Video games, vaporwave and Japan. Forgotten Worlds #7

A magazine about the convergence of art, media, and technology. That’s how I’ve previously described Forgotten Worlds. 

And if that’s the angle we’re going with then Japan in the late 80s and early 90s is the epicenter of that collision. The moment it all came together.  

If you were reading UK and US video game magazines at the time, you may have caught a glimpse of this via poorly translated news snippets and blurry photos from the other side of the world. But the undertones and nuances were often lost in the journey to the West. So you’d fill in the blanks, and create your own narratives. 

Many years later, when the world found itself connected via smart phones and social media in the 2010s, all that weirdness came to the surface. In the process, half remembered myths and schoolyard lore gave rise to a new visual language that overlapped space and time.

Some folks called it vaporwave, or aesthetic.

Forgotten Worlds Issue 7 tells the story of Japanese pop culture, western video game magazines, and what happens when the future arrives all at once - but not quite how you remember it.

…And if that premise sounds interesting you’ll be pleased to note Forgotten Worlds #7 is out now. 

It comes bundled with the 2026 zine annual - which showcases independent video game publications from around the world. Each magazine is introduced by the editor with a welcome spiel. Which is nice.