The Nintendo 64 (N64) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo. The successor to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it was released on June 23, 1996 in Japan; September 26, 1996 in North America; and on March 1, 1997 in Europe and Australia. It was the last major home console to use cartridges as its primary storage format until the Nintendo Switch in 2017. It competed primarily with the Sony PlayStation and the Sega Saturn.
The PlayStation is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was released in Japan on 3 December 1994, in North America on 9 September 1995, in Europe on 29 September 1995, and in Australia on 15 November 1995. As a fifth-generation console, the PlayStation primarily competed with the Nintendo 64 and the Sega Saturn.
Lunar is a series of role-playing video games, developed by Game Arts in Japan and published in the United States by Working Designs, Ubisoft, and Xseed Games.
Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, originally released in Japan as simply Lunar: Silver Star Story, is a role-playing video game developed by Game Arts and Japan Art Media as a remake of 1992's Lunar: The Silver Star. While the overall plot remains true to the original, accommodations are made to the game's story to allow for a larger, richer cast, as well as additional scenarios.
Bonk, known as PC-Genjin in Japan and as PC Kid or BC Kid in PAL territories, is a video game character and former mascot for NEC's PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 video game console. Three platform games featuring the character appeared on the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16, as well as two spin-offs featuring Air Zonk. The protagonist is a bald caveman named Bonk who attacks using his comically large head.
Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) is a multinational video game and digital entertainment company owned by multinational conglomerate Sony. SIE primarily operates the PlayStation brand of video game consoles and products. SIE is made up of two legal corporate entities: Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (SIE LLC) based in San Mateo, California, and Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc., based in Minato, Tokyo. SIE Inc. was originally founded as Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. in November 1993 to handle Sony's venture into video game development for the PlayStation systems. SIE LLC was established in San Mateo in April 2016, and is managed through Sony's American branch, Sony Corporation of America.
Lunar: The Silver Star is a role-playing video game developed by Game Arts in association with Studio Alex for the Sega/Mega-CD, originally published by Game Arts and released in Japan in 1992. After a successful release, the game was translated and localized by Working Designs for release in North America the following year.
iQue, Ltd. is a Chinese video game/game localization and support development company located in Suzhou. It was founded as a joint venture between Wei Yen and Nintendo in 2002 as a Chinese video game console manufacturing company. The following year, the company released the iQue Player. The company had manufactured and distributed official Nintendo products for the mainland Chinese market under the iQue brand until 2018.
Working Designs was an American video game publisher that specialized in the localization of Japanese role-playing video games, strategy video games and top-down shooters for various platforms. Though the company had published many cult hits, it was known best to fans as the long-time exclusive North American publisher of the Lunar series. The company was one of the few game publishers that attempted to bridge the cultural gap between the Japanese and American video game industries during the 1990s with an eclectic selection of releases from various genres, and was also one of the earliest American publishers to make use of the CD-ROM format for full, spoken English dialogue in their titles at a time when voice acting was not a common feature in most mainstream games.
Lunar: Eternal Blue is a role-playing video game developed by Game Arts in association with Studio Alex for the Sega CD as the sequel to Lunar: The Silver Star. The game was originally released in December 1994 in Japan, and later in North America in September 1995 by Working Designs. Eternal Blue expanded the story and gameplay of its predecessor, and made more use of the Sega CD's hardware, including more detailed graphics, longer, more elaborate animated cutscenes, and more extensive use of voice acting. Critics were mostly pleased with the title, giving particular merit to the game's English translation and further expansion of the role-playing game genre in CD format.
Import gamers are a subset of the video game player community that take part in the practice of playing video games from another region, usually from Japan where the majority of games for certain systems originate.
PlayStation Network (PSN) is a digital media entertainment service provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Launched in November 2006, PSN was originally conceived for the PlayStation video game consoles, but soon extended to encompass smartphones, tablets, Blu-ray players and high-definition televisions. This service is the account for PlayStation consoles, accounts can store games and other content.
Summon Night is a series of role-playing video games, mixed with elements of a visual novel based dating sim. The series is primarily developed by Flight-Plan, published by Banpresto, and owned by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The character designs are by Izuka Takeshi. The series has had six main line entries, and seven spin-off entries, spanning the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS video game consoles.
The history of Nintendo begins in 1889, founded to produce handmade hanafuda playing cards. In the mid-1900s, the company licensed third-party card graphics, such as Disney characters. In the 1960s, it expanded into countless varieties of toys, including original designs by Gunpei Yokoi. In the 1980s, it became one of the most prominent figures in the video game industry including designs by Shigeru Miyamoto such as mascot Mario and breakthrough hit arcade video game Donkey Kong. Nintendo Co., Ltd. is now the largest video game company by revenue, as a Japanese multinational consumer electronics company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan.
A video game console emulator is a type of emulator that allows a computing device to emulate a video game console's hardware and play its games on the emulating platform. More often than not, emulators carry additional features that surpass the limitations of the original hardware, such as broader controller compatibility, timescale control, greater performance, clearer quality, easier access to memory modifications, one-click cheat codes, and unlocking of gameplay features. Emulators are also a useful tool in the development process of homebrew demos and the creation of new games for older, discontinued, or rare consoles.
Class of Heroes is a role-playing video game dungeon crawler for the PlayStation Portable developed by Zero Div and published by Acquire in Japan and Atlus in North America. In Japan, the game was released on August 26, 2008; in North America, the game was released on June 9, 2009 by Atlus. In the game, players progress by navigating dungeons as hordes of enemies appear and attack in turn-based combat. Class of Heroes received mixed reviews from critics, with some appreciating the creative take on dungeon-crawling and others disliking the game's graphics and grind-based leveling system.
Miami Law, known in Japan and Europe as Miami Crisis, is an adventure video game developed by Hudson Soft for the Nintendo DS handheld system. Though produced by a Japanese company, the title was initially released in North America on June 9, 2009 and it was released in Europe on September 25, with the English localization being the first project by Gaijinworks since its establishment in 2006. Hudson Soft worked closely with Gaijinworks founder and head translator Victor Ireland on the project, who sent a research team to Miami, Florida to aid in development of the title. The game features music by hip hop group Miami Beat Wave, who were licensed by Ireland to give the game's location an authentic feel.
Online console gaming involves connecting a console to a network over the Internet for services. Through this connection, it provides users the ability to play games with other users online, in addition to other online services.
The Super NES CD-ROM System, known as the Super Famicom CD-ROM Adapter in Japan, is an unreleased add-on for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) video game console. It built upon the functionality of the cartridge-based SNES by adding support for a CD-ROM-based format known as Super Disc.
