An updated history of emulation

While working on my academic book project, I wanted to include a discussion on the history of emulation and video game emulators. After doing a little bit of digging, I found that there really wasn’t much published on the subject especially from the academic perspective. A gem that I found was a history written by Sam Pettus in 2000, which was an exhaustive list of emulators and everything tangential (computer and software history) that had details and info about emulators that was unknown by the common/visible histories of emulation today. But so much has changed in the two decades after Pettus’s history that I needed to expand upon it.

Most discussions about emulators revolve around their legality or their use in video game history preservation. So I set out to do some of the research myself, which has led to over 350 emulators being logged into a spreadsheet that I’m still updating. Through this comprehensive (but not exhaustive) accounting of the releases of emulators since their inception, I want to propose 5 distinct periods in their history based upon pivotal events: the Dawn of Emulation, the Golden Age of Emulation, the Silver Age of Emulation, the Bronze Age of Emulation, and the Modern Age of Emulation.

My method

To establish a comprehensive accounting of the first releases of emulators, I relied heavily upon multiple primary sources. First was Pettus’s history, which outlined most emulators up until the millennium. To fill in the gaps and extend that history, I then relied upon popular forums from that early time period (1Emulation, EmuTalk, Next Gen Emu, Emulator Zone) which had News boards announcing the releases of emulators. In addition, the popular sites Zophar’s Domain and Archaic Ruins were also consulted, which served as databases to compile emulators since the 1990s. And lastly, the EMUGen wiki was also used as a secondary source since it contained dates and links to emulators despite having launched much later than the others sources in 2013.

However, each of these announcements were cross-referenced across each other and the archives of the Wayback Machine when current hyperlinks were broken–which was a lot. And lastly the documentation of the emulators themselves was frequently analyzed to confirm information through the readme, about, and license text files. These digital sources and archives reveal a mosaic of information about releases of emulators and some discussion on their cultural impact and the emu-scene itself. This historical analysis of the records included hundreds of pages of forum posts, accounting for thousands of posts to be cross-referenced and fact checked.¹ While I did my best, capturing simple information such as release dates, names, authors, and licenses can be difficult: for example, there’s no conclusive record of when Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo Entertainment System was released in the United States.

History

Through this accounting of the release of emulators, I propose five periods within the history of emulation. Building upon the framework first established by Pettus, my research finds additional periods that have occurred in the subsequent decades. Each of these periods begin after a seismic event that changed the landscape of the emu-scene such as legal cases and technological breakthroughs. However, I exclude the pre-history of emulation—prior to 1964—as these advancements have been thoroughly documented in other historiographies of video games² and of computers.³

Dawn of Emulation: 1964-1988

• The first instance of emulation (1964) is the backwards compatibility of IBM mainframe computers. The System/360 and System/370 computers could read and use the software from previous generations.
• But the first PC emulator came in 1980 with Microsoft’s Z80 Softcard. This commercial hardware product used specialized software to emulate the CP/M operating system on the Apple II.
• This period is dominated by similar commercial products–hardware in the form of bridge cards, mod chips, peripherals, etc.–that gave users access to the software library of other platforms. Many emulators struggled with compatibility though.
• In 1988 the Sega Genesis/MegaDrive was the first console to be backwards compatible with the PowerBase Converter, which allowed Sega Master System cartridges to be played.
• In 1988 Readysoft announced their A-Max product. This was the first time that a fully functional emulator had been commercially released for a proprietary system. The A-max was a bridge board that could allow Amiga computers to emulate Apple Macintosh computers. Apple of course objected to this product–they worked so hard to prevent clones of their hardware and software from succeeding–and many in the emu-scene though a lawsuit was eminent.
• Notable emulators from this period include: 22NICE (for being the first true software emulator), the Spartan by Mimic Systems, and A64 by QuesTronix.

Golden Age of Emulation: 1989-1998

• But Apple never sued Readysoft after the release of the A-max in 1989. This became known as “The A-max Precedent,” because it solidified views that emulation was legal. Because the commercial A-max product contained no source code or IP of Apple, it seemed like legally they were protected. This paradigm shift encouraged individuals to build their own emulators instead of just companies.
• While the previous age was dominated by commercial hardware products, the Golden Age was a wave of free software made by individuals (or sometimes small teams). There was an explosion of emulators being developed during the 90’s, most of which were hobby projects that weren’t very functional and quickly abandoned by their creators. Developing emulators what could run at a normal frames-per-second, were compatible with (nearly) all commercial ROMs, and could play sound at normal speeds proved to be incredibly difficult.
• Sega v. Accolade (1992) rules in favor of reverse engineering and limits the reach of copyright on video game code. Another win for the emu-scene.
• This period was also when the SNES emulator war occurred, where developers of opposing SNES emulators had a public falling out and nasty drama. It was eventually ended when the developers merged their emulators into SNES9x, which is the leading SNES emulator to this day.
• Emulators and ROM sites went mainstream, and coupled with the commercial success of cartridge dumpers in the US & UK and the height of the WAREZ scene in the 90s meant that pirated software and games were well known.
• On March 22, 1998, the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA) mounts an all-out attack against ROM sites, threatening legal action for their software piracy. Over the course of six months nearly all ROM sites are shut down, along with a fair amount of emulation sites as well.
• Notable emulators from this period include: SNES9x (see above), NESticle, the Family Computer Emulator by Haruhisa Udagawa, and Virtual Game Boy by Marat Fayzullin.

Silver Age of Emulation: 1999-2008

• It takes the emu-scene over a year to recover from the IDSA action. This is also coupled with the passing of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998, which criminalizes the production and dissemination of technology that circumvents copyrighted works. Emulator development and the emu-scene went underground.
• Technology progressed so that high-level emulation was possible (as low-level emulation was the standard) and compatibility became high for emulators. High-level emulation emulates the functionality of a piece of hardware, without getting too deep into the specifics of how the hardware implements it. While low level emulation aims to emulate the hardware as faithfully as possible.
• The wave of small hobby projects has died down as emulators jockey to become the best of their platform. Compatibility again is on the rise and those emulators released are in better position than their peers from the previous age.
• Two high profile legal cases seem to solidify the legality of emulators in Sony v. Bleem (2000) and Sony v. Connectix (2000).
• Two major events signaled the end of the Silver Age in 2008: first was the release of the app stores for Android and the iPhone, and second was when the Dolphin emulator went open source. These two events signaled a change in the emu-scene once again as the mobile revolution meant that players were looking for handheld emulators and nostalgic for their video game past. When Dolphin became open source, it signaled its shift into the gold standard for modern emulation in the next age.
• Notable emulators from this period include: Virtual Game Station by Connectix, UltraHLE, DreamSNES, VisualBoy Advance, Ensata, and PCSX2.

Bronze Age of Emulation: 2008-2024

• With the mobile revolution comes a wave of Android emulators during 2008 & 2009. Later comes a wave of unofficial iPhone emulators as Apple takes a stance against emulation. These emulators signal a shift into handheld emulation which is later carried out by dedicated emulator devices starting in the late 2000s. The first dedicated emulation handheld was either the GP2X Wiz or the Dingoo A320, but both came out in 2009.
• With the new platform(s) comes a change in emulation as well. While there were some emulators ported to consoles in the previous age, the Bronze Age especially becomes a period of multi-platform-ability for emulators. Now you can emulate and play retro games on current consoles, and almost any platform has the potential for a port of SNES9x or VisualBoy Advance.
• Front ends for emulation also become popular during this period. A successful front end of this era is RetroArch or LibRetro, which consolidates many emulators and platforms into one. Front ends are especially important during this period for handheld emulators mentioned previously (Retroid Pocket series, Anbernic RG series, Miyoo Mini series, and Powkiddy RGB series).⁴ RetroPie is another popular front end as many players make use of the Raspberry Pi to build emulation devices.
• As mentioned previously, during this period the Dolphin emulator becomes the standard for emulation broadly. Its team of developers have pushed the platform above and beyond what the Gamecube or Wii could previously accomplish due to the emulator going FOSS. The community around Dolphin development are constantly refining the emulator to not only have near perfect compatibility, but also increasing amounts of QOL improvements such as graphical hacks (widescreen support, new textures), multiplayer capabilities, and improved performance (playing games at increased FPS and 4K resolution).
• On May 27, 2023, the Dolphin emulator team announced that they were retracting their desire to publish the emulator on the Steam store. Prior to this, the Dolphin emulator was going to come to the Steam platform, which of course would mean it gained visibility and accreditation. But Valve reached out to Nintendo in anticipation and sides with the game corporation after they voice their opposition to Dolphin being released on the platform. This of course couples with the announcement of the Nintendo vs. Yuzu lawsuit to signal a seismic shift in the legality and ethics of emulation.
• This age ends with the announcement of the Nintendo vs. Yuzu lawsuit. This case is settled out of court, but the legal argument from Nintendo signaled a nearly iron-clad approach that skirted the previous precedent for emulators. While other cases protected emulators so long as they didn’t use the source code or infringed on intellectual property, the lawsuit from Nintendo instead argued against DRM. Because of modern digital copy protection on console operating systems (such as the Switch) and on their games, it is impossible for modern emulators to function without cracking the DRM of both. Cracking digital protection such as this and distributing services to do so is very much illegal and highly enforced by other laws and acts, meaning Nintendo would likely win with this legal argument. As such, this signals a new approach to lawsuits from game corporations against emulation that are stronger and more likely to be won.
• Notable emulators from this period include: Cemu, Citra, RPCS3, Mednafen, Dxbx, and the “oid” series of emulators (Gameboid, Snesoid, etc.).

Modern Age of Emulation: 2024-Present

• In April 2024, Apple changes its stance on emulators and allows them on their App Store. This embrace of emulators has the potential to change the emu-scene dramatically.
• The fallout of Nintendo vs. Yuzu is another seismic shift in the emu-scene. Due to this threat many emulators pre-emptively shut down or are taken offline by their creators.
• Legality of emulators is called into question once again. In hindsight, many of the legal “victories” for emulation and emulators still ended in defeat: Accolade, the Bleem! company, and Connectix all went bankrupt not long after their legal battles. And while these cases set a precedent, they were also made by lesser courts (as opposed to the Supreme Court) over two decades ago. This means the legal defense of emulators is actually in a grey zone, where game corporations like Nintendo don’t want to take emulators to court for fear of codifying the legality any more, but at the same time they threaten legal action to any emulator they see as a threat.
• During this age it is apparent that there is a “Cold War,” between game publishers and developers of emulators. The nuclear big red button of legal action would likely disrupt the tension between the two, and neither party really wants to press it. However, this looming threat is only getting closer and someday soon it will be pressed and the emu-scene–and by extension all of video games–will be changed forever.
• This period or age will likely be rebranded or could be coined “The Great Emu-War” based upon what happens in the near future.

Conclusion

So why the history of emulators? Well I think it’s important to track when these software programs were released, how they changed the video game community, and how they were influenced by the current culture. A greater cultural study on emulators, emulation, and the emu-scene is needed and could build off this history. I hopefully will finish my spreadsheet soon and update this blog post accordingly, but I stand by my divisions of the history of emulation.

Emulation is a medium like others worthy of its own history and analysis, because playing a game through an emulator is vastly different from playing it on original hardware. So if there are histories of radio, television, and movies, why not a history of emulation?

1. Worth mentioning that almost 90% of posts in these news forums are updates to previous releases. After a while you see that many emulators got frequent updates announced while most did not. Big names like MAME were updated almost weekly. ↩︎
2. Malliet, S., & De Meyer, G. (2005). The history of the video game. Handbook of computer game studies, 23-45.
   Nooney, L. (2023). The Apple II Age: How the computer became personal. University of Chicago Press.
   Spring, D. (2015). Gaming history: computer and video games as historical scholarship. Rethinking History, 19(2), 207-221.
   Wolf, M. J. (Ed.). (2007). The video game explosion: a history from PONG to Playstation and beyond. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ↩︎
3. Denley, P., & Hopkin, D. (Eds.). (1987). History and computing (Vol. 1). Manchester University Press.
   Swade, D. (2022). The history of computing: a very short introduction. Oxford University Press.
   Mahoney, M. S. (2011). Histories of computing. Harvard University Press. ↩︎
4. Linux and Windows-powered handhelds such as Ayn Odin/Loki, and of course Valve’s Steam Deck, have their own OS and often don’t use Front Ends or specialized software to consolidate emulators. But they are worth mentioning at least, Windows-powered handhelds are another market that gained popularity during this period. ↩︎

Play a spooky game and kill some ghosts

Promotional art by Setenza

Happy Halloween! Just wanted to write a small blog since my game is almost done. Things are slowly falling into place: I’ve reached out to a supplier about making physical copies of my game, I got my promo art back that I commissioned, and the gameplay is getting there (still need to follow up with my collaborator about the music). I’m ironing out the bugs, and putting together some more promotional stuff for the official launch on December 1st.

But anyways, if you’re looking for something spooky to do today, try playing my game. It’s got ghosts! It’s free to play online, or you can download the Gameboy Color ROM and play on an emulator (or on official hardware if you’ve got a flashcart).

First Dev Log

Screenshot of my GB Studio project

Sometime in April of 2019 I discovered a newly released tool that played right into my research interests. I’ve been fascinated with retro consoles, gaming history, and the intersections with the modding community, and was looking into homebrew game development (after having backed a couple homebrew games for obsolete systems on Kickstarter, namely Tobu-Tobu Girl DX). Somehow I found out about GB Studio, a visual game engine for creating Gameboy games and was hooked. At the time, it was pretty barebones and could only really handle one type of game (top-down, JRPG-style games with minimal combat), and I tinkered around with making a few small games. One of my genius ideas at the time was to design a game that showcased my CV/resume as in-game dialogue that I would then give out to hiring committees and what-not in the future (an idea I still might revisit, but likely not).

But after getting sucked back into academia and being frustrated by the limitations of the system (and my complete lack of game development skills), I stepped away from the tool and game engines for a while. Then just a few months ago the creator tweeted a trailer for an update to the tool: upgrades for creating GBC games, especially in new genres such as platformers and point-and-click games. I was once again interested in creating a new game and dived back into the community around GB Studio.

Now, after a month of development I think I’m finally to the point where I want to document some of my journey into indie game development. As a personal history, I am a creative individual, having taken AP Studio Art in high school, and tried to pursue a degree in animation as an undergrad. But, my artistic skills have mostly languished in the decade since. It’s only in the past year that I’ve also explored similar skills tangential to game design (I recently taught myself Blender and 3D modeling, as well as took an introductory VR design course). Coding has always terrified me, I’m not really a fan of terminals and lines of code. But as GB Studio is extremely beginner friendly (described as “a quick and easy to use drag and drop retro game creator” on the website), I decided to give it a go.

Gameplay footage from my alpha build; the gem is a placeholder for the dialogue avatar

I’ve crafted a functional alpha build of the game, as hosted on my newly formed itch.io page. While the game itself is going to continue to change and evolve, I thought I would make it open and available for the public. I decided to tap into some of my interests at the time, mainly a spiritual successor to Metroid and Luigi’s Mansion. I wanted to capture that feeling of spelunking and exploring caves, that adventurous and suspenseful feeling of wanting to go deeper, but being terrified of what might happen. I’ve also tried to ground my platformer in reality (oddly enough, since it’s enemies are ghosts), eschewing standards of the genre for more basic environments and design. On one hand, I really want it to look and feel like a real cave, but also explore the exaggerated elements of that adventure.

But it’s been a great experience so far, and has distracted me from my PhD program and the overall terrible-ness of 2020. I’m excited to flesh out more mechanics (such as the flashlight-based combat system), the story, and bring on a couple freelancers to help out with aspects of the game. I might be able to do the pixel art, but I’m not going to attempt the box art illustration. And I definitely don’t want to teach myself how to make chiptunes for this game.

What makes a Zelda game?

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I’ve been thinking a lot about the series as a whole. With the announcement of the Breath of the Wild trilogy (Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity as the prequel we didn’t know we wanted), it seems as if Nintendo is really leaning into their exploration of the series and its core. While I kind of enjoy the original Hyrule Warriors, its not really my cup of tea. I bought it mostly so that I would have a multiplayer game to enjoy with my brother, and we both got bored of it pretty quickly. Which then leads into discussions about this new series of games (including the Breath of the Wild sequel). Even now, three years later, I really enjoy Breath of the Wild and think it’s still the best in the series. But there are a large group of fans who like the game, but feel like it strayed too much from the formula.

In fact, the above article I linked to comes from Two Guys Playing Zelda, and discusses what the author (Nate Merritt) considers to be integral parts of the Zelda formula that Breath of the Wild excluded:

• No sense of discovery
• Lack of excitement/mystery/secrets, especially when opening chests
• Lack of tools
• Lack of musical involvement
• Lack of dungeons and amount of shrines
• Shrine puzzle difficulty
• Level of boss difficulty and lack luster boss fights

Now I’m not going to debate these points, rather my objective in this blog post is to explore what at the core is expected in a Zelda game. I remember still when Metroid Prime was released on the Gamecube, all of the uproar about changing the series too much to become a FPS. However, I think in retrospect many fans have come to love that game and it’s following sequels, despite it’s evolution into the 3D space.

So, if the Zelda series is evolving to include Hyrule Warriors (from a very different genre), how else can it evolve? What other genres could be explored, and feel as natural/enjoyable to Zelda fans? I don’t really have an answer, but it’s something that I’ve been mulling over for a while. While I think that in some ways, it is fun to experiment across genres (like making a 2D Metroid game that is a top-down shooter instead of a platformer), I am curious to see what minor mechanical tweaks could be made such as borrowing from similar subgenres.

One element that I think would be beneficial would be Rogue-like randomization, or procedurally-generated dungeons. I’m not the first to suggest that, in fact there is a great proof of concept Rogue-like Zelda fan game you should check out (made using the Solarus engine). Game scholar/critic Mark Brown has made a series of YouTube videos discussing what he thinks makes a great Zelda dungeon, which basically boils down to branching paths that promote true exploration and problem solving, instead of being led down a one-way corridor.

So having a randomized dungeon would solve two issues: replayability, while also making dungeons that are unique and not overtly authored (on-way corridors). However, there are also staples of Zelda dungeons that differentiate themselves from Spelunky maps, in that there are a series of locked doors and keys. Progression is halted until the player either finds the small key, the hookshot, or other triggers to unlock the way ahead of them. So while it would be fun to play a randomized dungeon that has multiple branching paths that lead to the end, there should also be dead ends and roadblocks. And purists would also enjoy having key items return for environmental puzzles (such as using the boomerang to destroy obstacles and pull switches).

But another element that I think would be much easier to implement would be progression in difficulty in open-world Zelda games. One common critique between Breath of the Wild and A Link Between Worlds is that both of these games are open in their direction (no set dungeon completion schedule), but that also means all of the dungeons are of equal difficulty and become too easy very quickly. A simple solution would be to have the dungeons increase in difficulty based upon the amount of magical McGuffins the player has in store. While this could be as labor intensive as creating 3-4 different versions of each dungeon (such as increasing the room count), it could also just be a variable of changing the types of monsters found in each dungeon.

I think that open-world Zelda is the best Zelda, because it truly taps into the core of the series which has always been about exploration or discovery. The original 1986 game was inspired by Miyamoto’s childhood spelunking. And if the series is to continue, I think it needs to find great ways to develop open-world Zelda exploration, instead of being trapped in theme-park ride where you are held hostage by the storyline.

Zelda Hacking Tools/Communities

A research idea that has been budding in my head for years now is one about mod communities for video games. I am just fascinated by all the Pokemon hacks, (and started playing Crystal Clear recently), and enjoy the space occupied by these communities that blend nostalgia and remix into older games and hardware. However, I still have yet to solidify a theoretical framework for these communities, let alone a method for study. So for now, they’re just interests.

But recently I’ve been engaged in the GB Studio community, which seems to have a healthy amount of devs and fans who are interested in creating “demakes” of popular games for the Gameboy hardware. And this preoccupation with recreating classics (typically Nintendo games, such as Ocarina of Time or Animal Crossing) led me to once again do some Googling to find other Zelda hacking/mod communities.

In the past I’ve written about how I modded the ROM for A Link to the Past for my MA thesis experiment using Hyrule Magic, or how I was exploring the Wind Waker randomizer/modding community for a follow-up experiment. So I have some experience with the Zelda modding community as well as the dev side of things (never did finish my Blender meshes for the WWRandomizer though). I figured that surely there are others out there modding the other games in the franchise.

So I found the ZOLE program (Zelda Oracle Level Editor), because like I said, I’m on a Gameboy craze right now. I thought that it would be a fun program to tinker around with, joined their Discord, only to discover that a new program was released, LynnaLab. I thought I was lucky with ZOLE, because it had a small playlist of tutorials on YouTube to explain some of the basics of editing the Oracle of Ages ROM, but LynnaLab has almost no resources for newbies like myself. I’m still struggling to see what improvements LynnaLab has over the older program (more features?), but as of now I only know that while ZOLE edits the ROM directly, LynnaLab modifies the files from the disassembly of the game. Which is better I guess? I’m honestly not a developer, coder, or a computer science guy, so I’m learning a lot on my feet.

So basically, this blog post was my attempt to encourage you to explore the output of these modding communities. Or if you want, to test out these tools (I know I am). I think that maybe in the future I’ll try to finish the feminist work of Kenna Warsinske by making Zelda the hero of the Oracle games. As of now, I’m exploring what it really means to be a Zelda game, and what the essence of this series encapsulates, perhaps by riffing and experimenting with new mechanics or genres.

Thoughts on the Nintendo Gigaleak

So I’m finally getting around to talking about my thoughts about the gigaleak. Basically, if you were unaware, there was a lot of alpha builds, source code, and other things that was leaked online through shady means. There is very little doubt that the files released were hacked or stolen.

There have been a lot of others who have commented on this gigaleak. Basically the major thought from game critics, historians, and fans, has boiled down to this: we wish Nintendo would naturally release these sorts of things on their own, and do not condone the methods, but are appreciative of what we’ve found. So let’s unpack this common opinion.

1. Nintendo should release these sorts of things on their own
   So as I’ve matured in my research, I’ve become more and more interested in video game history. And sadly, it is a sub-field of media history that is sorely underdeveloped. There are archivists and historians working very hard to build up the history of the medium, but sadly the developers have not been as transparent or open as we would hope. Coming back to Nintendo, their best example of sharing the history of their games would be Hyrule Historia, where they have 3-4 pages of concept art per game and call it a day. No releasing of other development materials (early designs, code notes, timelines, narratives, interviews), and strictly holding onto the source code. While the later point kind of makes sense (Nintendo is still profiting off of their backlog of games, as each generation gives them a chance to resell the games on Virtual Consoles), there still is no reason for these 20+ year old games to still be such a mystery to video game history.
2. We don’t condone the methods of hacking to steal game history
   I’m not sure what else to say about this. No one wants to profit or benefit from stolen materials, and hacking is typically not a public good.
3. We appreciate what we’ve been given
   Honestly, it’s just mind blowing what was leaked! The source code revealing that Luigi was planned for Mario 64, the email about a Chinese company pitching a Pokemon MMO back in 2004, and the beta sprites from other Pokemon games. This kind of behind-the-scenes information is just incredible, and honestly important to the historical narrative of these early Nintendo titles. While some of the leak includes very personal emails, for the most part people have really enjoyed digging through the leaked materials and finding all kinds of cool stuff.

I personally hope that this is a watershed moment. That game developers will learn from this leak and find ways to compile the history of their development in the moment and then orchestrate the release of these accounts in the future. I am wary that this might lead to more secrecy and less transparency from the major development companies. But I’m optimistic about the future.

What should be our major takeaway? That if you’re working on something creative there is a good chance in the future someone will want to know about its creation. Save things. Maybe don’t be a packrat, but keep records. And then share them! Video game history and its preservation is a struggling new field, but it can grow as developers share more.

Grinding for JP: How Final Fantasy Tactics Teaches Perseverance

Introduction

Gamers talk about the grind, the act of slowly inching towards a numeric value, or of working tirelessly towards a goal. This act seems to consume so many mechanics and aspects of games, including the wonderful Final Fantasy series. However, there is one game in the series that arguably uses this act of grinding for the benefit of the player. Final Fantasy Tactics uses its story about the quest of Ramza in a cutthroat, political, and backstabbing kingdom in a civil war and matches it with gameplay mechanics about working through small goals towards larger ones. As part of a network of interrelated games, the Tactics series includes the original on the PlayStation, a spin-off on the Gameboy Advance (Final Fantasy Tactics Advance) and its sequel on the Nintendo DS (Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2), and the remastered port of the original game released on the PlayStation Portable (Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions). While all of these games share similar mechanics and could apply to this chapter, it is the story of War of the Lions that proved to be the definitive one for the research.

In a series of great games, Final Fantasy Tactics can feel like an outlier for its break from the norms of the JRPG genre. Instead of the character-focused story arcs and development, this game sees the player engage in continual strategy-based battles, moving units across the game board to fight the opponent. However, this game’s new set of mechanics and systems encourage the player to engage in different types of thinking and processing, focusing on long-term goals over short-term ones. With this focus on playing smarter, instead of impulsively, Final Fantasy Tactics requires the player to endure or persevere, leading to a more satisfying experience. Not only that but learning perseverance from this game has additional benefits to the player, allowing them to be more successful in life and overcome challenges. Psychologist Angela Duckworth has done extensive research into the benefits of perseverance and grit, finding that those who develop this attribute are more successful than those with pure talent (Duckworth, 2016). In this way, playing one more random encounter on Mandalia Plains can give you the grit and determination to accomplish other difficult things, such as completing college or securing a desirable job.

What is Final Fantasy Tactics?

Developed by the same team behind the strategy games Ogre Battle and Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy Tactics incorporates many of the same mechanics and style of that genre. It is a strategy role-playing game (SRPG) that is a spin-off of the main series, incorporating known elements and characters (Cloud is a playable character, chocobos are present, and Matoya Cave is an allusion to the first game of the series) that takes place in the medieval-inspired kingdom of Ivalice. In this game, players command small groups of their party in encounters on three-dimensional isometric battlefields, strategically moving and attacking with their units. Class specialization is also a key component of this game—a borrowed Final Fantasy trope—where each unit can learn abilities within in order to advance along the branching job tree. These mechanics then lead to a unique Final Fantasy experience, one where the player plans and maps out not only the physicality of moving their units, but also how they assemble their teams, how to combat the checks and balances of the game, and the long-term goals of job-planning.

Coming back to the genre of the SRPG, you can trace its origins back to wargames which then were inspired by another tactical game, chess (Peterson, 2012). Chess too is a game of coordinating units, managing threats, advancing across a game board, and thinking in the long-term as well as short-term. Playing Final Fantasy Tactics then feels similar, where players are much like chess masters who must be calculating, objective, and play into the endgame (a term from chess outlining when some pieces must be sacrificed in order to achieve the desired victory).

Unlike real-time strategy games such as StarCraft or Command and Conquer, which emphasize concurrent playing—hence the “real-time”—SRPGs like Final Fantasy Tactics rely upon alternating turns, as well as progression outside of each match. Actions within this game award you with experience points to level up your base stats, while job points are given toward mastering the skills of your unit’s job. Thus the performance in each battle can lead to future successes, future jobs, and long-term effects for your team in a compounding way (much like traditional RPGs).

The differences in this game separate it from the main series. This game uniquely affects gamers in a way to teach endurance and perseverance. Grinding through Final Fantasy Tactics is different than the grind of Final Fantasy VII. By playing this game, each battle prepares gamers to have grit and to stick it out to the end. Below are three different ways that Final Fantasy Tactics teaches perseverance in the player through its story and its game play mechanics, and why that matters to gamers.

Problem Solving in Final Fantasy Tactics

An interesting subplot in the complex story of Final Fantasy Tactics is the relationship between the commoners and the nobles. Throughout the game, there are instances where the nobles disregard commoners and treat peasants as inferiors, leading to the frequent revolutions and uprisings apart of the War of the Lions. This reactionary spirit is also found in the Corpse Brigade, who find ways to use their limited power, influence, and resources to fight a losing battle against the nobles and the Church. The Corpse Brigade exemplify the game play mechanic of problem solving, as they use any tactic they can to fight against the societal pressures that drove them to seek revolution (such as holding Elmdore for ransom).

This story arc of the Corpse Brigade is similar to the mechanics of the game, where players of Final Fantasy Tactics must work within limitations to persevere. Some of these limitations include how the permanence of the movement phase (no undo option), and when units die, there is a window of three turns to resurrect them with a Phoenix Down, or they are permanently dead (a mechanic known as perma-death). Thus, these mechanics require what is known as “strategic decisions,” as the consequences of your actions have to be weighed before you make your decision (Child, 1997). The psychology of these strategic decisions means that gamers have to choose among actions that have gravity (not being able to redo movement, and the threat of perma-death) and engage in a conservative play style, leading to longer turns. Thus the psychology of strategic decisions is implemented in the mechanics of this game.

These mechanics value long-term thinking, seeing the bigger picture, and not rushing through things. This affects the play style, and how gamers solve the problems they are faced with—defeating the enemies in the battle. Final Fantasy Tactics, like other strategy games, increase perseverance as there is a direct connection between playing strategy games and learning problem-solving skills (Keller, 1990). The continual process of evaluating where to move a summoner and how to utilize a monk’s Doom Fist leads to greater levels of perseverance. Thus, like the Corpse Brigade, gamers choose to fight within their restrictions, hopefully to a better end than that doomed mercenary group. Gamers learn that they can overcome the challenges of one more random encounter and that your careful work and problem solving will pay off in the end.

The Grind of Battle

This game begins with the kingdom of Ivalice just recovering from the Fifty Years’ War against Ordalia. This ordeal has ramifications on the story of the game, especially on the power vacuum that is caused by the death of King Omdoria. Immediately after the lengthy and tedious war with a neighboring kingdom, the people of Ivalice find themselves in a fight for succession known as the Lion War, as each side aligns with either Prince Goltana (under the banner of the Black Lion) or Prince Larg (under the banner of the White Lion). This conflict was bloody, ruthless, and full of complex motives and political intrigue. Within this storyline comes the majority of the drama of Final Fantasy Tactics, and this complicated and lengthy war for the throne of Ivalice is reminiscent of the grind of battle. The people of Ivalice had just persevered through fifty years of war, only to then engage again in a civil war. This story mirrors the game play mechanic of the grind of battle, and how it teaches perseverance to gamers.

While most games in the Final Fantasy series implement random encounters, they serve a much different purpose in Final Fantasy Tactics. In the main series—like other JRPGs—the random encounters and boss fights are a second part of the game. These encounters are interspersed within the actions of the overworld: exploring, solving puzzles, revealing cutscenes, etc. You could even argue that these battles and encounters pause the “real game,” and break the flow of playing a Final Fantasy game. However, in Final Fantasy Tactics, the other familiar parts of the game are stripped back to their barest parts. Gone are games of Blitzball, Triple Triad, and Chocobo breeding; the overworld is a simple map with lines and dots for the locations; and it wasn’t until the PSP port that the cutscenes were animated. Instead, this game is all about the grind of battles. While the story itself is an intricate and branching web of politics in the vein of Game of Thrones, this story is not the focus of the game, but rather giving the motivation to persevere through the long and arduous battles.

Play sessions of Final Fantasy Tactics are typically one grueling battle after another in constant succession. Like the story of Ivalice’s Lion’s War following the Fifty Years’ War, there is almost no break in between the battles. And another way to look at what makes the battles in Final Fantasy Tactics different is how they feel. The battles of this game feel more like a raid from online MMORPGs, which require the balance of multiple moving parts, as each unit has a specialization and role to fill, while also anticipating the opponent’s next move. The experience of Final Fantasy Tactics battles are tests of endurance and perseverance, which can be cut short via the turbo functions of emulators (as evidenced by Twitch streamers of this game). This game is about the grind of battles, but in a good way, as the game is built around glorifying this mechanic and making it fun.

Growth and Jobs

As the story of Final Fantasy Tactics continues, Delita joins with Prince Goltana and rises through the ranks. As he works in the background of many of the pivotal story points, he increases in strength, ability, and gains the trust of the Black Lions. His ascension through the hierarchy showcases his perseverance and dedication to his wants. He takes control of his own destiny, and over time works with both sides to double cross in order to realize his grand ambitions. Delita’s character then mirrors the mechanics of this game, as he grows and adapts, advancing in his jobs and responsibilities in order to have upward mobility. Delita exemplifies perseverance through progression, growth, and in a way the job tree that is core to the game.

Thus the third way that Final Fantasy Tactics teaches perseverance is through the growth that comes out of each battle. Turns out that these two—growth and perseverance—are directly correlated when playing games (Sproule et al., 2011). By building instances of growth and progression into the game, Final Fantasy Tactics encourages gamers to see the potential of their long term goals, and what they can accomplish as they persevere. While the main series of Final Fantasy games have this in spades (try maxing out your stats and characters in Final Fantasy II), what makes Final Fantasy Tactics unique is the branching job tree.

In many ways, this game is a “choose your own adventure,” in that you get to build your own dream units, of which there are so many options and paths to get there. Say you want to have a dancer, do you go the squire > knight > monk > geomancer > dancer route, or do you go the squire > archer > thief > lancer > dancer route? And that is just one job, some are more complex than that (mime has nearly a dozen paths to achieve). Instead of one direct, linear path of evolution—like with Pokémon—there are so many different paths and various levels or tiers of jobs. This means that planning out your ideal build can take some time, and some effort, and some perseverance.

Getting your ideal job combination then takes time, as well as a lot of effort. Lots of random encounters to grind up to what you want. And maybe you don’t know what you want out of your unit. Improvising is possible, but it leads to stumbling into the systems and the mechanics, eventually learning them and wanting to utilize them. You learn how important it is to focus on the long-term consequences of your actions (learning stone throw can lead to something greater down the line). The complex job tree with its interlocking branching paths teaches perseverance as it requires careful learning of skills from job points to eventually advance to the next level, and the next level, and the next level.

In a blog post for Psychology Today, Christopher Bergland (2011) writes about the neuroscience of perseverance. As a world-record-holding endurance runner, he writes about the chemical processes that happen in our brains to enable us to endure. He refers to a dopamine cycle or a repeated process where our brains release dopamine, the pleasure chemical (Bergland, 2011). When we do something pleasurable (such as finish a race, or finally defeat Wiegraf), our brains create dopamine. And our body craves having dopamine again, so we try to recreate that scenario by running another race, or playing one more random encounter. This spike in dopamine and our body’s craving for it again can be seen in the repeated rewards we receive for our short-term achievements towards our long-term goals.

Delita’s character is driven by his long term goals. He sees the big picture and how he wants to shape the Lions War. He perseveres by advancing through the ranks of the Black Lions, and his upward progression is similar to the advancements and growth gamers cultivate within their units. Like mentioned earlier, the units in Final Fantasy Tactics grow and advance in levels with each battle. And as gamers accomplish these smaller milestones, there are spikes of dopamine which encourages the perseverance necessary to work out the larger goals of the branching and complicated job tree. It turns out that when individuals are rewarded for their efforts, they are more likely to persist (Eisenberger, 1992 & 1994). Thus, Delita embodies the advancement of playing a tactical game, and his perseverance is an example to gamers.

The importance of grit

The climax of the game ends with Ramza and his allies successfully destroying Ultima. Their hard work pays off, and yet it is because of the historian Arazlam that this story is even told. Their victory is manipulated and twisted throughout time, in order to fit the politics of the day, and so Arazlam digs through the history to recount the true story of this game. This means that Arazlam’s motives and character mirrors that of Ramza, who persevered until the end, despite repeated obstacles and difficulties. And this story mirrors how the gameplay affects the player, who also like Ramza or Arazlam perseveres.

This game then is a training ground for perseverance. This game teaches players to problem solve through the definite consequences of their actions, to love the grind of battle, and to map out and plan their units’ growth. This psychology of Final Fantasy Tactics then teaches gamers to persevere and to endure. But what does it mean to have that attribute or skill? Why would players want to learn perseverance? What does that mean to them?

It turns out that perseverance is tied directly to the psychological concept of grit, as defined by Angela Duckworth. Her research on the psychology of achievement, and why people succeed compared to others, led to her theory on grit as being a combination of perseverance and passion (Duckworth, 2016; Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, & Kelly, 2007). Duckworth wanted to know why some individuals achieved their goals, while others did not. Talent did not seem to be an indicator of success: lots of brilliant people fail and lots of skilled athletes don’t win the gold medal. She found that grit is what correlated strongly with achievement, and in many ways could even predict success (Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, & Kelly, 2007). Her theory then explains how perseverance combined with passion can lead to success, such as patiently raising your mime in Final Fantasy Tactics over the course of many long battles (a job that requires skills from most others in the game, mimes require five levels in Dragoon, Geomancer, Orator, and Summoner alongside eight levels in Squire and Chemist).

In her seminal book, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, Duckworth explains some of the benefits of grit. The grittier that a person is, the more likely they will enjoy a healthy emotional life, and benefit from greater skill (which is different than talent, which is something you are born with; skill is something you practice). This concept of grit was first explored in 1940 by researchers at Harvard who administered the Treadmill Test with 130 sophomores at the school. This study asked participants to run on a treadmill set at a steep angle and a fast speed for as long as they could, with the average time being four minutes. This experience was chosen because running that hard was not just a test of physical strength, but also of strength of will (Duckworth, 2016). And it turns out, that how long participants were able to run on the treadmill was a reliable indicator of psychological adjustment through adulthood. Decades later, George Vaillant is the lead researcher still measuring the effects of the grit displayed by these participants who ran as long as they could on a treadmill and what that meant to their future.

There is a growing interest in the psychology of grit and how to measure it, as some of the current surveys don’t quite capture its nuance (Credé, Tynan, & Harms, 2017). Perseverance though seems to be more prevalent, as it seems to be an important component of grit (Credé, Tynan, & Harms, 2017) as well as resilience (Robertson-Kraft & Duckworth, 2014). Related to perseverance, resilience is defined as successfully adapting to overwhelming adversity and stress (Robertson-Kraft & Duckworth, 2014). Which in many ways describes the challenges and obstacles of Final Fantasy Tactics. Perseverance makes up grit and resilience. Perseverance is discipline, hope, and dedication. It is wanting so badly to earn enough job points to finally have a bard, and working at it through repeated long-form battles. It is working towards your long term goals of having the perfect team of units with maxed out stats. And perseverance in Final Fantasy Tactics leads to grit for accomplishing our other goals.

Conclusion

The mechanics of this game are interlocking systems that work together to create a unified experience. Game scholar Ian Bogost (2008) described this in his book Unit Operations: An Approach to Videogame Criticism, stating that video games are made up of mechanics that work together to accomplish the whole. There are many aspects of this game (interlocking mechanics) that work together to accomplish the goal of teaching gamers to persevere. This isn’t just exclusive to Final Fantasy Tactics though: video essayist Alex Van Aken (2017) argues that fighting games such as Absolver also teach us perseverance through similar processes. Through the process of persistently learning, adapting, and surviving, players learn to persevere in spite of challenging mechanics and more skilled players (Van Aken, 2017). Patience is what is needed to succeed in Absolver, as well as Final Fantasy Tactics.

Perseverance as a trait is what separates winners from losers in sports and life (Bergland, 2011). Learning perseverance from this game gives us as players the ability to persist in other challenges. To find little rewards along the way to our long-term goals. The interlocking mechanics that Bogost describes include perma-death and permanent movement, lack of an overworld and instead a focus on battles, a complex job tree with seemingly unobtainable combinations and evolutions, and many more. All of these traits of Final Fantasy Tactics lead to an experience in learning perseverance. Perseverance and grit are valuable, as they lead to success in various activities, from winning the national spelling bee to finishing boot camp at West Point (Duckworth, 2016). If we want to persist in other areas of our life and have a story of overcoming the odds we should learn and cultivate perseverance.

 

 

References

Bergland, C. (2011). The neuroscience of perseverance: Dopamine reinforces the habit of perseverance. Psychology Today. Retrieved from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/201112/the-neuroscience-perseverance

Bogost, I. (2008).Unit operations: An approach to videogame criticism. MIT press.

Child, J. (1997). Strategic choice in the analysis of action, structure, organizations and environment: Retrospect and prospect. Organization studies, 18(1), 43-76.

Credé, M., Tynan, M. C., & Harms, P. D. (2017). Much ado about grit: A meta-analytic synthesis of the grit literature. Journal of Personality and social Psychology,113(3), 492.

Duckworth, A. (2016).Grit: The power of passion and perseverance. New York, NY: Scribner.

Duckworth, A. L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M. D., & Kelly, D. R. (2007). Grit: perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal of personality and social psychology,92(6), 1087.

Eisenberger, R. Kuhlman, D. M., & Cotterell, N. (1992). Effects of social values, effort training, and goal structure on task persistence. Journal of Research in Personality, 26, 258-272.

Eisenberger, R. & Selbst, M. (1994). Does reward increase or decrease creativity? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 116-1127.

Keller, J. J. (1990). Strategy Games: Developing Positive Attitudes and Perseverance toward Problem Solving with Fourth Graders.

Peterson, J. (2012). Playing at The World: A History of Simulating Wars, People and Fantastic Adventures, From Chess to Role-Playing Games. San Diego: Unreason Press.

Robertson-Kraft, C., & Duckworth, A. L. (2014). True grit: Trait-level perseverance and passion for long-term goals predicts effectiveness and retention among novice teachers. Teachers College record (1970),116(3).

Ross, L., Lepper, M. R., & Hubbard, M. (1975). Perseverance in self-perception and social perception: biased attributional processes in the debriefing paradigm. Journal of personality and social psychology,32(5), 880.

Sproule, J., Ollis, S., Gray, S., Thorburn, M., Allison, P., & Horton, P. (2011). Promoting perseverance and challenge in physical education: the missing ingredient for improved games teaching. Sport, Education and Society,16(5), 665-684.

Van Aken, A. (2017). Absolver: How fighting games teach us perseverance. [Video file]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUX1fXtzh2o

White, R. E., Prager, E. O., Schaefer, C., Kross, E., Duckworth, A. L., & Carlson, S. M. (2017). The “Batman Effect”: Improving perseverance in young children. Child development,88(5), 1563-1571.

Object Biography – Tobu Tobu Girl DX

Below is a short paper I wrote for an art history class assignment. Enjoy!

Tobu Tobu Girl was originally developed during the third GBJam[1] in 2016[2]. This prototype was then revised, expanded upon, until a completed version was released on December 3, 2017[3]. As a homebrew game, it was developed by a small, independent team (based in Denmark, Tangram Games), and not licensed by Nintendo, the hardware manufacturer for the Game Boy console. While Tobu Tobu Girl was an open-sourced game—free to download—it was still only the software that was available, or the ROM file that could be emulated on other devices, instead of played natively on the original hardware. As the Game Boy platform was also 28 years old[4] at the release of Tobu Tobu Girl, it was not likely to receive critical acclaim and could be seen more as a passion project. However, less than two years later on April 4, 2019, a Kickstarter campaign was launched in conjunction with First Press Games, to bring a remaster of the game to physical cartridges[5]. This Kickstarter campaign was a success—and how I received my copy—with the remaster being released on October 28, 2019[6]. The limited edition (of which I own) cost €64 plus shipping.

As a physical, technology device, it is composed of a variety of components and elements, including (but not limited to): plastic, silicon, a small lithium battery, and other rare earth metals[7]. The components alone could merit an essay, but I’ll attempt to briefly describe them here. Discarded, used electrical and electronic devices, known as “e-waste” is harmful to the environment—as noted by the United Nations—due to the toxic substances they are made out of, such as mercury, cadmium, and lead, which seep out.[8] E-waste is a globalized business, with about 70-80% of it shipped to landfills in developing nations where it is sorted and sold for scrap metal, or burned to extract materials.[9] A lack of regulation makes the e-waste industry especially dangerous, as there are few laws to protect marginalized groups and ensure their safety and the proper recycling of these hazardous and toxic products.[10] While the production and disposal of tech products is not heavily regulated and harmful to the environment, consumer attitudes or awareness about it is minimal, leading to some grass roots efforts to discuss the problems.[11]

As a physical object, its origins are varied and dependent upon the global supply chain, of which I can only speculate. However, as a cultural object the software is much easier to determine its origins. As mentioned earlier, there are two parties involved in the creation of this product, Tobu Tobu Girl Deluxe. The developers, Simon Jonas Larsen and Lukas Erritsø Hansen, are Danish video game designers who are active in the game development community, as evidenced by their participation in GBJam. While the Nordic countries are not among the primary centers of video game development—as major studios are typically found in North America or Eastern Asia—there has been a recent surge in government-funding to study video games as well as subsidies to encourage the industry to grow (Citation). The second party involved in the creation of this object was the producer, First Press Games, which is headquartered in Japan. This relationship, between the development studio of Tangram Games and the production studio of First Press, is common in media industries such as film and television which often require multiple businesses to ensure that the creative product is delivered to its intended audience. Tangram Games were able to write the code and produce the original software, but with First Press Games—and especially the Kickstarter campaign—came the funding and expertise to remake the game by adding color graphics, while also producing and selling physical cartridges of the game.

However, there are signifiers of the influence that Japanese culture has had on the software product, the game itself. The word tobu (とぶ) in Japanese is a verb meaning to jump, leap, spring, bound, hop, fly, or soar. The box art and the accompanying art direction for the game relies heavily upon anime-styling, calling to early Japanese video games that were developed for the Game Boy. The pastel watercolors, the large eyes, and the cartoonish proportions might come from the source material, but the end product feels timeless. As this product is meant to draw upon the nostalgia of consumers for Game Boy games, it also conveys a modern feel and artistic quality. It is neither an artifact of the past, or the present, but a blend of the two.

While this object has not directly influenced history, it is heavily influenced by it. As mentioned previously, this product is a cultural artifact of video game nostalgia. It is a homebrew game, meaning it was designed unofficially to work with traditional hardware and software. It was designed based upon the history of video games, with the designers learning from the mistakes and successes of previous games. And yet, while it is meant to feel like an older game, its success likely paves the way for more and more homebrew games to be developed for older game systems, influencing a new wave of video game developers. These designers grew up playing video games, and are now trying to recreate that feeling and atmosphere by designing for older hardware and older software, and releasing new games. There are many successful Kickstarter Campaigns similar to Tobu Tobu Girl Deluxe, some of which I have contributed to. These games are defining the history of the medium, by revealing a preoccupation with the past instead of a predominance for the future. While in terms of art and style, timeless design comes and goes in and out of fashion, technology is typically obsessed with capturing the now and the forthcoming. Devices and tools may become obsolete in years, taking with them the creative industries that support and rely upon them. While few are recreating the ecosystems of these older video game generations—including their parent companies, who are only focused on the business of now—games like Tobu Tobu Girl Deluxe are evidence of an interesting subculture.

[1] The GBJam is a “game jam,” or an event where game designers and developers are given a project or theme, and then create a game from scratch within a short period of time (in the instance of GBJam, it is to create a playable game for the Game Boy system).

[2] TangramGames

[3] TangramGames

[4] Wikipedia

[5] Kickstarter

[6] TangramGames

[7] For this assignment I actually took the cartridge apart and documented its internals, see the Appendix.

[8] Bidwell

[9] Gilpin

[10] Gilpin

[11] Brown

Bibliography

Tangram Games. Press release. Accessed on February 7, 2020. Retrieved from: https://tangramgames.dk/tobutobugirldx/press/

Kickstarter Campaign. Accessed on February 7, 2020. Retrieved from: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/firstpressgames/tobu-tobu-girl-deluxe-for-gb-gbc

Wikipedia. Accessed on February 7, 2020. Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy

Lyndsey Gilpin. June 11, 2014. Tech Republic. “The depressing truth about e-waste: 10 things to know.” Accessed February 12, 2020. Retrieved from: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/the-depressing-truth-about-e-waste-10-things-to-know/

Allie Bidwell. December 16, 2013. US News. “U.N. seeks to solve growing global e-waste problem.” Accessed February 12, 2020. Retrieved from: https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/12/16/un-seeks-to-solve-growing-global-e-waste-problem

Mark Brown. September 14, 2011. Wired. “Apple bans Phone Story game that exposes seedy side of smartphone creation.” Accessed February 13, 2020. Retrieved from: https://www.wired.com/2011/09/phone-story/

 

 

 

Appendix

Figure 1: The front of the cartridge; this is the “Western” limited edition of the game, the “Japanese” edition is pink with matching pink box art.

Figure 2: The rear of the cartridge; at the top reads “Made by FPG.”

Figure 3: The interior of the cartridge; components from NEC in Japan, Altera in America, Fujitsu in Japan, and Texas Instruments in America.

Current Social Distancing Mood

I think that I am not alone in my current mixed feelings about the pandemic: I’ve been trying to grapple with productivity during this traumatic experience. Have I been nearly as productive as I hoped? Nope. In my work-life balance I have had to shift closer to the life aspect, with two kids at home and a newborn (as of last week).

I really wanted to vent about a frustrating process I had with an editor for a trade book on video games, but I’m trying to be professional about it (and instead subtweet). But instead I think I’m just going to apologize for the radio silence. I’ve got a blog post or two in me, one of which is the rejected chapter mentioned previously. So hopefully I can get those on paper digitally soon.

I think though that I really just wanted to write this publicly: it’s okay. It’s okay that I’ve not been writing lately. It’s okay that I haven’t been on the academic publishing grind. It’s okay that I’ve not been able to make time for myself. It’s okay when I have. I’m going to get through this, and find something better in the end.

The History of SNES Clone Consoles

Last year I took an art history class, which was an experience. I learned a lot, grew a lot academically. For the final paper I was flummoxed about what to write about (my research interests being video game nostalgia) until a story blew up my Twitter feed about a new clone console being released, the Analogue Pocket. At that point, I kind of already knew what a clone console was, owning a Chinese knockoff of the Game Boy Color at the time, and was struggling to find a way to conduct research on it.

From a phenomenon, I find it absolutely fascinating that there has been a rise in clone consoles recently. I define these as new hardware capable of playing old hardware and software. This is different than the plug-in play NES & SNES Classics, which while capable of playing older software do so by emulation (and plug-in play consoles have been around for a while, basically since the death of arcades). However, clone consoles are of especial interest to me because they seem to target two groups of people: nostalgic, older players of games that are dying/dead; collectors of older video games that want to preserve their history.

So this news story, of the Analogue Pocket, seemed to spark within me a great paper idea that I wrote for my art history class where I did two things: I tracked down and solidified a history of SNES clone consoles, trying to create an exhaustive list of them across the decades, and then I did a stylistic analysis where I traced the design geneologies of the clone consoles. While the first part of the paper I found to be important and relevant (writing an alternative history, no one really discusses clone consoles in video game history), I am tempted to make a Wikipedia page out of it. But maybe after I get this paper published.

However, in the meantime, I am going to share some of that research here to discuss what I found. Below is an abbreviated history of the SNES clone consoles (I picked this platform merely for its convenience, and might do a similar history for other platforms in the future):

1. Early video game home consoles were a wild west with copyright and intellectual property: many counterfeit Pong clones flooded the market
2. This led to the Video Game Crash of 1983, where the industry was more or less declared dead due to the flood of counterfeit and cheap imitators
3. Nintendo releases the Famicom in Japan, and due to the crash in America designed the NES to have different, but compatible hardware (starting the East/West hardware divide)
4. Later Nintendo releases the SFC in Japan and a year later the SNES in America. However, there were many markets that were excluded from Nintendo hardware (such as the USSR), some of which started releasing bootleg consoles. This included the Dendy and the Pegasus which were based on the Taiwan-made Micro Genius IQ-502 (which while NES bootlegs, were modeled after the SFC).
5. Nintendo releases the SFC Jr. and New-Style SNES (which were new versions of the same platform at the end of its lifespan).
6. In the years that followed, there were likely many bootleg consoles released, but due to the lack of historical records these are impossible to track down.
7. In 2006 the FC Twin was released, a clone console released in America.
8. The patents on the SNES and SFC expire around 2011, leading to a new wave of clone consoles such as those released by Hyperkin.
9. Nintendo taps into this new market (and likely to hold off as many consumers as possible from buying other hardware) by releasing the NES & SNES Classic consoles.
10. Today there are many clone consoles available on Amazon (such as the Supa Boy, the SupaRetron HD, the Classiq II, and the Challenger). One notable clone console that is absent from the eCommerce giant however is Analogue’s Super NT, which is the gold standard for hardware emulation and performance.

Like I mentioned earlier, this is just an abbreviated, high-level kind of history. But I tried to track when every product came to market, and document them as much as possible. Many of these products (while on Amazon) don’t have royalty-free images, which is important for documentation and preservation purposes. I hope to eventually discuss more about the history of SNES clone consoles in my upcoming paper that could be in an academic journal (if things go well) and also my upcoming Wikipedia page.