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Post by catface on Mar 12, 2019 6:27:09 GMT
I was exploring the net, as you do, not really in search of anything. I don't know how I originally came across it, but I eventually stumbled upon the website of an RPG Maker 2000 developer by the name of kimagure8490: In the game section, they have a bunch of games available to download right from the website, but below that are links to a plethora of different geocities.jp domains containing a hundred games each, which lead to even more similar links. I tried to organize each working site I found by year: I'm no Japanese Internet expert, but from what I can guess, there was an entire RPG Maker scene sprouting from 2channel during its earlier years, specifically its "news for VIP" boards. This is why on each website, there are abundant references to "VIP QUALITY" and other 2channel memes on both the websites and in the games themselves. On top of this, around 2007 they started organizing contests for the games, and the top one hundred games were put up for download and ranked accordingly. The language barrier means no English-speaking users are going to be able to enjoy them fully, and most of the games are of rather subpar quality, but I found it interesting.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 12, 2019 9:10:28 GMT
It always amused me that the Japanese Geocities sites survived while the western ones didn't. You'd think that such a progress-obsessed country would get rid of all traces of Web 1.0 era, but thankfully it's just the opposite. This is a unique, great find!
I think it's generally a good idea to browse the old Japanese internet to learn more about Japan's relatively recent history and culture. There's still a lot of info about retro jpop music in it, for example.
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Post by catface on Mar 16, 2019 7:17:26 GMT
I already saved all the games I could get out of the sites to my hard drive; somewhat cumbersome due to the bizarre web design but nothing I'm not used to. I'll probably also upload the whole collection to the Internet Archive or something. On the topic of Japan being "progress-obsessed", to my understanding there's a deeper philosophy to that - something about how people in Japan are encouraged to not keep things and let things of the past fade away peacefully. It's why Japanese media is so notoriously hard to archive, because people just don't hold onto their old media, and even if they do, they often keep it to themselves as a way of letting it fade away along with themselves. It's unfortunate, but at least there's a will in other parts of the world to preserve such things.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2019 11:25:34 GMT
Well, they do hold on to traditions when it comes to certain aspects of their life (yakuza, for instance, are well-known as keepers of the old ways, even though it's probably not the most pleasant example)... I do agree that they are the "fluid" type, as they are often described as a unique culture that is always ready to adopt the ways of another nations. Sort of "translucent", but in a very special way. And maybe the frantic pace of life simply doesn't let them deal with their past, leading to this paradox. Japan is all about enigmatic paradoxes!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 1, 2019 22:40:07 GMT
Better make sure you don't loose those backups of those games cause the Japanese GeoCities service shut down yesterday.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 2, 2019 8:40:36 GMT
γγΎγ£γ
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Post by neo_juice on Apr 5, 2019 7:48:05 GMT
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Post by catface on Apr 14, 2019 18:14:24 GMT
No. Most of the games I found were much, much older than the ones displayed there. Thanks for giving me my new mission to find and archive the games on this YouTube channel, though.
Also, rest in peace, GeoCities Japan. It was home to some of the strangest websites I've ever found.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 15, 2019 16:14:29 GMT
i remember finding a similar link wayy ago that just lead to a website with piles of japanese RPG maker games. shame geocities went down. these types of old japanese internet games/pc98 and pc88 games are a total mystery to me, i dont know a LICK of japanese so all i have to orient myself on what is going on in them are random GIFs from imageboards. they give me an inkling to learn japanese so i could play em but im not sure if the games are actually as interesting as they are AESTHETIc or if its just a facade for more anime tiddies. they ARE aesthetic as HECK tho
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Post by yorkshire fan on Apr 18, 2019 6:00:13 GMT
sucks those links aren't working anymore. only 1 seems to work. i love hidden stuff like this but
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Post by neo_juice on May 27, 2019 16:52:03 GMT
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Post by nl on Jun 6, 2019 2:45:54 GMT
RIP
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Post by catface on Jun 16, 2019 4:42:28 GMT
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