Forget Me Not: Palette - RM95

(from HG101 Article by Iwant - November 4, 2013)

"When Yume Nikki started to become popular in the West a few years after its initial success with 2ch denizens in 2004, it became obvious that the sometimes-derided RPG Maker tool was not only capable of producing good games, but also very original takes that didn't even have anything to with RPGs. Indeed, Yume Nikki soon became a cult hit both in its native country and abroad, as well as an icon of what amateur development could do best. Team GrisGris's 1996 Corpse Party is an earlier example of RPG Maker-made "non-RPG", but it was somewhat classical in its game design and lacked Yume Nikki's distinctive blend of conceptual adventure and psychological horror. However, what a lot of people seems to ignore is that Yume Nikki still isn't the first in that kind of production.

We need to go way back in time, six years before the Yume Nikki phenomenon. In 1998, the multimedia giant ASCII Entertainment organized its fourth entry in a series of annual competitions where contestants were required to submit a self-made game created using either RPG Maker or developed from scratch. That's when a man called Nishida Yoshitaka - nicknamed "Yubiningyou" - came in with a strange project developed with the help of RPG Maker '95 titled Palette. And it didn't have anything to do with the RPG genre at all..."

(Continued on HG101)

(From NeoGaf- "RPG Maker Games: Underlooked Gems" by Dust Golem 12-26-2012)

"Palette was originally released in Japan in the mid-90s, and won an award at the Fourth ASCII Entertainment Software Contest, granting the creator 10 million yen. With that money, he went on to remake his game and release it on the PS1 in Japan in 2001. This game is very unknown at this time, but of very high quality. The reason in big part is as the game is rather text-heavy, and has never been translated (officially or by fans) for any language outside of Japanese.

(Archive) Velsarbor by Lachsen - RM2k

Mirror Download

(From Looking Back:Velsarbor by Tau 01/25/2013 via RMN )

(Need to revise this a bit later)

(Spotted) DEEP 8 - RM2k3 - RPG Atelier

Via RPG Atelier

(Spotted) Escapade - RM2k3 - Oniromancie

Via Oniromancie

(Archive) Alex Unleashed by RanMaster - RM2k3

Was originally posted on RRR and then RMN - adding it here for archival purposes.
Last updated in 2012. Will probably add a full write up later.  
Really neat tech demo that pushes the battle animation capabilities of RPGMAKER2003.

Mirror Download

(Archive) Pirates: The Legend of the Silver Crescent by Carius - RM2k3

Notes: Uploading this here since I noticed the entire gamepage was missing from RMN as of late. Will do a full write up later on. Very interesting use of rpgmaker2003. Recommended. Definitely check it out.

Mirror Download

(Summary taken from RMN)

Super Nintendo PlayStation SNES-CD Prototype Finally Revealed - [Retro Collect]

"Although it’s been a long wait, further details and photographs of the infamous Super Nintendo SNES-CD / PlayStation prototype hardware have finally been revealed. Having taken the unit to the Retro.HK Expo for display, its owner has not only shown off the system’s insides and inner workings, but also found time for a quick round of Street Fighter II on the console too.

The most interesting aspect of this big reveal is that the CD-Rom drive and firmware behind it appears to be intact. Upon booting up the console without a Super Nintendo cartridge inserted, you’ll be shown an equivalent to the Sega Mega CD’s ‘Please Insert Disc’ screen. That said, it has been reported that the accompanying cartridge which contains the CD-Rom BIOS is faulty. Whether this is down to a software or hardware fault is yet to be confirmed."

Via RetroCollect

Fascinating stuff!

Infinity, Beyond: A Small Japanese Studio Braces for the Future - [USGAMER]

How the developer behind 8-bit cult classic The Battle of Olympus has survived nearly 30 years of industry upheavals, and what's next for the company.

"You've probably never heard of Japanese developer Infinity. It's possible you've played some of their games—perhaps NES cult classic The Battle of Olympus?—but even then you most likely haven't touched a new Infinity creation in a couple of decades..."

Via USGAMER

(Another great Article by USGAMER's Jeremey Parish. Again, will probably transpose, but yeah, you should definitely be reading USGAMER.)

Cover Story: NES Creator Masayuki Uemura on the Birth of Nintendo's First Console - [US Gamer]

The man who designed Nintendo's revolutionary console recounts the system's birth and the challenges of building an international business.

"You wouldn't know by looking at Masayuki Uemura, mild-mannered engineer and professor, that he changed video games forever—or that his work set the standard for an industry that nearly died just as its was finding its legs.... "

Via USGamer

(Fantastic Retrospective on the birth of the NES, by Jeremy Parish. I'll probably transpose the rest of it here, later for archival purposes, but for now check it out over on USGAMER.)

(Archive) - Final Fantasy Time and Again - RM2k3 - GW/RMN

Mirror Download

Note: FFTA is one of the very few FF Fan games that has a really interesting, fully functional but incredibly cumbersome [Jump] mechanic worked out in RPGMAKER2003's Default Battle System. I'll probably add the save file that jumps you straight to this part. But for now I'm uploading it, simply because, I found out today that, it's no longer on RMN.