hg101

Video Interview with Roy Ozaki and Kouichi Yotsui

From the Untold History of Japanese Game Developers DVD. An interview with Mitchell (Buster Bros.) president Roy Ozaki and Strider creator Koichi Yotsui, where they discuss some of Yotsui's games, including Suzuki Bakuhatsu and Nostalgia 1907.

Bugaboo: The Flea

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/bugaboo/bugaboo.htm

Many of the genre structures and core concepts of how video games work that are taken for granted today took shape during the time after the American Video Game Crash of 1983. Bugaboo (The Flea), developed in Spain in 1983, is both unique and addictive thanks to the way in which the titular character navigates the game world.

And w...

December 2015 patron supported

Thank you so much for the support this month!

Last Mission

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/lastmission/lastmission.htm

This early Data East game is a take on overhead shooters like Thunder Force, Vanguard II, and Time Pilot ’84.

Atomic Runner Chelnov

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/chelnov/chelnov.htm

One of Data East's most popular games (at least in Japan), Atomic Runner Chelnov stars a Russian superhero granted powers by a nuclear accident. Unique from other side-scrolling platformers, Chelnov sprints through each stage automatically, making it a forebearer to the modern infinite runner (though the levels aren't actually infinite). Most kn...

Patreon Exclusive: Bonus Content from the HG101 200 Best Video Games Book

Happy Holidays everyone! Unfortunately I didn't have the time to put together a Holiday Special book like I did last year, since I've been working on other future books. (We'll be revealing the next one, about Taito Arcade games, pretty soon, but I'm giving the 200 Best Games book some time to shine.) But I've still prepared something that might be interesting.

We worked on the 200 Best Games book from between January 2015 and September 2015, and the list of games went through a bunch of c...

Elf Bowling

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/kusoge/kusoge-elfbowling.htm

The Flash game sensation (read as: fad) was popular enough to be ported to the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS, apparently believing that people would pay for stuff they could get for free online.

The Grinch (Game Boy Color)

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/grinch/grinch.htm

There were a few games released as a tie-in for the terrifying Jim Carrey movie rendition of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, but the Game Boy is a surprisingly decent stealth-action game in the vein of Bonanza Bros.

Earthbound (The Halloween Hack)

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/halloweenhack/halloweenhack.htm

Before Toby Fox made Undertale, he made The Halloween Hack for Earthbound, a dark take on Nintendo's SNES classic.

Undertale

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/undertale/undertale.htm

The Best Game of All Time, according to this year's GameFAQs poll. We felt it was a little too early to make that call (it got a runner-up spot in our 200 Best Games book), but this charming, offbeat RPG is still worthy of anyone's attention.

The Tale of Alltynex

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/taleofalltynex/taleofalltynex.htm

A trilogy of doujin shoot-em-ups, roughly based on Taito's Rayforce.

Level 22: Gary's Misadventures

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/level22/level22.htm

Sneak past your boss as a low level office drone in this funny but brutal stealth game.

Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/dangeroushighschoolgirls/dangeroushighschoolgirls.htm

More high school girl shenanigans - this one's a board game with several mini games featuring RPG elements, using an early-20th-century setting.

Sam & Max

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/samandmax/samandmax.htm

The Freelance Police hit the road and save the world beyond time and space in the devil's playhouse. This was originally published in the Guide to Classic Adventure Games, but is now finally available on site.

Cherry Tree High

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/cherrytreehigh/cherrytreehigh.htm

A Japanese adventure game about building up a high school comedy club, along with its non-interactive sequel.

Your Weekly Kusoge: Jinmu Denshou

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/kusoge/jinmudensho/kusoge-jinmudensho.htm

Wolf Team creates a unique spin on the Space Harrier formula by letting you run back and forth instead of just straight forward. It doesn't really work.

Kohan

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/kohan/kohan.htm

A trilogy of narrative-focus real time strategy games, which brought various interesting changes for the formula that sadly made less of an impact than they should have.

Paperbacks now available for the 200 Best Video Games Book

Here are the Amazon links!

http://amzn.to/1m40EvI - US Amazon: Color

http://amzn.to/1OG2Jt2 - US Amazon: B&W

http://amzn.to/1PMlFYo - US Amazon: Kindle

They should be filtering into the Canadian, European, and British Amazon sites very shortly too, if they're not there already.<...

Lords of Midnight

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/lordsofmidnight/lordsofmidnight.htm

Developed by Mike Singleton, the Lords of Midnight series consists of three games - The Lords of Midnight, Doomdark's Revenge and Lords of Midnight: The Citadel - and are incredibly unique blends of strategy and adventure.

One Piece Mansion

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/onepiecemansion/onepiecemansion.htm

A quirky "tenant management" sim for the PS1 from Capcom, from back when they weren't afraid to experiment.

Trampoline Terror!

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/trampolineterror/trampolineterror.htm

Bounce around in this odd little Genesis action-puzzler from Masaya.

500 Word Indies: Love

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/500wordindies/500wordindies-love.htm

This simple looking platformer has a substantial bit of depth to it.

PDF/Kindle versions of The 200 Best Video Games of All Time book now available!

The completed PDF/Kindle versions of the 200 Best Video Games book are now available for download!

MOBI File:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mrn9g2sz564wrr4/HG101%20Presents%20-%20The%20200%20Best%20Video%20Games%20of%20All%20Time.mobi?dl=0

PDF File:

2015-12-06 19:04:05 +0000 UTC View Post

Battle Bull

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/battlebull/battlebull.htm

A cute little Bomberman-type game for the original Game Boy, where you control a horned tank.

November 2015 patron supported

Thank you so much for the support this month!

Uplink

A hacking simulator from Introversion that looks like a playable version of a movie like WarGames or Sneakers.

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/uplink/uplink.htm

Preview: The 200 Best Video Games of All Time

Hey everyone! Hope all of you guys in the US are enjoying the holiday weekend! Outside of the usual food gorging/family stuff, I've been putting the final touches on the 200 Best Video Games of All Time. It's ALMOST ready, I'm just doing some final tweaks to the digital version. The dimensions of a typical tablet are a bit different than the 7x10 size of the paperback, so I usually create a separate edition for digital distribution that re-centers the design so it looks a little better. This is ...

A Visit to the Abandoned Hudson R&D Laboratory in Sapporo

From the Untold History of Japanese Game Developers DVD. A visit to the abandoned Hudson R&D laboratory on the outskirts of Sapporo.

Captain Tomaday

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/captaintomaday/captaintomaday.htm

A goofy TwinBee-esque shooter from Visco, starring an anthropomorphic tomato as a superhero.

Time Travel to 1999: Konami World

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/konamiworld/frames.html

I found some old files on a CD-R from Konami World, a website I started back in 1999 and never remotely finished, nor made public. So, I've uploaded it here. Remember the internet circa the late 90s! FRAMES WARNING.