itch.io

Be safe bud. See you inside the spiral.

Thanks everyone. This was a lot of fun. I think we made something awesome together.

Beny, are you there? Beny what happened dude? Did you make it out?

This was a mistake man. Don’t take that cover off! Run dude just run.

Do not go in that red room dude, WTF. Get out of there!

Scary!

Come find me. Save me. I’m lost. I’ll be the guy in the big furry top hat.

A mod was telling me something about a cease and desist against these forums. They’ve been fighting it but the host is getting spooked. They’ve been given until the end of the month.

They wouldn’t go into details for legal reasons but said it was a very stern warning.

Stop saying theory. It’s not a theory!

I can prove it. Just reach up and feel for the goggles. The ones you’re wearing.

Can you feel them yet??

Mate there’s been something fishy about you since you first joined. Came in and tried to turn everything into a spreadsheet.

Didn’t you notice the place got a bit quiet as soon as you showed up? Guess you don’t know about the discord. We’re on to you buddy. Play any SEGA recently? IYKWIMAITYD 😎

That’s a pretty empty box. You want to keep your eye out for whatever snacked on that rat in transit…

👀

I like the Tomy / Tomie connection.

I wonder if Tomie has a connection to Tommy (pinball based rock opera by the who)?

I tried to play it on speakers and use google translate on my phone, but it didn’t register any speech.

Don’t worry about that, those kids copies are free. Hope your cuz has fun!

Thanks BenyDanette!

Uh.. looks like they’re also on bsky. I think they followed me? Worrying to say the least.

Thanks! So this gives some fuel to the VR/pinball integration theory. And yet another example of some kind of spiral curse.

That is 100% it. Not just a spiral but the uzumaki face/eye too is very djstinctive. Is American Pickers one of those dead people storage container rummaging shows? Wonder what happened to the owner?

I posted this in “Anyone else seeing spirals all the time now?”

Ok but this one is wild.

https://pinballmap.com/japan

Alex than you so much for the info, that is amazing. No wonder volume 4 had difficulty with all the previous legal action. It’s a shame about the corrupted file. Even the first 3 volumes taken together are a monumental work. But volume 4 seemed a lot more tell all. The disembowelment story still has me shook.

Did your editing work for the Japansoft book show up anything that sounds familiar wrt a junji ito pinball machine, or about the story above?

Some might call me a bit obsessive, my ex wife certainly did, but I find myself up all night every night determined to crack this thing. Which is to say I’ve taken a drink or two throughout to keep myself sharp. Shake of these damn headaches. Whiskey sir, and make it cheap! What’s this got to do with anything? Calm down, I’m getting there.

Some folks water it down with ice but that’s a damn crime so I use these freezer ball things. Why dilute perfection? Anyway long story short I’m reading your post and my head starts killing me again, I damn near pass out. I look down in my glass and what do I see? A stainless steel ball about 2 inch across staring straight back at me. Shiny as always but now it’s covered in spirals, just like you said. Those never used to be there. When I bought em they looked like this…

What I want to know is why the hell you had to post your damn sob story? Spreading the misery around? Whatever you thought you were doing now you’ve gone an spread it to me!

I know misery loves company but what are we even doing here? Some kid on reddit gets cursed and we all feel left out? I’ll have what he’s having! None of this is right. Listen out there if you read about this in that damn rag don’t get involved. Close the tab and go on living your life before you end up like us. Trust me it ain’t worth it.

S.R.U.!!

If the Super RU machine predates the publish date of Uzumaki, it doesn’t necessarily mean it predates the creation. But the question of cause and effect is very interesting.

I watched this last night and this is definitely a vibe. But I woke up this morning with the intro/outro music stuck in my head. Like not just stuck but swirling around getting louder and louder. Every loop is pressing in like it’s swelling from my ears into my eyes and I’ve got like tunnel vision or something now it’s going black. Maybe it’s just a hangover I was up practically all night drinking and searching for Omega Micott leads in japanese オメガ・ミコット. I remember thinking I’d made a huge breakthrough but I can’t remember what now with this music screaming in my ears. I just feel so dizzy and everything is spinning. I’m scared.

Thanks Elvana, sure look like pinballs to me!

Yeah I’m kinda spiralling.

this short has 7 views but like https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7ZDRRg9uJUw

This reddit post has a well referenced summary of a late 90s rumour about SEGA using the yakuza to kidnap a game developer’s sister - in an attempt to prevent them working for Nintendo: https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/onrb8p/in_the_mid_to_late_90s_in_japan_the_sister_of_a/

This is based on an interview in Volume 2 of The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers. However in the unreleased fourth volume of this series, the author revisits this notorious rumour. The author John Szczepaniak admits that the developer in question was actually the mangaka Junji Ito, who’s profession and alias were changed for the original interview. The author relays that Ito was working on a flagship pinball machine for Nintendo’s entry into the then yakuza controlled pinball and pachinko industry. SEGA still with many active ties to organized crime, took umbrage to this, starting what was effectively a turf war over the pinball vice.

The real story goes that after SEGA kidnapped Itosan’s sister, Nintendo affiliated thugs were brought in. They broke their way into the hotel where she was being held and carnage broke out. Several SEGA thugs were severely injured and fled. Itosan recounted that when he was allowed into the room to comfort his sister and escort her home, he saw an image so striking it stuck with him and affected his work forever after. One of the SEGA thugs, unconscious but still alive, had been disembowled, and the entrails entangled around a pedestal fan that was still spinning. He said the spiralling intestines, still spooling out, formed the most hypnotic pattern he had ever seen. A traumatic experience that obviously inspired his famous work Uzumaki immediately after.

It’s not focused on by the author, but in the latter part of the interview, Itosan mentions in passing that the pinball machines were in fact in late prototype stage when this happened, and that he retrofitted some with spiral imagery, but that the later yakuza truce between the two companies meant they could not be brought to market. He says they were gifted to the group who helped with the rescue and found their way into several pachinko parlours.

Volume 4 was unreleased but I found a cover pic (above) and a partial scan here: https://web.archive.org/web/20260000000000*/the%20untold%20history%20of%20japanese%20game%20developers%20volume%204

Crazy fucking story but not unbelievable. Man the japanese game industry in those days were insane. Kind of cheeky of SEGA to produce the yakuza games after that once it all blew over.

The company that produced Junji Ito’s Uzumaki film with all the spirals, Omega Micott Inc, directly produced two Uzumaki computer games in 2000 for the Japan domestic market exclusive handheld console the Bandai WonderSwan. The wonderswan sounded sick, like a beefier gameboy.

Uzumaki: Denshi Kaikihen (2000) Uzumaki: Noroi Simulation (2000)

Frankly this is huge.

• Only 1 year earlier than the gogooze99 incident.
• The producers were actively producing multiple spinoff games.
• Bandai has a big arcade game footprint.
• The game graphics sound similar to the reported pinball machine.

Is it such a stretch to think they also produced a pinball machine with Bandai to accompany these games?

https://www.myabandonware.com/browse/developer/omega-micott-inc-6xw/

https://www.ebay.com/itm/198064215068

Some kind of Junji Ito Sega connection from 1999.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/116888822498

Do you have an iPhone or like a pixel? I think on expensive phones now each photo is actually like a half second of video. Can you like mess with it to try to get a clearer frame? This is gold.

Ok well someone better be fucking with me cause this is actually not funny.

pablo_in_blood, is that you?

OK, WTF!!! That is not the image I posted. It was colour with just fish. Like underwater, not that! I would have noticed the massive spiral.

I took it straight of the Virtuality VR1 wikipedia page.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VR-1

Alfred did you edit that post I see 4 edits? Now I can’t even find the image in my downloads.

Also, what’s with her face… is she screaming?

I shared this in “All just VR?”

It’s unclear if the friend in gozooze reddit post was given the discontinued sega VR prototype or the separate Virtuality brand VR tech used in the Joyopolis VR1 ride.

Searching for more information on Virtuality I couldn’t find much, just the usual 90s style marketing photos.

“too realistic” 🤔 realistic enough to appear like a real physical pinball machine?

That top comment seems off to me. pablo_in_blood made such an authoritative and immediate response “there is absolutely no…”. How could they know that. Does the guy have an alert set on the topic or something? What’s their interest or agenda wrt the junji ito pin?

Also the guy is pro-tilt so the persona doesn’t really check out.

As soon as I read this I remembered this time my parents took me to the doctor about pinball but like I can’t remember any details except some kind of headwear they made me wear at night. So I text my mum and she said it was some recurring nightmare about a pinball machine that scared me. She’s like refusing to respond to questions now 😂 dramatic much?