Episode 518: Mega Man Feature Phone Games
Added 2023-02-27 12:59:59 +0000 UTCEven if we humans should truly orchestrate our own total demise by turning the rains into acid and the soil into toxic sludge, alien archeologists will dig up millions upon millions of Nokia feature phones that won't have a scratch on them. Feature phones (also known as flip phones and, best of all, "dumb phones") began mobilizing in the early aughts up until smartphones took over the cellphone market in the '10s. We said "Sayonara" to our simple games of Snake and moved on to Doodle Jump. And that's the single-page history of fliphone gaming, right? …Right?
Not in Japan. Never in Japan. This week on Retronauts, Nadia is joined by special guests RockmanCosmo and Naoya Shinota, both of whom are deeply involved with finding and preserving Japan's extensive library of feature phone games. Turns out the country enjoyed a very fruitful era of mobile gaming that bypassed the rest of the world, an era that included Final Fantasy games, Mega Man games, and tons more. Unfortunately, far too many of those games are attached to specific networks and phone models that are now extinct, making feature phone game preservation a unique nightmare. Listen, learn, and if you can, lend a hand to these efforts!
Art by John Pading, edits by Greg Leahy.
- 11:20 - Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII: Theme of Elfe
- 21:08 - Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII: Theme of Turks
- 32:21 - Dirge of Cerberus: Lost Episode -Final Fantasy VII-: Flicker
- 46:48 - Rockman DASH: Great Adventure on 5 Islands!: Ilks Island
- 1:01:46 - Rockman EXE Phantom of Network: VS Cache
- 1:13:31 - Rockman EXE Legend of Network: Internet Area
- 1:22:57 - Rockman EXE Phantom of Network: Virus Busting
- Closing - Guns N' Roses: "Sweet Child o' Mine" (MIDI Ringtone ver.)
Comments
This was a fantastic episode. Hopefully, it bolsters the community and gets the word out to those with these phones so more games can be preserved.
2023-03-04 23:38:18 +0000 UTCThank you for the kind words! I really appreciate it.
2023-02-28 23:26:39 +0000 UTCThanks for the explanation. Best wishes to you and good luck with the project — it’s a worthy endeavor, and I really enjoyed the podcast too.
Julian
2023-02-28 23:13:06 +0000 UTCNo worries, that isn't a dumb question! While it might help a little, I think it's a deeply set Japanese cultural notion that's hard to crack. For example, there is another quite established game preservation organization headquartered in Japan, the Game Preservation Society. I recall they've faced similar issues when trying to download as many games as possible prior to the i-mode website's shutdown. The main thing established institutions can do to help us is spreading the word, as their huge reach is extremely beneficial. I'm not expecting them to take direct action themselves, rather I wish they would enable smaller teams like ours. As of now, the VGHF is unfortunately unresponsive to the Japanese feature phone sect of game preservation, despite my best efforts to repeatedly collaborate with them after the i-mode shutdown. I hope that will change in the future as Japanese feature phone gaming grows in the public consciousness.
2023-02-28 22:59:47 +0000 UTCI feel for the guests struggling with the mechanics of preserving these artifacts. It sounds like a huge job. Just curious: could a more established institution like the Video Game History Foundation help grease the wheels of communication, since one of the main issues is skepticism from older phone owners in handing them over to get the games dumped? Apologies if that’s a dumb question — I’m dumb to the details of this process!
Julian
2023-02-28 21:50:06 +0000 UTCMy brain lit up when I saw 'feature phone games' like you wouldn't believe. Looking forward to listening.
Victor Romero
2023-02-27 17:14:46 +0000 UTC
