A History of Korean Gaming

셜록 호움즈 1탄 (Sherlock Holmes 1) - MSX (December 1987)

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Clover's first 'proper' project after some straightforward bootleg releases of known MSX games, Sherlock Holmes, was advertised as an Adventure game with Korean screentext. It is likely this was translated and ported from a foreign Sherlock Holmes game. Icoms Consulting Detective series comes to mind, but as the game is not preserved, this remains a speculation.

헬로우 강시 (Hello Kangshi) - MSX, SPC-1000, SPC-1500 (June 20 1989)

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This game is very mysterious. It is only known through old advertisements by Clover (it is confirmed that it was released, though), and there doesn't seem to be any previous game with the same title this could be a port of. Hello Kangshi is actually the title of a series of kid's horror/martial arts movies from Hong Kong (Haalo Goengsi in Cantonese), so it could be the port of a really obscure chinese game. However, the series was also very popular in Korea, so it might as well be an original game, or just a renamed Japanese game to cash in with the name.

플로팅 (Plotting) - MSX (1989)

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This one also only appeared in several advertisements together with Hello Kangshi, but this time the original game is well known. The screenshot to the right shows the Commodore 64 version by US Gold.

홍길동 (Hong Gildong) / Hong Kil Dong - MSX, Master System (April 1990)

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An autoscrolling run 'n gun based on the traditional Korean story Hong Gildong-jeon. The titular hero has to fight ghosts and demons. On his way to the boss (which he fights after mounting a cloud) of each stage he can also open treasure chests, which contain several powerups. The game consists of only three stages.

This game offers a good opportunity to take a brief look at the original tale, as it's only the first of many games that are based off or reference it. Hong Gildong is the son of a Yangban, the Korean gentry during the Joseon era (1392 to 1910). Yet he finds himself at the lower end of the caste system because his mother was a mere concubine. So despite being extraordinarily gifted, he has no perspective of social advancement, and isn't even allowed to refer to his father as such. Because he is marked as cursed, his family attempts to have him killed, but he flees and becomes kind of a Korean Robin Hood. At the end of several adventures, he conquers the demon-infested island Yuldo and establishes a nation without social discrimination. The tale is popularly attributed to the 16./17. century scholar Heo Gyun, which is not entirely undisputed among historians of Korean literature.

The game has been originally advertised by a company called Saeron System, but at least the Master System version was published by Clover in the end. Who actually developed the game is not known. The game is extremely rare, despite it being a giveaway at magazine raffles for years.

보글보글 (Boggle Boggle) / Bubble Bobble - MSX, Master System (1990)

Apparently every Korean MSX developer needed their own rendition of Bubble Bobble. Clover's variant is one of the best: It comes with 100 all new levels, which can even be selected individually.

Boggle Boggle (MSX)

뉴테트리스 (New Tetris) - MSX, Master System (1990)

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Clover's version of Tetris. The "New" in the title refers to the game's two player mode this version was advertised for, which obviously means that the game was first available without it, but there's no proof of a previous version by Clover themselves.

Super 수왕기 (Super Suwanggi) - MSX (1990)

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The Chinese characters in the title screen read Jyuouki in Japanese, which is the original title of Sega's Altered Beast. So of course this is a port to that game, made by Jang Sungmok. It's unknown if the "Super" actually indicates some special features, or if it's all just marketing, though.

비지란테 (Vigilante) - MSX (1990)

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Yet another port, the single plane brawler Vigilante is much better known than the company's earlier games. The game features three stages with plenty of enemy types and bosses, but the graphics are pretty bad even for the MSX1. It is also quite unfair, as the supposedly easiest and most common enemy type is extremely dangerous in this version. There's about one single frame to hit them, or else these mooks strangle the player for a good portion if not all of the life bar.

Vigilante (Master System

슈퍼 브라더스 월드 1 (Super Bros. World 1) - MSX (June 1991)

MSX Cover

As Zemina went into another direction with part 3 of their Super Boy series, Clover filled the void for an MSX Super Mario Bros. 3 clone. The game features the intro and level map from the original, but the levels are composed differently, with new enemy types, like flying Goomba bombers (probably meant to replace the mini-Goomba throwing ones). It's also significantly shorter than the original. A series of hacks of this game titled Super Bioman, with new levels and some exchanged graphics were sold by Hello Soft and Segye-ro Electronics.

Sky Fighter (스카이 화이터) - MSX (1990)

Sky Fighter is one of Three games only known by a single screenshot in late Clover advertisements. The title screen makes it look like a shooter, but since no other images exist, it's impossible to be 100% certain.

Super Puzzle (슈퍼퍼즐) - MSX (1990)

Agi Gongnyong (아기공룡) - MSX (1990)

Super Puzzle and Agi Gongnyong ("Baby Dinosaur") are two other previously unmentioned titles that are listed together with Sky Fighter in a Clover advertisement in MyCom 8/1990. The same month Clover published an advertisement in Game World, which shows two screenshot next to Sky Fighter's title screen, but since both look vaguely like puzzle games and feature characters that could be described as "baby dinosaur" only with a lot of goodwill, it's hard to tell which game is which.