Fun Fact, this was not the last time that Yuzo Koshiro had worked on a Metroidvania, as he also worked on the OST to Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, alongside Michiru Yamane, who also worked on the recent Bloodstained franchise, as well as the JRPG franchise that was called Wild Arms.
Wild Arms had such good music!! I played it on the PS1 a long long time ago. Found an exploit in the beginning you could win a stat point at the fair by winning a race so I did that over and over again making the whole game trivial lol
Unmarked fantasy walls and infinite corridors were just a right of passage for those of us who grew up with this era of gaming. They're right up there with teleporter mazes.
LOL, the term "Right of Passage" is a funny inadvertent pun, since you had the right to pass through those cryptic-as-hell invisible walls and such back then. Normally I was capable of discerning the invisible wall trope after discovering that was a thing when playing NES games as early as age six in the early '90's, but that inconspicuous grey wall part in the "Wanderers from Super Scheme" in the video, along with most of that game, would have made me rage quit before figuring out most of it's crypticness!
Teleporter maze is up to par with pitch-black dark zones and turntable/spinning traps, which all of them pretty much originates from Wizardry for computer games.
As I got older, I just want to speed run everything. But looking at hindsight I enjoyed “exploring” secret walls and thinking “I bet my friends didn’t figure this part out”. Yeah, we were pretty dorky like that. 😆
Seems a lot of people think of it that way, yes. The soundtrack keeps getting re-released. It's more famous than the game it goes with. Kind of a shame since the game is actually pretty good once you get used to it. I actually enjoyed my second playthrough more than my first.
It still blows my mind how many amazing games are out there that I never heard of. This is an awesome video and I appreciate coverage of these things I had no idea existed. I have a wild nostalgia for seeing the Ancient logo pop up before a games title and seeing the further backstory into where this all came from is like a treat for the old gamer in me. Thank you very much for this video.
So, I'm not a gatekeeper by any means... but I genuinely think there's something meaningful to gain from playing older games. The amount of hyper-specific engine limitations that have to be designed around, as well as the style of game design, is just... super cool. I'm so in love with older game. I respect the hell out of older games. I would never say that modern games aren't on par in any way - they're obviously above and beyond, and do incredible things, but overall, they feel... way more soul-less. Modern games just don't feel like they were made by people having fun making passion projects, instead made by people trying their best to make a "good product".... and I guess I'd rather play something someone had fun making.
The modern AAA industry is why I rarely ever enjoy any AAA game that releases and stick to indie games or even going back and playing old titles from the 90's/2000's (sans difficulty getting stuff working well on modern systems). Even Starfield which just came out, one of the most hyped games, is soulless garbage with dreadful optimization. I do hope there's something like a game's crash again. Excessive monetization and woke/political/etc agendas ontop of the soulless factory farm nature of modern games is ruining the entire industry.
@jessicastoker8932 I definitely agree about the hardware limitations thing. Some of the things being done in modern platformers is absolutely amazing, but folks need to understand that a lot of this is made so much easier due to the tools available to modern game developers, as well as the basically non-existent hardware limitations. Overall that's an awesome thing since it frees game and level designers to focus on fun game design. Not everyone can (or even should) appreciate how much harder game design was when having to work within very strict hardware/memory limitations, but people ought to at least be aware that this was a thing when looking at old games and saying, "Why didn't they just make it x way instead!"
@@BasementBrothers Here are my only issues with what you bring up (I mostly agree with and appreciate your response, btw): if modern tools are so much better, then why does it take longer, cost more, and require more hours - to even make simple "retro" games today, compared to back then? I understand modern tools are absolutely supposed to be easier/better to use, but this has always greatly confused me. Back in the day, a SINGLE developer would port Mortal Kombat 2 from the Arcade Cabinet machine code, over to an SNES. One person. And they'd do it in less than 4 months typically. Now? Now you'd have a team of a dozen devs at M2 or some other port-heavy studio port forward something like a Street Fighter 2 collection, with all the version of SF2, and not only would it take them well over a year, it would cost nearly five times as much even with inflation calculated, and it would require somehow 50 hour average a week from EVERY dev on the team. I just don't understand what the hell is going on now that wasn't going on back then when it comes to that one aspect. As for no longer have limitations, I also think modern triple-A devs use that as a crutch, not as a means of spreading their wings. "Hey, it was hard to try and make Halo 3 as big and open as it was. We had to use a lot of neat tricks to make the game look as pretty as it was (for the time), running as well as it did, with that limited hardware. We had to cut space-ships in half off in the distance so only the side facing your perspective was loaded in, we had to cull lots of foliage from a certain distance, and we developed a system for dropping the resolution of something the closer you got to it, but raising the resolution the further off it was, while also dumbing down the texture quality the further off it was, but boosting the texture quality the closer up you were. We made the hardware sing with all these tricks!" "And what do you do now?" "Oh, we said to hell with all that and just render it as-is. Fuck it. If it looks good, it looks good. We're not trying anymore."
@jessicastoker8932 I don't really have much comment on the issue of how many people and resources it takes to make modern "retro" games vs games back then. All I know is that Mortal Kombat 2 was definitely not ported to the SNES by one person. Here are the credits for the SNES version of the game: www.mobygames.com/game/600/mortal-kombat-ii/credits/snes/ There were certainly quick ports to Gameboy and stuff like that I heard of done by one guy (or mostly one guy). Atari 2600 days were really when it only took one person sometimes to make a game. Most decent platformers on the NES and other systems had a small team of developers (just like The Scheme). I haven't really noticed how many people it takes to make a modern retro game, but I can definitely understand why a modern AAA game takes a ton of people to make. But overall, it really isn't my concern as long as the games are fun and the prices are right. Thanks for the comment.
I'm truly a fam of channels like this that explore foreign or obscure consoles such as these. It allows me to peer into a time I would've otherwise never known. There's something fascinating about taking a deep dive into a part of video game history that clearly inspired many titles I know and love. Thank you for taking the time to play and review these classic treasures.
"An '80s Metroidvania you haven't played" -- Speak for yourself! ;) Though it's actually surprising that I have, since my experience with the PC-88 is admittedly really limited -- but when I bought Dragon Slayer Chronicle for Windows many, many moons ago, I ordered it directly from Bothtec on the very first day it was made available, and I found a bonus disc in the box when it arrived on my doorstep: All About Bothtec. Much like Dragon Slayer Chronicle, All About Bothtec was a compilation of a bunch of classic Bothtec games wrapped in pre-configured emulators and bundled onto a single DVD with a front-end menu to select which game you wanted to play, ready to go on any Windows machine. And The Scheme was among its offerings, which made me REALLY happy -- I think I was happier to see that than the Dragon Slayer games I'd specifically ordered, in fact! So yeah, to date, The Scheme is the only PC-88 game I've ever played from start to finish, and I really, really enjoyed it -- especially the soundtrack! "I'll Save You All My Justice" is still one of my favorite 8-bit music tracks of all time -- what an amazing track to start on! Really gets you pumped for some action. I'm super jealous that you actually managed to get your hands on a physical copy of the game, and can't even imagine how much you paid for it -- especially in such absolutely pristine-looking condition! That's gotta be worth its weight in gold, at least. Awesome to see this one reviewed here, as more people definitely need to AT LEAST know about this game's incredible soundtrack, if not the game itself. Also cool to learn a bit more about Wanderers From Super Scheme, which I'd only heard of in name before. Looks... frustrating, but worth checking out nonetheless. Thanks for another great video!
Yeah. :) I knew there would be more than a few viewers like you who had definitely played the game! Please accept my apologies for my clickbait thumbnail. Thanks for watching as always! :)
This game looks great and the soundtrack is very good. It's a shame it was not released on more platforms. You're spot on about the 80s gamers figuring out the invisible wall and floor sections. Those were everywhere in Metroid, Simon's Quest and other games. It was expected for players to know every corner of the world to beat a game back then. Thanks for the video!
Incredibly nice video about a game I never expected to even exist. The Yuzo Koshiro bit had me smirking, especially with the font of "The Scheme" and how the "S" looks when near the "T", just saying. Koshiro's also been uploading his various old and new tracks for the soundboards over the years he opened his youtube channel, I wanna see if he's uploaded any of the Scheme's ost. Funny you even put Dark Schneider as an example, since the art for the box and Mars seems to take some hints from Hagiwara's earlier artstyle for the clothes and armour, even for the monsters. Yet the face and hair have a "Legend of the Galactic Heroes" feel to it.
Many of the games you cover are games I'm somewhat familiar with but without knowledge of Japanese I feel like I'm missing a lot. While I've played The Scheme before I never got far and didn't even know the story. Even the main character's name is new to me. I can't say enough how grateful I am for PC-X8 Paradise. Between Basement Bros and Jeremy Parish's Works series I feel like I'm finally understanding the context of many games from the 80s and 90s.
I've heard of The Scheme from an old friend, and heard one of its tracks, but had no idea about anything else until this video. The game honestly feels more fantasy than sci-fi, like the original Phantasy Star, but that's not a bad thing in my mind. Definitely got that classic Metroid feel. And jeez, that doujin game feels like a wacky ROM hack. All in all, this is really cool! Also I love that whiskey has become a running gag, heheh
Yey, another fascinating video about japanese only video game and this is even some "protometroidvania" with Yuzo Koshiro music. Neat. As always i love package from back then. I think it was suprising when you bought a paper box with the game and inside you have another box but aluminum one. And i like how smoothly this powerups bounce from the ground. And more whiskey to you, but don't be drunk xD
The Sheme - одна из самых популярных и раскрученных игр для PC-88 В любом упоминании NEC PC-88 всплывает эта игра. Но дальше почему-то люди не хотят интересоваться это великолепной системой, а зря, так как эксклюзивных и неповторимых игр очень и очень много. Музыка, графика и сам геймплей очень достойные. Как всегда видос великолепный. Groovy.
Ok, now that I finished the game, I can watch the whole video! Thanks a lot for the links provided, it has been very helpful to check out the music and mapping out the game! This game has been a fun time!
@@SpookyDollhouse I like the habit lately of doing a 1:1 remake where the old graphics can be switched with the new by a button press (Halo Collection, Wonder Boy, Tomb Raider 1-2-3)
One more great video about a game I had no idea existed 😂. Thank you! For some reason I was thinking about this channel at the supermarket today when they blasted Dancing Hero from Oginome Yoko 🎵
I remember hearing about this one from the likes of EGG and their youtube channel, it looked interesting! may have to see about getting it running via retroarch. (hopefully I'll have better luck than I did starting the fan-translation of Farland Story... :( )
That is fun history, and i really appreciate you presenting this classic in an enjoyable and clean way; **Basement Brothers: a life hack you might not have considered would be to use cling wrap and a fine point dry erase marker (that will allow you to writer in the "incomplete map area" WITHOUT ruining the patina - so to speak)** Keep it up!
Ahhh, yeah! Been waiting for The Scheme to show up. It's a game I've heard a good bit about, but haven't seen a real good deep dive in English yet. Better yet, we've got Basement Bros. quality and Mr. Jakes meme drops. Thanks, yo!
This feels like a game that badly needs a port for modern systems -- both in an authentic "as it was" version and an "arranged mode" faithful to the original but with modern amenities like save states and accessibility options. Given how rare the original is I'd definitely buy a port for PS5 or Switch if a developer like M2 was behind it.
Since the sfx for picking up new items in Ys2 is allegedly inspired from Metroid, this might have been the natural progression for Yuzo Koshiro to take.
When you said "Hatching an evil scheme" I totally expected an MST3K reference. The evil king is named Hardy... I'm not sure whether to make a reference to greasy food (like the restaurant Hardees) or to suggest the Hellstones should've been called the Hardy Boys. Yeah sometimes Mars Lair looks like Adol, but the image you show at 9:20 kinda looks like a red-haired Choujin Locke/Locke the Superman to me. So does Wanderers From Super Scheme have a story?
Yeah, I agree. That art style does look like Choujin Locke. The hair, particularly. Wanderers from Super Scheme definitely does not have a story! Thanks for watching.
@@BasementBrothers I'm gonna make up a plotline for Wanderers From Super Scheme: In the not too distant future, the cows from the Earthworm Jim games have decided to invade other games with their machines. Mars Lair is one of the few survivors, taking up the throwing stars of a fallen ally in order to avenge them against the Cow Lords!
The thing about Atlantia is that is isn't for the regular PC-8801, but rather the 16-bit PC-88VA. It won't run on my tower PC-8801MC shown in this video, for instance. So in Atlantia you'll see graphics that wouldn't be possible on the "regular" PC-88. It's certainly an interesting game, though. That one and a couple others make me almost want to buy a PC-88VA someday... or maybe just play the PC-98 version instead I guess.
I really miss the old days of when a person bought a game & it came with quality cases +/or instruction manual, game & possibly other goodies. Now you get a crappy plastic cover, "okay" massive box-art & the game 😔. I know it's inevitable but, I'm gonna miss physical releases when they go the way of the dodo 😩
Yeah. Two commenters now said they love the box art. Are you referring to the art shown on the actual box for the game? The art in my thumbnail for the video is from the Soundboard II version CD, and was drawn by Kazuhiko Tsuzuki, who used to work at Falcom and did the art for Romancia, Dragonslayer IV, and others.
@@BasementBrothers ya was referring to the art on the box. Definitely something I’ve seen but now know what game its from That thumbnail you got is also pretty neat! Big fan of of concept art. I can see why some people would think of Adol with the plate mail like armour
Possibly! I think the main problem is they were trying to be fancy and go for a modern point-and-click sort of interface with pop-up windows and everything - which is not fun to use without a mouse. It would have been far more user-friendly if they had just stuck with something more conventional for the time like a console-like selection menu or number-based keyboard menu... but they had to get fancy. They could have at least allowed the player to use the gamepad.
I love the art of the rock monster on the cover. If I had a copy, I wouldn't want to let it go. That double-disk arrangement makes a degree of sense. I think. If it's the pairing that matters, the order by which they pair is, for the greater consideration, logically irrelevant. You can't use the keyboard on a PC game to enter your name? *blink* Wow. I know we've come a long way with UI, but that's just... It feels like a half-baked idea that didn't get cut out, dragging a mouse about a GUI with the numpad... *Backup disks FTW! They're very good at making room for others. Just wish they didn't make truck noises whenever they moved about.
Most games only bother to make one of the two disks bootable, which needs to be inserted in drive 1. The bootable segment of the disk takes up what was a non-trivial amount of disk space back then, which is the reason most games didn't do it the way The Scheme does.
Ah, you have to turn around before you get hit so the bounce gets you on the ledge, like Ninja Gaiden. Some of the robots in Wanderers look like Strider bots. Super awesome game and great channel. The more I learn, wow, I wonder why new indie games are so bad. They are slow and boring. But these old games at 4 hz are fast as hell and fun.
I think that this game could have used several tweaks, as well as honestly deserves NES/FDS and Sega Master System ports, and maybe some SNES/NSFC and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive ones as well. I despise the insanely huge information bar, which should honestly have not been any larger than the ones that were for Castlevania I and III, and yet it literally takes up half of the screen, which is inexcusable. Also, a Mini Map that could have been selected by a button would have been more useful for this game. I also think that more Life Packs could have been put into the game, and more types of attacks could have been in the game, like some powerful heat-seeking energy blasts, for instance, or a shot that was like the Plasma Gun in the Star Wars Trilogy on the SNES/NSFC, or even the super powerful blasts that Mega/Rock Man X uses whenever he has a fully armored version of himself in the Mega/Rock Man X franchise. I would have liked to have seen something that gave people a hint as to where people could go, like, say, have some prisoners that you can rescue after each boss fight, and they could have revealed more about the game, as well as what to do next, which is kind of like visiting the old monks in the NES/FDS version of Rygar. The death animations are too simplistic for the main character, as well as the enemies, in the game, and they honestly could have been better in the game. I also hate the cheap trap areas that suck out your life, which is akin to the equally horrid decision of having trap rooms in Super Mario Brothers Special...such things are unnecessary, cheap, cruel, lazy, dishonest, disreputable, and, in all honesty, a trolling d i c k move, and things like that should not be in video games for ANY reason. Also, when you get a different gun/energy blast, then it SHOULD be more powerful instead of merely having different colors and animation...like, what exactly is the point of getting those things if they are not more powerful weapons? Collecting them is not enough, to be honest, and people should not have to settle for that in this game. I hate saying things like this to three very influential video game people, but they honestly should have thought of those things, and ditto for the rest of the team of this company. I could probably find more things to nitpick at, given enough time, but I have a life that is outside of the internet.
Certainly there are a lot of ways the game could be improved. The weapons system is especially minimal. Still, I think you are misunderstanding a number of things here. For one, the game only has two real weapon upgrades: one that increases your rate of fire, and the other which is basically turbo fire. That's it. That's why there is a leveling system. The only way to really make your weapon significantly more powerful is to level up. And the huge HUD is definitely not "inexcusable". The reason for it is pretty obvious. Very few PC-88 games actually use most of the screen for the gameplay area. The larger the area dedicated to gameplay is, the more system-intensive things are going to become. The dead-end with the spikes is actually not that terrible. I did accidentally fall into once, and it was honestly not that big an inconvenience. You can just die and go back to the checkpoint and do it again. Not a big deal compared to what many games of the area would sometimes put the player through. Same with the mini map idea. Very few games at the time actually had such conveniences, and I'm sure game designers of the time would have thought that would make the game too easy. Overall, you are judging the game by modern standards. What you want is a modern remake of the game, not the 1988 original for a primitive 8-bit computer. But I can tell you paid close attention to the video and found it thought-provoking, so thank you very much for watching!
@@BasementBrothers , and is it necessarily wrong for wanting a remake/remaster of this game, and especially a. given the fact that this is a game that was literally one of the first video games that Yuzo Koshiro ever made, b. that this game was also one of the first Metroidvania type games, c. that this person contributed to Castlevania/Demon Castle Dracula, as well as other video game franchises, and d. that this game is most likely a very hard one to find, even among PC-88 games? Any one of those reasons are why this game needs a remake/remaster for modern video game consoles, smartphones, tablets, PCs, and Macs. Now as for your claims of misunderstanding things here, I misunderstood nothing, and I also stand by what I said. Now as for the weapons system, sure, that kind of system would be absolutely fine for a side-scrolling shooter game in the vein of something like a competitor to Thunder Force, Gradius/Nemesis, R-Type, Darius, etc., but as for a game like this, it is a poor fit. Moreover, if anything, a Turbo Fire option should have either been a special obtained item that worked with all weapons or made as an option on the Options menu in the game, that is, IF this game even HAS one. I also know that the weapons system is more like the broken one that is in the vast majority of the Darius games, rather than the sensible one that is in the Gradius/Nemesis/Parodius/Otomedius franchises, and, if such a system must be in the game, then it should be a hybrid of how Metroid III/3/Super Metroid does weapons upgrades in that game, along with the instant upgrades that Darius Twin had for that game, as well as the previously mentioned Gradius/Nemesis/Parodius/Otomedius franchises did for those games. Also, you said that this game has upgrades for both faster rates of fire and a turbo fire upgrade, am I right? Why not just simplify the process and make the game give you as faster rate of fire alongside the turbo fire, or just give people the turbo fire option outright? Having both things in the game is honestly, as well as needlessly, redundant, and, I hate saying this about Yuzo Koshiro, and especially, considering that this is one of his first ever video games, but it is an exercise in bad video game design in this regard. I also know that the PC-88 is capable of accomplishing such feats as I claimed, but people are too intimidated, and/or cowardly, to pull it off for that particular system. I also saw SNES/NSFC and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive video games literally doing such things to some games, namely, the oversized information displays/HUDs, when we all know full well that they are capable of handling full screen action, and I also know that the PC-88 can do likewise without being super choppy like an early 2000s videophone display screen, thus between the facts of what I know that people can do for those other systems, let alone the NES/FDS, the SMS/Mark III, the Game Boy/Game Boy Color, the GBA, and the Game Gear, I stand by my words of such things being inexcusable, and especially considering that people have worked wonders on those video game systems, not just in the past, but also now in the present. Maybe some additional software and hardware might be needed in order to have it happen, but if people did that in the past for other video game systems, as well as right now in the modern era for such systems, then it is time for the PC-88 to have it happen to that system as well. Now as for your claim about the dead end with the spikes not being terrible, let me tell you precisely why you are wrong with that claim as well. First of all, people, even Japanese people, generally do not want to die in an inescapable room in a video game that clearly has no need for one. Sure, a game like Sweet Home or Maniac Mansion could get away with something like that, you know, if the people that made such games to have such pitfalls, but it is inexcusable for a Metroidvania to have such a room, and it is also a needlessly d i c k move to have in a game, aside from having a good reason to have such a room in the game, which this game failed to meet with its criteria. Second, I am also saying this based upon an equally evil concept that Super Mario Brothers Special had with inescapable rooms. Such rooms are the antithesis of a Mario game, and, unlike FM21/SMB2J/FSP/TLL, it was not an exercise in testing the skills of the player, rather, it was needlessly punishing a player, not unlike the PAL/NTSB-U versions of the Minus World in Super Mario Brothers. However, unlike that game, THIS game had intentionally made such things happen, whereas the other game forced such things upon people, and, in technicality, Game Genie codes make it possible for the Japanese Minus Worlds to appear in Super Mario Brothers, so even PAL and NTSB-U players did not miss out on the action. Third, because of the actions of the previous reason, Nintendo and Hudson parted ways in regards to the PC-88, and Hudson should have been grateful that Nintendo did not do worse and exiled them from the NES/FDS, Game Boy/Game Boy Color, SNES/NSFC, and other Nintendo platforms outright. I hate the rooms that are in this game that are inescapable, as well as the trap rooms that I had mentioned in Super Mario Brothers Special, as they are pointless and counterproductive, as well as d i c k moves that were made by people that were not being aware that they were being d i c k s, with all of the fiery passion of the inner core of a blue-white dwarf star. (I have to continue this comment in another post, as it warrants one now).
(This post is a continuation of my previous post). The mini-map idea has been proven to work, yes, even with modern ROM hacks of the original Metroid, and it honestly would not be that hard to design one in the game. Now if even The Legend of Zelda has them, which, by the way, was made two years prior to this game (and, ironically enough, in a pretty beefy information display/HUD of its own on top of the screen), then this game can certainly have one, if not at least an option where a button can show up to have a map in this game. I also owned the OG Metroid, as well as its sequel, and I hated them not having maps. I could draw the maps onto graph paper, but, to be honest, that is a lot of effort that is needless when the technology of a video game that has been made proves that such technology is indeed possible, feasible, and able to be accomplished on such video game systems. Thankfully, Nintendo saw fit to correct those oversights in their remakes of Metroid: Zero Mission and Metroid: Return of Samus. Also, contrary to what you might think, no, I am not judging this game by modern standards, as I have proven many retro standards that have proven the feasibility of such things for other similarly powerful video game systems around the time that this game was made in my earlier comments. Even ASCII art made dungeon crawlers had maps, as well as mini-maps, and they were made for even less powerful systems than the PC-88...let that sink in a bit. Finally, I am saying what I am saying because I not only know the limitations of the PC-88, but that, like an old car, it can also have those limitations overridden, and games like this one honestly need that mindset. Moreover, mentalities like that are precisely why the retro homebrew video game community exists. People love the challenge to overcome the limitations of classic video game consoles. Sometimes, it even pays off really well, like Micro Mages, or Pier Solar and the Great Architects, as good examples of overcoming limitations for video game systems. The NEC PC-88 honestly is no different in such regards.
I assume that 5¼-inch floppy disks are more common in Japan because they aren't that common in the US as far as I know. I say this because you seem to have a lot of them. Using multiple for game saves. New old stock 3½ inch floppy disks seem to be a bit more common to find here in the US.
In general I'd say it was about the same in Japan and the U.S. There were PCs in the U.S. that used 5inch disks. 5inch disks were more common in the '80s and 3.5 in the '90s. That's why there's a lot more old stock of 3.5 inch disks in both Japan and the U.S. Because they were in common use more recently. It actually isn't that easy at all to find old stock 5inch disks here in Japan, and I usually buy them used (which are also kind of hard to find for a decent price). But it is true that Japan still had a few PC series left even in the early 90's that used 5inch disks: The X68000, and 5inch PC-98 models. And to further complicate things, 5inch disks are not all the same. PC-88 needs "2D" format 5inch disks. You can't reformat the "2HD" 5inch disks that the PC-98 and X68000 use to 2D. So you also have to be careful about what kind of 5inch disks you buy.
Haha. It's no big deal at all. People back then were used to making quick changes to their BIOS/dip settings. And it's really quick and easy to do on later PC-88 models like mine.
That is Hitoshi Sakimoto, who later worked for Quest and did music for Magical Chase, Ogre Battle, as well as work on FFXII and many others. He didn't work on The Scheme. The last guy in the video is Hideaki Saito, credited as "God Saito" in The Scheme.
The game looks great for what it was, but had like every annoying mechanic you could find on a game, from invisible paths, room loops, flashing lights, dead ends like ET, etc
Nah, cause I don't have one... and I like to use real hardware. Probably not going to get one either. There are still a lifetime's worth of games to cover for the plain old PC-8801. :)
Fun Fact, this was not the last time that Yuzo Koshiro had worked on a Metroidvania, as he also worked on the OST to Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, alongside Michiru Yamane, who also worked on the recent Bloodstained franchise, as well as the JRPG franchise that was called Wild Arms.
Wild Arms had such good music!! I played it on the PS1 a long long time ago. Found an exploit in the beginning you could win a stat point at the fair by winning a race so I did that over and over again making the whole game trivial lol
Unmarked fantasy walls and infinite corridors were just a right of passage for those of us who grew up with this era of gaming. They're right up there with teleporter mazes.
LOL, the term "Right of Passage" is a funny inadvertent pun, since you had the right to pass through those cryptic-as-hell invisible walls and such back then. Normally I was capable of discerning the invisible wall trope after discovering that was a thing when playing NES games as early as age six in the early '90's, but that inconspicuous grey wall part in the "Wanderers from Super Scheme" in the video, along with most of that game, would have made me rage quit before figuring out most of it's crypticness!
Are you talking about the ending of NES Renegade? I always do like 5 or 6 rooms then give up.
Teleporter mazes... Ugh. You just gave me a Phantasy Star II flashback.
Teleporter maze is up to par with pitch-black dark zones and turntable/spinning traps, which all of them pretty much originates from Wizardry for computer games.
As I got older, I just want to speed run everything. But looking at hindsight I enjoyed “exploring” secret walls and thinking “I bet my friends didn’t figure this part out”. Yeah, we were pretty dorky like that. 😆
Damn that cover art is dope. The graphics remind me of Thexder and Sorcerian in a good way. I would have loved this game back in the day.
More Yuzo Koshiro is always a treat!
So basically, this is a Yuzo Koshiro album with a game attached to It lol
Seems a lot of people think of it that way, yes. The soundtrack keeps getting re-released. It's more famous than the game it goes with. Kind of a shame since the game is actually pretty good once you get used to it. I actually enjoyed my second playthrough more than my first.
It still blows my mind how many amazing games are out there that I never heard of. This is an awesome video and I appreciate coverage of these things I had no idea existed. I have a wild nostalgia for seeing the Ancient logo pop up before a games title and seeing the further backstory into where this all came from is like a treat for the old gamer in me. Thank you very much for this video.
So, I'm not a gatekeeper by any means... but I genuinely think there's something meaningful to gain from playing older games. The amount of hyper-specific engine limitations that have to be designed around, as well as the style of game design, is just... super cool. I'm so in love with older game. I respect the hell out of older games. I would never say that modern games aren't on par in any way - they're obviously above and beyond, and do incredible things, but overall, they feel... way more soul-less. Modern games just don't feel like they were made by people having fun making passion projects, instead made by people trying their best to make a "good product".... and I guess I'd rather play something someone had fun making.
The modern AAA industry is why I rarely ever enjoy any AAA game that releases and stick to indie games or even going back and playing old titles from the 90's/2000's (sans difficulty getting stuff working well on modern systems). Even Starfield which just came out, one of the most hyped games, is soulless garbage with dreadful optimization.
I do hope there's something like a game's crash again. Excessive monetization and woke/political/etc agendas ontop of the soulless factory farm nature of modern games is ruining the entire industry.
@jessicastoker8932 I definitely agree about the hardware limitations thing. Some of the things being done in modern platformers is absolutely amazing, but folks need to understand that a lot of this is made so much easier due to the tools available to modern game developers, as well as the basically non-existent hardware limitations. Overall that's an awesome thing since it frees game and level designers to focus on fun game design. Not everyone can (or even should) appreciate how much harder game design was when having to work within very strict hardware/memory limitations, but people ought to at least be aware that this was a thing when looking at old games and saying, "Why didn't they just make it x way instead!"
@@BasementBrothers Here are my only issues with what you bring up (I mostly agree with and appreciate your response, btw): if modern tools are so much better, then why does it take longer, cost more, and require more hours - to even make simple "retro" games today, compared to back then? I understand modern tools are absolutely supposed to be easier/better to use, but this has always greatly confused me. Back in the day, a SINGLE developer would port Mortal Kombat 2 from the Arcade Cabinet machine code, over to an SNES. One person. And they'd do it in less than 4 months typically. Now? Now you'd have a team of a dozen devs at M2 or some other port-heavy studio port forward something like a Street Fighter 2 collection, with all the version of SF2, and not only would it take them well over a year, it would cost nearly five times as much even with inflation calculated, and it would require somehow 50 hour average a week from EVERY dev on the team. I just don't understand what the hell is going on now that wasn't going on back then when it comes to that one aspect.
As for no longer have limitations, I also think modern triple-A devs use that as a crutch, not as a means of spreading their wings. "Hey, it was hard to try and make Halo 3 as big and open as it was. We had to use a lot of neat tricks to make the game look as pretty as it was (for the time), running as well as it did, with that limited hardware. We had to cut space-ships in half off in the distance so only the side facing your perspective was loaded in, we had to cull lots of foliage from a certain distance, and we developed a system for dropping the resolution of something the closer you got to it, but raising the resolution the further off it was, while also dumbing down the texture quality the further off it was, but boosting the texture quality the closer up you were. We made the hardware sing with all these tricks!" "And what do you do now?" "Oh, we said to hell with all that and just render it as-is. Fuck it. If it looks good, it looks good. We're not trying anymore."
@jessicastoker8932 I don't really have much comment on the issue of how many people and resources it takes to make modern "retro" games vs games back then. All I know is that Mortal Kombat 2 was definitely not ported to the SNES by one person. Here are the credits for the SNES version of the game: www.mobygames.com/game/600/mortal-kombat-ii/credits/snes/
There were certainly quick ports to Gameboy and stuff like that I heard of done by one guy (or mostly one guy). Atari 2600 days were really when it only took one person sometimes to make a game. Most decent platformers on the NES and other systems had a small team of developers (just like The Scheme). I haven't really noticed how many people it takes to make a modern retro game, but I can definitely understand why a modern AAA game takes a ton of people to make.
But overall, it really isn't my concern as long as the games are fun and the prices are right. Thanks for the comment.
That spirit is alive and well on the indie side of things.
I'm truly a fam of channels like this that explore foreign or obscure consoles such as these. It allows me to peer into a time I would've otherwise never known. There's something fascinating about taking a deep dive into a part of video game history that clearly inspired many titles I know and love. Thank you for taking the time to play and review these classic treasures.
"An '80s Metroidvania you haven't played" -- Speak for yourself! ;) Though it's actually surprising that I have, since my experience with the PC-88 is admittedly really limited -- but when I bought Dragon Slayer Chronicle for Windows many, many moons ago, I ordered it directly from Bothtec on the very first day it was made available, and I found a bonus disc in the box when it arrived on my doorstep: All About Bothtec. Much like Dragon Slayer Chronicle, All About Bothtec was a compilation of a bunch of classic Bothtec games wrapped in pre-configured emulators and bundled onto a single DVD with a front-end menu to select which game you wanted to play, ready to go on any Windows machine. And The Scheme was among its offerings, which made me REALLY happy -- I think I was happier to see that than the Dragon Slayer games I'd specifically ordered, in fact!
So yeah, to date, The Scheme is the only PC-88 game I've ever played from start to finish, and I really, really enjoyed it -- especially the soundtrack! "I'll Save You All My Justice" is still one of my favorite 8-bit music tracks of all time -- what an amazing track to start on! Really gets you pumped for some action.
I'm super jealous that you actually managed to get your hands on a physical copy of the game, and can't even imagine how much you paid for it -- especially in such absolutely pristine-looking condition! That's gotta be worth its weight in gold, at least.
Awesome to see this one reviewed here, as more people definitely need to AT LEAST know about this game's incredible soundtrack, if not the game itself.
Also cool to learn a bit more about Wanderers From Super Scheme, which I'd only heard of in name before. Looks... frustrating, but worth checking out nonetheless.
Thanks for another great video!
Yeah. :) I knew there would be more than a few viewers like you who had definitely played the game! Please accept my apologies for my clickbait thumbnail. Thanks for watching as always! :)
The real Scheme was the scheme to make the friends we made along the way.
It is quickly becoming a Sunday tradition for me to pour a bit of whiskey and watch these Basement Brothers videos when they go up. Cheers!
I wish he uploaded every sunday! Ha.
You did everything right on that thumbnail
This game looks great and the soundtrack is very good. It's a shame it was not released on more platforms. You're spot on about the 80s gamers figuring out the invisible wall and floor sections. Those were everywhere in Metroid, Simon's Quest and other games. It was expected for players to know every corner of the world to beat a game back then. Thanks for the video!
Talented Koshiro siblings
Incredibly nice video about a game I never expected to even exist. The Yuzo Koshiro bit had me smirking, especially with the font of "The Scheme" and how the "S" looks when near the "T", just saying. Koshiro's also been uploading his various old and new tracks for the soundboards over the years he opened his youtube channel, I wanna see if he's uploaded any of the Scheme's ost. Funny you even put Dark Schneider as an example, since the art for the box and Mars seems to take some hints from Hagiwara's earlier artstyle for the clothes and armour, even for the monsters. Yet the face and hair have a "Legend of the Galactic Heroes" feel to it.
Many of the games you cover are games I'm somewhat familiar with but without knowledge of Japanese I feel like I'm missing a lot. While I've played The Scheme before I never got far and didn't even know the story. Even the main character's name is new to me. I can't say enough how grateful I am for PC-X8 Paradise. Between Basement Bros and Jeremy Parish's Works series I feel like I'm finally understanding the context of many games from the 80s and 90s.
I've heard of The Scheme from an old friend, and heard one of its tracks, but had no idea about anything else until this video. The game honestly feels more fantasy than sci-fi, like the original Phantasy Star, but that's not a bad thing in my mind. Definitely got that classic Metroid feel. And jeez, that doujin game feels like a wacky ROM hack. All in all, this is really cool!
Also I love that whiskey has become a running gag, heheh
Yuzo Koshiro is an elder god
This was wonderful. Thank you. I hope I never run out of videos to watch from you.
wow. I had no idea about wanderers from super scheme. very cool.
this is was a fantastic watch for me. i’ve already watched almost all of your PC-88 videos.
excellent work ❤
Yey, another fascinating video about japanese only video game and this is even some "protometroidvania" with Yuzo Koshiro music. Neat. As always i love package from back then. I think it was suprising when you bought a paper box with the game and inside you have another box but aluminum one. And i like how smoothly this powerups bounce from the ground. And more whiskey to you, but don't be drunk xD
Time to crack open a cold one and enjoy another beautiful day in PC-88 Paradise...
The Sheme - одна из самых популярных и раскрученных игр для PC-88
В любом упоминании NEC PC-88 всплывает эта игра. Но дальше почему-то люди не хотят интересоваться это великолепной системой, а зря, так как эксклюзивных и неповторимых игр очень и очень много.
Музыка, графика и сам геймплей очень достойные.
Как всегда видос великолепный.
Groovy.
"And that's it for the game." And the review started and I was sad that the video was over. Oh wait! There's 10 more minutes! Today was a good day.
dope video as always guys.
Ok, now that I finished the game, I can watch the whole video! Thanks a lot for the links provided, it has been very helpful to check out the music and mapping out the game! This game has been a fun time!
This game could really use a modern remake, like Yuzo Koshiro's Act Raiser
I'd rather see a remake of Actraiser 2 👍
Nah, they'd turn it into a different game altogether. Re-release it in all its glory for everyone to rediscover.
@@SpookyDollhouse I like the habit lately of doing a 1:1 remake where the old graphics can be switched with the new by a button press (Halo Collection, Wonder Boy, Tomb Raider 1-2-3)
@@jojojoma3026 That's not remaking anything tho, but I get what you mean.
zoomer-tier comment
That soundtrack is banger after banger
Fantastic vídeo! I waited you to show The Scheme because the status it has.
You are an international institution my friend! I'm about to double up my Patreon subscription with a TH-cam gimmick too!
One more great video about a game I had no idea existed 😂. Thank you!
For some reason I was thinking about this channel at the supermarket today when they blasted Dancing Hero from Oginome Yoko 🎵
Man you make the best videos I love seeing these games i would otherwise never know about
I remember hearing about this one from the likes of EGG and their youtube channel, it looked interesting! may have to see about getting it running via retroarch. (hopefully I'll have better luck than I did starting the fan-translation of Farland Story... :( )
That is fun history, and i really appreciate you presenting this classic in an enjoyable and clean way;
**Basement Brothers: a life hack you might not have considered would be to use cling wrap and a fine point dry erase marker (that will allow you to writer in the "incomplete map area" WITHOUT ruining the patina - so to speak)**
Keep it up!
Thanks. I'd rather just use the complete maps available online rather than drawing my own. I don't have THAT much time on my hands. haha. :)
Falcom really lucked out finding Yuzo
Ahhh, yeah! Been waiting for The Scheme to show up. It's a game I've heard a good bit about, but haven't seen a real good deep dive in English yet. Better yet, we've got Basement Bros. quality and Mr. Jakes meme drops. Thanks, yo!
Bro what a fantastic wholesome video, congrats and thanks for this
Love these Sunday videos
Planet Lair has pink air, all the trees are red. No one ever dies there, no one has a head!
Let's write this song together! @_@
@@TrevinAdams B-52's Planet Claire
@@TMS9918A I get it but we can still make it a PC-88 cover... ~_^
Oh shit, I didn't know he composed for the first two Ys games. I gotta check that series out some time.
This looks so cool, i would love a remake of this
Always wondered about The Scheme since I learned about it.
Now I know. Thanks for the video!
Love this game, thanks for making this episode
This feels like a game that badly needs a port for modern systems -- both in an authentic "as it was" version and an "arranged mode" faithful to the original but with modern amenities like save states and accessibility options. Given how rare the original is I'd definitely buy a port for PS5 or Switch if a developer like M2 was behind it.
I miss the old school box art
I've been wondering about this game since I saw the title screen but been hard pressed to find details. THanks!
One thing about Yuzo Koshiro I find amazing is he speaks absolutely perfect English yet still decides to use a translator in public appearances.
The surface themes are phenomenal.
There's actually another Slayers character named after a brand of alchohol. Kanzaka said that he named Seigram after Seagram's
Fascinating game for it's time. Great video.
The sequel's bosses looked insane
This game looks like it would be right at home on the NES, weird it never got a port.
Maybe too little space on cartridges?
I never pc 88 but coming from this era the amazing boxes and manuals on the game with artworks gave it so much extra value❤
youre a legend jakes. i'd watch a video on eggy
This made me think.
If cheap candy can get a metal container, why did expensive video games get cardboard.
And why the up-charge for a "Steelbook"
Great video, I didn't know this game. The box art is so cool
Wanderers from Super Scheme looks more up my alley but the music for both games sounds great.
THC for the vid, really really like love the game, wow what a gem!! Muchas Gracias
What a nice game. Nice review too.
I like the music in this game if that's what is playing in the background 🍻
BTW, Koshiro-san announced an arrange soundtrack cd for this at TGS this weekend to be released by Superdeluxe games on 2023.11.23
Correction, while well-known, the most notable work of Yuzo Koshiro is this little diddy called Inumore Koroneraiser.
Appreciate that history before the game itself.
Wow a lost Adol twin! Makes me wanna try the game.
He looks kind of like Lion-o, or whatever his name was, the Thundercat
The Scheme walked so that Symphony of the night could run.
Since the sfx for picking up new items in Ys2 is allegedly inspired from Metroid, this might have been the natural progression for Yuzo Koshiro to take.
I can't believe how much Metroid took from this!
Metroid is older.
@@BasementBrothersThat makes sense then, thanks!
When you said "Hatching an evil scheme" I totally expected an MST3K reference.
The evil king is named Hardy... I'm not sure whether to make a reference to greasy food (like the restaurant Hardees) or to suggest the Hellstones should've been called the Hardy Boys.
Yeah sometimes Mars Lair looks like Adol, but the image you show at 9:20 kinda looks like a red-haired Choujin Locke/Locke the Superman to me.
So does Wanderers From Super Scheme have a story?
Yeah, I agree. That art style does look like Choujin Locke. The hair, particularly.
Wanderers from Super Scheme definitely does not have a story!
Thanks for watching.
@@BasementBrothers I'm gonna make up a plotline for Wanderers From Super Scheme:
In the not too distant future, the cows from the Earthworm Jim games have decided to invade other games with their machines. Mars Lair is one of the few survivors, taking up the throwing stars of a fallen ally in order to avenge them against the Cow Lords!
Great Stuff as always!
PC 8801 was full of hidden gems.
Another game I heard often is Alantia a Space Harrier clone with a fantasy setting.
The thing about Atlantia is that is isn't for the regular PC-8801, but rather the 16-bit PC-88VA. It won't run on my tower PC-8801MC shown in this video, for instance. So in Atlantia you'll see graphics that wouldn't be possible on the "regular" PC-88. It's certainly an interesting game, though. That one and a couple others make me almost want to buy a PC-88VA someday... or maybe just play the PC-98 version instead I guess.
Awesome video. Never heard of this game either!
I really miss the old days of when a person bought a game & it came with quality cases +/or instruction manual, game & possibly other goodies. Now you get a crappy plastic cover, "okay" massive box-art & the game 😔. I know it's inevitable but, I'm gonna miss physical releases when they go the way of the dodo 😩
Yet another game I know the box art but next to nothing else! Pretty cool box art I have to say
Yeah. Two commenters now said they love the box art. Are you referring to the art shown on the actual box for the game? The art in my thumbnail for the video is from the Soundboard II version CD, and was drawn by Kazuhiko Tsuzuki, who used to work at Falcom and did the art for Romancia, Dragonslayer IV, and others.
@@BasementBrothers ya was referring to the art on the box. Definitely something I’ve seen but now know what game its from
That thumbnail you got is also pretty neat! Big fan of of concept art. I can see why some people would think of Adol with the plate mail like armour
Adol... in spaaaace!
It looks like they had underlings do the startup menu. I heard that was a thing.
Possibly! I think the main problem is they were trying to be fancy and go for a modern point-and-click sort of interface with pop-up windows and everything - which is not fun to use without a mouse. It would have been far more user-friendly if they had just stuck with something more conventional for the time like a console-like selection menu or number-based keyboard menu... but they had to get fancy. They could have at least allowed the player to use the gamepad.
Gotta love that Tetris boss.
Thank you for this video.
This game should be ported or remade for current consoles.
I love the art of the rock monster on the cover. If I had a copy, I wouldn't want to let it go.
That double-disk arrangement makes a degree of sense. I think. If it's the pairing that matters, the order by which they pair is, for the greater consideration, logically irrelevant.
You can't use the keyboard on a PC game to enter your name? *blink* Wow. I know we've come a long way with UI, but that's just... It feels like a half-baked idea that didn't get cut out, dragging a mouse about a GUI with the numpad...
*Backup disks FTW! They're very good at making room for others. Just wish they didn't make truck noises whenever they moved about.
Most games only bother to make one of the two disks bootable, which needs to be inserted in drive 1. The bootable segment of the disk takes up what was a non-trivial amount of disk space back then, which is the reason most games didn't do it the way The Scheme does.
@@BasementBrothers Sure, just wondering how they justified it, since it's unusual. I suppose it offers a redundancy?
I guess so, or maybe they just wanted to be different. I don't know...
A metroidvania where you play as a guy named Marth who looks like Adol? I'm down.
It tells you to play in the slower 4 MHZ mode so it can slow down and realize if it's loading from Red or Blue.
It's science.
Ah, you have to turn around before you get hit so the bounce gets you on the ledge, like Ninja Gaiden. Some of the robots in Wanderers look like Strider bots. Super awesome game and great channel. The more I learn, wow, I wonder why new indie games are so bad. They are slow and boring. But these old games at 4 hz are fast as hell and fun.
The gameplay reminds me of Predator on the NES
Cool video for a cool game.
You’ve got an awesome voice. Consider cartoon voice acting.
Este juego es fabuloso es un Metroid y Simons Quest y faxanadu y su música es calidad ...
Did Nobuo-san get a little inspiration for the intro to the FFVII battle theme from this (around @20:21)? :)
I think that this game could have used several tweaks, as well as honestly deserves NES/FDS and Sega Master System ports, and maybe some SNES/NSFC and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive ones as well. I despise the insanely huge information bar, which should honestly have not been any larger than the ones that were for Castlevania I and III, and yet it literally takes up half of the screen, which is inexcusable. Also, a Mini Map that could have been selected by a button would have been more useful for this game. I also think that more Life Packs could have been put into the game, and more types of attacks could have been in the game, like some powerful heat-seeking energy blasts, for instance, or a shot that was like the Plasma Gun in the Star Wars Trilogy on the SNES/NSFC, or even the super powerful blasts that Mega/Rock Man X uses whenever he has a fully armored version of himself in the Mega/Rock Man X franchise. I would have liked to have seen something that gave people a hint as to where people could go, like, say, have some prisoners that you can rescue after each boss fight, and they could have revealed more about the game, as well as what to do next, which is kind of like visiting the old monks in the NES/FDS version of Rygar. The death animations are too simplistic for the main character, as well as the enemies, in the game, and they honestly could have been better in the game. I also hate the cheap trap areas that suck out your life, which is akin to the equally horrid decision of having trap rooms in Super Mario Brothers Special...such things are unnecessary, cheap, cruel, lazy, dishonest, disreputable, and, in all honesty, a trolling d
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k move, and things like that should not be in video games for ANY reason. Also, when you get a different gun/energy blast, then it SHOULD be more powerful instead of merely having different colors and animation...like, what exactly is the point of getting those things if they are not more powerful weapons? Collecting them is not enough, to be honest, and people should not have to settle for that in this game. I hate saying things like this to three very influential video game people, but they honestly should have thought of those things, and ditto for the rest of the team of this company. I could probably find more things to nitpick at, given enough time, but I have a life that is outside of the internet.
Certainly there are a lot of ways the game could be improved. The weapons system is especially minimal.
Still, I think you are misunderstanding a number of things here. For one, the game only has two real weapon upgrades: one that increases your rate of fire, and the other which is basically turbo fire. That's it. That's why there is a leveling system. The only way to really make your weapon significantly more powerful is to level up.
And the huge HUD is definitely not "inexcusable". The reason for it is pretty obvious. Very few PC-88 games actually use most of the screen for the gameplay area. The larger the area dedicated to gameplay is, the more system-intensive things are going to become.
The dead-end with the spikes is actually not that terrible. I did accidentally fall into once, and it was honestly not that big an inconvenience. You can just die and go back to the checkpoint and do it again. Not a big deal compared to what many games of the area would sometimes put the player through.
Same with the mini map idea. Very few games at the time actually had such conveniences, and I'm sure game designers of the time would have thought that would make the game too easy. Overall, you are judging the game by modern standards. What you want is a modern remake of the game, not the 1988 original for a primitive 8-bit computer.
But I can tell you paid close attention to the video and found it thought-provoking, so thank you very much for watching!
@@BasementBrothers , and is it necessarily wrong for wanting a remake/remaster of this game, and especially a. given the fact that this is a game that was literally one of the first video games that Yuzo Koshiro ever made, b. that this game was also one of the first Metroidvania type games, c. that this person contributed to Castlevania/Demon Castle Dracula, as well as other video game franchises, and d. that this game is most likely a very hard one to find, even among PC-88 games? Any one of those reasons are why this game needs a remake/remaster for modern video game consoles, smartphones, tablets, PCs, and Macs.
Now as for your claims of misunderstanding things here, I misunderstood nothing, and I also stand by what I said. Now as for the weapons system, sure, that kind of system would be absolutely fine for a side-scrolling shooter game in the vein of something like a competitor to Thunder Force, Gradius/Nemesis, R-Type, Darius, etc., but as for a game like this, it is a poor fit. Moreover, if anything, a Turbo Fire option should have either been a special obtained item that worked with all weapons or made as an option on the Options menu in the game, that is, IF this game even HAS one. I also know that the weapons system is more like the broken one that is in the vast majority of the Darius games, rather than the sensible one that is in the Gradius/Nemesis/Parodius/Otomedius franchises, and, if such a system must be in the game, then it should be a hybrid of how Metroid III/3/Super Metroid does weapons upgrades in that game, along with the instant upgrades that Darius Twin had for that game, as well as the previously mentioned Gradius/Nemesis/Parodius/Otomedius franchises did for those games. Also, you said that this game has upgrades for both faster rates of fire and a turbo fire upgrade, am I right? Why not just simplify the process and make the game give you as faster rate of fire alongside the turbo fire, or just give people the turbo fire option outright? Having both things in the game is honestly, as well as needlessly, redundant, and, I hate saying this about Yuzo Koshiro, and especially, considering that this is one of his first ever video games, but it is an exercise in bad video game design in this regard.
I also know that the PC-88 is capable of accomplishing such feats as I claimed, but people are too intimidated, and/or cowardly, to pull it off for that particular system. I also saw SNES/NSFC and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive video games literally doing such things to some games, namely, the oversized information displays/HUDs, when we all know full well that they are capable of handling full screen action, and I also know that the PC-88 can do likewise without being super choppy like an early 2000s videophone display screen, thus between the facts of what I know that people can do for those other systems, let alone the NES/FDS, the SMS/Mark III, the Game Boy/Game Boy Color, the GBA, and the Game Gear, I stand by my words of such things being inexcusable, and especially considering that people have worked wonders on those video game systems, not just in the past, but also now in the present. Maybe some additional software and hardware might be needed in order to have it happen, but if people did that in the past for other video game systems, as well as right now in the modern era for such systems, then it is time for the PC-88 to have it happen to that system as well.
Now as for your claim about the dead end with the spikes not being terrible, let me tell you precisely why you are wrong with that claim as well. First of all, people, even Japanese people, generally do not want to die in an inescapable room in a video game that clearly has no need for one. Sure, a game like Sweet Home or Maniac Mansion could get away with something like that, you know, if the people that made such games to have such pitfalls, but it is inexcusable for a Metroidvania to have such a room, and it is also a needlessly d
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k move to have in a game, aside from having a good reason to have such a room in the game, which this game failed to meet with its criteria. Second, I am also saying this based upon an equally evil concept that Super Mario Brothers Special had with inescapable rooms. Such rooms are the antithesis of a Mario game, and, unlike FM21/SMB2J/FSP/TLL, it was not an exercise in testing the skills of the player, rather, it was needlessly punishing a player, not unlike the PAL/NTSB-U versions of the Minus World in Super Mario Brothers. However, unlike that game, THIS game had intentionally made such things happen, whereas the other game forced such things upon people, and, in technicality, Game Genie codes make it possible for the Japanese Minus Worlds to appear in Super Mario Brothers, so even PAL and NTSB-U players did not miss out on the action. Third, because of the actions of the previous reason, Nintendo and Hudson parted ways in regards to the PC-88, and Hudson should have been grateful that Nintendo did not do worse and exiled them from the NES/FDS, Game Boy/Game Boy Color, SNES/NSFC, and other Nintendo platforms outright. I hate the rooms that are in this game that are inescapable, as well as the trap rooms that I had mentioned in Super Mario Brothers Special, as they are pointless and counterproductive, as well as d
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s, with all of the fiery passion of the inner core of a blue-white dwarf star.
(I have to continue this comment in another post, as it warrants one now).
(This post is a continuation of my previous post).
The mini-map idea has been proven to work, yes, even with modern ROM hacks of the original Metroid, and it honestly would not be that hard to design one in the game. Now if even The Legend of Zelda has them, which, by the way, was made two years prior to this game (and, ironically enough, in a pretty beefy information display/HUD of its own on top of the screen), then this game can certainly have one, if not at least an option where a button can show up to have a map in this game. I also owned the OG Metroid, as well as its sequel, and I hated them not having maps. I could draw the maps onto graph paper, but, to be honest, that is a lot of effort that is needless when the technology of a video game that has been made proves that such technology is indeed possible, feasible, and able to be accomplished on such video game systems. Thankfully, Nintendo saw fit to correct those oversights in their remakes of Metroid: Zero Mission and Metroid: Return of Samus.
Also, contrary to what you might think, no, I am not judging this game by modern standards, as I have proven many retro standards that have proven the feasibility of such things for other similarly powerful video game systems around the time that this game was made in my earlier comments. Even ASCII art made dungeon crawlers had maps, as well as mini-maps, and they were made for even less powerful systems than the PC-88...let that sink in a bit. Finally, I am saying what I am saying because I not only know the limitations of the PC-88, but that, like an old car, it can also have those limitations overridden, and games like this one honestly need that mindset. Moreover, mentalities like that are precisely why the retro homebrew video game community exists. People love the challenge to overcome the limitations of classic video game consoles. Sometimes, it even pays off really well, like Micro Mages, or Pier Solar and the Great Architects, as good examples of overcoming limitations for video game systems. The NEC PC-88 honestly is no different in such regards.
I assume that 5¼-inch floppy disks are more common in Japan because they aren't that common in the US as far as I know. I say this because you seem to have a lot of them. Using multiple for game saves. New old stock 3½ inch floppy disks seem to be a bit more common to find here in the US.
In general I'd say it was about the same in Japan and the U.S. There were PCs in the U.S. that used 5inch disks.
5inch disks were more common in the '80s and 3.5 in the '90s. That's why there's a lot more old stock of 3.5 inch disks in both Japan and the U.S. Because they were in common use more recently. It actually isn't that easy at all to find old stock 5inch disks here in Japan, and I usually buy them used (which are also kind of hard to find for a decent price).
But it is true that Japan still had a few PC series left even in the early 90's that used 5inch disks: The X68000, and 5inch PC-98 models.
And to further complicate things, 5inch disks are not all the same. PC-88 needs "2D" format 5inch disks. You can't reformat the "2HD" 5inch disks that the PC-98 and X68000 use to 2D. So you also have to be careful about what kind of 5inch disks you buy.
Nice little game :)
Imagine if a newer game required you to modify your BIOS. I love old man games but I don't miss needing to do stuff like that.
Haha. It's no big deal at all. People back then were used to making quick changes to their BIOS/dip settings. And it's really quick and easy to do on later PC-88 models like mine.
Wait, is that Hitoshi Sakamoto (in the black shirt) in the scenes with Yuzo Koshiro, the PC-88 tower and Onitama?
That is Hitoshi Sakimoto, who later worked for Quest and did music for Magical Chase, Ogre Battle, as well as work on FFXII and many others. He didn't work on The Scheme. The last guy in the video is Hideaki Saito, credited as "God Saito" in The Scheme.
Could this be the first ever steelbook game?
Seems like it’s a game omake for an album and it’s also good
Sera que zuyo pudo recuperar los derechos de la musica de este juego?
I tend to wonder if Earth Worm Jim has anything to do with this. Thank you.
The game looks great for what it was, but had like every annoying mechanic you could find on a game, from invisible paths, room loops, flashing lights, dead ends like ET, etc
Any videos planned for the PC-88VA platform?
Nah, cause I don't have one... and I like to use real hardware. Probably not going to get one either. There are still a lifetime's worth of games to cover for the plain old PC-8801. :)
@@BasementBrothersthats fair!