KENJI ENO is dead

[Yakumo]

The stunt he pulled moving E0 to Saturn from Playstation was amazing at the time, being a Saturn owner I was like yeaaaaah up yours Sony!

I've been fortunate enough to see a video recording of that presentation. Man, the silence from the Sony suits then the uproar from the journalists was so funny. He truly did do a "up yours Sony!" and will never be forgotten for that.

About 10 years ago there was a documentary with Kenji on Japanese TV. He talked about his love of music, previous jobs and of course his life in the games world.

As a tribute I may rip the special tour of WARP found on one of the Sega Saturn Flash discs. Also, his pay by phone invention is used on many drink vending machines down here. Maybe I'll take a picture of one for you all to see. NFC may be a new thing in Europe but we've had NFC on phones in Japan for at least 5 years or longer. Much longer than what smart phones have been around. Kenji Eno was one of the driving forces behind the technology in Japan.

[danholo]

Yakumo,

What's up with the anti-Sony line? It pops up frequently in your posts. I'm intrigued and can't find any info as to why.

[mekanor]

Yakumo,

What's up with the anti-Sony line? It pops up frequently in your posts. I'm intrigued and can't find any info as to why.

[Sketcz]

Yakumo,

What's up with the anti-Sony line? It pops up frequently in your posts. I'm intrigued and can't find any info as to why.

He runs a Classified Sega website, and was once kidnapped by Sony under suspicion of being a counter-agent. Three days of sodium pentothal injections and intense interrogation by Sony's secret police left Yakumo stirred but not shaken. He's been resentful of them ever since...

[fishbowlhead]

He runs a Classified Sega website, and was once kidnapped by Sony under suspicion of being a counter-agent. Three days of sodium pentothal injections and intense interrogation by Sony's secret police left Yakumo stirred but not shaken. He's been resentful of them ever since...

He never broke once though, for that sega sent him a signed smoke grey ltd ed saturn

[slicer1000]

Come on guys less of the off topic stuff. Out of respect I bought you me and the cubes at the weekend and have to say it's a brilliant game. The games use of sound is excellent. Enemy Zero really did have great use of sound as well. It really added to the fear you felt. It's a shame more musicians don't get more involved with games at a design level.

[Sketcz]

As a tribute I may rip the special tour of WARP found on one of the Sega Saturn Flash discs. Also, his pay by phone invention is used on many drink vending machines down here. Maybe I'll take a picture of one for you all to see. NFC may be a new thing in Europe but we've had NFC on phones in Japan for at least 5 years or longer. Much longer than what smart phones have been around. Kenji Eno was one of the driving forces behind the technology in Japan.

Did you end up snapping a pic of this, or ripping the video?

[Yakumo]

Not yet. I'm very busy at the moment in work but I will do a photo of the drink machine tomorrow since I'll stop off and buy a coffee on the way to work.

[Yakumo]

Yakumo,

What's up with the anti-Sony line? It pops up frequently in your posts. I'm intrigued and can't find any info as to why.

Because everything I ever owned buy Sony had died quickly. PlayStation, went through 4 and still had disc skipping problems while my day 1 Saturn is still going strong. My PS2 died in 2 months, my Sony MD player died after 6 months or so. Basically everything I've ever owned with the Sony name has been junk that died very soon. Everything apart from my home cinema system but that could be because it's not 100% built by Sony.

I know Sony have a massive following but to me they are over hyped. Only their original Trinitron TVs get any respect from me. They were quality TV sets.

[danholo]

hey thanks for the reply. Oy... I kind of understand. My PS2 from 2002 is going 'strong', but my first PS3 YLODded and my brother's PS3's drive failed. It costs more/as much to replace it so no point fixing. I don't think it's about the hype.(?) I don't have brand loyalty myself, but simply the fact that the machines have massive game libraries.

[Yakumo]

That is true. There are many great games on the PlayStation platforms but I've got more than enough great games already. Shame that I'm missing out on some but to be honest I don't even have time to play everything I own now

Well, as promised here are some pictures of Kenji Eno's digital payment system used on vending machines in Japan.

As you can see it's a typical Japanese vending machine with a nice LCD monitor in the center that plays adds and info when the machine is not in use. When paying by a digital method this screen gives you typical information such as account balance and so on or at least I guess it does, never used it myself.



There are 3 methods of payment being inferred, Q-Code (those square dot matrix looking codes) and NFC (Near Field Communication). It's funny how the west is only really starting to use NFC. It's been in use over here for years. My 5 year old phone has NFC built in to it. The inferred is basically used by sending a signal from the phone to the machine. The Q-code is used by displaying your personal Q-code on the phones screen then placing it against the reader on the vending machine. NFC is the most simple to use. Just place the phone or NFC card on to the NFC touch panel sensor. Next use the buttons to navigate the screen and make your purchase.



And here is Kenji Eno's company logo, Cmode



The ID logo is NTT Docomo's NFC "version" while Edy is the standard. NTT just like to be "Special" I guess.

[112]

Yakumo I take it you can still pay by hard cash right? Or is that too old fashioned these days in Japan?

Interesting pictures, thanks for taking the time to educate some of us.

112

[Yakumo]

Sure, you can pay using coins or notes. The machine will take 10, 50, 100 and 500 yen coins plus 1000 yen notes. I've never used the digital payment systems even in stores or at fast food places. I like to use real cash when out on the street. That way I know what I have spent.

There's an older version of this machine too that used a green dot matrix display rather than the LCD monitor. Apart from that it's the same thing.

[Sketcz]

Neat, that's really cool.

I'm impressed by the fact he was involved in so many different fields, not just games. What a tremendously talented guy. It makes you wonder what else he would have brought to the world.

[Sketcz]

Not to go off topic, but some plagiarising scumbbag called Warren Nicholas has basically stolen my entire article on Kenji Eno.

Original:

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/warp/warp.htm

His rip off:

http://www.gamexentral.com/into-the-warpped-mind-of-kenji-eno/

I've had my work reposted on other websites without permission, but usually with my name on it, and a link to the original, and a thank you.

GameXentral doesn't have any contact details unfortunately.

Anyone know who this Warren Nicholas is? The blog for GameXentral seems to be run by some guy called Bernard Warren. I'm wondering if it's the same two people.