pc-8801
Latest
Kojima reveals how Snatcher almost stank
Metal Gear Solid's "codec frequency on the box" gag wasn't the first time Hideo Kojima thought about integrating a game's packaging with the contents of the game. Kojima tweeted the story (and Andriasang translated) of how he originally thought to cover the disk for the PC-8801 version of the cyberpunk adventure game Snatcher with a paint that smelled like blood. The idea was that as you played, the disk would get warm, and eventually your computer would "release the smell of the crime scene." Or, to think of it another way, the scent of blood would gently waft out of your computer, freaking you the hell out. He now calls it the "Dead Smell Project." In a more sensible plan, Kojima also wanted to use the heat of the computer to hide a message on the disk, only visible when it was warm. [Image: JunkerHQ]
Virtually Overlooked: Punch Ball Mario Bros./Mario Bros. Special
When companies other than Nintendo produce and publish games in Nintendo franchises, the results are invariably freaky. In the worst case, the world ends up with something like Hotel Mario and the CD-I Zelda games: unplayable, amateurish games that would actually harm the console they appeared on if said console were not already doomed to flame out. The best case doesn't actually exist for outside-published games, so we'll say it's when Nintendo publishes a franchise game developed by someone else and it puts a fresh spin on an existing series, like Metroid Prime or Super Mario RPG.The Hudson computer games, like Super Mario Bros. Special, go somewhere in the middle of that ad hoc scale. They don't irrevocably blemish the franchises in which they're made (I still can't think of Zelda, meanwhile, without WONDERING WHAT'S FOR DINNER), but neither are they good enough to contain any ideas that need following up.
Virtually Overlooked: Super Mario Bros. Special
We've missed out on a lot of gaming culture in the U.S. due to the fact that Japanese computer systems never caught on here. We didn't see the sequel to Metal Gear until 2006, because there was no MSX. We didn't see the superior X68000 Castlevania remake until it appeared on the PlayStation. Falcom's Ys made its first appearance on the NEC PC-8801, as did countless RPGs and arcade ports that we'll never see.Perhaps most notably, the lack of support for the PC-8801 outside Japan means that we missed the sequel to Super Mario Bros. No, not The Lost Levels. Even lost-er.
