Dragon Quest: Difference between revisions

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==Development==

The genesis of the game that would become ''Dragon Quest'' took place in 1983, when the fledgling video game publisher [[Enix]] announced that it would host a national programming contest with a prize of ¥1,000,000―a value of over $21,000 in 2024―as well as the option for the amateur programmers to have their titles professionally released. Yuji Horii had been programming his own games as a hobby during this period in his life, and on a whim decided to enter what he considered to be his most accomplished work: ''Love Match Tennis'' (ラブマッチテニス). Later when Horii arrived at the awards ceremony to report on the event, he was shocked to discover that his tennis game had earned him second place. The awards ceremony was also the fateful day when Horii met [[Koichi Nakamura]], ~~the~~ first place ~~winner of the contest, who~~ was only in his junior year of high school at the time. The two became fast friends and began publishing their work through Enix, with Horii's first commercial success being the murder mystery title ''[[Portopia]]''.

The genesis of the game that would become ''Dragon Quest'' took place in 1983, when the fledgling video game publisher [[Enix]] announced that it would host a national programming contest with a prize of ¥1,000,000―a value of over $21,000 in 2024―as well as the option for the amateur programmers to have their titles professionally released. Yuji Horii had been programming his own games as a hobby during this period in his life, and on a whim decided to enter what he considered to be his most accomplished work: ''Love Match Tennis'' (ラブマッチテニス). Later when Horii arrived at the awards ceremony to report on the event, he was shocked to discover that his tennis game had earned him second place. The awards ceremony was also the fateful day when Horii met [[Koichi Nakamura]], who won first place with ''Door Door'' (ドアドア) and was only in his junior year of high school at the time. The two became fast friends and began publishing their work through Enix, with Horii's first commercial success being the murder mystery title ''[[Portopia]]''.

~~Later~~ that same year would see Horii and Nakamura travel to the [https://en.~~wikipedia~~.org/~~wiki~~/~~KansasFest consumer electronics trade show~~ Applefest], along with Enix director [[Yukinobu Chida]]. It was here that all three men would first encounter the concept of the RPG genre through the titles [~~https~~:~~//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_(series)~~ Ultima] and [~~https~~:~~//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/~~Wizardry Wizardry]. The younger men quickly became enamored with the two titles, having never encountered games where success was dependent on the player's strategy rather than quick reflexes, and upon returning to Japan Horii would purchase a compatible machine to play the games. Concurrent to this was the release of the ~~[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_System Family Computer]~~ in July of '83, which quickly made waves in the consumer electronics industry as an affordable alternative to the traditional computer. Enix would experiment with the new hardware by publishing a port of ''Portopia'' programmed by Namakura and marked the first time that he and Horii collaborated on commercial software.

October of that same year would see Horii and Nakamura travel to the [https://www.apple2history.org/appendix/ahb/ahb3/ Applefest], along with Enix director [[Yukinobu Chida]]. It was here that all three men would first encounter the concept of the RPG genre through the titles [[Wikipedia:Ultima I|Ultima]] and [[Wikipedia:Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord|Wizardry]]. The younger men quickly became enamored with the two titles, having never encountered games where success was dependent on the player's strategy rather than quick reflexes, and upon returning to Japan Horii would purchase a compatible machine to play the games. Concurrent to this was the release of the {{Famicom}} in July of '83, which quickly made waves in the consumer electronics industry as an affordable alternative to the traditional computer. Enix would experiment with the new hardware by publishing a port of ''Portopia'' programmed by Namakura and marked the first time that he and Horii collaborated on commercial software.

The porting process of the mystery game laid the groundwork for the [[Command menu|command menu]] that would be the cornerstone of ''Dragon Quest's'' user interface. ''Portopia'' required players to type out commands on a keyboard in order to interact with the software, but this was impossible on the four-button controller of the Famicom. Instead players would maneuver through the game via a list of commands that appeared from a drop-down menu upon pressing the A button, which listed every action the protagonist of the game could take and insured that the player would not get stuck due to forgetting the commands for key actions. This user interface method was actually first used in ''[[The Hokkaidō Serial Murder Case: The Okhotsk Disappearance]]'' (オホーツクに消ゆ), released in 1984, but is commonly attributed to the Famicom version of ''Portopia'' due to the greater number of units sold.

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While busy developing on the game, Horii was still taking freelance work as a writer and was working on the ''Famicom Shinken'' section of Weekly Shonen Jump magazine under the pen name of Emperor Yu (ゆう帝). ''Famicom Shinken'' was the video game section of the magazine, created by editor [[Kazuhiko Torishima]]. Horii and Torishima met years prior when introduced by their mutual friend [https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%81%95%E3%81%8F%E3%81%BE%E3%81%82%E3%81%8D%E3%82%89 Akira Sakamura] and quickly became friends themselves, which led to Torishima learning of the development of ''Dragon Quest'' in passing. This was the news the editor needed to hear, as Shonen Jump was struggling to compete with rival magazine [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CoroCoro_Comic CoroCoro comics] when it came to video game coverage, and being able to use ''Famicom Shinken'' to provide coverage on the development of a brand new title would give Jump an unprecedented advantage. Torishima convinced the skeptical management of Shonen Jump to provide page space for the unreleased and experimental title in the magazine, using his authority as the editor of [[Akira Toriyama]] to assign the rising star artist to the project as chief illustrator. The game's title screen was designed by [https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%89%E3%83%A9%E3%82%B4%E3%83%B3%E3%82%AF%E3%82%A8%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88%E3%82%B7%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BA Kazuo Enomoto], also a Shonen Jump employee, who suggested adding the silhouette of the dragon to the logo due to being in the game's title and the importance of the beasts in the game's setting. As Enomoto did not know what an RPG was at the time, he used films as a point of reference and created a title screen that resembles a wide-screen lens to replicate the cinematic effect.

''Dragon Quest'' would first be shown to the world in the February 11, 1986 issue of Shonen Jump, which continued providing behind the scenes coverage of the game until it's May 27 release.

==Legacy==

@@ Line 58: / Line 58: @@
 ==Development==
-The genesis of the game that would become ''Dragon Quest'' took place in 1983, when the fledgling video game publisher [[Enix]] announced that it would host a national programming contest with a prize of ¥1,000,000―a value of over $21,000 in 2024―as well as the option for the amateur programmers to have their titles professionally released. Yuji Horii had been programming his own games as a hobby during this period in his life, and on a whim decided to enter what he considered to be his most accomplished work: ''Love Match Tennis'' (ラブマッチテニス). Later when Horii arrived at the awards ceremony to report on the event, he was shocked to discover that his tennis game had earned him second place. The awards ceremony was also the fateful day when Horii met [[Koichi Nakamura]], the first place winner of the contest, who was only in his junior year of high school at the time. The two became fast friends and began publishing their work through Enix, with Horii's first commercial success being the murder mystery title ''[[Portopia]]''.
+The genesis of the game that would become ''Dragon Quest'' took place in 1983, when the fledgling video game publisher [[Enix]] announced that it would host a national programming contest with a prize of ¥1,000,000―a value of over $21,000 in 2024―as well as the option for the amateur programmers to have their titles professionally released. Yuji Horii had been programming his own games as a hobby during this period in his life, and on a whim decided to enter what he considered to be his most accomplished work: ''Love Match Tennis'' (ラブマッチテニス). Later when Horii arrived at the awards ceremony to report on the event, he was shocked to discover that his tennis game had earned him second place. The awards ceremony was also the fateful day when Horii met [[Koichi Nakamura]], who won first place with ''Door Door'' (ドアドア) and was only in his junior year of high school at the time. The two became fast friends and began publishing their work through Enix, with Horii's first commercial success being the murder mystery title ''[[Portopia]]''.
-Later that same year would see Horii and Nakamura travel to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KansasFest consumer electronics trade show Applefest], along with Enix director [[Yukinobu Chida]]. It was here that all three men would first encounter the concept of the RPG genre through the titles [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_(series) Ultima] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizardry Wizardry]. The younger men quickly became enamored with the two titles, having never encountered games where success was dependent on the player's strategy rather than quick reflexes, and upon returning to Japan Horii would purchase a compatible machine to play the games. Concurrent to this was the release of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_System Family Computer] in July of '83, which quickly made waves in the consumer electronics industry as an affordable alternative to the traditional computer. Enix would experiment with the new hardware by publishing a port of ''Portopia'' programmed by Namakura and marked the first time that he and Horii collaborated on commercial software.
+October of that same year would see Horii and Nakamura travel to the [https://www.apple2history.org/appendix/ahb/ahb3/ Applefest], along with Enix director [[Yukinobu Chida]]. It was here that all three men would first encounter the concept of the RPG genre through the titles [[Wikipedia:Ultima I|Ultima]] and [[Wikipedia:Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord|Wizardry]]. The younger men quickly became enamored with the two titles, having never encountered games where success was dependent on the player's strategy rather than quick reflexes, and upon returning to Japan Horii would purchase a compatible machine to play the games. Concurrent to this was the release of the {{Famicom}} in July of '83, which quickly made waves in the consumer electronics industry as an affordable alternative to the traditional computer. Enix would experiment with the new hardware by publishing a port of ''Portopia'' programmed by Namakura and marked the first time that he and Horii collaborated on commercial software.
 The porting process of the mystery game laid the groundwork for the [[Command menu|command menu]] that would be the cornerstone of ''Dragon Quest's'' user interface. ''Portopia'' required players to type out commands on a keyboard in order to interact with the software, but this was impossible on the four-button controller of the Famicom. Instead players would maneuver through the game via a list of commands that appeared from a drop-down menu upon pressing the A button, which listed every action the protagonist of the game could take and insured that the player would not get stuck due to forgetting the commands for key actions. This user interface method was actually first used in ''[[The Hokkaidō Serial Murder Case: The Okhotsk Disappearance]]'' (オホーツクに消ゆ), released in 1984, but is commonly attributed to the Famicom version of ''Portopia'' due to the greater number of units sold.
@@ Line 80: / Line 80: @@
 While busy developing on the game, Horii was still taking freelance work as a writer and was working on the ''Famicom Shinken'' section of Weekly Shonen Jump magazine under the pen name of Emperor Yu (ゆう帝). ''Famicom Shinken'' was the video game section of the magazine, created by editor [[Kazuhiko Torishima]]. Horii and Torishima met years prior when introduced by their mutual friend [https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%81%95%E3%81%8F%E3%81%BE%E3%81%82%E3%81%8D%E3%82%89 Akira Sakamura] and quickly became friends themselves, which led to Torishima learning of the development of ''Dragon Quest'' in passing. This was the news the editor needed to hear, as Shonen Jump was struggling to compete with rival magazine [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CoroCoro_Comic CoroCoro comics] when it came to video game coverage, and being able to use ''Famicom Shinken'' to provide coverage on the development of a brand new title would give Jump an unprecedented advantage. Torishima convinced the skeptical management of Shonen Jump to provide page space for the unreleased and experimental title in the magazine, using his authority as the editor of [[Akira Toriyama]] to assign the rising star artist to the project as chief illustrator. The game's title screen was designed by [https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%89%E3%83%A9%E3%82%B4%E3%83%B3%E3%82%AF%E3%82%A8%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88%E3%82%B7%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BA Kazuo Enomoto], also a Shonen Jump employee, who suggested adding the silhouette of the dragon to the logo due to being in the game's title and the importance of the beasts in the game's setting. As Enomoto did not know what an RPG was at the time, he used films as a point of reference and created a title screen that resembles a wide-screen lens to replicate the cinematic effect.
 ''Dragon Quest'' would first be shown to the world in the February 11, 1986 issue of Shonen Jump, which continued providing behind the scenes coverage of the game until it's May 27 release.
 ==Legacy==