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A History of Korean Gaming

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Table of Contents

HG101 Index

HQ Team / 드림웨어 Dreamware
Founded: October 1992
Status: assimilated by Joyon
Key People: :
Team Leader
Website: www.hqteam.co.kr (offline)

한국 라이센싱 Korea Licensing / 조이온 Joyon / 조이토토 Joytoto
Founded: September 14th, 1996 (Korea Licensing)
December 24th, 1999 (Gamania Korea)
Status: active
Key People: :
Chairman Joyon
:
CEO Joyon
Website: www.joyon.co.kr (offline)
www.olivegame.com

인티즌 Intizen / 엔도어즈 nDoors
Founded: September 21st, 1999
Status: active
Key People: Park Taeung:
CEO (1999-2000)
Gong Byeongho:
CEO (2000-2001)
:
CEO (July 9th, 2001-2003)
:
CEO (July 1st, 2003-2006)
:
CEO (2006-present)
:
Game Director
Website: www.intizen.com (offline)
www.ndoors.com

Profile:

In October 1992, four high school friends (team leader Kim Taegon, Yi Jehyeong, Yi Hyeongjin and Jeong Jongpil) got together to form HQ Team and started working on their first game, Knight Master. But the fatherland called, and thus they just uploaded a very early demo of their unfinished RPG and left for their two years of military duty1.

Upon their return, they resumed their enterprise, but a new inspiration left a deep impact on them: Warcraft. Thus they set out to make the first real-time strategy game set in the history of Korea.2 Lacking the manpower and business experience for such a project, they pitched it to Trigger Soft, who helped out with the graphics and took care of the production side of things3. Afterwards HQ Team decided to take things into their own hands, and their next title Imjinrok marked the beginning of one of the most popular game series in Korea4.

Despite their success, the financial situation remained insecure, and thus the team (by now renamed Dreamware5) eventually joined up with Gamania Korea in July 20006.

Gamania Korea was founded as a joint-venture of the venerable Taiwanese company that was founded in 1990 as Full Soft and the localization studio and Korea Licensing (the Gamania Korea of today is a new company and not directly related7). The brothers Jo Seongsam and Jo Seongyong who ran Korea licensing and Gamania Korea had first founded a PC systems and floppy disk import company named Saem Jeonja in 1988. It had made first game publishing experience in a cooperation with Ssangyong in 1992, but went bankrupt in 1995, resulting in the founding of Korea Licensing, which localized foreign games for the Korean market, but also sold Korean game publishing rights to the US (Korea Licensing was renamed in 2003 to Multi Plus Enterprise)8.

Gamania Korea was on a course of expansion in 2000, taking in not only Dreamware, but also Caiz Studio, developer of the mecha action game Gears9. In August 2001, it severed its ties to Gamania and was renamed to JoyOn. After Kim Taegon and HQ Team left in 200310, the company worked on several more online games, but didn't get to publish any of them. On March 7th, 2006, JoyOn fusioned with the lottery portal JoyToto11 (which had previously renamed itself from Lotototo12), gave up in-house development and settled as a online game web portal only.

In the meantime Kim Taegon and his crew worked on their next title, Goonzu, with the web portal provider Intizen as their publishing partner13. That partnership worked out well enough for them to become the in-house team of Intizen, which soon specialized in games alone and renamed itself to nDoors14.

Ndoors also took in Coong Entertainment in January 2006, the first Korean developer of PSP software (English language trainers, though, no games)15. In May 2010, the company became an acquisition target itself, and since then operates as a subsidiary of Nexon16.

The game news portal ThisIsGame.com declared Kim Taegon the Game Developer of the Year 200717.


Games:

충무공전 (Chung Mugong-jeon) / War Diary - PC-DOS (June 1996)


War Diary


Korean cover

There is no description for this game yet. If you happen to own/have played it and want to contribute, please get in touch on the forums.



War Diary

임진록 (Imjin-rok) / Seven Years War - PC-DOS (August 1997)

임진록 영웅전쟁 (Imjin-rok: Yeongung Jeonjaeng) - Windows (January 1999)


Imjin-rok


European cover

There is no description for this game yet. If you happen to own/have played it and want to contribute, please get in touch on the forums.


Korean cover

Expansion cover


Imjin-rok

이스트 (East) - Windows (September 1998)


East


Cover

There is no description for this game yet. If you happen to own/have played it and want to contribute, please get in touch on the forums.



East

임진록2 (Imjin-rok 2) / Seven Years War 2 - Windows (January 20th, 2000)

임진록2+: 조선의 반격 (Imjin-rok 2+: Joseon-ui Ban'gyeok) - Windows (April 28th, 2001)


Imjin-rok 2

Imjin-rok 2

Imjin-rok 2 Plus


Imjin-rok 2 artwork

There is no description for this game yet. If you happen to own/have played it and want to contribute, please get in touch on the forums.


Imjin-rok 2 Plus cover



Imjin-rok 2

Imjin-rok 2

Imjin-rok 2 Plus

천년의 신화 (Cheonnyeon-ui Sinhwa) / Legend of Millenium / Myth of Millenium - Windows (August 3rd, 2000)


Myth of Millenium

Myth of Millenium


Illustration

There is no description for this game yet. If you happen to own/have played it and want to contribute, please get in touch on the forums.



Myth of Millenium

Myth of Millenium

짱구는 못말려 4: 부리부리왕국의비밀 (Jjanggu-neun Monmallyeo 4: Buri Buri Wanggug-ui Bimil) / Crayon Shin-chan 4 - Windows (March 2001)


Crayon Shin-chan 4

Crayon Shin-chan 4


Cover

There is no description for this game yet. If you happen to own/have played it and want to contribute, please get in touch on the forums.



Crayon Shin-chan 4

Crayon Shin-chan 4

타자로매니아 (Tazaro Mania) - Windows (September 6th, 2001)


Tazaro Mania

There is no description for this game yet. If you happen to own/have played it and want to contribute, please get in touch on the forums.



Tazaro Mania

기어즈 (Gears) - Windows (September 19th, 2001)


Gears

Gears


Cover

Caiz Studio, "openbeta" demo 2001.09.14, 2002.02.28 in japan Sunsoft



Gears

Gears

거상 (Geosang) / Great Merchant - Windows (April 8th, 2002 [open beta])


Great Merchant

Great Merchant

Great Merchant


Artwork

There is no description for this game yet. If you happen to own/have played it and want to contribute, please get in touch on the forums.



Great Merchant

Great Merchant

Great Merchant

천년의 신화 2 ~화랑의 혼~ (Cheon-nyeon-ui Sinhwa 2: Hwarang-ui Hon) / Myth of Millenium 2 - Windows (August 21st, 2003)


Myth of Millenium 2

Myth of Millenium 2


Artwork

There is no description for this game yet. If you happen to own/have played it and want to contribute, please get in touch on the forums.



Myth of Millenium 2

Myth of Millenium 2

해상왕 장보고 (Haesang-wang Jang Bogo) / The Lord of the Sea - Windows (September 30th, 2003)


The Lord of the Sea

The Lord of the Sea


Artwork

There is no description for this game yet. If you happen to own/have played it and want to contribute, please get in touch on the forums.



The Lord of the Sea

The Lord of the Sea

군주 (Goonzu) - Windows (January 10th, 2004 [open beta]; August 2004)

군주Special (Goonzu Special) - Windows (June 15th, 2006 [open beta])


Goonzu

Goonzu


Goonzu Special poster

There is no description for this game yet. If you happen to own/have played it and want to contribute, please get in touch on the forums.


Goonzu Mobile

Goonzu Mobile


Goonzu

Goonzu

타임앤테일즈 (Time and Tales) - Windows (March 30th, 2006 [open beta]; July 27th, 2006)


Time 'n Tales

Time 'n Tales

Time 'n Tales


Poster

There is no description for this game yet. If you happen to own/have played it and want to contribute, please get in touch on the forums.


Time 'n Tales Mobile



Time 'n Tales

Time 'n Tales

Time 'n Tales

쿵파 (Koong!Pa) - Windows (July 5th, 2007 [open beta])


Koong!Pa

Koong!Pa


Poster

There is no description for this game yet. If you happen to own/have played it and want to contribute, please get in touch on the forums.



Koong!Pa

Koong!Pa

아틀란티카 (Atlantica) - Windows (January 9th, 2008 [open beta]; January 28th, 2008)


Atlantica

Atlantica

Atlantica


Poster

There is no description for this game yet. If you happen to own/have played it and want to contribute, please get in touch on the forums.


Artwork



Atlantica

Atlantica

Atlantica

불멸 온라인 (Bulmyeol Online) - Windows (December 21st, 2010 [open beta])


Bulmyeol Online

Bulmyeol Online


Poster

There is no description for this game yet. If you happen to own/have played it and want to contribute, please get in touch on the forums.



Bulmyeol Online

Bulmyeol Online

삼국지를 품다 (Samgukji-reul Pumda) - Windows (TBA)


Samgukji-reul Pumda

Samgukji-reul Pumda


Wallpaper

There is no description for this game yet. If you happen to own/have played it and want to contribute, please get in touch on the forums.



Samgukji-reul Pumda

Samgukji-reul Pumda

Unreleased Titles:

임진록~동토의 여명~ (Imjin-rok: Dongto-ui Yeomyeong) (2002-2003)

거상2 (Geosang 2) / Great Merchant 2 (2006-2007)

References
1. PC Champ 4/1998, page 205
2. http://www.gameabout.com/news/view.ga?news_id=9401
3. http://www.gamespot.co.kr/ArticleView.asp?artice_id=00000010014303
4. http://www.gamespot.co.kr/ArticleView.asp?artice_id=00000010014302
5. www.khgames.co.kr/gamestoday/week_11/main_content.html?code=w_special&idx=1761
6. http://www.gamespot.co.kr/ArticleView.asp?artice_id=00000010014301 and http://www.gamemeca.com/news/news_view.html?seq=5&ymd=20000630
7. http://www.gamejob.co.kr/List_GI/GI_Info_Read.asp?C_ID=gama
8. http://www.khgames.co.kr/gday/gh_week_content.htm?code=w_interview&idx=132
9. http://web.archive.org/web/20030623081159/http://company.joyon.com/Korean/history.asp
10. http://m2.dt.co.kr/contents.html?article_no=2003041602012568671001
11. http://www.jobkorea.co.kr/List_GI/GI_Info_Read.asp?C_ID=lototo2
12. http://www.newswire.co.kr/newsRead.php?no=129766
13. http://www.bcpark.net/bbs/154450
14. http://www.ndoors.com/company/history.aspx
15. http://ddongvida.blog.me/10001039883
16. http://www.ndoors.com/company/history.aspx
17. http://www.thisisgame.com/board/view.php?id=203548&category=103


A History of Korean Gaming

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Table of Contents

HG101 Index