Look what I bought because of y'all
I also love Panekit! I can‘t believe there’s another human outside the shimaguni who shares this trait!?
I'm enormously digging what it is that you chose to spotlight in the original post. What makes Panekit so jaw-dropping and unparalleled is truly how complete it is. It's one of the games that solidifies my perception that the *structure* of a game is *at least as important as* if not *more important than* the moment-to-moment gameplay. In any other world, *Panekit* would have been a sandbox that allowed you to build anything and left it at that. But no – they made it a *journey.* What mustn't be discounted is that in doing so, not only does it add oodles of discovery and wonder to the game, but it's also an on-ramp for people like me: people for whom jumping in and slowly learning to build things for the sake of it isn't an attractive prospect. By drip-feeding parts, challenges, and inspiration to the player, it doesn't get overwhelming, and the presence of *purpose* creates motivation for more types of player.
Contrast this with something like *Cortex Command*, the poster child in my mind for what *not* to do. They'd built an incredible sandbox with delicious, moreish mechanics – but neglected to give the game a metagame. It's just a sandbox – nothing more; nothing less. Little in the way of scenarios, challenges, and progression. I've still spent many hours playing and thinking about it, but far less than I otherwise would've, and I wonder if things would not have been different had I not been a preteen when I discovered it. My love for that game has, regrettably, always been tinged with disappointment. That is one reason why *Panekit* is so powerfully aspirational to me.
Best post I've seen on this forum!!! Thank you!!! 😆
Allow me to take the opportunity to shine the spotlight upon Panekit‘s soundtrack. It’s a soundtrack that screams “we‘re stepping into the age of multimedia”. It’s a soundtrack that smacks of PowerPoint and LightWave 3D. It's a soundtrack that justifies the invention of the compact disc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSbMhH9ni2k
So baffled was I when I first booted up *Panekit* and heard that synth sax that I knew I had to have it in my ear on the reg. Alas, I could find nowhere to download it, so I put together my own “album”. Faced with the challenge that none of the tracks had *names,* I made the decision to honor an ancient internet tradition, and flagrantly make them up. (For example, did you know that many of the traditionally used names for songs from the *EarthBound* soundtrack – such as “Buy Somethin', Will Ya?” – are utter poppycock?) Reaching into my soul to come up with the names that embody the respective vibes of these compositions – nay, the names they *deserved* – was a nigh-spiritual experience.
[IMG width="275"]https://i.imgur.com/PbCDQrP.png[/IMG] 
[IMG width="275"]https://i.imgur.com/khF2hQp.png[/IMG]
[You can download it here!](https://mega.nz/file/hJBhRIDD#SWEEk-eKFsQl5jXdnszbWS2hM14x9oyxvTZNEYJVACE) And you should!
@“exodus”#p133414 hell yeah, the good one! The diagrams are sweet in that thing.
@"Obskyr"#p133420 Always glad to see a fellow Panekit pusher! The music really does have a nice “Welcome to Compact Disc” taste. Is it on there redbook style or live synthed?
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Oh, also wanted to respond to this:
>
@“Obskyr”#p133417 By drip-feeding parts, challenges, and inspiration to the player, it doesn’t get overwhelming, and the presence of purpose creates motivation for more types of player.
Additionally for me, a really important design choice made is the ability to basically NOT do any particular challenge. I somewhat recently went on a long swim through almost every A列車で行こう (A-train) entry, and one of my strongest takeaways from recent entries is the increased tension and decrease in creativity I felt as a result of an increase in the format of “sequence of scenarios with clear conditions.” Earlier entries like A3-5 having only the goal of “make however many millions of yen by whatever means on whatever timeframe” was actually preferable for me. Any first pass of a stage on DS, for example, is always some scenario with particular build requirements, with free-play unlocked after clearing each stage.
Panekit has the scenarios for structure, but free play is unlocked from the start. Pretty sure you can just beeline from island to island clearing only the ‘gate’ challenges doing nothing else. It makes it feel like the game is respecting me as able to make the choice to engage the way works for me. A-train scenarios manage to become some sort of obligation in my mind, but that may be just a me-problem.
Panekit rules.
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I discovered Panekit in 2018. I’d been obsessed with MaBoShi on Wii/DS for about a decade and was going through the history of game designer “kuni”, Kuniaki Watanabe. It’s three of his games that make up MaBoShi, and Panekit was his first game.
https://www.retrogameboards.com/t/ps1-appreciation-collectors-thread-of-ugly-ass-polygons/87/102
It’s compatibility with later PS2 models (it works with early model SCPH-10000 PS2) was due to a change in optical drive hardware limits.
Because the specifications of the DVD drive have changed. The movable margin became small, and Panekit used to the old limit. (kuni, Jan 2019)
Another interesting tidbit is that Panekit came out of the Sony “Game Yaroze!” development programme (not to be confused with PlayStation’s “Net Yaroze” dev kit)
https://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/20051026/game.htm
No real English info on this but a good list on French wiki.
https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Yaroze!
I’m just reiterating stuff in the OP at this point.
Finally, I have one of the guide book Panekit. It’s not with my right now so sadly I can’t post any more recent photos.
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