Thread by @obskyr

I recently found something unbelievable: Project EGG.
Virtual Console for vintage Japanese PC games!? A treasure trove of PC-98, MSX, X68000, etc., all digital, and there's a huge sale!
amusement-center.com/project/egg/
Why does no one talk about this!?
(Highlights 'n' info thread! 1/?)

The monetization model is a bit odd, but hey: a ¥550 (~€4; ~$5) monthly subscription gives you ~130 free games and access to buying paid games. You keep your games after canceling. Here's how to start!
amusement-center.com/user/month-new…
amusement-center.com/member/mypage.…
amusement-center.com/member/stoppro…
(2/?)

The games, manuals, and music on Project EGG are *almost* DRM-free – by which I mean they have “DRM”, but just barely. I wrote some tools to make things easier for you. (There's also some miscellaneous info there!) gist.github.com/obskyr/c99a89d…
(3/?)

Castlevania – the 1986 original – had a contemporaneous MSX version! It's a strange, unfair flip-screen platformer with somewhat nonlinear stages – and one heck of a historical relic. (4/?)
amusement-center.com/project/egg/cg…

In 1995, Compile (yes, the company behind Puyo Puyo – they were one of the biggest companies on classic Japanese PCs!) made Battle Girl Saori, a short and *beautiful* visual novel / puzzle RPG with a magical girl theme. And bangin' tunes! It's free! (5/?)
amusement-center.com/project/egg/cg…

Popful Mail, the marvelous culmination of Falcom's action RPG platformers, is famous in the West for its Sega CD version – but it was originally on Japanese vintage PCs! And it's more than a little bit different! You betcha I'm playing this. (6/?)
amusement-center.com/project/egg/cg…

Dragon Slayer, the fir– no, second (as I recently uncovered: medium.com/@obskyr/the-se…) action RPG ever, is available to buy officially! In 2020, 36 years after its 1984 release! What in the heck!? This is a wonderful world we live in!!!
amusement-center.com/project/egg/cg… (7/?)

This PC-98 game, Wolf Team's supernatural mystery Tokyo Twilight Busters, is one of the most beautiful video games I have ever seen. And extremely unique: it's a graphic adventure / survival / RPG hybrid with real-time elements!? I insta-bought it.
amusement-center.com/project/egg/cg… (8/?)

Y'all know Avenging Spirit, the arcade / GB game about a ghost who possesses enemies' bodies? What if I told you Bothtec did it on PC in 1986 – 5 years earlier – with the metroidvania-ish RELICS!? PC-88 version's free (PC-98 one's better, but paid)!
amusement-center.com/project/egg/cg… (9/?)

Hydlide has a poor reputation in the West, but is beloved in Japan. I suspect that's because the English version was released… half a decade too late! In reality, Hydlide was one of the first action RPGs ever: without Hydlide, no Zelda!
amusement-center.com/project/egg/cg… (10/?)

I think a lot of people first learned of the MSX via the indie game La-Mulana – and that was directly inspired by Konami's magnificently mysterious 1987 metroidvania Maze of Galious. And you can buy it in the year of our lord! Heck yes!
amusement-center.com/project/egg/cg… (11/?)

You might know of Portopia, the game that kicked off the Japanese graphical adventure genre… but how about its sequel, Fade into Okhotsk: The Hokkaido Serial Murders? It was quite the hit, but is unknown in the West! I'm so excited to play it!!!
amusement-center.com/project/egg/cg… (12/?)

Did y'all know that Gainax published video games? And that there's a PC-98 game based on Gunbuster, Cybernetic Hi-School Ⅲ? And that it's… uh… *squints to confirm what I'm reading* an erotic quiz game? …I dunno about this one.
amusement-center.com/project/egg/cg… (13/?)

Flappy, baby!!! You know this? In 1983 (before Boulder Dash), dB-Soft looked at Dig Dug and said “what if this ‘top-down movement, but boulders with gravity’ gameplay was a puzzle game?”
An influential classic, underrecognized in the West!
amusement-center.com/project/egg/cg… (14/?)