Doujin = Japanese indie game (loose translation)
The Net Yaroze project started in March 1997 and was Sony’s attempt to allow bedroom coding for the PS1, making it something of a predecessor to Microsoft’s Xbox Live Indie Games. And it worked, because on many months in the UK there was a free full Yaroze game given away with the demo of Official PlayStation Magazine, and some were astoundingly good – almost commercial quality (almost). Sadly it only came to my attention after the fact that Sony closed the official servers and members forum in July 2009, destroying all the archives of what had been created. Worse still, I’ve discovered that dozens of quality games, which never found release on OPM’s demos, have potentially been lost forever. Our only hope to archive this slice of history in its entirety, is if former members happen to have downloaded and still have some of these files... And so I present to you an incomplete list of every Yaroze game ever. Much like Derboo's entry on Korean doujin, we need to expand awareness of this before it vanishes.
It’s important to understand the atmosphere of the era, a time a when games were changing rapidly. Previously this kind of bedroom coded content was limited to home computers such as the C64 or Amiga, or perhaps even further back the Famicom with its version of BASIC.
To see homebrew on the leading console was quite exciting. Universities were ordering Yaroze kits to teach game design courses, while teenagers with coding experience could order one for home use. The quoted price was a fairly high barrier to entry (about $750), especially since you also needed a decent PC and internet connection, but I heard reports from more than one person that after sending the cheque and receiving their Yaroze, Sony never bothered to deposit the money, meaning they essentially got to make games for free.
The above is only a fraction of the games which were actually developed though. Several years ago when I first dabbled in Torrents I found a download for a 53-in-1 Yaroze compilation, obviously hacked from what was available. The title proudly proclaims: Fixed by Freefall of Paradox. Considering how several of the games within weren’t on the demos, Freefall must have had access to games which had only been privately distributed. At the time I’d wrongly assumed it contained all Yaroze games.
A few years later I stumbled across another download, this time for 83 games. It contained many missing from the previous collection, but it also lacked three which were previously available: a Legend of Zelda clone, a program titled Goomba Bros which wouldn’t load, and a vertical 2D shmup called Rayfire.
In recent months I contacted some former Yaroze members, and it became evident that even the 83 compilation was missing a lot of games, some of which ended up on the final send-off demo on issue 108 of OPM. After several months of searching and begging, someone finally donated me a copy of this demo, allowing me to compile a reasonable list of all Yaroze games.
Numbers in brackets after the name indicate which issue of OPM they were featured in, though this isn’t 100% comprehensive. The selection of games which repeatedly ended up on demos is strange, since Incredible Coneman isn't that great (it's an extremely slow polygon Pacman clone). Whereas games like Hover Racing (not to be mixed up with Hover Car Racing) don’t appear to have ended up on a demo at all, despite being an extremely competent F-Zero / Wipeout clone. Many games are also not so great, so I’ve put (!!!) next to my favourites in case you’re keen to try some. Not that I want to criticise the users, since managing to complete a game is an tremendous achievment - and for many, this would have been their first major project.
Games on OPM Demo 108
Samsaric Asymptote
As you can see there are at least 20 games which cannot be played. These definitely existed, since there are clips of them on Youtube, and I’ve managed to find archived TXT files pertaining to their distribution on the private Yaroze forum. The most annoying omission for me is Yakata, aka Super Mansion, since it appears to be a polygonal Resident Evil clone, without the combat. It looks great anyway, and it was distributed among members, since I managed to find an internet archive of the accompanying text file for the game, complete with instructions for loading it on Yaroze hardware. But not the game itself!
So here is my plea. The world of Net Yaroze is on the brink of being forgotten and lost forever. Sony closed all archives of it. Universities in recent years have been selling off their Yaroze equipment complete with all discs. Few websites talk about it and those that did are now dead – a lot of stuff I had to get via the Wayback machine! And despite the valiant efforts of hackers, there are still titles not included in the compilations. Beyond the tragedy of losing unique data, is the sad fact that we’re not praising or discussing what it represented. People criticise Sony for so much, and yet here they were, allowing anyone to create games for their leading hardware. Sure it was limited compared to the official dev kit, but it was something.
If you’re a Yaroze coder and you’ve got the games in the missing list, talk about them. Take screen grabs. Archive them online. Talk about the games not on the list! Let the world know about them. Even if you’re a curious bystander to all this, play some of the games. Write about them. Make blog entries. Preserve the knowledge online. I’ve started by compiling a list, so make use of it, expand it, add to it, help it to grow (at the very least somebody add it to Wikipedia, because their page as per usual Wikipedia standards, is woefully inadequate).
I had considered writing a major HG101 article on every Yaroze game, with three screens for each and a mini-review, since there exists nothing like that currently, but seeing this huge list, and the many titles I’m missing, I don’t think I’ll be able to do this. It’s just way too much for one man.
I did find a series of forum topics attempting this, but it seems to have pattered out before completion (only 5 of 8 parts were completed) and for the most part lacked images. Sadly, the author is also extremely and unnecessarily negative – he appears to hate Yaroze with extreme prejudice, and so I’m not going to link to his AVGN-style ramblings. Yes, a lot of games are bad, but a lot are awesome and have some great ideas.
For those who’ve never experienced the Yaroze, I recommend it. The hacked compilations are online, hosted by Megaupload, and work fine on a chipped PS1 and reasonably well via emulator after some plugin tweaking. It’s now perhaps not as easy to appreciate their low-budget charms as it was back in 1999, but some of them are still worthwhile. Terra Incognita plays like a 3D Landstalker clone and is all kinds of awesome – it’s also now available for iPad for like a dollar. Haunted Maze is something I’d pay $6 for on PSN today it is so good (make sure to use an analogue controller!). Timeslip I’d also pay for - it’s the best time travel game ever made, and I’m not BSing (it’s now been ported to XBLIG and I highly recommend everyone check out at least the trial version - they even updated the visuals!). Samsaric Asymptote has a weird name but is a super cool retro shooter. Decaying Orbit takes planet landing to an all new level, while Down is more addictive than it should be (all you do is drop down a tunnel avoiding the descending spiked ceiling, but damn, it works!).
One of the things which I find alluring about Comiket is not necessarily what they have on the show floor, but rather all that I potentially missed over the years. A little as two years ago InsertCredit would have run several entries with the convention’s highlights. With their demise though (something which pains me every time the topic of videogames enters my mental framework), an excellent source for Comiket info is gone. With that in mind, here’s an entry with stuff cribbed from a variety of other places. Do NOT look at this while at work, since while I have endeavoured to keep it clean, you really shouldn’t be wasting office time on it. (Comiket bunny girl courtesy of Kevin Slong’s Flickr account)
Lee from HG101’s forums (who also write the Philippines entry) started a topic on Comiket 79: The Comic Market (Comiket 79) came and went in Japan last month, and I have been searching the net for doujin games sold there. I have found two noteworthy titles, Umineko Ougon Musou Kyoku and Touhou Koumajou Densetsu II.
El Diabolico from SomethingAwful forums also started a topic, with plenty of information and links: What once had humble beginnings as a small local fair meant to promote and distribute "Doujinshi", independently published books, has since grown in to a massive beast with thousands of groups and individuals over the years hocking their own "doujin" works no longer limited to just books but to just about everything: Books, Comics, Music, Anime, etc. etc. Even the larger Companies have taken note and use their opportunity to sell their branded goods to the otaku masses. Of course this triggers a large otaku migration which grows larger and larger as the years go by.
Comiket is also never mentioned in print magazines – the one time I twisted my editor’s arm to get a half page of coverage into Retro Gamer, entire forum boards exploded with hatred for me. Well, fuck the haters, because obscure shit like this is my goddamned mojo - and I will relentlessly man the ramparts. I’m cribbing pretty hard from SomethingAwful, simply because this year they appear to be the biggest English resource – or very least the most easily accessible. Thanks to all those whose shoulders I’m standing on.
El Diabolico also provided several links to lists of what turned up, and shops where you can buy this stuff. Some recommendations he listed:
Ehh.. The spelling on the title may be wrong but it's a Castlevania pun. And this? A sequel to last year's Castlevania X Touhou mash-up. The last one was pretty snappy. Hopefully, this one will be the same.
The 8th installment of this celebrated visual novel series.
Umineko.. the fighting game?! Maybe it'll be interesting? Maybe it'll flop? Who knows? It'll certainly be one of the more interesting fighting games to come out judging by future releases within the genre.
A sequel. A touhou themed rogue-like done in the style of Chun Soft's 'Mysterious Dungeon' series of games. Like any rogue-like, half the fun is figuring it out.
And while we’re on the subject, here are some scans from Technopolis magazine from our Japanese PC article, courtesy of Tokugawa, covering Comiket of the past.
As you can see, every year the convention produces a large quantity of content, a lot of which ends up obscure and forgotten.
I’ve wanted to play Recettear ever since InsertCredit made an entry on it way back in 2007. So I’m overjoyed to find that Carpe Fulgur has not only taken on the task of localising and publishing it in English, but they’re promising to work on further such ventures.
There’s a rather substantial demo available and, to put it simply, what I’ve played so far fulfils every hope I had for the game when I first saw it - and then some. I’ve grown weary recently of technical games, and while I’m not about to abandon shmups and fighters, I find I’m really enjoying slower, menu-driven games. Which isn’t to say this is casual - because it sure as hell is bloody not! If anything it’s a lot like Princess Maker, with many layers of hidden complexity presented to you via an intuitive interface and wonderful storyline/art direction. Easy to get into but hard to master.
There’s real satisfaction to be had from scouring for Super Antivenom and a classy longsword, placing them with prominence in your window, and then demanding such high rates they never sell. Or maybe I want to fill my central display with nothing but nutbread - I can do that! Recettear so perfectly targets the part of your brain that likes tinkering - it’s the same part which makes character building in ANY GAME fun; or arranging your crops in Harvest Moon; or dungeon building in any number of games from PC to PSP. Becoming the town’s biggest supplier of cotton shirts might not win me the game, but damn, if it doesn’t make me giddy simply by fact that I can do that, IF I WANT TO.
The corresponding adventuring sections (at this early stage) would appear optional, like they were in Princess Maker, but are such fun shouldn’t be overlooked. They’re simple, with a Zelda-esque combat system, but this is all part of the charm. Controls are slick and it supports USB pads off the bat, which I always appreciate. There’s some great music in the dungeons as well. The first adventurer I found was in need of help, so I provided him with free healing items while he took me along for the ride to steal as much treasure as we could. In-game you control adventurers directly.
Backing up the gameplay is some really wonderful anime designs and expertly written dialogue. I can’t vouch for how faithful it is to the original, but I don’t care. Carpe Fulgar’s script is witty, blithe, and absolutely hilarious in places. Reading their Q+A section there’s an entry regarding the Japanese voices, almost apologetically pre-empting anyone who might complain about lack of English dialogue. This shouldn’t be a problem, since the original voices adds some real charm to the game, and anyone likely to complain isn’t the kind of person who’d be interested in buying this anyway.
Recette, your archetypical and heavily moe orphaned-yet-numbskull-young-girl, contrasts superbly with the sharp and businesslike fairy Tear. Their constant banter throughout proved a joy to read, while the in-game sprite of Recette, showing her wide-eyed and wholly incapable of grasping anything Tear tells her, raised some genuine laughs. Despite her lack of ability, she pushes onwards valiantly, shouting her catchphrase: “Capitalism Ho!”
Speaking of capitalism, this appears to be Carpe Fulgar’s first commercial venture, and I hope they make sufficient money off it to continue. Though it saddens me to think that this is such a niche game, both in concept and style, no one will take interest. Certainly I don’t foresee EDGE, GamesTM or EGM covering it. GameFAN might, if they’re still around. But the other mags? Unlikely. Once out, and assuming my PayPal account is sufficiently stocked, I hope to bring you a typically comprehensive HG101 article on this little gem.
One final thing which I've left until the end: I have one slightly serious complaint regarding Recettear. The game doesn’t tell you how much you paid for an item from the guild. And what you pay doesn’t match its base value - meaning after buying a whole bunch of guild items, although the game told me what its base sales value was, it didn’t tell me how much I’d actually paid for them.
I’d like some kind of listing which says NOT what the base sales price is (which is irrelevant when I’ve bought it from a wholesaler), but what its going-rate is at the guild.
