Tokugawa Corporate Forums

I had thought there'd be a topic on here, but I can't find one. So here it is. Derboo over on HG101's blog has been running a series of fascinating entries on early JPRGs for Japanese home computers - the kind where you can't find much info on them.

1:
http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2013/ ... -1982.html

2:
http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2013/ ... es-we.html

3:
http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2013/ ... ma-no.html

Although it's not as in-depth as our usual articles, I like them because they scratch the surface of something seldom documented in English. It's pure Indiana Jones for the gaming world.

Given the relation to Japanese computers, I thought you chaps would like them too.

I've put them in this sub-forum because they cover more than just one system.

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The David Attenborough of Japanese Game Development

Is this what is being sought? -


http://www.retroprograms.com/PC-88/Genma_Taisen_v80.7z

Thanks Pete!

I'm not sure, but I've emailed Derboo with the link.

_________________
The David Attenborough of Japanese Game Development

Thank you !

I remember LordKarnov did write up about retro JRPGs as well, but the site's not there anymore

Also:

Genma Taisen PC6001 playthrough
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM2yTj7gyhs

I've screengrabbed the boxart and manual scans from the video, but they're very low quality and text is hard to make out.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/p2q3ca

This looks like the game for PC-6001 if anyone is interested:

http://www.retroprograms.com/PC-88/GENMA.zip

In the file:

Copyright (c) 1983 by PONY INC

Fantastic work Pete! Is that... Your site? I've not followed this forum as much as I should. There's some amazingly weird stuff on there. I had no idea Tecnosoft did a fighting Tanuki game!!

I tested out the first prog, for PC-88, and it came to the same title screen, so I'm pretty sure it's the right game. But there was a slow moving wall of text, so I didn't actually get into it.

The PC-6001 version is again the same game, with same title screen, but getting into the game was much easier than I expected. You need to boot the 6001 emu in MKII mode, then select BASIC MODE 2, then 2 pages, then CLOAD and then RUN. Ahh, it brings back memories of when I tried to get Nausicaa working on the 6001. It's kind of fun getting emus of these old systems to work - sometimes moreso than the games themselves.

Once booted it draw a monochrome screen of the same character shown in the blog entry.

So yes, we've now found these two!

Excellent work.



Any chance the Wayback machine has LordKarnov's writings? Also, that video is excellent. Glad to see some people still have mint condition copies of these ancient relics. That's amazing.

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The David Attenborough of Japanese Game Development

Cool Stuff! Might have to revisit that game and look into those files some time later...

I'll inevitably do another unfound games post in a couple weeks, below are the other games I believe haven't surfaced thus far. Am I right about those?

-Bounded バウンドット 地底世界編
-Parallel World パラレルワールド
-Seibu no Nariagari 西部の成り上がり
-SUPER DANGEON
-Kamen Rider 仮面ライダー

This is what I could find. I don't know about the Dungeon/Dangeon one - strange KOEY spelling, and not the one you want. The right one might be in one of the multi-packs, but there are 40-50 of those!

http://www.retroprograms.com/PC-88/DerbooPC88.7z







Edit:

This one calls itself Super Dungeon in the accompanying .txt file:

http://www.retroprograms.com/PC-88/Serv ... _Vol_07.7z

THC probably has a backup of the forums, but I haven't seen him online since April 5. It wasn't anything really informative anyway, I basically just played a few games (Black Onyx, Dungeon, Dinosaur) and posted my thoughts. Speaking of The Black Onyx, if anyone here wants to help translate the sequel, head over to the PC-88 subforum for a link to the script!... (and a bugfixed English Black Onyx)

Don't think that's the one.

SUPER DANGEON/スーパー ダンジョン was developed by 富士音響 RAM (Fujionkyo RAM) in 1984




Was still a good read

@peter_j: Awesome! Thanks a lot for those.



Sounds a lot like what I'm doing, actually. I don't go about it in a terribly sophisticated manner, either.

I love your game archaeology posts derboo, they're always fascinating.

About this game:


Dungeon by Akihiro Suzuki is really good. It's a freeware game I think, maybe a type-in from a magazine, but I can't confirm it.
Title screen says (c)1982, and the source code shows the last version at 1983.7.3, so it's among the earliest Japanese RPGs known to exist. Definitely check it out.

Coincidentally, there's an Akihiro Suzuki who works at Koei, but he may be too young to have created this.

Genma Taisen for PC-98 is in this pack:

http://www.retroprograms.com/PC98/Gamep ... Pack1.html

Great job!

I'd like to signal some other interesting early Japanese RPGs for the PC-88:

-Demons. It should be an adventure / RPG hybrid, but unfortunately it seems that it's nowhere to be found

-The Screamer. One of the earliest apocalyptic Jrpgs (1984). It was ported to other systems too (PC-98 and the X1 IIRC).

BTW, good luck with the Kamen Raider RPG! I've been looking for it for years without any success...

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Call me Snake...