This Quarter: Issue #3 (Winter 2026)
As the snow settles over shuttered arcades and side streets in Tokyo glow with paper lanterns, RetroNomicon Quarterly turns eastward. Issue Three is a winter pilgrimage into Japan’s living retro and indie game cultures. It’s a journey through cramped doujin booths, sacred shopping districts, and the small studios where new legends are quietly being born.
This is a cold-season tome, warmed from within. It traces the new wave rising from Japan’s indie and homebrew scenes and follows it outward into chiptune halls and game bars where the past is not preserved so much as continually reanimated.
Inside, you’ll find:
- A feature-length invocation of Rising Spirits: Indie Devs of Japan, profiling circles and soloists like Fahrenheit 213, 884games, Takenoko Games, Asaha, 阿冷Rio, and WEM3 These are creators crafting once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Their games don’t call out to the entire gaming market. They sing for that special type of gamer.
- Field reports from DigiGame Expo 2025 and Aichi Game Castle 2, where prototype hardware, doujin games, and experimental controllers transform event halls into temporary temples
- Retro Heart, a sweeping look at how Japan’s retro and homebrew scene in 2026 functions as a living ecosystem of shops, circles, events, and collectors
- A full historical dive into The Story of Japanese Chiptunes, from smoky game centers and Famicom Disk System experiments to modern chip raves, cartridge albums, and Game Boy-wielding performers
- A curated list of Top 10 Retro Gaming Pilgrimage Spots in Japan, mapping the shops, bars, and arcades that still hum with 8- and 16-bit energy
- A reverent examination of Famitsu, the gaming magazine that became scripture for generations of players
Issue Three is about more than where to shop or what to play. It’s about the cultures, rituals, and people sustaining retro and indie game life in Japan right now… and what it means to treat these works as sacred. Printed as a winter rite for collectors, developers, and true believers, this volume asks:
– What happens when a scene refuses to treat its past as finished?
– How do small circles and solo devs keep birthing “once-in-a-lifetime” games on aging hardware and new platforms alike?
– And what sacred sites are waiting quietly in side streets, stairwells, and event halls, ready to change how you see retro forever?
The streets are dark, the lanterns are lit. Step into the back alleyways and follow the glow.
If paper and ink aren't your style no worries you can check out our FREE digital version:
https://www.flipsnack.com/779CC87A9F7/rq-magazine-issue-3-winter-2026