A History of Korean Gaming

Mission Assault (미션 어설트) - Windows (1998)

This RTS is apparently a previous version of the game that eventually turned into Under Attack.

Nazirite (나실 인) - Windows (1998)

AD Soft only ever showed a target render of this game, but it was meant to become a strategic simulation with a focus on building and besieging medieval castles. According to the developer, they were going for a Lego-like appeal.1

Nazirite (Windows)

Black Mind (블랙 마인드) - Windows (1998)

Black Mind was introduced as a Diablo-style action RPG, but it was supposed to touch on serious topics like class struggle, racism and fear of the unknown. The game was to be set in an underground city slum. Players were meant to be able to interact with most objects in the environment, similar to the Ultima games.2

Tragon (트래곤) - Windows (1998-1999)

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The realtime cyberpunk RPG was the final project of SKC team Namil Soft. The game's declared characteristic was its "claustrophobic and gloomy athmosphere", for which the developer considered an isometric perspective with dark colors the best fit (possibly influenced by Syndicate, Shadowrun or Fallout). Tragon in the game is the name of a virus that started developing in the world's anarchic "Outfields", which grants special powers to the infected but causes them to age and die rapidly. Combat was meant to take place in tactical real time battles with a focus on action. The project was claimed to be 80% finished in early 1999,3 but there were no further news after SKC's game division spun off into Wizard Soft and Namil Soft was integrated into the company.

영화세상 (Yeonghwa Sesang) / Cine City - Windows (1998-1999)

The movie business simulation Cine City has been likened to Theme Park and Theme Hospital due to it's real time progression showing cute characters walking around the venues for production and viewing movies. The player would have taken the role of producer, hiring directors and actors and taking care that the necessary equipment gets bought. A "Box Office" screenshot shows a lot of copyright-infringing actual movie posters, but otherwise the style of the game was very cartoon like, in stark contrast with its hilariously self-important backstory, which goes like this:

Derbic is a promising movie producer. The artistic qualities of his movies were unilaterally praised by critics and successively received awards at art film festivals.

But despite this he failed to gain mass success and comes deeply into debt. The staff members that used to work with him left one after another, and he spends his days in worries in front of his desk with towering piles of bills and demand notes.

In that state he receives a shocking offer: Elements of the city's underworld wants him to shoot a porn movie. After quarelling with himself he finally accepts and uses their advance payment to settle his debts. But when the day comes when he is supposed to fulfill his promise, he starts regretting his decision and comes in conflict with himself.

At the morning of the day when the shooting is scheduled to start, he leaves his will, an old movie camera and two unfinished films and heads for the set. There he stands in front of the gangsters and refuses to shoot the movie. Then he dies through their gunfire.

Later Toto finds his father's will and runs to the set. But it is already too late. Toto grabs his father's cold corpse, and while crying he resolves to follow his father's last will.4

More than a year after its original announcement, PC Power Zine praised the concept of the game, but criticised it for being overly ambitious, with many aspects like marketing and stock market trade feeling not fully realized.5 This ambition may have been the reason why the game was never completed.

바이오캅 윙고 (Biocop Wingo) - Windows (1998)

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Biocop Wingo was another example of the many Korean games based on cartoons, although it was meant to be an independent "side story". The Super Mario 64 like 3D platformer was supposed to comprise six stages with a total of 20 separate sections. According to director Yi Jaehong, Biocop Wingo was first planned as a 2D game but restructured during production. Completion was claimed to be at 90% with only polishing left.6

Ragnarok (라그나로크) - Windows (1998)

After their great adaption of Eojjeonji... Jeonyeok, TG Entertainment licensed another manhwa by Lee Myungjin, Ragnarok.7 This has nothing to do with the MMORPG that was later made by Gravity, and it appears like it never went beyond the concept stage.

요: 욕망의 별 (Yoh: Yongman-ui Byeol) / Yoh: The Planet of Desire - Windows (1998)

Yoh was introduced as a sci-fi RTS with four playable races, but all that was ever seen of the game were a few target render images.8

도피성 (Dopiseong) / The Fugitive Castle - Windows (1998-2000)

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Artwork

Had Fugitive Castle ever been released, it would be the world's first role-playing game made with clay animation. This makes for a very unique look, in contrast to a fairly typical fantasy plot about conquering empires and political intrigues.9

Even though screenshots show a battle screen similar to a Final Fantasy game, combat was supposedly taking place in real time and was compared to fighting games like Virtua Fighter. There were six playable characters which could be choosen freely to compose a party of four, which were planned to grow in levels at a fast pace to make the game an overall breezy affair.10

After Danda Soft was founded on March 21 of 1998, it was claimed the game was 90% complete only half a year later. Team lead Choe Hosaeng explained: "We made an effort to give the characters a slightly uneven and warm look to make you feel that they were made by actual people, which had the disadvantage of making it difficult to fit the actual photos together into animations. But we already went through several iterations of trial and error and gathered all the ideas, so the development has sped up. Now all that's left is the final testing. We want to make it a game that gives players new impressions."11

The game was developed with an RPG maker tool created by Danda Entertainment itself, which - contrary to the company's own games - was actually released as a commercial product, bearing the title RPG Dice.

Faras 0361 (파라스0361) / 환영 전기 (Hwanyeong Jeon'gi) - Windows (1998)

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또또와 유령 친구들 (Ttotto-wa Yuryeong Chingu-deul) - Windows (1998)

An action game based on an animation series that was made in cooperation between a Korean and Taiwanese studio, developed by the creator of the Droiyan series. It was based on the engine used for Droiyan Next14 and even advertised in magazines, but it appears like KRG Soft never showed so much as a screenshot for the game, so it's production status remains unknown.

Shining Lore (샤이닝로어) - Windows, Dreamcast (1998-2000)

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점토 전사 클레이 (Jeomto Jeonsa Clay) / The Fighter (더 파이터) - Windows (1998)

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Darkside Story 2 (다크사이드스토리2) - Windows (1998)

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여의도 블루스 (Youido Blues) - Windows (1998-1999)

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에프비아이에게 무슨일이 생겼나? (FBI-ege Museun Il-i Saenggyeonna?) - Windows (1998)

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럭키 짱 (Lucky Zzang) - Windows (1998-1999)

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봉신도 (Bongsindo) / Oriental Legend - Windows (1998-1999)

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Demolition - Windows (1998-1999)

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Around the same time as the second attempt at Darasian was announced, Exciting Guys also advertised an action RPG named Demolition.

군 (Gun) - Windows (1998-1999)

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