• Welcome to Touhou Wiki!
  • Registering is temporarily disabled. Check in our Discord server to request an account and for assistance of any kind.

PC-98: Difference between revisions

From Touhou Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
m (mv. 旧作explanation→main des)
mNo edit summary
Line 46: Line 46:
[[es:PC-98]]
[[es:PC-98]]
[[fr:PC-98]]
[[fr:PC-98]]
[[ru:PC-98]]
[[Category:Platforms]]
[[Category:Platforms]]

Revision as of 18:56, 18 March 2012

The NEC PC-9801 (PC-98 for short) is a common computer in Japan in the 1990s. They are similar to the IBM computers in America and it played in 16-bit color graphics.

All the Touhou Project games from Highly Responsive to Prayers (the first Touhou game) to Mystic Square (the fifth Touhou game) were developed for this platform. They are distinguished from "the Windows games" (from the sixth Touhou game and onwards) for having been distributed by Amusement Makers, and are referred to as "old works" (旧作品 or 旧作).

On September 2002, the games stopped being sold, and support from ZUN also stopped. Except for Highly Responsive to Prayers, it was still possible to download the trial versions of the games, but compared to the windows versions their circulation is very small, and it is extremely difficult to obtain them. During the time Lotus Land Story was released, only 200 to 300 was sold,[1] while only fewer than half as many copies of Phantasmagoria of Dim.Dream as Lotus Land Story have been sold[2].

Upon ZUN's graduation and subsequent employment, upon his fifth work Mystic Square, the works of Touhou Project temporarily ceased.

Games for this platform

Concept

Graphics

The PC-98 computer uses 16-bit colour graphics. Due to this, everything was limited to what can be used for colour. For example, all the PC-98 characters has the same hair and eye colour (Except for SinGyoku's "male" form, Elis and Konngara). This is due to the 16 colour limit the PC-98 has. ZUN has stated in Akyu's Untouched Score vol.3 that he won't go back to 16 color graphics, because he's got modern PC's.

Music

All five games uses FM (Frequency Modulation) Synthesis for music. The only game to also use MIDI is Story of Eastern Wonderland. ZUN could have used MIDI for all the games, but it's assumed that he didn't either because he lacked experience with MIDI at the time or because of his love for FM Synthesis (as stated in his comments for Akyu's Untouched Score vol.3). However, ZUN did later create arrange music using MIDI and uploaded them to his old website.

ZUN has stated in Akyu's Untouched Score vol.3 that he loves FM music and would continue to create FM music in the modern world.

Relation to the Windows canon

ZUN has stated that the PC-98 games are completely separate from Embodiment of Scarlet Devil onwards and that the games for the Windows platform is like a new series, meaning the canonicity between the PC-98 games and the Windows games are completely separate. The PC-98 games have not changed since. ZUN also stated in his e-mails that the PC-98 games can be ignored just like derivative works.[3]

Many carry-overs and references from the PC-98 are carried over windows. However, exactly how much the windows story-line that carried over a portion of PC-98 and the PC-98 story-line itself are related is unclear. The four characters who have returned in the Windows games, Reimu Hakurei, Marisa Kirisame, Alice Margatroid and Yuuka Kazami, has been stated to be the same character as they were in the PC-98.

ZUN did state in in an interview however that the reason why the PC-98 Characters are not seen in Touhou anymore is because he finds it weird to fit them into a story. Basically saying he can't think of a story for these characters as Reimu Hakurei doesn't need Genjii anymore to fly and Yuuka Kazami doesn't seem to have a big part in Phantasmagoria of Flower View. He also stated in the same interview that the older characters are not gone and just don't get to be shown on game-screen (See Makai for example).

Additional Information

Trivia

  • It has been shown in an interview that ZUN still owns a PC-98 computer, where he played Highly Responsive to Prayers for the first time in years. He felt nostalgic.

Fandom

  • Among the fan community, the term "PC-98 games" refers specifically to these first five games.
  • Some newbies of Touhou have often referred to the PC-98 games as the "NES" (or the "SNES") of Touhou due to the music and graphics.
  • Because PC-98 computers are no longer sold, many fans use an Emulator to play these games on modern PCs. The only ones known to run these games properly are Anex86, T98-Next, and the Neko Project 21 (though it is advised to use the unofficial builds that are reposted here instead).
  • Different from westerners, Japanese people take a different view on downloading things illegally, thinking of it as a crime no matter what the circumstance, even for things like the PC-98 games. Thus, their small circulation is a big hindrance from it becoming well-known no matter how much it has been promoted.

References