A History of Korean Gaming

러너 (Runner) / 형사코비 (Inspector Coby) - IBM PC (1996)

After Guarder and Time on Target), Daekyo Computer worked on this side-scroller that resembles Elevator Action with two stories of a building on screen at any given time. The game was supposed to consist of six stages: Office Tower, White Piece Headquarters, Valley & Forest, Woodhouse (Sarah's hideout), Inside Train, Courthouse. White Piece was the enemy terrorist organization, Sarah the daughter of an assassinated lawyer and to be protected from said terrorists1.

Runner (IBM PC)

쓰리걸 (3 Girl) / Phantasy of Three Girl - IBM PC (1996)

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Another example of the ever popular "life simulation" genre, by SiEn Art.

전략세계농구 (Jeollyak Segye Nonggu) / World Basketball League - IBM PC (1996)

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This Basketball management simulation by Game Space underwent no less than two complete visual makeovers over the course of less than one year. In Summer 1996, the last version was reviewed as a complete game in PC Champ2, so apparently only the lack of a publisher stood between this and a release.

The game featured a lot of odd activities one wouldn't necessarily associate with basketball training, like paragliding, consulting an exorcist or visiting a karaoke bar.

아마게돈 (Armageddon) - 3DO (1996)

LG's 3DO adaption of the Armageddon animated movie was originally supposed to be developed by Ablex, one of the pioneers of Korean 3D games. The screenshots showed a surface-based 3rd person spaceship shooter in the style of Fury³ instead of the Wing Commander first person pseudo-3D style the final game adopted.

쥬피터 프로젝트 (Jupiter Project) - IBM PC (1996)

Jupiter Project (IBM PC)

A supposed science fiction 3D adventure game by Soft Action. All that is known about it are some vague rendered screens and a rough near-future space flight scenario description.

엑시스 (Axis) - IBM PC (1996)

Another 1st person science fiction adventure, this one was (not) made by the otherwise unknown company Sinnara Multi Tech. The game would have revolved around a mystery plot inside of an Egyptian pyramid3.

슈퍼 홍길동 96 (Super Hong Gildong 96) - IBM PC (1996)

Concept Art

The next announcement from the creators of LG's Hong Gildong game (who apparently had reformed as the independent Dolkkot Company) used the same traditional story as a base, but brought the medieval hero into a vaguely steampunk-like future setting. Although an adventure game, it was divided between six linear stages, of which at least the first two seemed pretty much fleshed out accordong to the previews4.

블루 아일랜드 Blue Island - IBM PC (1996-1997)

Korea Select Ware, a prolific publisher of video, audio and multimedia CD titles, announced no less than three games late in 1996, but among Danger Tank, Speed And Power and Blue Island, only the latter was ever shown. It would have been one of very few polygonal real-time 3D games in the prerender-dominated industry at the time. The declared goal was to bring the fun of Super Mario and Jumping Flash to the PC, with a projected release date for February 19975.

둘리 Dooly mockup - IBM PC (1996)

Early in the development of their Baby Dinosaur Dooly title, LG presented a number of screens, which despite clearly not showing actual game scenes were drawn with a typical game interface, showing extra lives, a life meter and a score. Needless to say, the final game looked nothing like it.

스콜피온 Scorpion - IBM PC, Windows (1996-1997)

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Scorpion was the second project of Yeonwoo Soft after Mutant DNA. A run-'n-gun with three playable charactrers and a cover system.

In an early 1997 Interview, the company stated: "We started making Scorpion in April '96, so we completed it in about 10 months,"6, implying that the game was practically finished.

운명의 결전 2 (Unmyeong-ui Gyeoljeon 2) / Fight of Destiny 2 - IBM PC (1996-1997)

Cover Artwork

The sequel to Blur Way seems to have been progressed furthest among Mirinae's unreleased titles, as it was already fully featured on their home page. The press text promised 15 full stages, and 200 different enemies7, big numbers for a traditional shoot-'em-up.

매직 (Magic) - IBM PC (1996)

RPG by Soft Action, a few sprite samples are all that is available about it.

Character Sprites

사우리안 Saurian - IBM PC (1996)

A puzzle game by Digital Dream, developers of the also unreleased Heroism. The game would have included "simulation elements", where solving the puzzle parts resulted in building cities and sending spaceships on missions, while the player character evolved in three growing stages8. Digital Dream claimed Saurian was in its final development phase. Unfortunately, there are no actual screenshots available, only target renders.

사가오브다크니스 (Saga of Darkness) / 다크니스 (Darkness 2) - IBM PC (1996)

After the lukewarm reception of their action RPG Darkness, Dot&Bit immediately announced the sequel, declaring the first game a mere introduction into the mechanics of the series. The focus of the concept art was the scantily-clad heroine, although other characters reappeared as well9. Screenshots were never shown.

다라시안 (Darasian) / The Land of Darasian - IBM PC, Windows (1996-1998)

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Darasian first appeared in magazines in 1996, then in the form of a top-down RPG, developed by Senori10. But the team soon disbanded, and the game would disappear with them until 1998, when Kim Jongchan's new company Exciting Guys (kor. Jaemi Inneun Nyeoseokdeul) revived it as a sidescrolling action RPG. The game was reportedly 70% completed in fall 199811, but eventually it got a thorough redesign before it was finally published as Protocoss Oejeon, in a half-assed tie-in with the popular DOS RPG Protocoss.

파괴도시 (Pagoe Dosi) - IBM PC (1996)

Together with Darasian, Senori also announced an RTS featuring mechas in a future metropolis, called Pagoe Dosi ("Demolition City").

Pagoe Dosi (1996)

최후의 기회 (Choehu-ui Gihoe) / Final Occasion - Windows (1996-1997)

Point & click adventure in an oriental fantasy world by SiEn Art, which was dropped with all of the company's other games when it abandoned the business in favor of more "serious" enterprises.

Final Occasion (Windows)

MVP를 만들자 (MVP-reul Mandeulja) Windows (1996)

Baseball management simulation by Viccom.

크리에이티브 랠리 (Creative Rally) - Windows (1996)

As one of only very few Korean racing games, Korea Creative's Creative Rally was marked as a Korean-Western cooperation in magazine coverage, although the Western partner wasn't named. The Korean company's participation remains questionable, though, at least the target render looks nothing like any render art from the peninsula. Promised were 24 tracks and 28 cars, among them Korean-made ones, as well as an tuning system for car upgrades12.

스피드 업 (Speed Up) - IBM PC (1996)

Another racing game was in development around the same time, thise one by Taff System. The racing had to share the spotlight with a life simulation part, though, and only that one was ever shown in screenshots13.

블랙 위도우 (Black Widow) - IBM PC (1996-1997)

Black Widow Logo

In a time when many Korean companies lacked the technology to compete with the 3D graphics of Western games, a lot of pacts were made with foreign companies to outsource the engine programming, with varying results. Like Creative Rally, the 1st person shooter Black Widow, a cooperation by Taff System and the Canadian developer Spidra14, didn't make it, due to the difficulties in communication.

로미오와 줄리엣 (Romeo & Juliet) - IBM PC (1996-1997)

Loosely based on Shakespeare's masterpiece of the same name, Romeo & Juliet was another adventure by SiEn Art with little to no information safe for a couple of screenshots, where Romeo seems to be rescuing Juliet from a dungeon.

천하통일 (Cheonha Tongil) - IBM PC (1996-1997)

The real-time strategy game Cheonha Tongil ("Unification of the Empire") was the only game SiEn declared would be continued after their retreat from the games business in May 199715. At that time the game was reported to be in the bugfixing stages, although the multiplayer modes wouldn't have been included with the retail package but provided online separately16. SiEn eventually never finished either version.

플러스쿨러스 (Flosculus) - Windows (1996-1997)

Just by looking at the screenshots, it's easy to tell that this game was hugely inspired by Snatcher and in extension by Blade Runner. The protagonist Ray was a homicide inspector, but actually a halfblood born from a human father and an android mother, but both parents were killed in a terror attack by the android organization BGSTN. The story further includes the protagonists' love affair with a fully synthetic secretary he bought from a store17.

Flosculus showcased some of the most aesthetically pleasing adventure game artwork of its time in Korea, although it was made by a company formerly only known for localization of Japanese PC games like CRW Metal Jacket and Metajou, as well as educational and adult multimedia CDs, Tongkun Media. The game was definitely in development for over a year before it disappeared18.

This character artwork appeared alongside
a story about Tongkun, but it is unknown
which game it belongs to.