User talk:Jscott/Japan

Hi Jason,

It's been awhile! How are things? Sorry I wasn't able to help out much with the arcade project while we were in Montreal. However, there's another bar arcade down here in Orlando called Player One. They have a nice selection of machines and excellent interior design. Also not sure if your documentary covers this, but Electronic Games magazine had features in each issue on the best arcades across the country in the early 80s.

Anyway, I've got a question to ask you. My colleague in Japan, Joseph Redon, is the head of the Game Preservation Society, a nonprofit organization that is working to preserve Japanese videogames stored on floppy disks and CDs. He's got professional climate-control facilities, archival hardware and methodology, the works (except for the massive budget, really). He's trilingual (French, Japanese, English) and lives in Japan with this massive archive of factory-sealed games that he's backing up. Basically, just about everything you'd want for a project like this.

Unfortunately, the GPS ran into a problem while working on PC Engine software. The trouble has to do with the way data is written to PC Engine CDs. In order for them to create archival-quality backups similar to the Kryoflux project, they need someone who can write a program that will interact with their CD-ROM drive. However, they have not been able to find a programmer who can do it in a language like C++. (As a nonprofit group composed entirely of volunteers, hiring an outside programmer causes some political issues.)

I'm not sure where this falls in the realm of your expertise, but I asked Henry and JP Dyson about it, and they suggested I talk to you. I thought you might know someone with this type of expertise who might be able to help out with the GPS project. Ideally someone in Japan or who can do the work in Japan.

At the very least, the type of work they are doing is excellent, and right in your territory. We would be grateful if you could take a look into this. Thank you in advance for any advice or assistance you can provide!

Sincerely,

-Devin Monnens