Popular games published by company ASCII Corporation
Japanese RPG. Two editions exist, one for the MSX1 on cartridge, and one for the MSX2 on 3.5" diskette. The seal of the Dark Lord Terarin has been broken and Terarin has been unleashed into the world again. She has stolen the Golden Seal and opened pandora's box, unleashing evil creatures into the world. A young hero is tasked by a king to stop Terarin. He must step into footsteps of Iason, a shepherd that once accidentally unleashed Terarin and fought to seal the Dark Lord again. The hero must enlist the aid of three companions, Guy the warrior, Medi the amazon and Treo the pirate (called Turo in the manual) and find the three keys to Terarin's lair. To face the Dark Lord, they must find the mystical weapons and armor of old and then defeat Terarin and seal the Dark Lord from the world.
Gameplay consists of completing successive missions and overall cockpit performance affects gameplay: going above and beyond the call of duty results in medals, promotions in rank are awarded at regular intervals, and success or failure on certain critical missions decides the player's plot progress, "winning" or "losing".
The objective of the game is to destroy a multilayered wall of bricks at the top the screen. Upon hitting the bricks with a ball which bounces off of a paddle at the bottom of the screen the bricks are destroyed. If the player misses the ball with his horizontally moveable paddle the ball is lost. After loosing five balls the game is over.
Several levels await your super-tough Commando in this arcade conversion. Armed with only a standard rifle and a few grenades you must take on hordes of enemies. Some are wandering around in the open, while others have picked out hiding places, which you must approach from certain angles. Trees, rivers and bridges create a varied combat-like terrain and must be incorporated into your thinking. Extra grenades can be collected, and will definitely be required, as they allow you to kill from distance and thus avoid some enemy shots.
Sokoban ("warehouse keeper") is a is a classic puzzle game created in 1981 by Hiroyuki Imabayashi, and published in 1982 by Thinking Rabbit, a software house based in Takarazuka, Japan. In 1984 the ASCII Corporation published a version produced by Khaled Bentebal. It was the basis of numerous clones in the later years. It is set in a warehouse. On each level, the player must push crates (from square to square) to get them onto designated spots; once each crate is on a marked spot, the level is complete. Crates can only be pushed one at a time (so two crates next to each other cannot be pushed together), and cannot be pulled--so it's possible to get a crate stuck in a corner, where it cannot be retrieved! By the last levels, you must plan 40 steps in advance.
The story of the game is that the sacred rainbow has shattered into seven pieces and it's up to Ardy to obtain them all again. Whoever collects all seven pieces will receive one wish. An evil king named Visconti has already gotten one piece and is searching for the others. To this end he sends out various creatures and henchmen such as Beecroft, Catry and others. These creatures form the opponents for Ardy during the game. Ardy is assisted by friends along the way like the elder (unknown name), Nina, and a mysterious adventurer named Don Jacoby.
One of the most popular entries in ASCII's RPG Maker series, RPG Maker 2000 was largely responsible for popularizing the use of RPG creation software outside of Japan.
In the tradition of F-Zero and Wipeout, AeroGauge is a sci-fi racer that pits you and a friend in a fast paced race to the finish through futuristic tracks and among detailed craft, acting more like planes than racers as they skim many metres above the ground. Play solo through the grand prix and compete against the AI enemy, or beat down your best time in the time trial mode. Each track features a number of twists and turns, whether it be racing upside down or vertically, with a number of obstacles in your path. There's no weapons, though, it's just you and the open road ahead.
1942 is a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up made by Capcom that was released for the arcade in 1984. The goal is to reach Tokyo and destroy the entire Japanese air fleet. The player pilots a plane dubbed the "Super Ace" . The player has to shoot down enemy planes; to avoid enemy fire, the player can perform a roll or "loop-the-loop". During the game the player may collect a series of power-ups, one of them allowing the plane to be escorted by two other smaller fighters in a Tip Tow formation.
The Mad Overlord Trebor was once only power-mad, but went off the deep end after he acquired a magical amulet of immense power, only to have it stolen from him by his nemesis, the evil archmage Werdna. Werdna, not quite sure how to use the amulet properly, accidentally causes an earthquake which creates a ten-level dungeon beneath Trebor's castle. To avoid looking silly, Werdna declares the dungeon to be the new lair for him and his monster hordes. Trebor, not to be outdone, declares the labyrinth his new Proving Grounds where adventurers must prove themselves for membership in his elite honor guard, and incidentally retrieve his amulet in the process. The first Wizardry was one of the original dungeon-crawling role-playing games, and stands along with Ultima and Might & Magic as one of the defining staples of the genre. The player generates and control a party of up to six different adventurers, choosing from four races (humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes and hobbits), three alignments (good, neutral and evil), and four basic classes (fighter, priest, mage and thief). These can later evolve into elite classes (bishop: priest with mage spells; samurai: fighter with mage spells; lord: fighter with priest spells, and ninja: fighter with thief abilities) if they meet the necessary level requirements. After outfitting the party with basic weapons and armor, the player sends it into a 3D vector maze-like dungeon to fight monsters in turn-based combat and find treasure.
The object of the game is to navigate through Groken Castle to rescue Princess Margarita. The player can push certain objects throughout the game to accomplish progress. In some rooms, the prince can only advance to the next room by aligning cement blocks, Honey Jars, Candle Cakes, and Elevator Controlling Block.
Are you ready to take the next step into the world of Wizardry? A step so dangerous, the mere utterance of a spell can decimate the entire city of Llylgamyn. Knight of Diamonds is the Second Scenario in the Wizardry Master Series, the fantasy role-playing simulation for the Nintendo Entertainment System. In Wizardr Knight of Diamonds, only the bravest may venture through murky dungeons more dangerous than any ever encountered by earthly mortals. Only the most cunning may recover the magical Staff of Gailda and save the city of Llylgamyn.
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Sci fi/noir detective-themed FMV first-person adventure game released for the PlayStation and Saturn in 1996 (Japan only). The game stars time-travelling vampire private eye Raizo (the titular "Dracula Detective") who travels from his native 2238 to 1939 Nazi Germany in order to find a client's missing father.
Melfand Stories is an side scrolling brawler with a cutesy fantasy theme. The player can use their weapons or their magic, or a combination thereof, to fight their way through various fantasy monsters and other enemies while finding items to help them out. The game has four playable characters and allows for up to two players to play simultaneously. The characters include the youthful hero El, the brash swordsman Corse, the elven mage Lemin and the whip-wielding rogue Nora.
The game has a fairly standard plot of rescuing a princess from a castle, though the game itself was considered very large for the time. It also contains a map system similar to that of later Metroid and Castlevania games. The Castle was followed by the game Castle Excellent.
The Black Onyx is a role-playing game developed by Bullet Proof Software. It was released, among other consoles and computers, for the SG-1000 in 1987. It was the last SG-1000 game to be released in card form, and the last to be published by Sega, but it is currently unknown as to whether it was the last SG-1000 game. MSX and PC-8801 versions had been released in 1983 and 1984, respectively, meaning this version is unusually late. The game was followed by The Black Onyx II: Search For The Fire Crystal, which saw its original MSX release in 1984.
The player controls a space ship which is trapped in an area consisting of seven tunnels which are connected by a vertical shaft. Enemies are attacking the player from left and right and it is the objective of the player to destroy as many attackers as possible using the shaft. You can't, however, hover at one spot for too long since an invincible enemy will appear, forcing the player to change positions eventually.
A generation has passed since your band of adventurers reclaimed the Staff of Gnilda and the armor of the Knight of Diamonds, and the land has been at peace. But now nature itself seems to be attacking the land of Llylgamyn, as earthquakes and tidal waves ravage the land. The Sages believe the Orb of Scrying is the city's salvation, but it is guarded by the dragon L'kbreth. A band of explorers must once again venture forth in search of the Orb.
Ishido: The Way of Stones is a puzzle video game released in 1990 by Accolade and developed by Publishing International. It was designed by Michael Feinberg and programmed by Ian Gilman and Michael Sandige. Producer was Brad Fregger, and Brodie Lockard (the designer of the Shanghai computer game) contributed with graphics. "One misty spring morning in 1989, in the remote mountains of China's Han Shan province, a Mendicant monk of the Northern School of the White Crane branch of Taoism, walked silently out through the front gates of the Heavenly Peak Temple The monk carried a stone board, a set of seventy-two carved stone pieces, and an ancient scroll inscribed with brush and ink in elegant calligraphic script. He also carried with him a secret which had lain cloistered and hidden for thousands of years."
Captain Cosmo is an Action game which was released in Japan in 1984.
The fourth game in the Wizardry series, The Return of Werdna takes a decidedly different approach from all the games that preceded it. Instead of playing as a party of six player-generated characters, the player controls Werdna himself, the evil Archmage from the first game. It seems that after Werdna was defeated by the party of adventurers who stole his amulet, he was imprisoned at the bottom of his ten-level labyrinth in an eternal slumber to be tortured by nightmares for eternity. Although Werdna was supposed to sleep forever, somehow he has awakened, and now he is out for revenge. At the beginning of the game Werdna finds himself in a situation that is singularly unique for most arch-villains: he is stripped of his powers, trapped within his own former stronghold, and filled with the realization that the same traps and monsters he created to keep adventurers out now act as obstacles to his freedom. Werdna will slowly regain his magical powers as well as have the ability to summon helpful monsters to accompany him on his journey and aid him in combat. Unlike other role-playing games, no experience is awarded for defeating enemies. Instead, Werdna can only become stronger by searching for pentagrams found in the labyrinth. Accessing a new pentagram allows Werdna to summon stronger monsters and restore his health and spellcasting powers. Werdna will have to fight a variety of monsters and guardians, but many of the randomly appearing enemies in the game are parties of adventurers not unlike those who were controlled by the player in the previous three games. In addition, Werdna is being chased by the rather ticked-off ghost of his old enemy Trebor. The game features a somewhat tweaked version of the same engine and graphics used in the earlier installments of the series. The difficulty level has been increased due to the lack of an experience points system, which often leaves the player-controlled party underpowered. The labyrinth contains abundant traps and complex mazes. For obvious reasons it is no longer possible to import characters from the previous games. The game features three different endings: a good ending, an evil ending, and a special Grandmaster ending which is often considered to be the single most difficult task to achieve in the entire series.