The world of video games is ever-changing, and inevitably, as platforms are retired and companies shuttered, games are lost to time. Thanks to the diligence of preservationists, however, two extremely rare Japanese feature phone games have reappeared: Cave’s Dodon Pachi DoJ DX Recover Version and Hudson Soft’s Bomberman 3D.
Video Game Esoterica covers the backstory of these games and the system they originally came from. Before modern smartphones, Japan was a haven for cutting-edge “feature phones”, many of which were capable of playing surprisingly robust video games, downloadable from their own exclusive app stores. A large number of these weren’t available anywhere else, and to this day remain unplayable.
One white whale among preservationists, Dodon Pachi DoJ DX Recover Version, is especially interesting in that it was apparently on sale for only 24 hours, ever. This bullet hell shmup from renowned developer CAVE is a huge find for fans of that genre, though it is worth mentioning that there is some gameplay lag due to the limitations of the original hardware.
Bomberman 3D is arguably the better of the two games, since it is playable at full speed. The game has a charming style with 3D isometric graphics reminiscent of the Saturn Bomberman game.
The process of preserving such games is akin to finding a needle in a haystack, with individuals scouring sites like Yahoo Auction Japan for old feature phones in hopes of locating games that have never been archived before. We just reported on a Ratchet & Clank game that was found with this very method.
The Kai World Launcher is an interesting application that gives users the opportunity to play these vintage Java and 3D feature phone games without the fuss of setting up obscure emulators. The video also mentions that some of the games that were preserved had English translations, including a Mega Man Legends game.
The recovery of these titles offers hope that other lost games may still be unearthed. By making these titles playable, these efforts do more than just archive the past; they bring a unique chapter of gaming history back to life for all to enjoy.
Source: Video Game Esoterica YouTube
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