It is, sorry for not indicating it (if you go for a search, it´s NSFW).
I have never played it myself, just a fan of how it looks.
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I love the look of PC98 games aka the Anime PC game machine
- Thread starter Trojita
- Start date
It is, sorry for not indicating it (if you go for a search, it´s NSFW).
I have never played it myself, just a fan of how it looks.
The music by Hideki Higuchi is also very good.
Trojita
Rapid Response Threadmaker
Xna / Kisana.
Really it's just the 90's anime aesthetic, mixed with hardware that could display very high resolution images for the time. The real problem is that we almost never get Japanese games with this kind of dark aesthetic today, especially not visual novels (that I know of). The closest might be... Kinu Nishimura's 999 illustrations?
I kind of have a similar interest in the aesthetic of Japanese dungeon crawlers of the same era, but we at least still get a few games these days approaching that look or something clearly descended from that look, mainly because Atlus is still making dark fantasy dungeon crawlers.
I kind of have a similar interest in the aesthetic of Japanese dungeon crawlers of the same era, but we at least still get a few games these days approaching that look or something clearly descended from that look, mainly because Atlus is still making dark fantasy dungeon crawlers.
As someone who knows a ton of eroge, I can assure there very much are still VNs like this. Hint. Nitroplus.
What I meant to say was non-eroge.
Oh I'd agree there.
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
Some classic NEC gaming right here in these GIFs:
Lyrane, Glodia (makers of Emerald Dragon), PC-88, 1986
Tokio, Artdink (makers of A-Train), PC-98, 1992
The Alien Island 3D-Version, Nobuhisa Fujinami (doujin proto-FPS game), PC-8001 (better video options vs. MZ-700 but not by much), 1985
Lyrane, Glodia (makers of Emerald Dragon), PC-88, 1986
Tokio, Artdink (makers of A-Train), PC-98, 1992
The Alien Island 3D-Version, Nobuhisa Fujinami (doujin proto-FPS game), PC-8001 (better video options vs. MZ-700 but not by much), 1985
Definitely a good example. The art for Brandish: The Dark Revenant and The Last Story also captures some if not a lot of the same zeitgeist, albeit undithered and not as crispy. You have to dig deeper than ever to find out where the Japanese PC developers/artists get their work these days.
Danny Dudekisser
I paid good money for this Dynex!
Yeah, I don't know what it is about the low-color, dithered visuals, but they just look amazing. There's really nothing like it. And that old-school anime art style doesn't hurt, either.
Empty Space
Member
Are these games mostly just visual novels? The only one I recognized was Policenauts? If not what did most of these games look like in gameplay? They all have a great look!
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
Couple of GIFs I made of Falcom's Brandish:
Game's a real piece of work for a 1991 PC-98 game. High-resolution dungeon-crawling at some of its finest, at least until the sequels came.
Game's a real piece of work for a 1991 PC-98 game. High-resolution dungeon-crawling at some of its finest, at least until the sequels came.
Look at the animations I've posted so far and tell me these games are all just visual novels.
Tye The Czar
Member
YOU WILL TAKE BACK THOSE WORDS.
NAY, I SAY! I will not forgive
the removal of the adventure gameplay combined with pointless scenes of incest and characters being stupid (Why would you free Ryuuzouji like that you idiot)!
Head.spawn
Junior Member
I feel like I completely missed out on something awesome. Loving what I'm seeing in here.
Nope. Epilogue was the best part imo.
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
PumpkinSpice
Banned
Please stop making me want to buy old Japanese computers.
Time for maximum boost Sharp X68k graphics!
Star Cruiser (one of Kamiya's all-time favorite games!), Arsys Soft, multi-platform (X68k version shown), 1988 (X68k in 1989)
Buster, E. Hashimoto (doujin platformer), X68k, 1995
Square Resort, YAMACO (published by Family Soft), X68k, 1992
Just discovered the music for Square Resort. Was a nice surprise to find out who the composer was.
Time for maximum boost Sharp X68k graphics!
Star Cruiser (one of Kamiya's all-time favorite games!), Arsys Soft, multi-platform (X68k version shown), 1988 (X68k in 1989)
seeing this run on a mega drive is hyper impressive
Wowfunhappy
Member
So, was there something about the hardware in this machine that made it easy to create games in an "anime" style, or is that just what this platform happened to build an audience around?
Not really. I mean some of these were ported to IBM PC DOS in the west, China, South Korea, Taiwan, and even Japan. An IBM PC could most certainly produce graphics of that quality.
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
Most of the projects Arsys Soft did were hyper impressive. I need to make a GIF of Reviver, a 1987 Sharp X1 Western-inspired adventure game that feels like a missing link between Japanese and non-East Asian adventure games of that vintage. Game even came with a built-in windowing system and GUI, plus changing day/night and NPC behaviors. I've heard mixed opinions about the game's quality overall, but it's exactly the kind of innovative, almost forgotten milestone unique to J-PC game libraries.
The PC-98's hard 16-colors-on-screen limitation (in the most used video mode(s)) meant that developers had to get creative with dithering no matter what. Niche audiences were already playing anime-influenced/-based games on the PC-88 when they migrated to PC-98, and so the eroge boom happened as soon as companies like elf figured out how to properly scan their artwork onto PC-98 workstations, render them in as high a quality as possible, and then make first-generation VNs which have a little bit more complexity than you'd expect. All the common development tools were coded and possibly distributed in mind for making these colorful, high-resolution adventure games first and foremost, while anyone making action games likely made their own engines and tools separately.
Now you can hear where Umemoto got his bass guitar chops from. I actually prefer his work (alongside TOYO Kusanagi) on Family Soft's War-Torn Versnag.
The vast majority of Japanese games in the 80s and 90s on any system were "anime" style. The PC-88/PC-98 had thousands of titles, from strategy RPGs to dating sims, et cetera.
The graphics thing did also apply to IBM PC games of the time. And funny you mention elf (may they rest in peace), because they are one of the examples of the eroge devs that brought their games to DOS/V.
I like both of them. Umemoto was a great composer, but so was Kusanagi (who I feel is very close in style to Umemoto), although Kusanagi doesn't do game music anymore.
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
Scanning and dithering artwork cheaply and effectively was essential for the eroge VN industry to start and continue on classic Japanese PCs and then Windows, but yeah, what they were doing wasn't hugely different from techniques and focuses used by MS-DOS and Amiga developers. The 16-bit J-PCs's strengths and weaknesses forced certain styles and genres to the forefront because of how they best fit respective hardware and developer conditions.
SatelliteOfLove
Member
When I read "pixel art" this (and like SF3) is what my mind conjures.
I'm gonna guess very little of this left Japan. Sucks, cuz the whole 80s and 90s J-PC segment are "here be dragons" for most beyond Japan outside of what few console ports exist like Faxanadu.
I'm gonna guess very little of this left Japan. Sucks, cuz the whole 80s and 90s J-PC segment are "here be dragons" for most beyond Japan outside of what few console ports exist like Faxanadu.
I hope you don't mind porn then. Because uh...yeah.
This. Quite a few of the images I just posted are from erotic games. Not all of them, though.
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
lol, Faxanadu's an original game by Hudson. I won't deny it and Drasle Family share things in common, let alone classic Xanadu, but still.
Refuge.tokyo is still the best overall database for looking up J-PC games w/screenshots and the occasional detailed write-up (in Japanese).
Empty Space
Member
Besides the game that looks vaguely like a city builder none of the GIFs you've posted have the art style of other stuff in the thread. How am I supposed to infer your GIFs are representative of the things in the OP in terms of gameplay? You could very much have just been talking about old Japanese computer games in general.
It's weird seeing some of this stuff again. Back in the day, we had a PC98 and my uncle's friend had a bunch of games that we would go through and borrow. He never even bothered to remove the adult games, so I ended up playing a lot of these despite being a preteen at the time. In some of them there wouldn't be any indication that they had adult content until a ways in. At least I could always rely on Falcom and Glodia for good stuff.
If it's a VN, VNDB also is quite good. I would know because I made some of the contributions. Believe it or not Wikipedia has a wealth of information. Also a website named after a certain famous Shogun. Not sure I should actually say the name.
cj_iwakura
Member
Better slap a giant NSFW on the title after some of that first page, good god.
That said, gorgeous artistry.
That said, gorgeous artistry.
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
This dancing boy's from a 1986 FM-7 sound card demo. When I saw it in motion on Nico Nico Douga I knew I had to get footage of this for lulz.
Tokugawa Corp and MobyGames have done a lot to help me identify a number of old games and let me focus instead on looking out for real oddities like the CRPGs Michiaki Tsubaki designed/wrote.
Granted, I didn't know you were being that specific and excluding the stuff I was posting. There's a bit of game mechanic variation between the games OP posted but not too much, and at least half of them are eroge.
Tokugawa Corp and MobyGames have done a lot to help me identify a number of old games and let me focus instead on looking out for real oddities like the CRPGs Michiaki Tsubaki designed/wrote.
Vlaphor
Member
Sound like you have a love for classic Japanese Cyberpunk (as all good people should). I'd recommend this tumblr here
http://rekall.me/
as that's pretty much what it's about. It's not all Japanese or classic, but about 98% of it is, and it is wonderful.
Sometimes (thought rarely), it can also be a bit NSFW, as was not uncommon in such art.
Seriously, whenever I look at this tumblr, I just get all warm and giddy inside.
http://rekall.me/
as that's pretty much what it's about. It's not all Japanese or classic, but about 98% of it is, and it is wonderful.
Sometimes (thought rarely), it can also be a bit NSFW, as was not uncommon in such art.
Seriously, whenever I look at this tumblr, I just get all warm and giddy inside.
SatelliteOfLove
Member
I know that, it only reinforces how little left.
MobyGames is a bit lacking sometimes for classic Japanese PC games I've found. Especially Win95 and 98 games.
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
Actually I'm really impressed by that Israeli contributor who's done a lot of entries, mainly for xRPG titles. Windows entries are definitely lacking, though, yet it's not easy even for me to get info on all that stuff.
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
People say FMV games suck, but not this one.
Hate Punishment! 2, Honwaka Soft (doujin), PC-98, 1992
This reminds me of the Dare to Be Stupid music video somehow.
Hate Punishment! 2, Honwaka Soft (doujin), PC-98, 1992
This reminds me of the Dare to Be Stupid music video somehow.