Coreland

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01 Apr 2006, 05:22 PM
NeoZeedeater

Coreland

Coreland was one of the more underrated developers of arcade games in the 1980s. Their history is kind of hard to trace since they were often a contract developer and the company has undergone a few name changes and restructuring. I'm hoping you guys can help me uncover more of it.

The company originated under the name Hoei in the late 1970s and changed their name to Coreland in 1982. These are the arcade games I know of that they produced:

Final Ranger(1980)
A first-person view shooter. I think it might have been the first game to have a female as the main playable character although you can only see the woman on the cabinet art and Taito's Crazy Balloon dates from the same year.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...inalranger.jpg

Space Battle(1980)
This shooter was one of the earliest games with speech in it.
http://www.arcadeflyers.net/?page=fl...d=2356&image=1

Laser Base/Future Flash(1980)
Future Flash was the Japanese name. Hoei licensed it to the American company Amstar which released it as Laser Base in 1981. This was a shooter controlled with a trackball. Last time I tried it wasn't properly playable in MAME and I haven't played the real thing.

Mayday!!(1981)
Take Defender, make it scroll only one direction and get rid of the rescuing aspect and you have this game.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...ter/mayday.png

Pengo(1982)
Pengo was likely the first game made under the Coreland name and also the first game Sega contracted them to do. The only way you can even tell it's a Coreland game is because the creators hid their names in the roms themselves.

Quote:

DIRECTED BY NOBUO KODERA PROGRAMMED BY AKIRA NAKAKUMA DESIGNED BY SHINJI EGE CORELAND TECHNOLOGY INC 1982:9:1

Pengo had various home ports. Sega licensed the game to Atari which made versions for the 2600 and 5200. Much later Sega released Pengo for the Game Gear, Mega Drive and mobile phones. There was also an Amiga version although it wasn't official as far as I can tell.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...ater/pengo.gif

Bullfight(1984)
The name describes it. It was something different anyway.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...er/tougyuu.png

SWAT(1984)
I quite like this game although it's difficult to describe. It was a shooter where your enemies are constantly trying to build a structure to the top of the screen. It was almost Tetris-like when you broke pieces off. Sega licensed SWAT to Bally Midway for Western arcades. It would be cool if Midway is able to release this unique game in a compilation today but they probably don't have the rights to it anymore.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...eater/swat.gif

I'm Sorry(1985)
Maze chase games were a dying breed by the mid '80s so I'm not surprised it wasn't popular despite being quite good. I am surprised it was released outside of Japan as it's full of Japanese quirkiness, one example being when an enemy catches you and it shows him in a dominatrix outfit whipping you.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...er/imsorry.png

My Hero(1985)
The addictive music is still stuck in my head. This was better known by the SMS port.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...heroarcade.png

4-D Warriors(1985)
I have only played this on MAME so I don't know for sure but I suspect this game may have had some kind of 3d imaging. The colour palette, the name and the way the title screen flickers make me think that. Or maybe it's just not emulated correctly. Either way it's impressive given the type of shooter it is and when it came out.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...D_Warriors.png

Brain(1986)
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...ater/brain.png

Gardia(1986)
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...ter/gardia.png

Legend(1986)
I'm not totally sure if this was a Coreland game but it's often listed as "Sega/Coreland". It was an odd sidescroller. Some of your attacks involved throwing money bags at enemies and having them turn to your side to attack others.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...ter/legend.png

Zippy Bug/Noboranka(1986)
This one was published by Data East although you can tell from the distinct look and sound that it was made on Sega hardware. It was a shooter of sorts where you controlled a bug man climbing a tree.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...boranka-09.png

Rafflesia(1986)
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...eater/raff.png

Senryaku Game Bopeep(1986)
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...yakugamebo.jpg

119(1986)
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...19coreland.jpg

I haven't played Senryaku Game Bopeep or 119. I read somewhere they are unreleased prototypes.

WEC Le Mans 24(1986)
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2.../weclemans.png

Black Panther(1987)
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...ackpanther.png

On another board Recap informed me that the Konami games WEC Le Mans and Black Panther were developed by Coreland. I forgot to ask him where he got the info and if they made other games for Konami.

WEC Le Mans was an excellent racing game at the time(I love sprite scalers). Imagine released ports for the CPC, Spectrum, MSX and C64.

Black Panther was an action/platform game, very fast paced and unique in style.

CyberTank(1987)
I haven't seen this one but it was supposed to be a two-player co-operative 3d tank game. I read somewhere it was published by Romstar.

In 1989 Coreland became a subsidiary of Bandai and was renamed Banpresto.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2..._banpresto.gifFrom there the company mostly shifted from making original arcade games to anime based licensed games. The change was pretty drastic; they seem like two completely different companies. I'm not a big fan of Banpresto but I did enjoy the Dragonball Z fighting games on the Super Famicom though.

I'm not going to bother with the Banpresto side of their history for this thread but here's a timeline from their website. It tells how the company expanded into various non-gaming ventures as well.
http://www.banpresto.co.jp/japan/com...h/history.html

If anyone has any more info on Hoei/Coreland/Banpresto I would love to hear it. Which games of theirs do you guys like?
01 Apr 2006, 08:15 PM
CRV

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeoZeedeater

Legend(1986)
Some of your attacks involved throwing money bags at enemies and having them turn to your side to attack others.

I wonder if that was the inspiration for SMS Aztec Adventure.
04 Apr 2006, 09:36 PM
NeoZeedeater

The item selection bar is pretty similar too now that you mention it. The two games are very different otherwise though.
04 Apr 2006, 11:47 PM
CRV

I had no idea Coreland made Pengo or that they became Banpresto.
05 Apr 2006, 01:07 AM
gameoverDude

My favorites from them would be SWAT and the Saturn version of Batsugun (developed by Gazelle who made Air Gallet).

The SMS version of My Hero should've been IMO a 1-Mega Cartridge game. On the card version, it's missing some levels- one of the cooler stages from the arcade that didn't make it is the one where you're fighting ninjas.
05 Apr 2006, 03:52 AM
Grave

Coreland is awesome. My Hero is an incredibly charming game. Black Panther is pretty strange looking and I've never heard of it until this thread. I need to make a point of trying it.
05 Apr 2006, 04:12 AM
Wilykat

Great thread, I always liked those mid-80s Coreland games. My Hero and Noboranka are amazing.

I never knew they did Black Panther, though.
05 Apr 2006, 03:17 PM
CRV

Quote:

Originally Posted by gameoverDude

On the card version, it's missing some levels- one of the cooler stages from the arcade that didn't make it is the one where you're fighting ninjas.

Well, not exactly. All the level layouts seem to be there in the SMS version, but the graphics never change from the city/gang motif.
05 Apr 2006, 03:58 PM
Frogacuda

I had no idea Coreland was related to Banpresto. In fact, although I've played many of their games I wasn't particularly aware of them at all. Very informative thread.
06 Apr 2006, 01:12 AM
Clash!

Did'nt Banpresto make a Pinball game for the Super Famicom that had all sorts of Robots from different animes in it? I seem to remember it being them, and also remember it being very very awesome. More like Kirbys Pinball than regular pinball.
06 Apr 2006, 01:15 AM
Revoltor

I've only played Pengo. Definitely an "inspiration" for the NES Lolo games.
06 Apr 2006, 01:53 AM
NeoZeedeater

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clash!

Did'nt Banpresto make a Pinball game for the Super Famicom that had all sorts of Robots from different animes in it? I seem to remember it being them, and also remember it being very very awesome. More like Kirbys Pinball than regular pinball.

It's called Battle Pinball(I'm not sure if that's the full name) and I agree it's cool. I forgot all about that game.
22 Oct 2006, 10:04 AM
explorer

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeoZeedeater

Pengo(1982)
Pengo was likely the first game made under the Coreland name and also the first game Sega contracted them to do. The only way you can even tell it's a Coreland game is because the creators hid their names in the roms themselves.

Code:

DIRECTED BY NOBUO KODERA PROGRAMMED BY AKIRA NAKAKUMA DESIGNED BY SHINJI EGE CORELAND TECHNOLOGY INC 1982:9:1

Is possible to look the credits of game...
http://joaquinferrero.com/pengocredits.png
You only need to get the Easter Egg of Pengo Arcade.
I discovered it this wednesday... dissassembling the roms (before the 25th anniversary... pheuuu!!! ;) )
The Easter Egg is described into Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pengo_%...#Miscellaneous
22 Oct 2006, 12:48 PM
voltz

Yeah I clearly remember Banpresto. One point I was with my cousin when we spotted one of their sailor moon cabinets and he totally marked out for it since he's a bigger f-chan then I'll ever be.
22 Oct 2006, 01:30 PM
NeoZeedeater

Quote:

Originally Posted by explorer

Is possible to look the credits of game..

Cool, I hadn't seen the actual screen before.

And I forgot to include Jump Bug in this thread which had a Hoei release and an Arcadia 2001 port which copyrights Coreland. CRV showed me that there is an Alpha Denshi version of Jump Bug so they might be the original developer. I'm still confused about that.
22 Oct 2006, 01:32 PM
Thief Silver

I remember playing Gardia at a daycare back when I was young, it was a pretty busted machine but it worked fine, that was the only joy I got from that shit.
22 Oct 2006, 03:06 PM
ChaoofNee

What is it with random newbies bumping old-ass threads lately?

But this is the origin of Banpresto, eh? From Pengo to Super Robot Taisen... who knew?
22 Oct 2006, 03:34 PM
Thief Silver

Yeah but this was a good and worthwhile bump :P
22 Oct 2006, 06:21 PM
Mikey

I love the look of those games on the SEGA 8-bit arcade systems.