Here is what EGGCONSOLE Relics looks like on Switch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=io9E6SXLkpM
What would have been really cool, would have been to have access to all the different versions of the same game (especially for something like Relics). I’d rather have paid ¥1200 or ¥1500 for that.
By the way, Yūwaku a.k.a. Temptation for the FM Towns has received a fan translation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip9-w6a0qg4
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[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/c3uyi0q.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
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@“gsk”#p134796 Project EGG’s on Switch now! (in Japan): https://cohost.org/gosokkyu/post/2992186-this-is-out-today-av
tl;dr they just launched “EGG Console”, a series of single-purchase ￥880 releases for Switch, starting with eternal EGG launch title Relics; they’re sticking with PC-8801 reissues in the short term, with plans to work towards MSX and PC-98, and they already have several of their regular license partners on board and hope to attract more. There’s a list of confirmed PC-88 games in the above post, and it seems Thexder and Silpheed are imminent.
The emulation suite and frontend’s basically the same as the one seen in the recent Valis/Cosmic Fantasy/Telenet Shooting Collections, for those who’ve played those: you get save states, button mapping, slow-mo/fast-forward settings, scanned manuals, etc plus a scene gallery… no keyboard support of any kind, as far as I can tell.
I’m mostly glad this exists because PC EGG is kinda ass, both technically and in terms of convenience and value for money, so being able to point people to no-bullshit one-offs is going to be so much more convenient than half-heartedly pretending the subscription service is worth entertaining.
This came out worldwide today (excluding Canada and whichever other eShops tripped them up):
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/eggconsole-relics-pc-8801-switch/
https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/EGGCONSOLE-RELICS-PC-8801-2463653.html
@“gsk”#p136374 just came here to report the same, I happened to browse the new US eShop releases about an hour after this popped up and went ahead and grabbed it on sight just to support the effort. For anyone curious, the emulation wrapper and menus are in (spotty) English, while the (high-quality) manual scan and game itself remain in Japanese. Still really cool that this series is leaving Japan at all
Is “The Saori Incident” basically a Japanese NIGHT TRAP??? Interesting how they happened concurrently like that!
Bit of a deep cut, but was messing around with sound files from Eve: Burst Error and found the following credits inside one of them:
`eve burst error
ko.01
main(Noon) for woman
ryu umemoto.
T(For PPZ8) =
thanks to
kajihara (Kaja) PMD
sawada (Hyps) FMDSP
hoshino (NNI_Star) PMK
kirai (Leiros) TXTPV,EFCPV
`
I assume the last four lines refer to people who were active in the industry (scene?) back then. Maybe something peeps in this thread would know more about (would love to know).
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@“progn”#p137769 kajihara (Kaja) PMD
That’s [Kajihara Masahiro](https://youtube.com/@masahirokajiharakaja5476?si=y25bMYuvkQMgD0xy), creator of the FM music driver PMD.
PMK and TXTPV are important developer tools for the PC98 community. I think PMK was about file management and especially useful for sound files management. TXTPV is a file organizer.
This week's EGG Console release: Thexder!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4el7U7s52A
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/eggconsole-thexder-pc-8801mkiisr-switch/
https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/EGGCONSOLE-THEXDER-PC-8801mkIISR-2472063.html
https://store-jp.nintendo.com/list/software/70010000073125.html
hmmm I always wanted to try thexder, maybe this is my chance. also, “thexder's laboratory” would be a good name for an insert credit episode.
A fascinating overview of Japanese typing games.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf2Eq8jtG-g
We already know the full calendar of releases for the few next EGGCONSOLE titles. **Xanadu** (PC-8801mkIISR ver.) came out this week, and both **Silpheed** (PC-8801mkIISR ver.) and **Hydlide** (PC-8801 ver.) come out on December 21st. Give or take a few days outside Japan depending on your eShop region.
♪ I like trucking, I like trucking
I like trucking and I like to truck
I like trucking, I like trucking
If you don't like trucking, tough luck! ♬
https://youtu.be/ArpVi3W8HiY
Hey, long time no see. Let‘s start with some interesting news about Bothtec’s RELICS series:
https://twitter.com/DragEnRegalia/status/1738635238132138482
It's weird that D4 Enterprises took _this_ long to redistribute the Windows 9x installments of the series, but better late than never. I wonder if they'll find a way to bring these to Switch, unlikely as that would be.
As for me, I'm currently interviewing the programmer/designer of a 1987 PC-98 game, Juushin ROGUS, which Artec produced alongside Digan no Maseki: https://twitter.com/DragEnRegalia/status/1736652414114013676
This should be the last major hurdle for me in writing an article about the game, and hopefully a full video essay next month. Incidentally, it's another title available on EGG's PC service which could get the EGGCONSOLE treatment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuVjFxiW5OI
@“Pasokon Deacon”#p145663 It's so nice to see you back with more on the way! I just this week introduced a co-worker to your stuff, and they were really hyped to learn more about the Japanese PC gaming scene!
icymi, EGG opened a form for people to request games for reissue via EGG Console: https://cohost.org/gosokkyu/post/3925211-egg-console-official The president of D4E's also expressed an intention to more strongly pursue global releases on both the EGG Console and Project EGG side, and that includes the possibility of expanding to include European computers.
Over the last few months, Project EGG's also started reissuing Madou Monogatari games on the main service, as well as certain versions of Puyo Puyo and other Puyo-adjacent Disk Station content—while D4 owns the IP and software, Sega owns the characters and certain other copyrights and hasn't been especially permissive when it comes to reissues, so this is the first time the majority of these games have or will be reissued outside of D4's occasional limited-print physical box sets.
Oh, and Gensei Suikoden Plus, a KR-dev'd remake of a Compile Disk Station game that was massive in South Korea and absolutely nowhere else, hit Switch a few weeks ago:
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/genseisuikoden-plus-switch/
It‘s not the first FM Towns release I plan on covering in major depth, but Rejection: Cyber Soldier (sometimes Cyber Girl) is always fun to look at. I didn’t realize until now that it very likely started life as a game tie-in with Cutie Suzuki's zombie-sploitation classic Battle Girl, which came out the year prior. Both stories revolve around battle-suited punks fending off an invasion of zombie mutants caused by a meteorite hitting Tokyo.
https://twitter.com/DragEnRegalia/status/1746299685818548255
This has me wondering if any other J-PC software tied in with notable V-Cinema (direct to video) movies.
Oh hey, more CD soundtracks left in the pile, and since I'm on an FM Towns kick lately:
https://twitter.com/DragEnRegalia/status/1746667807935226016
The lack of FM Towns music rips for Hoot player means I'm almost always stuck just uploading the smaller set of Redbook tracks for these videos, sadly.
the next EGG Console release: Bothtec/Alex Bros.’ Yokai Tantei Chima Chima (PC88 ver.), out next week: https://cohost.org/gosokkyu/post/4211320-egg-console-watch-y
These are the games in the pipeline for the immediate future (all PC88, and they may not be released in this specific order):
Ys
Hydlide 3
Argo
A-Ressha de Ikou
Hurry Fox
Toudou Ryuunosuke Tantei Nikki: Kohakuiro no Yuigon
Laplace no Ma
Riglas
Babylon
EGG also just put the original PC-88 release of Sacom's Marchen Veil up on Switch: https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/eggconsole-marchen-veil-pc-8801mkiisr-switch/
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I played through the PC-98 version last week on a lark (and I suspect this was the _very_ original game since it's got full kanji and a better rendition of the soundtrack, plus Sacom mainly focusing on 98 during that period). This was decent early action-RPG, held back mainly by a weaker later half. It'll feel familiar to anyone who's played a bit of Druaga or Hydlide and Dragon Slayer, just with much nicer presentation (the "visual scenes" are neat) and a higher skill ceiling. I'd say the puzzles are much less cryptic here than in those games, too. Getting through the first half took about an hour, followed by much more time just to survive through to the final stage.
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WRT people saying it looks/plays slow, they're not wrong, but I think they're also missing the game speed settings (F5, not sure if that's in the EGGCONSOLE port) which let you set the pace. It's no less lethargic than the harder parts of its influences; the game's stressful enough that it rarely felt sluggish. You often have to thread a needle between risky charges into screens for items and pulling back to kite enemies which aren't easily beaten. The developers were nice enough to let players backtrack to level 1 if needed, which helps because clearing stages always nets you a small amount of health which you can grind to make later parts easier (let alone survivable). Trickiest of all is saving progress, which requires you to collect a non-stackable floppy disk and use it at the safe zone (teal circle). Consumable saves are a divisive mechanic today, let alone back then.
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/Z59cwqb.png]
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While those save disks appear on each stage, just getting to a point worth saving at can be tough, especially in the penultimate two stages featuring these wizards which lock you at the screen they spawn on. These are the bane of a good Marchen Veil run...I was having a great time before they showed up. See, the nice thing about flip-screen scrolling is it makes respawning enemies a lot less threatening and manageable. Because these teleporting robed bastards force you to fight them all over the map—10 arduous hits at a time—I ended up dying way more to the grunts than these bosses. Respawns always happen at the exact spot where that monster died, so it becomes a game of luring the baddies into a corner where you can't aggro them while finishing off the mages. Couple this with a general lack of i-frames (still better than the huge knockback in the FDS remake) and that creates a huge difficulty spike. Thankfully the final stage is easier and bereft of this kind of design madness. It's a shame since crossing the icebergs and high seas are strong stage premises, and solving the wizard's combat puzzles can be satisfying once you're able to work around pathfinding and RNG to reach a safe spot. Mechanics like the auto-shield (blocking projectiles from the front while you're not attacking) and shooting around or through obstacles matter most here.
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[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/hILHtMe.png[/IMG][/URL]
Despite those weird flaws and quirks, I'm pleased with how the game comes together, both for its time and now. It's rarely uninteresting and fares better with teaching new players than so many xRPGs from or before 1985 (not that the 1st stage is quite as educational as something like World 1-1, but still). You learn very quickly that shooting every non-background object in sight can potentially yield a reward, whether it's restoratives or a key item you'll need to progress. There's a couple cases of having to defeat all enemies on a screen _before_ hitting the rocks and shrubs again for items, or something similar, but they felt like natural consequences of exploring the level rather than arcane bullshit. The game's story itself is a simple enough fairy tale, complete with an appropriately sober ending, and I'm curious to see where the sequel goes. At least there'll be some nice baroque music in the background again.
I'm not sure if I can recommend the EGGCONSOLE release just because the PC-88 port has worse graphics and music, but it comes with start-of-level save states, turbo, and button remapping which could be a godsend for many players. (My PC-98 emulator has save states enabled, but I tried not to abuse them and play this with 1985 in mind.) Of the ARPGs released or soon to arrive, I think it's one of the best picks for sure. Riglas and Babylon also look cool for 1986, but they're either more open-ended and puzzling or aping Druaga and Dragon Buster without adding much new to the genre like Sacom's game does. Hydlide 3 is also a very love-or-hate experience from what I recall, and it's much longer than all these games except Xanadu.
this week's EGG Console reissue: YS
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/eggconsole-ys-pc-8801mkiisr-switch/
next week's EGG Console reissue: Hydlide 3
https://store-jp.nintendo.com/list/software/70010000077169.html
I‘ve been curious and wanting to get into the PC-88 library forever and this EGG Console initiative seems like the perfect way to delve in and is super accessible. Other than Ys and Hydalide, which exist in other forms of course, I am completely unfamiliar with any of the games available and am curious what’s worth checking out. What would you guys recommend that are good and/or interesting games?