Winners, please send an email to kotakucontestATgmailDOTcom to claim your copy of Arcade Mania. Be sure to include your address and let us know if you'd like your copy signed.

Arcade Mania is now available.

Here's the rules: Note which diorama you want to vote for in the comments section directly below by saying which one you are voting for. Voting more than once will cause you to get ban. Putting more than one comment or vote will caused you to get banned. Putting a non-sequitur comment will caused you to get, yep yep, banned.

Voting ends tonight at midnight. While you can vote for only one finalists, the three finalists with the most vote will receive a copy of Arcade Mania. Everyone else gets INTERNET FAME. Those who vote (correctly!) get our undying love.

Hi, guys it’s me Luis again and since my FFVII diorama did not qualify for the contest I decided to make another one this time based on Street Fighter Alpha 2 which is an arcade game. I hope there are not entry limits. For this one I decided to recreate my favorite stage. This one was a pain, a lot of micro cutting. For a moment I thought my vacation was not going to be productive.

Oh, it was, Luis, it was. Likewise, Kotakuite Mint has been productive, sending along the diorama below.

Mint writes:

It's a scene from Marvel vs Capcom 2 with Shuma and Amingo, and the loudest backround I could find. I totally should have spent the time studying for my Anthropology final tomorrow, but yeah, I didn't. I figure I can take ANTHRO 102 anytime, but a diorama contest over at Kotaku just don't come as often as I'd like them to!

P.S: I'm happy to say that Shuma is made with 100 percent recycled index cards. Amingo not so much..!

This Rampage diorama comes from James from Hawaii.

Says James:

I never appreciated my xacto knife more than when I was cutting the outlines of George and Lizzy out of the postcards I drew them on. I based my diorama on Rampage since it was one of my favorite arcade games as a kid and my sister and I would play it endlessly. I don't recall Lizzy ever having a Godzilla-like atomic breath attack (or looking so much like the offspring of Reptar and a kangaroo) but it was something I always wanted to see.

The buildings are game pieces from the CMG "Monsterpocalypse", a tabletop game that is essentially the equivalent of Rampage.

It was a tough choice choosing which game to make a diorama of since I played so many as a kid when arcades were all over the place... Pole Position II, The Simpsons, Tumblepop, X-Men... but I ended up back on Rampage each time. Ralph is probably locked in a cage somewhere... my sister and I never picked him. Sorry buddy.

Thanks James! And finally, we've got an entry from Kotakuite Chesu: Ban-Hammer-Bird-Shirt-Crecente. Just look at that background! Amazing stuff.

What's going on? For this contest, you can use anything you like to create your diorama: paper, toys, whatever. All we ask is that you made an arcade-themed diorama and include a Kotaku and Arcade Mania sign so that we know you made it and not your dog or something.

Take a picture and send it to kotakucontestATgmailDOTcom. There will be three winners, and all will win a copy (it's in English!) of Arcade Mania straight from Japan. Everyone else will get INTERNET FAME. Remember, the contest deadline is tonight at midnight PST. That's soonish so procrastinators have a wee-bit of time still left!

Arcade Mania is now available.

But, hey, Luis does not care. He's all about making a FFVII diorama, while we're all about showing it. Writes Luis:

I know FFVII it is not an arcade game, but I wanted to make this diorama so bad. In addition, who can forget this final battle anyway? Or my face when he summoned Nova on me, I thought it was going to be game over for me.

Can't be a finalist, but we applaud the "E" for "Effort" and the "L" for "Luis." What's going on? For this contest, you can use anything you like to create your diorama: paper, toys, whatever. All we ask is that you made an arcade-themed diorama and include a Kotaku and Arcade Mania sign so that we know you made it and not your dog or something.

Take a picture and send it to kotakucontestATgmailDOTcom. There will be three winners, and all will win a copy (it's in English!) of Arcade Mania straight from Japan. Everyone else will get INTERNET FAME. Remember, the contest deadline is this Friday.

Arcade Mania is now available.

I decided to go and recreate one of my most memorable experiences at the arcade as that's probably as "arcade themed" as I can get.

I'm a big fan of paper toys, so I decided to make some for the diorama contest... I tried to make it as ugly as possible 'cause, if memory serves me right, losing also meant getting beaten with an Ugly Stick. Remember what Blanka looked like when he lost? It's like someone slapped him really hard in the back of the head and his eyes fell out... over and over again.

Nice work, Alexander! Below is Paul's diorama. It's not based on his arcade memories, but that's okay. Paul had a party to go to.

Writes Paul:

Its a Parodius based diorama, although as you can see its not that accurate, there were no gundams in the real Parodius and the penguin isn't quite right but it gives a feel of Parodius I think. For some reason it seemed like a great idea before I made it but its really disappointing now its done, I think it needed more wackiness and bullets, walking bombs etc but i don't have time as I'm off to a party soon. Hopefully it will give someone a laugh.

We'll admit it: We chuckled. A bunch. What's going on? For this contest, you can use anything you like to create your diorama: paper, toys, whatever. All we ask is that you made an arcade-themed diorama and include a Kotaku and Arcade Mania sign so that we know you made it and not your dog or something.

Take a picture and send it to kotakucontestATgmailDOTcom. There will be three winners, and all will win a copy (it's in English!) of Arcade Mania straight from Japan. Everyone else will get INTERNET FAME just like Alexander and Paul. Remember, the contest deadline is this Friday.

Arcade Mania is now available.

Hi I am Kevin

here is Mrs Pacman making money the right way... i will probably lose but i thought it was funny

Thanks Kevin. Ever wonder what Ms. Pac-Man looks like when she takes off her ribbon?

What's going on: For this contest, you can use anything you like to create your diorama: paper, toys, whatever. All we ask is that you made an arcade-themed diorama and include a Kotaku and Arcade Mania sign so that we know you made it and not your dog or something.

Take a picture and send it to kotakucontestATgmailDOTcom. There will be three winners, and all will win a copy (it's in English!) of Arcade Mania straight from Japan. Everyone else will get INTERNET FAME just like Kevin. Or Megan. Or Mike. Or DarthMetalHope.

Hit the jump for their entries.

Megan writes:

My diorama is based on how Kotaku usually kills other sites...I present to you, "KOTAKU BANDWIDTH DESTROYER!!!"

Let's see...I don't think much of it needs explaining. The paper chains are supposed to be "links," and hitting the links=bandwidth destroyed. Get it? XD
And the high score, is of course, over 9000. Why it's only over by one I'm not quite sure.

Mike writes:

FAQ:

Q. What is that thing?

A. It is a handcrafted diorama of the arcade phenomenon "Space Harrier".

Q. What is a "Space Harrier"

A. A guy who rides a vacuum around and shoots Egg Foo Young.

Q. IS THAT PHOTOSHOPPED?

A. No it was created by hand and the image was captured with a "camera".

Q. Is that an American Gladiator?

A. no

Q. Is it for sale?

A. yes.

Q Can I afford it?

A. no.

DarthMetalHope writes:

First off I want everyone to know that drawing pixel art is hell. As much fun as it was making little Galaga ships and what not, nothing will wear your patience thin then drawing and cutting out all these little guys. I was hoping to have more going on in it, but Galaga = simplicity to me and I thought this shows it nicely.

The Galaga ship and alien ship thingy shooting the beam down are both in the very front being supported and propped up by hidden little pieces of carboard. Then the 5 alien ships hovering above are actually all stranded together in the middle of the diorama and held up by black string that i fed through the top of the box to keep them up. So there is actually alot of depth in this, sadly using a crappy camera doesnt really help show it. Then i just threw the Stage number and Life number on the side and voila!

Arcade Mania is now available.

Here's what's going on: For this contest, you can use anything you like to create your diorama: paper, toys, whatever. All we ask is that you made an arcade-themed diorama and include a Kotaku and Arcade Mania sign so that we know you made it and not your dog or something.

Take a picture and send it to kotakucontestATgmailDOTcom. There will be three winners, and all will win a copy (it's in English!) of Arcade Mania straight from Japan. Everyone else will get INTERNET FAME just like Zero.

Hit the jump for Zero's lengthly email describing everything in this picture. Mike, don't take offense to the McWhertor garbage!

I have far, far, far too much free time on my hand-hands.

Just to let you know, I didn't use Photoshop to create the diorama in any way, but I only edited the photo to white-out anything that's not part of the diorama. I didn't touch up the colour levels/brightness, but I probably should. I can send the original if you'd like.

Probably could've been better; The paper dolls look really really terrible, and it was my first time making something like that. I couldn't leave them out, either. It's also been ages since I made something that finely, and I made it using 8 year old crafting supplies from school, so I had to change things around.

The diorama includes all of the editor's names in some way, so think of it as some weird bizarro alternate universe, where everyone except Crecente has the same face.

A fair bit's blurry or can't be seen, but I tried my best.. Here's a quick summary of what's hard to see, or can't be seen, if you wanted to know:

The camera didn't catch it, but the screen for "Crecente Clone Wars" is supposed to say "255 secs" remaining.
The side of the cabinet says "Can you beat them all?!" and has 24 faces.
The screen for "Adam tha Baren" displays "Houghton Games Presents..."
The side of the cabinet says "127 Treasures to find!"
The obvious pieces of litter is "McWhertor's".
Bash's image is from the Arcade Mania website, and I wrote "(c) Kotaku Korp." This and the Kotaku banner were supposed to be related (as an ad) but I couldn't make it obvious.
"Jean Snow" is a WoB expansion pack, image also from the Arcade Mania website.
The sign on the counter advertises Game Time Cards for WoB. I write with a soft pencil, and I write softly as it is, so it's hard to see. I don't have any fine pens.
The man at the counter has the name-tag "Fahey". He's supposed to be resting his head on his hand, but he doesn't have any. It was pretty difficult as it already was.
The basketball game is named "Plunk'ett!"
"Good Driving!", is being played by a guy with the name tag "Owen", from "Greene Delivery Co."
It wasn't caught on camera, but the screen just shows an empty desert road. Yes, it's "Desert Bus 2." And $10. Looks ridiculous.
The faces on the two paper dolls are henohenomoheji. Also done on pencil.

Arcade Mania is now available.

It is meant to be from Duck Hunt. That red thing is supposed to be a crosshair and well...ah...I need to go to bed.

Brilliant! Here's what's going on: For this contest, you can use anything you like to create your diorama: paper, toys, whatever. All we ask is that you made an arcade-themed diorama and include a Kotaku and Arcade Mania sign so that we know you made it and not your dog or something.

Take a picture and send it to kotakucontestATgmailDOTcom. There will be three winners, and all will win a copy (it's in English!) of Arcade Mania straight from Japan. Everyone else will get INTERNET FAME.

Arcade Mania is now available.

For this contest, you can use anything you like to create your diorama: paper, toys, whatever. All we ask is that you made an arcade-themed diorama and include a Kotaku and Arcade Mania sign so that we know you made it and not your dog or something.

Take a picture and send it to kotakucontestATgmailDOTcom. There will be three winners, and all will win a copy of Arcade Mania straight from Japan. Everyone else will get INTERNET FAME. Reader Ed gets his own bag of INTERNET FAME with this Pong entry. He writes:

I hope it's OK I sent Pong. It's not a Japanese arcade game.

Totally okay, Ed! It is an arcade game, and that's all that matters. Hit the jump for another pic that shows moveable paddles.

Neato!

Arcade Mania is now available.

For this contest, you can use anything you like to create your diorama: paper, toys, whatever. All we ask is that you made an arcade-themed diorama and include a Kotaku and Arcade Mania sign so that we know you made it and not your dog or something.

Take a picture and send it to kotakucontestATgmailDOTcom. We'll try to get as many finalists posted as possible — but we won't be able to post every entry. There will be three winners, and all will win a copy of Arcade Mania straight from Japan. Everyone else will get INTERNET FAME. And, you know, INTERNET FAME is priceless. So if you've got extra time this weekend, get to it!

Contest ends December 19. Life goes on.

Those not interested in the contest, Arcade Mania is currently now available.

For this contest, you can use anything you like to create your diorama — paper, toys, whatever. All we ask is that you made an arcade-themed diorama and include a Kotaku and Arcade Mania sign so that we know you made it.

Take a picture and send it to kotakucontestATgmailDOTcom. We'll try to get as many finalists posted as possible — but we won't be able to post every entry. There will be three winners. All will win a copy of Arcade Mania straight from Japan. And if you want, I'd be perfectly happy to sign your winning copy (should you win) and forever devalue it so that you'd never be able to re-sell it. You'd be stuck with it forever. What. A. Drag. If you don't want me to sign your winning copy (hey, I sure as shit wouldn't), then you'd get a free copy of the book. YOUR CHOICE.

Contest ends December 19. Life goes on.

Those not interested in the contest, Arcade Mania is currently available.