores since,

that first published score is the one that i'm the most proud of.

The one that I remember the most fondly.

Most recently my best score is from the game "Akai Katana"

about 430,000,000 points.

When thinking about arcade games and their design

you must consider that you put in your 100 yen coin

the game begins and the arcade gets its profit.

So the user is paying for a chance to enjoy a game.

Paying for time.

They get X amount of gameplay minutes.

So with that in mind, one game should be able to be completed

within about 30 minutes.

One other thing is, for the person who deposited their 100 yen coin

in simple terms, there needs to be some kind of satisfaction

within the first one to three minutes of gameplay.

For this reason, RPG style adventure games with long stories

where you work towards getting to the final boss

and numerous events take place in between,

this style of game just doesn't work, it's N.G. (no good).

Within the first three minutes... At about the three minute mark

the player needs to understand

this is how the gameplay works, these are the game's mechanics.

So the game needs to have a sudden and exciting climax

and then from there, once the player has reached this climax,

if they are like "I'm done, I get it, I'm finished playing".

The game has failed.

"I want to do that again!"

Even though they've experienced the climax

they should want to get to that climax again

without feeling they've experienced the entire game.

There's still so much more to do!

These principles must be present for an arcade game

to be successful.

It is these principles we consider when designing a game.

Up until now, arcade games had always been a business model

that in an interesting way, has been about purchasing time.

We'll take your 100 yen and give you three minutes of entertainment

and that was our hobby at the time.

But then this is where things started to shift.

You and the person beside you each pay 100 yen to fight

if you lose we take your money! That's frustrating isn't it?

Better out in some more money.

Until now this type of hobby didn't exist.

Once you tried it, you realized how fun it was.

This new game-type caused arcade business to surge.

So when you look at Street Fighter 2

in the grand scheme of arcade game history.

Fighting games would be like the proverbial meteor

that wiped out the dinosaurs.

Street Fighter 2 would act as the catalyst that would overthrow

my favorite genre: shooting games

as the number one draw to arcades...

This would represent the first major paradigm shift for arcades.

The reason I like fighting games, is it's such a fresh concept.

it's not simply a physical challenge, the mental aspects

known as Yomi, which involves "reading" your opponent

didn't exist in games before this.

I thought, hmm... This is a thinking mans game

and that's what really attracted me to fighting games.

That and I thought if I could make some friends when

playing these games, it would become even more interesting.

Basically, if you think about Fighting Games

as a communication tool you won't be far off.

I've been playing games for so long...

I don't know if you can call it a hobby anymore.

The first time I played games

was at a video rental store.

It was there, when I went with my sister to rent a movie

that I had my first experience with arcade games.

From the age of fourteen until twenty...

About twenty-two, I was playing pretty much non-stop.

From twenty-three through to twenty-seven, I ddin't really play much.

With the release of Street Fighter 4

I returned to playing very frequently.

In 2D fighting games, without a doubt

the best player is Daigo Umehara,

He has a long storied career in fighting games

and has travelled overseas for many tournaments.

How can I say...

He has one of the best records in fighting games

and is universally considered one of the best players in the world.

Without a doubt, for 2D fighters

Umehara is the best.

The social interaction between two people

is what this is really all about.

It's not about the Artificial Intelligence of a computer

I think that's the most interesting aspect of fighting games.

It's hard to say for sure what makes me a good player

but I'm sure it has something to do with an innate understanding

of these types of games since I was very young.

That's really the sense of a pro gamer.

That being said, natural ability only gets you so far...

It all comes down to playing these games

and putting in the time, the repetition, the practice...

That's where I feel professional level skill comes from.