You spend most of your time in conversations with other characters, with a meter that fills or depletes based on your dialogue choices. It's a mystery starring a young musician trying to clear himself of a murder, with a banger of a concert intro. It was the predecessor to the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive's famous chip, and gave musicians the power to write music that still sounds fantastic in 2019. The computer didn't have hardware to support sprites or even scrolling, but developers worked within those limitations to make games that took advantage of the PC's strengths: High resolution monitors, storage space, and, starting with the 1985 model PC-88 MkII SR, a Yamaha sound chip that could do FM synthesis. "You have to understand that PC-88 is not made for gaming," Redon says. Like many of the PC games of the era, Jesus is a text-heavy adventure, largely made up of static images and loads of dialogue. It's more or less a playable manga about an Alien-esque monster loose in the station. Jesus, you may be surprised to learn, is the name of an orbital space laboratory where this adventure game is set. I've tried to imagine how my child self would've reacted to a Japanese game called Jesus 2 on a Wal-mart shelf, but the boldness and mystery of it probably would have shattered my mind. Then again, maybe not.Įnix did keep releasing PC games through 1993, including one Redon highlights, Misty Blue, in 1990, and the wonderfully named Jesus 2 in 1991. Even if we don't make a lot of money, okay.' From the beginning we're here to follow the creators, help them to market their dreams.'" This is the platform we think is the best for making the games we want to make.' And some developers, some publishing company investors, say no, it takes too much time. "So they tell Enix: 'We want to make games for the PC. Misty Blue, 1990 - But Misty Blue was still, mainly, a visual novel. "It's a publishing company, but it's a collective of game creators. Many other PC developers abandoned ship for the more lucrative Famicom. No limits in memory-just increase the number of floppy disks. "The games could even cost as much as a Dragon Quest. "Do you think they will invest time and money to make any more PC games that will sell only 10,000 copies?" Redon asks. It's a smash hit, and Dragon Quest 2 is even bigger, selling millions, when most successful PC games sold only tens of thousands of copies.Īnd this is where Enix's PC history really gets interesting. Enix's collective of hobbyists included Yuji Horii and Koichi Nakamura, who teamed up to make a Famicom RPG: Dragon Quest. Out of hundreds of entries Enix picked the best to release on the PC-88 and competing PCs, quickly gaining a reputation for quality. Enix started as a publisher, and decided to round up talent by offering a $5,000 prize to hobbyist programmers who submitted quality games.
Let's buy a PC, a new car, a new TV." Enthusiast magazines popped up for PCs, promoting and reviewing software and games, which were typically made in months on tiny budgets. "Most houses were rich in the '80s in Japan, in the bubble," Redon says.