The documents can be accessed via the game they are associated to, their type of cabinet, their year of publication or their genre.

Researching the history of arcades is challenging endeavor. One cannot simply study arcades by looking at machines and games, but must also strive to understand the social and media dynamics of spaces that often no longer exist. However, game centers leave traces, written records of past experiences and affordances. This is where the contemporary researcher must focus his attention, these first hand documents can be used to close read the space of the game centers and thus, with the help of complementary sources, reconstruct the experience of arcade gaming. These types of ephemeral printed material are all categorized under the same Japanese popular term “chirashi”.

The Arcade and Game Center Chirashi Database is meant to house these items and make them available to researchers and the public. The content of this database is diverse, while the majority of documents will be commercial pamphlets for specifics games, other kinds of written documents such as trade notices, stamp rally boards and point cards are also featured in the collection. More than just a collection, this database is meant to be a ressources allowing us to better "read" the space of Japanese game centers over the years.