Video games are an incredibly young medium, but nevertheless their history is already full of myths and mysteries, lost treasures and forgotten heroes. The seeming inability of developers and publishers to properly preserve their company history, but much more the incredibly fast-lived nature of the industry has left the aspiring game historian with a huge mess to clean up. Yet a decent number of competent video game histories have been compiled so far.

Works like David Sheff's Game Over, Steven L. Kent's The Ultimate History of Video Games (first edition titled The first quarter) or even Winnie Forster's The encyclopedia of Game Machines all not only help gamers to grasp a greater picture of the industry around their hobby, but also supply them with countless details and anecdotes that make events of former video game times come to live. What they left out is nowadays only a few clicks away, and the curriculum vitae of the American star designer on Wikipedia is as up-to-date as the news on rediscovered Japanese prototype games from twenty years ago.

But there lies the crux of the matter - even the most prestigious English publications are virtually confined to the two regions where video games originated and reincarnated, respectively. The internet fills the gaps for much of Europe, but every other country that doesn't use latin script is locked off to Western retro gamers for the most part. People can only hope to stumble upon the oddball localization or even accounts about games from places like Russia or continental East Asia, and South Korea was no exception until it began to unleash it's wave of MMOs upon the world. This article tries to depict the history of the industry and culture from the very beginnings until its rise to fame in the new millenium. Everything before that breakthrough, especially considering the early stages, is so far covered only vaguely and anecdotally even in Korean. A whole country full of games many may have never heard about awaits.

Table of Contents

0. Conventions and disclaimer



A. History

Part 1: First steps and emancipation

Part 2: The rise and fall of the Package



B. Specials

Finding Korean retrogames

Lost games: 1987-1993

Lost games: 1994

Lost games: 1995

Lost games: 1996

Lost games: 1997

The other Korea: Video games in the North

Korean games for the World: Games by Koreans, but not (primarily) for Koreans

Interview: Kim Kyongsoo and Kim Seongwan

Interview: Jason Park



C. Companies and Organizations

A+

Ablex

Afega

Andamiro

Anicom

Aproman

Byulbram Creature

Clover

Comad

Danbi System

Daou Infosys

Daewoo Electronics

Deniam, Amuse World

Dooyong

DS Game Channel

Dragonfly

Ecstasy, Digital Impact, Cyonex, Aeonsoft

Eolith

Family Production, Pentavision

FEW

Gamepark, GPH, Gambros

Gleam Entertainment, L&K Logic Korea

Goldstar / LG / Hanbit Soft

Gravity

Grigon Entertainment, Garam and Baram, Mira Space

HIC Infocomm / Digital Dream Studio

HiCom / eSofnet

HQ Team, JoyOn, nDoors

Hyundai Electronics

Jamie System

Jigwan

Joymax

KidnKid.com / N-Log Soft

KOGA

KRG Soft

Makkoya

Mantra

Marixon

Mips

Mirinae Software, Mirinae Entertainment, Mirinae Games

Open

Open Mind World

Orange Soft

Phantagram, Blueside

Philko

Prosoft

Sailon / Uzdream

Sammi Computer

Samsung Electronics

Seed 9

Semicom

SIECO, Gameline

Sigmatec / SiEn Art

SKC, Namil Soft, Wizard Soft

Soft Action

Softry / ST Entertainment, Game School

Softmax

Softmen

Sonnori, Ntreev, Ironnos

Static Soft

SunA

T3 Entertainment

Taff / Ntix Soft, Red Duck

Topia

Triggersoft

Unico / Uniana

TWIM

Viccom

Zemina

Other games 1988-1993

Other games 1994-1995

Other games 1996

Other games 1997

Other games 1998

Other games 1999

Other games 2000

Other games 2001

Other games 2002

Other games 2003-2004



D. Appendices

Game Release Index

Overview of game consoles

Early home computers

Gaming magazines

Localized games from Korea

Game credits repository



E. Supplements (blog)

Korean Street Fighter animated movie

Visit to the GoldenBell Joymax factory in 1993

