Waltorious Writes About Games

Game-related ramblings.

Tag: Famicom Page 1 of 3

Console History: Flying Dragon: The Secret Scroll (Hiryou No Ken: Ougi No Sho)

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On July 19, 2026

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This is Console History, a special sub-series of my more general History Lessons series, covering console role-playing games, action role-playing games, Metroidvanias, and action-adventure games in nominally chronological order starting in the late 1980s. The chronology is garbled in the beginning as the scope of the series expanded, but it gets more organized later on. As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

The Great Console History Reorganization marches ever onwards. Our last post covered Deep Dungeon: Madou Senki, a dungeon crawler from HummingBirdSoft that released in December 1986 for the Famicom Disk System in Japan only. If I’d had my timeline in order, the next post would have been about Shiryou Sensen: War of the Dead, followed by Zelda II: The Adventure of Link and Dragon Quest II. But I’ve already written about those! So now, we move on Flying Dragon: The Secret Scroll by Culture Brain, who would go on to release The Magic of Scheherezade in September 1987. But Flying Dragon: The Secret scroll was originally released as Hiryou no Ken: Ougi no Sho in Japan on February 14, 1987 for the Famicom, before being localized for US release on the rebranded NES in August 1989 (this is the version I played). It’s actually the second game in the Hiryou no Ken series, coming after Hokuha Syourin Hiryou no Ken (AKA Shanghai Kid) in arcades in 1985.

Flying Dragon is a fighting game, which should put it out of scope for this series. But I decided to include it for two reasons. First, it incorporates some action-adventure/role-playing elements which brings it closer to the remit of this series, and second, I’m completely unfamiliar with the fighting game genre before the smash success of Street Fighter II brought it into the mainstream in 1991. What were fighting games like before Street Fighter II created a new standard? I decided to find out.

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Console History: Deep Dungeon: Madou Senki (Deep Dungeon: The Heretic War)

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On June 2, 2026

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This is Console History, a special sub-series of my more general History Lessons series, covering console role-playing games, action role-playing games, Metroidvanias, and action-adventure games in nominally chronological order starting in the late 1980s. The chronology is garbled in the beginning as the scope of the series expanded, but it gets more organized later on. As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

The Great Console History Reorganization continues, as I go back to fill in games I missed the first time around. Last time that was Ganbare Goemon!Karakuri Douchuu, the first console entry in the Ganbare Goemon series. If I’d had my timeline in order, after that would have been Metroid, and then our current entry: HummingBirdSoft’s Deep Dungeon: Madou Senki, a dungeon crawler role-playing game released on December 19, 1986 in Japan for the Famicom Disk System (for details on the Famicom Disk System, see my post about The Mysterious Murasame Castle), and ported to the MSX home computer in 1988. It went on to spawn three sequels, all Japan-only, which I hope to cover in this series.

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Console History: Bionic Commando

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On August 29, 2025

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This is Console History, a special sub-series of my more general History Lessons series, covering console role-playing games, action role-playing games, Metroidvanias, and action-adventure games in nominally chronological order starting in the late 1980s. The chronology is garbled in the beginning as the scope of the series expanded, but it gets more organized later on. As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

I’m in the midst of another detour from my nominal timeline for this series. Having reached the first truly 16-bit console role-playing game, Phantasy Star II, in March 1989, I then went all the way back to June 1987 for Glory of Heracles: The Labors of the Divine Hero. I’d originally skipped that because I thought it was a simple Dragon Quest clone, but in fact it has a bunch of interesting ideas of its own. Now, I’m jumping forward to July 20, 1988, when Capcom released Bionic Commando in Japan for Nintendo’s Famicom system (although I played the US port for the rebranded NES, which released in December of the same year). That puts it between Blaster Master and Exile in our timeline. Like Glory of Heracles, I’d originally skipped over Bionic Commando, in this case because I thought it was a pure action game and thus outside the scope of this series. Later, I learned that it had a lot of design ideas that would influence the nascent Metroidvania genre, which puts it in scope after all. Bionic Commando also has another, far more notable claim to fame: it is the first game with a grappling hook as a central mechanic.

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Console History: Glory Of Heracles: The Labors Of The Divine Hero

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On August 13, 2025

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This is Console History, a special sub-series of my more general History Lessons series, covering console role-playing games, action role-playing games, Metroidvanias, and action-adventure games in nominally chronological order starting in the late 1980s. The chronology is garbled in the beginning as the scope of the series expanded, but it gets more organized later on. As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

It’s tradition, at this point. Whenever I get my timeline sorted out for this series, and start actually working through things chronologically — as I recently did with Out Live and Phantasy Star II — I always find some other games I missed and end up going back to play them. I’m tempted to tell you that this detour will the the last one, but that’s what I think every time. Hopefully it will at least be brief, and then we can head back to 1989.

For now, though, we’re going way back to June 1987, for the Japan-only game Glory of Heracles: The Labors of the Divine Hero by Data East, for Nintendo’s Famicom. That places it a few weeks after Zillion and about a week before Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished in our timeline. I’d originally skipped over Glory of Heracles because I’d heard it was basically just a Dragon Quest clone (indeed, the first two Dragon Quest games, as well as Miracle Warriors: Seal of the Dark Lord, are the only proper Japanese-style role-playing games to precede it), but then I read that the later entries in the Glory of Heracles series are good, so I decided to play it after all, using an English translation from DvD Translations (who also did the translation for Cleopatra no Mahou). It turns out it has a lot of interesting ideas of its own.

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Console History: Getsu Fuuma Den (The Legend Of Getsu Fuuma)

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On July 23, 2024

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This is Console History, a special sub-series of my more general History Lessons series, covering console role-playing games, action role-playing games, Metroidvanias, and action-adventure games in nominally chronological order starting in the late 1980s. The chronology is garbled in the beginning as the scope of the series expanded, but it gets more organized later on. As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Reader, I must apologize. After a rather disorganized start to this series, during which I kept expanding the scope and going back to add more games that messed up the timeline, I thought I’d made a comprehensively researched list of every game I might want to include. Once I got all caught up with Final Fantasy II, I thought it would be smooth chronological sailing. But while tracking down a fan-made translation for the next game to follow Clash At Demonhead, I ended up on the website for Nebulous Translations and took a look at the other games they’ve translated. It’s not a long list, and yet: I still found a couple of interesting games that weren’t on my list. So I’m going back in time once again.

The first of these games is Getsu Fuuma Den, which translates roughly to The Legend of Getsu Fuuma. Released for the Japanese Famicom by Konami in July 1987, it slots in after Wonder Boy In Monster Land and before Dragon Slayer IV: Drasle Family in our timeline. That’s actually pretty early, only the 13th game by original release date, which makes its combination of a top-down world map, side-scrolling platforming, and grid-based dungeon crawling all the more notable. It’s likely this game was an inspiration for a bunch of others I’ve already covered.

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Console History: Clash At Demonhead

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On June 4, 2024

In Uncategorized

This is Console History, a special sub-series of my more general History Lessons series, covering console role-playing games, action role-playing games, Metroidvanias, and action-adventure games in nominally chronological order starting in the late 1980s. The chronology is garbled in the beginning as the scope of the series expanded, but it gets more organized later on. As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

The timeline for this series has been somewhat jumbled, as I kept expanding the scope and adding more games to the list that were released before other games I’d already covered. But that’s all sorted out as of the last entry on Final Fantasy II, which released in December 1988. Now, we move into 1989 with Clash at Demonhead, a game by Vic Tokai for the Famicom/NES. It released in Japan on January 27, 1989, and was localized for a US release in December 1989. I’d never heard of it before researching early examples of Metroidvania design for this series, but apparently it got referenced in Scott Pilgrim. I was intrigued as I fired it up.

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Console History: Final Fantasy II

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On May 1, 2024

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This is Console History, a special sub-series of my more general History Lessons series, covering console role-playing games, action role-playing games, Metroidvanias, and action-adventure games in nominally chronological order starting in the late 1980s. The chronology is garbled in the beginning as the scope of the series expanded, but it gets more organized later on. As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

The very first game I played for this series was Final Fantasy. I had intended to play all the Final Fantasy games in order, to see how they evolved from the early games I remembered as a kid to the huge epics full of cinematic scenes they are today. But then I decided I should probably also cover the Dragon Quest series, which released first. And then I added a bunch of other Japanese-style role-playing games. And then some action role-playing hybrids. And then some Metroidvanias and Zelda-esque games. Now, after playing and writing about 30 games, I’ve finally reached Final Fantasy II, which Square released in Japan on December 17. 1988.

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Console History: Blaster Master

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On February 4, 2024

In Uncategorized

This is Console History, a special sub-series of my more general History Lessons series, covering console role-playing games, action role-playing games, Metroidvanias, and action-adventure games in nominally chronological order starting in the late 1980s. The chronology is garbled in the beginning as the scope of the series expanded, but it gets more organized later on. As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

My quest to play through early console role-playing games, action-role-playing hybrids, and Metroidvanias continues. I’ve got a nominal timeline, but I keep deviating from it as I add more games to the list. Now I’m finally catching up. The farthest I’ve reached is September 1988 with Spellcaster, before that was Exile in August, and before that was Blaster Master in June 1988 — a mere two weeks after our last entry, Cosmo Police Galivan. Since I’ve covered Exile already, Sunsoft’s Blaster Master is the last game on the list that predates Spellcaster; after this, I’ll be moving forward with the nominal timeline and entering the tail end of 1988.

I actually played Blaster Master as a kid. I never owned a copy, but a friend did, and we played it together on his NES. I don’t remember if we ever reached the end, but we did get pretty far. So it was a bit of a nostalgia blast (heh) to play it again now.

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