Does this mean nobody pirates games, or everyone pirates games from Korean or Chinese sources?
When I was in Japan a year or two ago, it seemed like there were more copies of Shadowbane and Ultima Online for sale than anything else. I was kind of surprised that MMORPGs that I thought were dead or dying were for sale all over the place.
The avg Reqs on most J-PC games are in the P3 <1.gig range, 256 ram, 800x600 res, and a 3D card from 2000 or so if the game requires one (fairly rare). That’s not to say that the high-end stuff isn’t available in Japan…but it’s safe to assume that whoever tricks out their PC is planning on playing Western PC games and not Japanese ones.
Hey Damian, I didn’t know you could read Japanese (or maybe I did and I forgot, sorry if that’s the case)! Your translation of that was really rather good! And you visited Japan to showcase Perl products? What did you think of the way the company was structured?
I totally forgot to mention in my little keyboard explanation, that there is alternate mode you can access, where you type in characters by pushing the k and u buttons to make the Japanese character for KU, and so on and so forth. A lot of people find that easier than the keyboard layout. Though I am infinitely intelligent and omniscient (Bill, stop masturbating, Rywill, stop arguing!) so I can do either. :P
I’m sure some do, but I have a feeling, piracy is not something publishers worry quite as much about here. It just does not seem to be as much of an issue. I’m sure if you browse around the dregs of 2ch, you’ll see links to those places.
Now taking quick trips to Taiwan to scoop up el cheapo “Asian versions”? Can’t speak to that, but the publishers probably wish they were located next to countries where piracy wasn’t the main event as much. Even in South Korea, it is still pretty bad.
-Kitsune
Kitsune,
Thanks much for the post on flight sims… Cruising .jp and reading the sites now.
Well, not really Perl products; I was there to show off a product which has language-independent external hooks. If the customer wants those hooks to be in Perl, Perl they get. :>
As for structure…
The partner company that I was visiting was in a building that contains more people than my home town. They sublicense our product to another company. Which sublicenses it to a third company. Which (hopefully) sells it to someone that will actually use it. So, counting us, that’s five different corporations involved.
I will never figure out how Japanese corporations can simultaneously be so relentlessly bureaucratic and fearsomely efficient at the same time.
Nice people, though; the engineers I was meeting with were very sharp.
I do know, that unlike Sky Odyssey or Pilotwings or Jet de Go or I Want to Become a Pilot or I Am an Air Traffic Controller, which are much simpler and easier to understand, they scare me off with their complexity.
Do you have any more info on “I Want to Become a Pilot?” I have Sky Odyssey, Pilotwings, Jet de Go 1/2, and I Am an Air Traffic Controller, but I’ve never heard of that other one.
I may be mistaken, but I seem to remember playing a game under that name that had been released for the first Xbo (one of those few Japanese titles for the console), and it was a very, very dictating experience. Well, beyond dictating: it was basically of those QTE games were you are supposed to press the right button at the right time, and boy, if your flaps aren’t down right now we better make you restart that level, you little rebel you.
That sounds exactly like the kind of game I’m looking for!
I’ve done about a half-hour of googling looking for it, in both English and (my admittedly limited) Japanese. Would you happen to know what sort of terms I should be searching for to find it?
Thank you!
This list is pretty extensive, but it is not on it.
http://www.geocities.jp/f19_avionics/sim-list-e.html
Wonder if it goes under a different name? (Translated?)
Ah, my mistake: I checked and the title of the Xbox game is Flight Academy. From the page @mok linked, we learn that an enhanced Windows version titled Pilot Academy was released a few years later. Both my be tricky to track down, nowadays.
I think the title “I want to be a pilot” might be referring to “Pilot ni naro!” (パイロットになろう！) a game series that was available on various Sony systems. I remember seeing a version of it (maybe the PSP one?). It seems the games are very similar to Flight Academy, i.e very directive a flight sim, which is why I think I got them mixed.
Thank you both for your helpful responses!
I think the title “I want to be a pilot” might be referring to “Pilot ni naro!” (パイロットになろう！)
From my understanding, “Pilot ni naro” is the English transliteration of “パイロットになろう,” whereas “Jet de go” is the (very loose) English-market translation. Kitsune mentioned both “Jet de go” and “I Want to Become a Pilot,” which leads me to believe that these are two separate releases.
Oh yeah, Jet de go is from Taito (a spinoff, sort of, the Densha de Go series), and has zeoo tie with Pilot ni naro; which is a series by Marvelous.