Main Menu

Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 29, 2024, 12:20:30 AM

Login with username, password and session length

1942

Started by Twed, January 08, 2018, 03:46:58 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Twed

I've never understood these games. Did Japan make a game with the goal of defeating Japan in WWII? That must say a lot about Japan's feelings towards its history during that period.

Am I way off base on this one?

buzby

It was apparently controversial in Japan when it was released, but at the time Capcom had lucrative licencing deals with Williams and Romstar and it was one of their first games targeted at the export market (the bulk of which came from the US). The NES conversion of the game (the first home conversion to be produced by Capcom themselves) had some changes to appease the home market, like the names of the ships were changed to those of the Chinese warlords from Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

The following year Taito redressed the balance with Sky Destroyer, where you pilot a Zero with US Navy aircraft as enemies on a mission loosely based on the Pearl Harbour raid.

biggytitbo

I think its something so widely portrayed in fiction that you can be detached from it. The slightly more obscure sidescrolling beat-em-up they did based on Unit 731 totally overstepped the mark though.

Twed

Quote from: buzby on January 08, 2018, 10:31:47 AM
It was apparently controversial in Japan when it was released, but at the time Capcom had lucrative licencing deals with Williams and Romstar and it was one of their first games targeted at the export market (the bulk of which came from the US). The NES conversion of the game (the first home conversion to be produced by Capcom themselves) had some changes to appease the home market, like the names of the ships were changed to those of the Chinese warlords from Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

The following year Taito redressed the balance with Sky Destroyer, where you pilot a Zero with US Navy aircraft as enemies on a mission loosely based on the Pearl Harbour raid.
Thanks buzby. And lol biggy.

Blumf

Quote from: biggytitbo on January 08, 2018, 11:34:12 AM
The slightly more obscure sidescrolling beat-em-up they did based on Unit 731 totally overstepped the mark though.

"When we asked if you were 'a bad enough dude' we meant 'bad' as in tough and cool, not... I mean... Jesus! Still, thanks for rescuing the President, have a hamburger"

the

1943 and 1943 Kai (a special edition which was only released in Japan!) feature an end sequence that shows the following while The Star-Spangled Banner plays:


     


I love scrolling shooters, but 1943 annoys because you have an energy bar that runs down even when you're not getting hit. Brazen coin-munching.

Shay Chaise

Quote from: biggytitbo on January 08, 2018, 11:34:12 AM
I think its something so widely portrayed in fiction that you can be detached from it. The slightly more obscure sidescrolling beat-em-up they did based on Unit 731 totally overstepped the mark though.

Funniest post of the year so far.

Cold Meat Platter

Quote from: the on January 08, 2018, 07:29:22 PM
1943 and 1943 Kai (a special edition which was only released in Japan!) feature an end sequence that shows the following while The Star-Spangled Banner plays:


     


I love scrolling shooters, but 1943 annoys because you have an energy bar that runs down even when you're not getting hit. Brazen coin-munching.

And the fucking low energy noise.

MojoJojo

Interesting it says "routine patrol mission" - I'm guessing no one had told the Japanese the US had broken their codes and knew they were coming when that game came out.

buzby

Quote from: MojoJojo on January 15, 2018, 02:36:49 PM
Interesting it says "routine patrol mission" - I'm guessing no one had told the Japanese the US had broken their codes and knew they were coming when that game came out.
The US Navy knew pretty much everything about the attack in advance, but they still relied on the PBY Catalina flying boat patrols from Midway to locate he Japanese fleet.

MojoJojo

Yeah, but "routine mission" sounds like they just stumbled on to the Japanese ships on an everyday scouting mission, when in reality the US knew there were carriers coming their way and must have had as many scout planes out as possible.

I'm basically wondering if there was lucky scout plane story told to hide the fact the codes had been broken, like with enigma.

the

It actually says "during a routing mission".

buzby

Quote from: MojoJojo on January 15, 2018, 02:36:49 PM
Interesting it says "routine patrol mission" - I'm guessing no one had told the Japanese the US had broken their codes and knew they were coming when that game came out.
1943 came out in 1987, the US version of the story of breaking of the JN25 code by the USN HYPO station was made public long before then. It was revealed at the 1945 Senate inquiry into the Pearl Harbor attack that the code had been broken prior to the attack, and in his 1967 book The Broken Seal, ex-USN intelligence officer Ladislas Farago discussed the background of HYPO's work, which then went on to be the basis for the codebreaking scenes in the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora! (which was a US-Japanese co-production).

Even during the war, the Chicago Tribune reporter Stanley Johnston who was embedded with the US Pacific Fleet had basically leaked the fact that the USN had prior knowledge of the attack in a report on the battle under the headline 'U.S. Navy Knew in Advance All About Jap Fleet' as well (and the Justice department considered trying him and his editor for treason).

Unlike the Americans, who couldn't hold their own water, it took until the 1990s before it came out that Bletchley Park had broken the JN25 code months before HYPO, but the lack of co-operation from the US Military Intelligence agencies (particularly with the US Navy, who wouldn't even share information with the US Army) led to the British keeping it to themselves.