Pasokon Retro is our regular look back at the early years of Japanese PC gaming, encompassing everything from specialist '80s computers to the happy days of Windows XP. "IN OTHER DIMENSIONAL SPACE THREE JEWELS KEPT THE KINGDOM IN PEACE" Now that's how you kick off a multi-million selling RPG. None of this "emotional storytelling" business performed by award-winning actors.
No gorgeous shots of mystical locales painstakingly crafted by an entire studio's worth of artists. Just a few lines of plain text on a black background about when "A MAN CALLED JIM WHO COULD NOT ENDURE TO SEE PEOPLE TORTURED DECIDED TO EXTERMINATE THE DEVIL." This is part of the intro to Hydlide , T&E Soft's groundbreaking "Active Role Playing Game.
" Back in 1984 this game didn't just set standards or raise bars, it invented them. Gaming still owes Hydlide a debt of gratitude. This was the Elden Ring of its day, an open world action RPG where half the fun lies in working out how to get somewhere and then trying to survive the journey using nothing but a sword, shield, and wit.
Its head-turning combination of ambition and freedom soon saw the game ported from its PC-88 home to just about every major computer brand Japan had for sale that decade, each new version of the game carefully adapted to fit its new home. And this is where things get really interesting. What exactly is Hydlide when it's been endlessly pushed and pulled and tweaked to fit hardware it wasn't originally made for? What was essential enou.