Tokugawa Corporate Forums
http://fullmotionvideo.free.fr/phpBB3/

Meeting PC98/PC88 doujin developer irl
http://fullmotionvideo.free.fr/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=795		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  gargatar [ July 2nd, 2010, 6:26 am ]
Post subject:  Meeting PC98/PC88 doujin developer irl
So, I'm in Japan right now, and I've gotten in contact with TKO Soft(the guy who made the Yugekitai games) through e-mail and I'll most likely be meeting him at some point. I'll most likely be asking him for help with looking through the code for his games, but I'm sure that there are other things I could ask him about, such as information on the doujin scene from the past, PC88 and PC98 game development, etc. If anyone has any pressing questions, let me know and I can be sure to ask.
Author:  noname345 [ July 2nd, 2010, 6:56 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Meeting PC98/PC88 doujin developer irl
gargatar wrote:
If anyone has any pressing questions, let me know and I can be sure to ask.


Ask him about Onion Soft and that mysterious Alpha DOS used in many doujin games. Also, about TKO's earliest games (the one with murder cases, tools, etc.), and the apparent lack of information about it. Last of all, about the graphics formats they use, especially the ones used in PC-88 games. It may help for those who are wracking their brains, trying to edit primeval graphics with Japanese text on it.
Author:  Snake Plissken [ July 2nd, 2010, 9:00 am ]
Post subject: 
If you could, ask him about a general history of the doujin scene: how and why did it started, how it gained some popularity, the main names behind it etc :)
Author:  gargatar [ July 11th, 2010, 9:58 am ]
Post subject: 
Image

Well, had a meeting with them(TKO Soft was a team of two brothers who made doujin, one doing the programming and one who made the art), here's the information that I was able to figure out.

Alpha DOS - I wasn't able to find anything out about this, sorry.

Early Games - The bulk of their PC88 games were simple RPG or Adventure games using whatever engine they made for Jark(Ryu system). They have physical copies of them somewhere, but they haven't dumped the images.

Graphics formats - The formats for the PC88 are a custom format that the programmer made himself. He programmed his own graphics tool in BASIC and used that to make the images. I assume that this was the standard practice for creating graphics on old Japanese computers. I believe that the PC98 graphics were hand-drawn and then scanned, but I wasn't quite sure if that's what they said. I don't know if the PC98 games had a custom format or not.

General History - I wasn't really able to get a "why" or any big names, their involvement in the scene started around 1988. They would usually sell their games at Comiket. The PC88 and 98 doujin were able to become the most well-known because those systems were the dominant ones in businesses. They didn't make anything for any other computer systems, but they held the X68000 in very high regard. Due to its strong power, but high cost; it was a bit of a distant dream for computer-users.

Other Things
- The story for the first Yugekitai game was based off of a short film that the younger brother made with his high school classmates. As such, the games characters are based off of his real classmates, but with the names slightly changed.
- The original disk version of Yugekitai II originally took up 10 disks, fortunately it's possible to run the game from an HDI.
Author:  Sketcz [ July 13th, 2010, 9:25 am ]
Post subject: 
That's incredible. Have you considered writing a full article on this for some place? Some print magazines will pay you, otherwise a lot of websites would love to run such a thing for free.

Hardcore Gaming 101 runs coverage on doujin stuff and retro games (it's a free hobbyist website).

If you've no intention of publishing this elsewhere, or expanding it, can I re-post your stuff on HG101's blog? Just let me know how you'd want to be credited.

It's too valuable to let go to waste. This kind of information is seldom if ever made available in English. You should really try to pounce on this opportunity!
Author:  gargatar [ July 13th, 2010, 11:37 am ]
Post subject: 
Feel free to repost this on the HG101 blog, as long as my (forum) name is credited. I'll probably get to a full article on TKO Soft at some point in the future, but I would prefer to write it after I get at least one more translation done, so it might not be for a while. I'm in e-mail contact with them, so I can go more in-depth for a full-blown article.
Author:  Ben [ July 15th, 2010, 9:29 am ]
Post subject: 
Cool post to read for sure :D
Author:  gargatar [ July 19th, 2010, 3:50 pm ]
Post subject: 
Updated post with a scan of the artwork instead of the picture from my camera.
Author:  Trickless [ July 19th, 2010, 7:15 pm ]
Post subject: 
I actually quite liked that photo!

Anyway, really cool that you actually met the developer. An article about TKO Soft would be fascinating.
Author:  Crazywarlock [ February 15th, 2011, 8:21 pm ]
Post subject: 
wow I just read this thread and I'm sorry I was not around at the time of your visit. This seems as though it was a once in a lifetime opportunity that you were able to use to the best of your abilities, congratulations and I hope you get a chance to interview more PC88/98 developers in the future.
Author:  Sketcz [ January 7th, 2020, 11:47 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Meeting PC98/PC88 doujin developer irl
What happened to the interview you did?

Was it ever published anywhere?
Author:  Sketcz [ June 11th, 2021, 4:03 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Meeting PC98/PC88 doujin developer irl
Necro bump!

Was the interview ever put online?
Author:  Kaminari [ June 11th, 2021, 7:26 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Meeting PC98/PC88 doujin developer irl
11 years later... It's dead, John.
Page 1 of 1 All times are UTC
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group
http://www.phpbb.com/