I found out that I like old VNs - that's just perfect style for me

[Scorp]

So, after reading somewhat around 100 localized VNs (I do not know japanese and have to plans to learn it), I found out, that I like the old days pixel gfx and that 3-channel music much more than your usual nowadays j-rock/j-pop and soap graphics. Also protagonists in old days were not 100% consisted of high-school boys, characters were not a set of tropes, and you know, grass was much greener than nowadays

I am alone with this? Also what were the most popular VNs back in the days? I know about Yu-No, Nocturnal illusion and San Shimai, but these were only on vndb ratings, which basically represent only modern days VNs, while oldies are hard to get and moreover no one interested.

[Valmore]

This is the website for you.

[ittaku]

You can go back even older to CGA graphics for the originals. While it is a high school game, make sure you try and find a working version of true love 95. My first ever VN, it's more of a dating sim, where you have to power up stats to get the right girl, and perfectly played you can get all of them on the one play through. I've also played and enjoyed 3 sisters story, immoral story 1&2 (skip 3), divi-dead, desire, may club, paradise heights 1/2, season of the sakura, time stripper mako-chan, maid's story, transfer student. I can't remember the others around that time. Oh, Ring-out pro lesring was crap. There's others but I haven't played them. All quite different to how VNs are now.

[Scorp]

6 hours ago, Valmore said:

This is the website for you.

I read all the novels on asenheim back in the days. And yes, I know about them for a long time already

 

6 hours ago, ittaku said:

You can go back even older to CGA graphics for the originals. While it is a high school game, make sure you try and find a working version of true love 95. My first ever VN, it's more of a dating sim, where you have to power up stats to get the right girl, and perfectly played you can get all of them on the one play through. I've also played and enjoyed 3 sisters story, immoral story 1&2 (skip 3), divi-dead, desire, may club, paradise heights 1/2, season of the sakura, time stripper mako-chan, maid's story, transfer student. I can't remember the others around that time. Oh, Ring-out pro lesring was crap. There's others but I haven't played them. All quite different to how VNs are now.

CGA VNs? I am not sure if there were any? I played all the VNs you mentioned here And even more - https://vndb.org/v9147 (still do not know what happens there, apart some Lovecraftian-styled monsters ) and these two - https://vndb.org/v4916 and https://vndb.org/v9081 (not too good).

[ittaku]

1 minute ago, Scorp said:

CGA VNs? I am not sure if there were any? I played all the VNs you mentioned here And even more - https://vndb.org/v9147 (still do not know what happens there, apart some Lovecraftian-styled monsters ) and these two - https://vndb.org/v4916 and https://vndb.org/v9081 (not too good).

Most of those I listed are CGA, unless I'm mixing up my GAs.

[Scorp]

2 minutes ago, ittaku said:

Most of those I listed are CGA, unless I'm mixing up my GAs.

Yes, absolutely you're mixing something All these are VGA.

CGA look like this:

[ittaku]

Eek, vga then, my bad.

[Valmore]

I'm having flashbacks of Sid Meier's Covert Actions here.

[Tyr]

1 hour ago, Scorp said:

I am alone with this? Also what were the most popular VNs back in the days? I know about Yu-No, Nocturnal illusion and San Shimai, but these were only on vndb ratings, which basically represent only modern days VNs, while oldies are hard to get and moreover no one interested.

I read mainly old eroge, often PC98, FMT or PCE games.

The games you mentioned are only popular in the west because they were localized here. Well, except for Yu-No of course which is popular even today in Japan. To be honest, I hate Kanno's writing and I hate Yu-No, too, so I don't even see it as one of the best eroge ever like many other people do. I'm more of a true elf fanboy, not C's Ware.

Are you interested in which games were popular in Japan back then? I have some old Japanese game magazines which feature monthly best of lists, so maybe I can find something there.
Or do you want to know which games were most influential? Or maybe just some personal recommendations?

 

59 minutes ago, Scorp said:

https://vndb.org/v9147 (still do not know what happens there, apart some Lovecraftian-styled monsters )

This is my favorite PC98 game. I wrote a short paragraph on vndb why I think it's as good as it is:
 

Quote

Ah, yes. I really like this game.
The reason I like it so much is that it does some things you don't expect in PC98 games at all. How should I say it...? ... the writing is really respectful to its characters.
You know, in eroge there are always random sex scenes which don't make any sense or the characters are doing something stupid just so that the reader gets his favorite tropes. Ushinawareta Rakuen has nothing of this.

For example, the protagonist is established as a lazy and perverted student (which is quite normal for students). But when he is stranded on the island with his friends, he never makes perverted jokes again and instead tries to be as reliable as he can. Why? Because that is what you do when you're in a dangerous situation, at least when you're a decent human being.
Another example is the relationship of the protagonist with the wife of his professor. Of course he likes her. But when she tells him how much she loves her husband, any other eroge would let the protagonist think "I don't care about your husband, I want to fuck you!", but here the protag actually admires her love for him and he tries to be a better man worthy of someone like her.

I can really appreciate this kind of characterization because those characters don't just feel like artificially constructed tropes designed solely for my fapping pleasure but instead feel like real humans with their own personality. I don't know any PC98 erogame (emphasis on "ero") before Ushinawareta Rakuen which was capable of such a feat.

But to be honest, if you aren't so bothered by stupid eroge tropes like me, Ushinawareta Rakuen is probably not that mind blowing for you. There are many other PC98 games which have a better story and may be more interesting. But for me, no other game I played on this system felt so "right" in terms of character development, romance and relationship building. Something even modern eroge seldom get right.

(It's a shame the game doesn't have credits. Some parts gave me a Hiruta vibe. Wouldn't be surprised if he had something to do with the script.)

 

[Scorp]

27 minutes ago, Tyrosyn said:

I read mainly old eroge, often PC98, FMT or PCE games.

The games you mentioned are only popular in the west because they were localized here. Well, except for Yu-No of course which is popular even today in Japan. To be honest, I hate Kanno's writing and I hate Yu-No, too, so I don't even see it as one of the best eroge ever like many other people do. I'm more of a true elf fanboy, not C's Ware.

Are you interested in which games were popular in Japan back then? I have some old Japanese game magazines which feature monthly best of lists, so maybe I can find something there.
Or do you want to know which games were most influential? Or maybe just some personal recommendations?

Great! Yes, I would be glad for recommendations, probably 2-3 personal favorites and most influental games.

Too bad no one interested in translating Ushinawareta Rakuen, as I remember that frustration I had when I first saw the game filled with empty strings when I was in college and DOS port for that game came on bbs... Only after a year I found out that it was because of a special modified DOS with support of japanese symbols

[Valmore]

I see @Tiagofvarela remembers Covert, too.

[Tyr]

49 minutes ago, Scorp said:

Great! Yes, I would be glad for recommendations, probably 2-3 personal favorites and most influental games.

I searched through my magazines and I found this one covering nearly every eroge from 1982 till 2000 with the most influential and popular getting bigger coverage. This may be something for you.
It's called: パソコン美少女ゲーム歴史大全1982-2000
The first 25 pages are featuring the most popular eroge from 1982 till 1996 which essentially means the timespan before eroge went to Windows.

Obviously, there are also many hidden gems which aren't popular but nonetheless quite good. Ushinawareta Rakuen is one of those.
Nearly every game by Fairytale is good, especially the two Fairytale Hardcover games Necronomicon and Ballade for Maria. Elf, Silky's and Mink are companies spawned from Fairytale so you will find many good games here too.
I also like Fairy Dust. Maybe you have seen the Anime Cream Lemon with its many short storys? Fairy Dust is the company behind this series and they also made many eroge which are often sequels to the anime episodes.
I also like Jealousy (made by Interheart). Good story, great animations.
There are also many good RPGs and non-H visual novels.

49 minutes ago, Scorp said:

Too bad no one interested in translating Ushinawareta Rakuen, as I remember that frustration I had when I first saw the game filled with empty strings when I was in college and DOS port for that game came on bbs... Only after a year I found out that it was because of a special modified DOS with support of japanese symbols

There is also a version of this game for FM Towns. Sadly, it's only a floppy version without any improvements over the original.

[Funyarinpa]

I'm just in here to say that YU-NO is fucking god tier

[Deep Blue]

I think this is the place for you http://www.pc98.org/main.html and this http://fullmotionvideo.free.fr/phpBB3/index.php

sadly most of the old and good stuff are not translated but nearly all of the pc98 can be hooked so maybe you can read them via machine translation, Tyrosyn is a guru in this subject so you should ask him about old and obscure novels

[Clephas]

15 hours ago, Scorp said:

So, after reading somewhat around 100 localized VNs (I do not know japanese and have to plans to learn it), I found out, that I like the old days pixel gfx and that 3-channel music much more than your usual nowadays j-rock/j-pop and soap graphics. Also protagonists in old days were not 100% consisted of high-school boys, characters were not a set of tropes, and you know, grass was much greener than nowadays

I am alone with this? Also what were the most popular VNs back in the days? I know about Yu-No, Nocturnal illusion and San Shimai, but these were only on vndb ratings, which basically represent only modern days VNs, while oldies are hard to get and moreover no one interested.

A lot of the best VNs were written between twelve and eight years ago, and non-visual quality has been falling steadily in most genres ever since.  So, no it isn't a surprise.

[Darklord Rooke]

57 minutes ago, Clephas said:

A lot of the best VNs were written between twelve and eight years ago, and non-visual quality has been falling steadily in most genres ever since.  So, no it isn't a surprise.

We used to have a wish in RPG circles, that we couldn’t wait for visual quality to reach maximum so developers would stop focusing on it and refocus on the stuff that matters. It never did happen, we had to go Indie xD

[InvertMouse]

Absolutely not alone in this . Kawana Misaki from ONE ~To the Radiant Season~ is still better than any of the Key girls to me. Yeah, a bit hipster but I genuinely like her so much.