IG02401E

272mm (10-11/16" (10.6875") 14mm (9/16" (.5625") 129mm (5-1/16" (5.0625") 129mm (5-1/16" (5.0625")

MADE IN EUROPE

DJ Professor K is your mentor, winning street territory, your mission. Cops want you nailed, rival gangs want you dead, youre the rollerblade tagger with a price on your head. Your face is all over town, your name on every flyover and hitmans bullet. Keep those skates pumping and your head screwed on. Wheels are your only way out, your spray can is your only weapon. Grind your way through the city streets and master those big air tricks Tag the city streets to take over your rivals territory A vast and breathtaking cityscape to explore Compete with rival gangs and avoid the cops DJ Professor K mix's the cool tunes as you play Multiplayer mode for up to 4 players
183mm (7-3/16" (7.1875")

Players 1-4

IMPORTANT! Read Instruction Manual for important safety and health information. For use only with Xbox video game consoles with "PAL" designation. Unauthorized copying, reverse engineering, transmission, public performance, rental, pay for play, or circumvention of copy protection is strictly prohibited. Distributed by Infogrames. 1, place Verrazzano - 69252 LYON Cedex 09 - FRANCE.
2002 Infogrames, Inc. All rights reserved. Original Game SEGA Smilebit Corporation/SEGA Corporation, 2002 Microsoft, Xbox, the Xbox logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. 2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
JSFR Manual Xbox GB (115/180)

15/02/02

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IG0240IE

Front Cover

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SAFETY INFORMATION ABOUT PHOTOSENSITIVE SEIZURES A very small percentage of people may experience a seizure when exposed to certain visual images, including flashing lights or patterns that may appear in video games. Even people who have no history of seizures or epilepsy may have an undiagnosed condition that can cause these photosensitive epileptic seizures while watching video games. These seizures may have a variety of symptoms, including lightheadedness, altered vision, eye or face twitching, jerking or shaking of arms or legs, disorientation, confusion, or momentary loss of awareness. Seizures may also cause loss of consciousness or convulsions that can lead to injury from falling down or striking nearby objects. Immediately stop playing and consult a doctor if you experience any of these symptoms. Parents should watch for or ask their children about the above symptomschildren and teenagers are more likely than adults to experience these seizures. The risk of photosensitive epileptic seizures may be reduced by sitting farther from the television screen, using a smaller television screen, playing in a well-lit room, and not playing when you are drowsy or fatigued. If you or any of your relatives have a history of seizures or epilepsy, consult a doctor before playing. Other Important Health and Safety Information. The Xbox Instruction Manual contains important health and safety information that you should read and understand before using this software. AVOID DAMAGE TO YOUR TELEVISION Do not use with certain televisions. Some televisions, especially front- or rearprojection types, can be damaged if any video games, including Xbox games, are played on them. Static images presented during the normal course of game play may burn in to the screen, causing a permanent shadow of the static image to appear at all times, even when video games are not being played. Similar damage may occur from static images created when placing a video game on hold or pause. Consult your television owners manual to determine if video games can be safely played safely on your set. If you are unable to find this information in the owners manual, contact your television dealer or the manufacturer to determine if video games can be played safely on your set. Unauthorized copying, reverse engineering, transmission, public performance, rental, pay for play, or circumvention of copy protection is strictly prohibited. Thank you for purchasing Jet Set Radio Future. Please note that this software is designed only for use with Xbox. Be sure to read this instruction manual thoroughly before you start playing.

Table of contents

Using the Xbox Video Game System 2 Using the Xbox Controller 3 Prologue 4 Characters 6 Controls 8 Starting the Game 12 Credits 38 Song Credits 39 Warranty 40 Infogrames Service Numbers 41
Graffiti is art. However, graffiti as an act of vandalism is a crime. Every state/province has vandalism laws that apply to graffiti, and local entities such as cities and counties have anti-graffiti ordinances. Violation of these laws can result in a fine, probation, or a jail sentence. SEGA does not condone the real life act of vandalism in any form.

About Backup

The backup files of this game can only be saved on Xboxs internal hard disk. For the amount of space needed for the backup, please see the chart below. Never turn off the Xbox console while saving the file. Note also that this game does not support the memory unit (sold separately). System File 9 blocks Graffiti File (SS) 11 blocks Graffiti File (S) 11 blocks Graffiti File (M) 60 blocks Graffiti File (L) 60 blocks Graffiti File (XL) 116 blocks
USING THE XBOX VIDEO GAME SYSTEM
USING THE XBOX CONTROLLER
1.Set up your Xbox video game system by following the instructions in the Xbox Instruction Manual. 2. Press the power button and the status indicator light will light up. 3. Press the eject button and the disc tray will open. 4. Place the JSRF-Jet Set Radio FutureTM disc on the disc tray with the label facing up and close the disc tray. 5. Follow the on-screen instructions and refer to this manual for more information about playing JSRF-Jet Set Radio Future.
Avoiding Damage to Discs or the Disc Drive
To avoid damage to discs or the disc drive: Insert only Xbox-compatible discs into the disc drive. Never use oddly shaped discs, such as star-shaped or heart-shaped discs. Do not leave a disc in the Xbox console for extended periods when not in use. Do not move the Xbox console while the power is on and a disc is inserted. Do not apply labels, stickers, or other foreign objects to discs.

1. Connect the Xbox Controller to any controller port on the front of the Xbox console. For multiple players, connect additional controllers to available controller ports. 2. Insert any expansion devices (for example, Xbox Memory Units) into controller expansion slots as appropriate. 3. Follow the on-screen instructions and refer to this manual for more information about using the Xbox Controller to play JSRF-Jet Set Radio Future.

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PROLOGUE
Yeah!! This is DJ Professor K, baby, the master of mayhem, you know what I'm sayin' bringing you another Tokyo underground pirate radio broadcast from Jet Set Radio! I'm going to bust into your head through your cute little ears and blow your minds with my sexy voice and out-of-sight sounds! Those of you prone to nosebleeds should keep those tissues handy, suckas! Tokyo is bein' oppressed by the Rokkaku Group, a mega-enterprise headed by Rokkaku Gouji. Rokkaku is using his money and influence to mess with everything: industry, society, and even our culture. And he's even got his eyes set on City Hall. Lately, Rokkaku's been shaking down the government, passin' that "Rokkaku Law" crap, and even buying off the police department. This law isnt anything but garbage. It's just some selfish little punk's way of trying to show he's a big man. Rokkaku and his gang are tryin' to stomp out our culture left and right. They don't give a rip about our rights; all they care about is profit. And some spineless fools have already become flunkies in their diabolical scheme. You'd better believe they're listening in on this broadcast. But even in all this heat, there's a group of young kids who've been tearin' up the streets I'm talking about the Rudies. These kids have set out to bury Tokyo in graffiti. And now they're all wrapped up in their own little territorial tug-of-wars. Lately, Tokyo's been on one baaad trip. The attack on the record store in Chuo Street, prowlers in Dogenzaka Hill, low-lifes spreading vicious rumors, the mysterious blackout on 99th Street. And who should be following them around but the Rokkaku Group's watchdog, the Rokkaku Police! With the Rokkaku Expo just around the corner, the crackdowns are only getting tighter. My heart hasnt pounded like this since my first date and I was so nervous, I forgot to wear my underwear, baby! This isnt the time to be sitting around sipping afternoon tea! The game's going to start soon and y'all are going to be the ones making the plays!

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CHARACTERS
I am the navigator of the underground pirate radio station Jet Set Radio, DJ Professor K. With my sound and talks, Im going to turn the entire city of Tokyo into a dance hall, baby!
A private police force of Rokkaku Group. Youll be targeted if youre in the way of Rokkaku Groups activity, man.
The leader and founder of team GG. A self-styled genius with a spirited mind.
Member of GG. Shes a perverse lady with the tendency to abandon a guy in 10 minutes after winning his heart.

A psycho inspector of Rokkaku Police Division 0. Nothing good happens when you get involved with him.
A newcomer to GG. He loves to tell a lie more than anything else. A junk robot that was picked up from garbage Distrustful guy, eh.? by Corn. He is a foulmouthed and cocky machine, but he can tell you how to operate and give you practice drills.
Heres the mysterious kid that appeared in the streets of Tokyo. The reason for his appearance in Tokyo, maybe theres reason, maybe not.
Hes the big man of mega-enterprise Rokkaku Group, ruling on industry, society, and culture of Tokyo. Lately hes tryin to start Rokkaku Expo. Thats terrible, man.

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CONTROLS G VARIOUS ACTIONS

Basic Moves

JSRF-Jet Set Radio Future is a 1-player game for the main game, and up to 4 players for the VS MODE. Connect the same number of Controllers as the number of players to play to the Xbox console. When turning the console power on, please do not move the Left and Right thumbsticks as well as the Left and Right triggers. The calibration of the position cannot be performed properly as it may cause malfunction. Walk/Run Press the Left thumbstick lightly to walk towards the direction pressed. Press all the way to run. Jump Tap on the A button lightly to hop; press to jump. Longer you hold the button, the higher the player jumps. Turn Press the Y button once to turn your body 180 degree and run backwards. Press again to bring back to normal. Talk to People Approach a character. When a balloon icon appears, pull the Right trigger to talk to him/her.

G XBOX CONTROLLER

G BASIC CONTROLS

BUTTONS

LEFT TRIGGER RIGHT TRIGGER LEFT THUMBSTICK RIGHT THUMBSTICK DIRECTIONAL PAD A BUTTON B BUTTON X BUTTON Y BUTTON START BUTTON BACK BUTTON

DURING THE GAME

CORRECT CAMERA ANGLE SPRAY GRAFFITI/TALK WALK/RUN ROTATE MAP (PAUSE SCREEN)/ LOOK AROUND (STANDING STILL) N/A JUMP/ENTER SELECTION BOOST DASH/USE ITEM* COMBO TRICK/HAND PLANT COMBO TRICK/TURN OPEN PAUSE MENU CANCEL SELECTION

MENU CONTROLS

N/A N/A SELECT MENU ITEMS N/A SELECT MENU ITEMS ENTER SELECTION CANCEL SELECTION N/A N/A ENTER SELECTION CANCEL SELECTION
Boost Dash In exchange for 10 spray cans, press the B button to boost your speed for a limited time. Camera Reset Pull the Left trigger to correct the camera angle to the direction you are facing.
Keep your eyes on your rivals and
During the battle with your rivals and enemies, pull the Left trigger to view towards them. Pull the Left trigger to change the marker from yellow to red. At this point press the B button to boost your speed towards him. Remember, though, you need 10 spray cans to boost yourself.

enemies!

* Using an item is for VS MODE only. I The Black and White buttons are not used with this game.

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Trick Moves
Grind Jump onto guardrails, handrails, power lines or the edge of half pipes to perform grinds. At the circular mark of the Graffiti Point, pull the Right trigger to spray graffiti. One spray can is spent for every Graffiti Point. If there are multiple Graffiti Points, hold the Right trigger continuously to spray graffiti. Air Build your speed and jump. You can soar high in the air and perform an aerial trick. Wallride Some of the billboards on the wall you can jump and touch momentarily. Use this trick to jump higher or go over the high wall. Handplant As you approach the edge of the half-pipe, press the X button. Momentarily you will stand upside down on one hand. Your speed will be accelerated as well. Continuous Graffiti In front of multiple Graffiti Points, pull and hold the Right trigger while either running or grinding. You can spray graffiti continuously.

Spraying Graffiti

Combo Moves
! Therere different kinds of graffiti
There are 5 kinds of graffiti: SS, S, M, L and XL. The SS and S graffiti have 1 mark each, M graffiti has 3, L graffiti has 6, and XL graffiti has 10. Spray on all marks to complete the graffiti!
Grind Combo While grinding, press either the X or Y button to make various grinding tricks. When you make combos, a score is displayed.
Air Combo While making aerials, press either the X or Y button to make various aerial tricks.
I There are other moves you can perform. Roboy will teach you how in Practice
on the Garage Menu (p.15).

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STARTING THE GAME

Game Display

Main Game Screen During the Demo, press the START button to display the Main Menu. Use either the Left thumbstick or the Directional pad to select the menu item, and press either the START or the A button to enter selection. This is the basic screen you will see throughout the game.

1 Stamina Gauge Decreases as you take damage. The game is over when this gauge is depleted. 2 Spray Cans Left You can spray the same amount of graffiti. Collect 10 or more cans, and the Boost Dash icon will be displayed. 3 Number of Graffiti Displays the number of graffiti sprayed/the quota in the current street. 4 Graffiti Point Pull the Right trigger in front of this mark to spray graffiti. 5 Speedometer Displays the current speed of the player.
NEW GAME. Start the game from the beginning. For one player only. LOAD GAME. Load the game from a previously saved location. This cannot be selected if no save file exists. VS MODE. Play a multiplayer versus game with up to four players.

G NEW GAME

Start the one-player main game from the beginning. Your primary objective is to cover the entire city of Tokyo with GGs graffiti, avoiding various obstacles and distractions. STREETS The streets of Tokyo are where the actions occur. Representing different districts of the city, each has specific quota to meet: spraying specific number of graffiti, battle against the rivals and enemies, etc. Listen to the advice from your buddies in the Garage or to the information from Professor K, the DJ of the pirate radio station Jet Set Radio to clear the game. Some elements exist that do not directly relate to the story. See what you can find. Battle Screen
Earn points with successive com
Make a trick, and the scores going to be displayed at the top left of your screen. Make combos in a row, and the combo points are going to get bigger. Be careful, man, your combo count is going to start over if you make a mistake or even when you jump while youre grinding.
There are different types of battles in the game. The elements displayed on the screen may differ according to the type of battle.
1 Elapsed Time Displayed during the Racing Mode.
GARAGE This is the base of the gang GG. The game starts from where youre about to join GG. Here you can run around freely and talk to other members of the GG for various, precious information. With Roboys Garage Menu (p.15), you can change game settings, save the game, and create new graffiti. Come back here once in awhile to gain some hints or practice your skill.
2 Marker Displayed during the battle against your enemies and rivals upon approaching them. At this point, pull the Left trigger, and the marker becomes red, keeping your enemies and rivals in view.

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Pause Screen
During the game, press the START button to pause the game and display the Pause Screen. There are two kinds of Pause Screens: one for free skating mode and the other for the battle mode. Pull the Left/Right trigger to switch the map. Select GG-notebook to verify missions.

Roboys Garage Menu

At the Garage, talk to Roboy. The Garage Menu will be displayed. Use either the Left thumbstick or the Directional pad to select the menu item, and press either the Start button or the A button to enter.

Free Skating

1 Instruction
The small orange dots on the area map indicate the locations of the Graffiti Spots, large orange spots indicate the locations of the Graffiti Souls, light green indicate your rivals, purple indicate your enemies, and yellow arrow indicates the player. Use the Left thumbstick to select the icon, and the Right thumbstick to rotate the map (only with maps which are able).
Displays what you need to do in order to advance in the game. 2 Current Street Displays the name of area you are currently at. 3 Number of Graffiti Souls/Graffiti Top: The number of Graffiti Souls (p.12) you obtained in current street. Bottom: The number of Graffiti you sprayed in current street. 4 Total Graffiti Souls The total amount of Graffiti Souls you obtained in the game. 5 Direction of the Player Displays which direction the player is currently facing. 6 Pause Menu Icons Change Character: available only at Graffiti Stop (p.11) Save: available only at Graffiti Stop (p.11). GG-notebook: displays what you need to do in the stage, as well as the contents of Mystery Tape (p.12). Return to the Game.

System

Has the following sub-menu items. Save Game Data You can save up to 3 system files. Change Settings You can enable/disable the vibration feature, and adjust the volume level of the background musics and sound effects.

Change Character

You can change the character to use. Use the parameters of each character as reference in selecting the character. Use the Left thumbstick or the Directional pad to select the character, and press either the Start button or the A button to enter.
STAMINA G-STAMINA SPRAY GRAFFITI ACCELERATION CORNERING GRIND
Length of Stamina Gauge Length of Gauge when the character is sprayed with graffiti Total amount of spray cans the character can hold How easily the character can spray graffiti How quickly the character can accelerate How easily the character can turn corners How easily the character can perform grinds
You can select Start Over to play the During the Battle current battle from the beginning.

Use the GG-notebook

On the GG-notebook youll find graffiti for each stage, as well as hints to make the Graffiti Soul to appear. A word CLEARED is displayed on the elements thats been done. Also, if you find the Mystery Tape, the contents of the Street Mission becomes clear!

Practice

You can practice the basic actions and learn new actions. Use either the Left thumbstick or the Directional pad to select the menu item, and press either the Start button or the A button to enter.

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Graffiti
You can select the graffiti illustrations to be used in the game, as well as creating one yourself. For the amount of disk spaces needed to save graffiti, please refer to p.1.

Creating and Editing Graffiti
Following commands are available for creating and editing the graffiti.
Spray color on the wall. Use the Directional pad to select the color, the Left trigger to adjust the size from 5 sizes, and the Left thumbstick to move the Spray Can. Pull the Right trigger to spray. The thickness of color can be adjusted by the amount you pull the Right trigger.

Pick graffiti to use

Here you can select the graffiti to be used. At first you can only select from four graffiti in each size. As you collect Graffiti Souls, the number of selections increases. Make the selection for each size (SS~XL), and that illustration will be drawn. To register the graffiti illustration you created, select the icon at the right end. If you delete the registered graffiti, it will return to the original one.

Eraser

Erase what you have painted with spray or stamp. Use the Left thumbstick to select the area to be erased, pull the Left trigger to adjust the size of area to be erased, and pull the Right trigger to erase. If you wish to erase the wide area, move the Left thumbstick while pulling the Right trigger.

Create your own graffiti

Here you can create a brand new graffiti. Use the Directional pad to select the size, and press either the START button or the A button to enter.

Zoom In Graffiti Edit

Here you can edit the graffiti you have created. Use the Directional pad to select the graffiti to edit.
I For the direction on how to create/edit graffiti, please
Zoom in/out the graffiti display. Use the Directional pad to select from 3 sizes, and press either the START button or the A button to enter.

see the next page.

Use the Directional pad to select the stamp. Use the Left thumbstick to select the area to stamp, and pull the Right trigger to stamp. The color selected for the Spray is also reflected on the stamp. To change the color of stamp, change the color of spray.
You can change the background music played in the Garage. The title of music and the artist is displayed. Use either the Left thumbstick or Directional pad to select, and press the A button to enter. Press the B button to return to the previous screen.

Test Run

You will be able to select this when a certain criteria in the Streets are met. You can try for scores and times.

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Lettering
You can enter a word on your graffiti, up to 15 letters long. Use the Directional pad to select the menu item, and press the A button to enter. The following submenu items appear.
Change View Use the Left thumbpad qm to change the view of the letters.
Change Design Lettering Enter a letter on your graffiti artwork. Use the Directional pad to select a letter from the displayed soft keyboard, the Left thumbstick to select the location to print the letter, and press the A button to type in. JPN ENG ICON k/o ERASE SPACE ENTER Select from Japanese letters. Select from Roman alphabets. Select from icons. Move the cursor left/right. Erase the letter on current location. Enter a blank space on current location. End lettering. Use the Directional pad to select the letter (or select SELECT ALL for all letters), and the Left thumbstick to change the design.
Delete Use the Directional pad to select the letter to delete (or select SELECT ALL for all letters), and press the A button. Please note that once deleted, you cannot restore the deleted letter(s).

Erase All

Fonts You can change the font used for the lettering. Select the letter to change the font with the Directional pad (select ALL E for all alphabets or ALL J for all Japanese letters), and change the font with Left thumbstick qm. Move Letter Use the Directional pad to select the letter to move (or select SELECT ALL for all letters), and the Left thumbstick to move. You can also pull the Left/Right trigger to enlarge/shrink the size. Letter Size Use the Directional pad to select the letter to change size (or select SELECT ALL for all letters). Pull the Right thumbstick to give the letter a three-dimensional feel, or the Left thumbstick to flatten the letter. Turn Letters Use the Directional pad to select the letter to turn (or select SELECT ALL for all letters), and the Left thumbstick and Left/Right trigger to turn. Select this to erase what you have drawn, and start over from the beginning. Please note that once erased, you cannot restore the design.
Select this to save your artwork. You will be asked to select the location to save your artwork. Press the A button to save. You may save as many graffiti files as your internal hard disk space allows.

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Spray Graffiti
The ultimate goal of this game is to spray the entire city of Tokyo with GGs graffiti. Naturally, how to spray graffiti is the most important element in this game.
What Else You Need to Know
Here are explanations to elements that need to be remembered in order to play JSRF-Jet Set Radio Future. These are very essential to progress smoothly through the game, so pay attention and learn them all.

Setting Screen

Here you can change settings for the Battle/Practice. Change settings in the order below. Press the A button to enter, and B button to return to the previous step. On Practice Mode, all missions except for Ball Hog are for one-player only, so after the Stage Select, the Character Select Screen will be displayed.
Utilize the Graffiti Stop!
Apart from the rest of graffiti, the Graffiti Points for it is located on the ground. Spray graffiti, and press the START button. You will be able to change the character and save the game, both of which you cannot select under the normal Pause Menu.

Find the Mystery Tape!

On all Streets, there exists one cassette tape, recorded by a mysterious person. Find it, and select GG-notebook in the Pause Menu while youre at the same street you found it. You will be able to view the contents: hints to making Graffiti Souls to appear.
Make the Graffiti Souls appear!
When you collect the Graffiti Soul, you gain new selection of graffiti. You can select the new graffiti illustration from Graffiti of the Garage Menu (p.16).
1 Mode Select either the Battle Mode or Practice Mode. 2 Mission Select from 5 missions. Refer to p.12 for detailed descriptions of each. 3 Stage Select the stage to be played in. There are box-yard types and oval types, and the available selections vary according to the selected mission. Note also that the special stages are for two-player battle only. 4 Entry Displays the number of players entering the battle. Press the A button to enter the battle. 5 Team Here you select either the individual battle or the team battle. 1P, 2P, etc. indicate the Controller port number of the console. Refer to p.25 for the list of possible combinations of the teams.

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Missions
There are five different missions available in the VS MODE. Read the rules of each to grasp its feature.

Team Combinations

On Multiplay Mode, you can only select the individual battle with two players. If there are three or more players, you can select either the individual or the team battle.

City Rush!

Make three laps around the selected course. First to reach the goal wins the battle.

Ball Hog

Grasp the ball from your rival and run the course. Make a lap from the point you grab the ball without dropping it or being taken away to win. With Team Battle, press the B button while the cursor is showing to pass the ball to your teammate.
The game of Ball Hog requires cooperative play, so two players can participate in Practice Mode. With one player, you battle alone against the CPU. With two players, both players cooperate in a team to battle against the CPU team.
Find and grab the flags that appear one after another. The player with the most flags wins. There are 5 flags in all. Individual Battle The screen will be divided into the same number of player participating. Team Battle The team of 1P and 2P plays against the team of 3P and 4P. Team Battle The team of 1P and 3P plays against the team of 2P and 4P. Team Battle The team of 1P and 4P plays against the team of 2P and 3P.

Graffiti Wars

Spray as many graffiti on the Graffiti Point in the stage within the time limit. You can overwrite over your opponents graffiti.

Character Select

Taggers Tag
Draw graffiti on your opponents back. You lose the battle when your Graffiti Meter depletes. The player that survives to the end wins. When all the settings are completed, you will now select the character to be used. Please note that the same character may not be selected by more than one player. When all players select a character, the verification screen will be displayed.

Change Graffiti

During the verification screen, select GRAFFITI to change the graffiti to be used for that player. Except for Graffiti Wars, only the graffiti with size SS can be selected. EDIT- represents the user-created graffiti.

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The information shown on the VS MODE varies according to the mode you are playing.

Item Chart

Here is the list of items and their effects. Know each feature and utilize them well to play to your advantage. ITEMS EFFECTS

City Rush!/Ball Hog

1 Stamina Gauge
It decreases as you take damage. The game is over when it is reduced to zero. 2 Number of Spray Cans You need them to spray graffiti or perform a boost dash. 3 Item The currently owned item is displayed. Press the B button to use it. 4 Position Indicator The current location on each player is displayed on the bar. The left end is the Start position, and the right end is the Goal. With Ball Hog, the location of the goal changes.

Page 40

Infogrames Games Customer Service Numbers
Country VIDEO GAME WARRANTY This video game carries a warranty conforming to the laws of the country in which it was purchased, and valid for a duration of not less that 90 (ninety) days following the date of purchase - (proof of purchase required). The warranty is not valid in the following cases: 1/ the video game was purchased for commercial or professional use (all such uses are strictly forbidden) 2/ the video game is damaged due to incorrect handling, accident, or improper use by the consumer. For further information concerning this warranty, the consumer is invited to contact the retailer that sold the game, or the hotline at the video game publisher in the country the game was purchased. VIDEOSPELETS GARANTI Detta videospel har en garanti i enlighet med de lagar som gller i det land dr det r inkpt. Garantin har en giltighetstid p 90 (nittio) dagar frn och med inkpsdagen - (kpebevis krvs). Garantin gller ej i fljande fall 1/ videospelet har inskaffats fr kommersiellt eller professionellt bruk (allt sdant bruk r strngt frbjudet) 2/ videospelet r samkat skada till fljd av inkorrekt behandling, olycka, eller vrdslshet hos konsumenten. Fr ytterligare information gllande denna garanti, ombedes konsumenten att kontakta terfrsljaren som slt spelet, eller kundtjnst hos videospelsfrlaget i de land dr spelet inkpts. VIDEOPELIN TAKUU Tll videopelill on takuu, joka mrytyy sen maan lakien mukaan jossa se on ostettu ja joka on voimassa vhintn 90 (yhdeksnkymment) piv ostopivmrst lukien (ostotosite on pakollinen). Takuu ei ole voimassa seuraavissa tapauksissa: 1/ videopeli on ostettu kaupalliseen tai ammatilliseen kyttn (kaikki sellaiset kytttarkoitukset ovat tysin kiellettyj) 2/ videopeli on vahingoittunut sopimattoman ksittelyn, vahingon tai vrinkytn seurauksena. Listietoja takuusta kuluttaja saa ottamalla yhteytt jlleenmyyjn jolta peli on ostettu tai videopelin kustantajan puhelinpalveluun siin maassa, jossa peli on ostettu. 40 Telephone

PC: +32 (0)18 633

+31 (0)466 36
http://www.de.infogrames.com helpdesk@nl.infogrames.com

(PC only)

sterreich Belgie Danmark Suomi France Deutschland Greece Italia Nederland Norge Portugal Israel Espaa Sverige Schweiz / Suisse UK

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MelbourneDAC 2003

Game, Space and the Politics of Cyberplay

Brett Nicholls

University of Otago E-mail: brett.nicholls@stonebow.otago.ac.nz
ABSTRACT: This paper traces the overlapping spaces

Simon Ryan

University of Otago E-mail: simon.ryan@stonebow.otago.ac.nz members of a teenage skater gang that has come together to fight the takeover of the city by Gouji, the downtown corporate boss of the Rokkaku Group, and his henchmen who are backed up by the Rokkaku Police. Professor K., DJ of the pirate radio station Jet Set Radio Future, guides the player through the story-line. A major part of the game involves defeating territorial challengers in acts of graffiti tag executed as complex inline skating routines. J S R F is not a remediated game but a simulated, subcultural sport with fantasy extensions. The gamespace consists of nine arenas or chapters and a range of optional tasks. The games garage music, a feature integral to its subcultural address, offers a range of optional sets drawn from a database of 30 tracks including five Beastie Boys (aka The Latch Brothers) numbers written for the game as well as Latch Brother remixes of other material [6]. Our aim here is to suggest that cybergames occupy difficult and complex spaces in the social imaginary. These spaces are complex because cybertechnologies produce new modes of equipmentality and with them new modes of social and cultural being. The equipmentality associated with cybergames can be understood in terms of what Alec McHoul has called cyberbeing [12]. Cyberbeing can be loosely understood as an indeterminate space that hovers between the actual and the virtual. An ontological presupposition of player participation in JSRF is at least a subliminal if not an active sense of the unsettled nature of cyberbeing. This unsettling is operative in the field of tension which is the gamespace both in the formal presentation of transgressive social practice in the game text and in the wider context of computer game culture. This field of tension turns up, and will continue to turn up, as games studies seeks to establish itself as a distinct discipline. In marking out distinctions between the interactivity of gameplay and cognitive engagement with narrative forms such as cinema, Jesper Juul suggests that the gameplayer inhabits a twilight zone where he/she is both an empirical subject outside the game and undertakes a role inside the game [9]. It is perhaps this complex interplay of the outside and the inside, rather than formal properties, that marks the specificity of cybergames. While we would consider Juuls appeal to the formal properties of games useful, and agree that it is necessary to combat narrative as a privileged master concept to carve out a specific formal space for the study of games, his work opens up another important issue. The twilight zone between gamespace and the space of the player, the machine and the body, demands to be (re)thought. Games produce complex spatial and temporal modalities, from the hours of extended game play, to the repetition of a climb or a specific action, to the waiting of load time, to the pause for a toilet break or a snack, to
that constitute Segas/Smilebits Xbox game, Jet Set Radio Future. Our claim is that this cybergame emerges in and through what Edward Soja calls Thirdspace. This means that even though cybergames are currently the site of more capital investment and more real-time cognitive activity than any other form of mass entertainment, it does not follow that players become capitalisms drones. Building on the evidence of the game, and Sojas insights on space, the paper works through Alec McHouls concept of cyberbeing, in which gamesplayers hover in a twilight zone between interconnecting spaces. This between suggests that game playing is a politically engaged activity and that the study of games should involve tracing the passages and intersections, and indefinite possibilities of spatial negotiations that mark play.
KEYWORDS: Gamespace, Cyberbeing, Thirdspace,
Jet Set Radio Future. Jet Set Radio Future (JSRF 2002) is a recently released Sega/Smilebit multi-player inline skating console game tailored to exploit the speed of the 233 Mhz NVIDIA graphics acceleration chip-set (300 million polygons per second) included in Microsofts Xbox. The game designers innovative use of cel-shaded graphic rendering lends a comic-book style to JSRFs skater subculture game-world set in a future Tokyo (2024). Gaming culture generally exists in a strange terrain somewhere between competitive sport and pure entertainment [15] and JSRF is no exception but it exhibits additional features, metafeatures perhaps, that describe the complex spaces and interfaces of cybergames. JSRF foregrounds an unsettled between. This makes this console game particularly appropriate for an examination of what we would wish call the unsettled nature of cyberbeing.

Figure 1: JSFR grinding and tagging [16]
The space of the between is evident at the most basic level of the game situation. The gamer is any one of several
MelbourneDAC 2003 saving a level or heading back to the JSRF garage to not in the player or in an idealist concept of game, but change the sound track. The temporal and spatial relations in the interface and interplay of as and as if to and of the game are not governed by a linear logic but structures, the connections and passages between by a range of contingencies both within the game space playerspace and gamespace. Markku Eskelinen [8] and the space of the game. All this suggests that we are underscores the dual materiality of cybernetic signs as dealing with a complex object in itself and a complex information implicit in Espen Aarseths distinction subject/object relationship. between textons (signs as they appear in the cybertext) and scriptons (signs as they appear to the We would like to contribute to thinking the twilight zone reader/user/player) [1]. In analysing the players traversal by taking up McHouls ideas on cyberbeing. The of cybergames such as JSRF we can observe how the questions concerning the complex relation of the outside interplay between textons and scriptons is productively and inside are questions concerning technology. Working reworked and reconfigured through the unpredictable through Heideggers ontology, McHoul suggests that flows of gameplay. cybertechnologies produce new modes of relating to equipment. He maintains that Heideggers distinction between technologies of the everyday and technologies of the imaginary no longer stand in a straightforward relationship. For Heidegger technologies of the everyday are characterised by a standard availability, that is to say a readiness-to-hand that involves Dasein [sociocultural being] in an actual relation to equipment. Heidegger calls this actual relation the as structure, and this structure describes the everyday world of practical activity consisting of tools and the methods for using them. Alongside the actual relation to equipment there is an equipmentality that is intangible. Against this actual, McHoul continues, we might pose the virtual. Here equipment becomes intangible and its characteristic manifestations would be in art, fiction, poetry, and all the technologies of the imaginary whose mode of Figure 2: JSRF skater and other city dwellers understanding is understanding as if. It would be tempting to think of cybergames in these terms as a form JSRF provides us with a specific case of the hovering of of visual art, but because cybertechnologies open up a cyberbeing. We say case because cyberbeing is not fixed twilight zone where the player is both an empirical subject and settled, it is marked as an openness that takes many outside the game and an active participant inside the game forms, notwithstanding the many and varied forms and (Juul), the cybers unique equipmentality flick(er)s or trajectories that different cybergames open up. The game hovers between the actual and the virtual, between the presents particular possibilities within a range of as and as if. Cyberbeing is thus ghostly, McHoul possibilities that mark the between of cyberbeing. The concludes, it resides in the unbounded or fuzzy space player/user interfaces and negotiates a city space rendered between the actual and the virtual [12]. in the cel-shaded graphic style. The graphic style of JSRF has been a point of contention in on-line discussions, and Clearly this hovering describes Juuls twilight zone. noted in interviews with the games producer, Takayuki Hovering suggests that there is no distinct or easily Kawagoe, as driving towards a very different feel of demarcated relation between bodies and machines. gaming [13]. The cel-shaded graphic style resists graphic Gameplay involves a relation to objects that are ready-torealism and simulation, and serves as a visible maker of hand (the console) and objects that are virtual (the world the between of cyberbeing. The experience of this on the screen). Here on the surface there appears to be a gamespace hovers between a future vision of Tokyo city clearly defined relation between as and as if as and Tokyo city as if. The city is both real and not structures. But gameplay also involves a relation to real in the sense that it loosely represents the actual Tokyo objects in which the player acts as and as if at the whilst connoting another space where the player plays, same time. In JSRF players grind on rails as material reworking and transgressing the rules of civic/capitalist forms. Even though it is possible to grind against gravity, space. At the character level, where the player is actant, there is a sense of the materiality of the act. The diegetic the cartoon rendering lacks the specificity of identity and sound of grinding and vertiginous sense of speed as the enables players to identify with character type, as opposed player moves through the gamespace suggest the to playing specific game roles. And the main characters readiness-to-hand of the rail. But even though the rail (Corn, Gum, Yoyo, Professor K, and Roboy, the garage appears to be ready-to-hand the player is stationary, robot who provides the interface with the games except for the movement of fingers and hands upon the configuration controls) along with the various characters controller. This suggests that the grinding of the rail is throughout the game who challenge and join the GG gang virtual, as if. The rail, in this instance, is thus ground (Beat, Combo, Ruth, et. al.) and the rival skater gangs as a rail but its reality is as if, the as and as if (Poison Jam, Immortals, and Noisetanks et.al.), appear to collide in the course of the game. be more present to, and more filled out in, the city of the skater gangs. The other inhabitants of the city, Gameplay exists not in the hardware or game software,

MelbourneDAC 2003 including the Rokkaku police, who appear as the skaters the skater collective in terms of the challenge of the city make their way through the gamespace, are graphically territory which has still to be liberated from the Rokkaku differentiated from the skaters. They appear almost like Group. It is interesting to note that this liberation is cardboard cut-outs, ghostly shadows rendered with less conceived of in the game text primarily in aesthetic terms detail, and with less fluid movement. Perhaps a as symbolic reterritorialisation by graffiti, a strategy programming limitation, this visual differentiation, along which is not dissimilar to the methods adopted by antiwith the as and as if quality of the cel-shaded graphic, globalisation, environmental activists or culture jammers. suggests that this gamecityspace is a city within the city. Crucially this city within the city has a social and political character. The player experiences vertiginous movement and the struggles of an underworld of rival skater gangs pitted against the power of corrupt capital. If J S R F foregrounds the complexities of cyberbeing, as we maintain, then the game also represents its political nature. Along with the cel-shaded graphics, the sonic scape of the game politicises the experience of the visual between. With a minimal use of diegetic sound (players hear skating and grinding and not the sounds of the city), the player listens to the games sick tunes. The characters wear headsets that are tuned to Professor K., DJ of the underground pirate radio station Jet Set Radio Future. Iain Chambers usefully suggests that the use of portable sound technologies, such as walkmans, might seem to represent the emptiness of metropolitan life, but [] can also be understood as a pregnant zero, as the link in an urban strategy, a semiotic shifter, the crucial digit in a particular organization of sense [4]. The use of the headsets in the game sets the players apart from the city that is transformed in the course of play. The player is situated in a space that refuses the sociability of urban capital, but at the same time is linked to the games skater community. Ultimately the player is co-opted into a skater subculture that would exploit play to resist the tyranny and rigidity of advanced capital. Crucial in this situating is the camera. The camera positions the player in the skater gamespace. Three basic camera positions are available to choose from. The ideal shot in play conveying kinaesthetic sensation is a medium-long shot over the shoulder of the chosen character. At rest a subjective 360-degree close-up shot with tilt can be used to examine details and at architectural limit points in the gamespace a close-up shot of the character similar to that of a surveillance camera is produced: the latter usually prompt left-trigger camera correction but are interesting for the translucent effect they give the body which is reduced to a shimmering outline that heightens the abstractness of the game characters and, at the same time, creates an almost empty space of identity which players can inhabit at will. These surveillance shots also highlight the vulnerability of the skaters in the oppressive city space dominated by the Rokkaku Group. A further aid to the players visual orientation is provided by the game map which can be accessed at any point in the gameplay. The map displays an active set of vectors revealing the location of the player and the graffiti target sites. The map can be rotated to match the players current viewpoint. Recourse to the game map enacts the idea of the cognitive mapping of urban space as cultural orientation at the most literal level: the abstract representation of city space outlines the political aims of

Figure 3: JSRF game map

We would maintain that there is a clear link between the underground politics that is expressed through JSRFs gameplay and the politics of cyberbeing, as it is expressed through gamer culture, the struggle of game studies for academic legitimacy, and the moral panic that grips the popularisation of cybergames. Cyberbeing, in many respects, is scandalous, precisely because it marks the radical transformation and breaking down of categories that were once considered stable. The collapse of as and as if structures means that the world of the everyday and the world of the imagination and of art cannot be clearly defined and contained. Perhaps the possibilities of an unchecked imagination, one without the clear boundaries of the as and the as if structures, impacts too forcefully upon everyday assumptions about literacy, learning, and citizenship. The game producers sense of the tension between approved and transgressive playerengagement with JSRF is clearly signalled in the opening screen sequence as the following warning appears:
Figure 4: JSRF disclaimer
The marketing genre classification of JSRF as a simulated
MelbourneDAC 2003 sports-orientated game raises the question of the unsettled the imaginary and the empirical. Thirdspace is a space of relationship between game as a series of fast-paced search fragmentation and struggle, and, following Soja, is the and challenge activities and the social and political locus for marginality. The margin here is championed as a environment of the city as it is framed by the backstory. space of struggle and radical politics. The Thirdspace as On the one hand the inline skating activities played out in margin consists of multiple possibilities and points of the game amount to a fantasy extension of skating as an view and is opposed to the rigidity and dogmatism of extreme inner-city sport beyond the boundaries of monolithic spatial orientations, such as Rokkakus urban Newtonian mechanics. On the other hand, the capitalism in JSRF. relationships between the skaters, members of the rival gangs and the Rokkaku Group involve multilayered social Crucially, this sense of the multiple is built into the fabric exchanges which in the gameplay are motivational rather of JSRF. The GG skater gang struggle against Poison than merely incidental and suggest that the skaters Jam, and other rival gangs, for graffiti space. It is perhaps position in the games ostensive field of social struggle, a limitation in the game that the player cant change sides activated by the efforts of one or more players to to take on an alternative subcultural style in order to overcome rivals in the graffiti wars and win allies against struggle against the corrupt Rokkaku. Poison Jam skaters their mutual downtown oppressors, can easily flow wear monster masks, for instance, and we are unable to beyond the proprietary limits of the game into the access their music. But even though this is a limitation, downloading or authoring of cheats and into more marginality emerges as a space of struggle, rather than a transgressive domains of games culture such as utopia. scandalous hacking and the recoding of the game and The game-world is a coded space of representation console via freely available mod chips. The range of onembedded in the space of radical openness, the space of line discourse on J S R F in the Internet from semisocial struggle [14]. It is not merely arbitrary to think of professional, amateur game reviewers and players game-worlds as supplements to this lived Thirdspace, the exceeds by far the level of analysis necessary to dominated and hence passively experienced (subi) or successfully clock the game. There is abundant online subjected space which the imagination (verbal but evidence of subcultural appropriation and intervention especially non-verbal) seeks to change and appropriate even in the highly protected code of Microsofts recently [11]. The gateways between the game-world and other released Xbox [2]. Such clearly game-related extensions domains of Thirdspace are multiple - flows, lines-ofof play activities constitute the kind of serious play that flight. As one of the GG group battling the forces of functions as the engine of culture jamming which in the vertical integration, the player is interpolated as a freedom domain of cybergames rejects the notion of the fighter, a member of the skater underground. The appeal player/user of computer games as a mere consumer. For to the actual situation of teenage skaters in the worlds players the game does not end with the termination of a urban streets and shopping arcades is blatant enough as a game session. games marketing strategy. What remains largely concealed is the game-worlds particular ideological We have suggested that cybergames can be considered a construction of game culture as one of the locus for the unsettled nature of cyberbeing. Through the counterspaces, spaces of resistance to the dominant passages and connections of gamespace and the order arising precisely from their subordinate, peripheral experiential and imaginary spaces of players J S R F or marginalized positioning [14]. As Corn, the GGs emerges as a cybertext. These spaces are connected leader, races to collect enough cans to graffiti and out through play and not through interpretive acts of reading. blast-grind his opponents, the gamers verbal and nonPlay for us, in this context, is understood as connecting, verbal imagination as the body/machine locus of negotiating and blurring the interfaces of disparate kinds subjective vision [5] finds pathways in the freeplay of the of spatial machines: the virtual and the actual, the real and game that connect the screen events with their own real or the imagined, the body and equipment. What we are imagined experiences of the relations of domination and suggesting is that players of cybergames are, as Andrew subordination. Darley puts it, seekers after modes of direct visual and corporeal simulation [7]. But unlike Darley, we do not We have been considering JSRF as a cybergame that hold to the idea that players are unthinking automata, held emerges in and through Sojas Thirdspace. We have also captive in the trancelike states produced by cybergames. followed Soja and claimed that cybergames are marginal As we have gestured here, to play is to hazard intersecting sites. This means that what is at stake in this form of game and disparate trajectories and passages. This is not an is the possibility of a future urban space that is multiple innocent activity. Cyberbeing is fragmentary and and digital, and structured, to borrow a phrase from Scott unsettled and difficult to define. It is the scandal that is at Lash, not as dominium but horizontally linked together the centre of the moral panic that grips popular as communitas [10]. Even though cybergames are conceptions of game culture. Just as the characters in currently the site of more capital investment and more JSRF struggle against the tyranny of advanced capital real-time cognitive activity than any other form of mass through a skater underworld, cyberbeing in the context of entertainment, it does not follow that players become discussion on cybergames is quite clearly a marginalised capitalisms drones. category. Our discussion of JSRF suggests that the play of cybergames exemplifies what Edward Soja calls The retooling of the body for new labour processes Thirdspace [14], which can be defined as the messy lived through new visual technologies and associated regimes space that encompasses the conflicts and struggles of all of vision is enhanced in the digital by the power of other kinds of space that fall under the broad categories of

MelbourneDAC 2003 algorithms to reinforce the possible equivalence between http://news.com.com/2100-1040-937124.html?tag=rn. capital and sensation raised by Jonathan Crary in his study Accessed: January 10 2003. of the industrialisation of visual culture in the nineteenth century [5]. The mathematical quantification of vision 3. Beller, Jonathan L. Cinema, Capital of the Twentieth pioneered in Gustav Fechners psychophysics prompted Century. Postmodern Culture v.4 n.3 (May, 1994) Georg Simmel to derive an informal kind of calculation http://www.iath.virginia.edu/pmc/textto demonstrate how exchange values were equivalent to only/issue.594/beller.594. Accessed: July 7 2002. quantities of physical stimulation [5]. A similar mode of thinking about the relationship between capital, 4. Chambers, Iain. Migrancy, Culture, Identity. technologies of vision and cultural value is advanced by Routledge, London/New York, 1994. Jonathan Beller in his theorisation of the cinematic mode of production as the key to harnessing of human 5. Crary, Jonathan. Techniques of the Observer: On attention as labour in the production and circulation of Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century. value. Bellers thesis is that cinema and cinematic Cambridge Mass./ London, 1990. technologies television, telecommunications, computing, automation provide some of the discipline 6. DAngelo, Joe. Beastie Boy's Side Project Writes and control once imposed by earlier forms of Songs For Skating Video Game (03.06.02). imperialism [3]. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1452770/20020305/be astie_boys.jhtml. Accessed: January 26 2003. We agree that the game commodifies the attention of the 7. Darley, Andrew. Visual Digital Culture: Surface play player to the extent that it harnesses the players visual and spectacle in new media genres. Routledge, London, attention and ergodic activity to the production process 2000. but unlike on-line gambling, for example, where attention is immediately and almost continuously commodified, the 8. Eskelinen, Markku, , Cybertext Theory and Literary regime of vision in which the game takes place promotes Studies, A Users Manual, ebr, no. 12 (2001) the harnessing of an excess of attention which overflows http://www.altx.com/ebr/ebr12/eskel.htm, accessed the boundaries of its use value in ways that are August 15 2001. unproductive. This is at odds with the desire of capital to control disruptive flows and points to capitals flirtation at 9. Juul, Jesper. Games telling Stories A Brief Note On its margins with the possibilities of its own destruction. Games and Narratives. Games Studies The Bellers thesis and related approaches to the ways International Journal of Computer Game Research v.1 n.1 modern visual technology tools the body for new labor (July 2001) http://www.gamestudies.org/0101juul-gts/. processes like Darleys tend to construe vision in terms Accessed: September 4 2002. of a stimulus-response model which lends itself readily to totalising positions concerning capitals power to 10. Lash, Scott. Another Modernity, A Different quantify, discipline and commodify attention. The study Rationality. Blackwell, Oxford, 1999. of cybergames, however, seems to us to require a model of attention which takes into account the slippage that 11. Lefebvre, Henri. The Production of Space. Blackwell, occurs in the between of cybergames when the flow of Oxford, 1991, cit. Soja [14]. production opens into the undisciplined, unproductive space of play. It is perhaps in the spatiality of the workings of JSRF, intensified as it is through the collapse 12. McHoul, Alec. Cyberbeing and ~space. of as and as if structures, that the sense of scandal http://www.mcc.murdoch.edu.au/ReadingRoom/VID/c associated with cybergames, including much of the ybersein.html. Accessed December 12 2002. moral panic, is in fact located. Further this sense of unease may in part be rooted in the anxieties of capital as 13. Moore, Peter. Sega unleashed: Takayuki Kawagoe it attempts to draw energy from the unmanageable. interview. Cybergaming possesses an energy that can be utilised by http://sega.gamerweb.com/features/segaunleashedo4.asp. capital in its system of exchange. But there are also Accessed March 1 2003. productive possibilities that disrupt this system. The between of cybergames is ultimately indeterminate and uncontainable. 14. Soja, Edward W. Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and other Real-and-Imagined Places. Blackwell, Cambridge Mass./Oxford, 1996, 68.

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