After GamePro was melted down to its raw materials by IDG with only a few days' notice beforehand, I made sure to grab some of the things I did there, chiefly "Arcade Games That Time Forgot," a fun little column that featured a different weird arcade game each week (and needed a better name). It's not the most original idea ever, but it had it kicking around in my head for a while. To answer your first question: no, I won't be continuing it in the magazine, because I think it's more digestible and enjoyable on the web, plus the mag has enough similar columns, and it's a passable enough idea that I could probably still find a way to get paid by someone else to continue it, god willing.

Anyway, to read all the AGTTF entries in glorious reverse-chronological order, just click on the tag for it above, or this link too, I guess. Enjoy!

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Cover Story

In the past ten years, no game system has had a stranger, nor shorter history than Microsoft's Xbox. Obviously, without it, Microsoft wouldn't be where they are today in the game industry, but it remains an interesting freshman effort. The strangest branch on the Xbox timeline is its performance in Japan, where it was repeatedly thrust on a gaming public that could only be described as terminally apathetic. Granted, the Xbox had its fair share of flaws that weren't unique to the East, but the ones that were still held some degree of fascination, because they were almost exclusively cultural. A four-page retrospective of the Xbox's struggles in Japan is the focus of this issue, along with "The Unknown Xbox Games," a catalog of almost 20 Japanese Xbox games you've probably never heard of, bar one you likely have.

Also in This Issue

Sonic CD
Street Fighter II (GB)
The Island of Lost Hardware

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64 pgs.

Click for slightly larger sample

P.S.: With this issue, the first year of SCROLL comes to a close. Thanks to everyone who's commented, praised, retweeted, and of course purchased. The next issue and the ones that follow in 2012 should be even more wild and fun to make as before.

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SCROLL 1+2 is a new volume that collects issues 01 and 02 of SCROLL back-to-back. Every page from each issue is here, including the Super NES anniversary feature "Endurance" and the Dragon Quest essays from "Quests," as well as the supplementary articles -- Alex Fraioli's love letter to Phantasy Star's weirdness, the Island of Lost Hardware, and the original installments of the games-in-historical-context series Fullscreen. New introductions give you a bit of insight into the issues' creation, as well.

This collection is only available in print, and makes a great introduction to the magazine. It's also cheaper than buying both separately at full price!

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86 pgs.

Today 1UP posted a fun (i.e. not very serious) new feature from yours truly: Where Are They Now, a roster of people who were in and around video games in the '90s, mostly, and where they went from there. Not all of the entries were my idea (the cover artists are kind of a stretch), and I imagine most people will just giggle at J.D. Roth on the first page and not read the rest -- totally valid -- but I did enjoy figuring out where people ended up, not the least of which being Mr. Yukawa from Sega. Turns out he was doing commercials for them way before Dreamcast, too:

Funnily enough, this feature was originally for the next issue of 1UP's own MagCloud-published magazine, which would have further extended my tentacles across that space, but it was shifted to the web. It probably works better here, anyway.

With Sega confirming that Daytona USA is coming to XBLA and PSN in just a couple of weeks, I thought I'd share this incredible live performance of the game's infamous theme song "Let's Go Away" from the 2007 "EXTRA" game music concert, with a band led by "H." and vocals by, who else, Takenobu Mitsuyoshi. Speakers up!