Episode 152: Japanese Mobile Game Preservation

Podcast: Video Game History Hour · Video Game History Foundation

Opublikowano: 2026-03-18

In this episode, host Phil Salvador is joined by two digital preservationists, Ellen Cooper and Max Solensky, to explore the world of Japanese mobile game preservation. Before app stores existed, Japan was living in the future thanks to i-mode: a 1999 revolution that put the internet (and Capcom and Sega) right in your pocket. Today, these games are disappearing, and quickly. From brutal encryption to servers that no longer exist, saving this history is a high-tech race against time. We discuss the i-mode explosion and how Japan’s feature phones beat the world to the web; why saving a...