In this article, the Revised Romanization of Korean is used to transcribe Korean terms and names, with the exception of established personal English writings (only hyphens or spaces separating the syllables of given names are omitted unless absolutely necessary). The name Lee is transcribed more correctly as Yi unless such a personal writing is known. Also, anglicisms in titles or company names are given in their correct English writing unless stated otherwise ("Straight RR"). A hyphen is used in titles to distinguish grammatical particles and other common suffixes from the actual word. Please note that RR does not imitate English phonography, and thus further sources need to be consulted if one wants to get a grasp of the correct pronounciation. To properly display any text in Hangeul, the browser's text encoding has to be manually set to Korean (EUC-KR) for the page (only this page and some of the appendices are affected).
Actual game release dates, when available, are preferred over production or copyright dates. For online games, the actual commercial release is authorative unless a game never reached that status. With the high frequency of game delays, some never officially anounced, it is nearly impossible to get everything right, so some slight mistakes are almost granted.
Most scans and photographs are taken from various contemporary Computer Hakseup, MyCom, Game World, Game Champ, PC Champ, Gamepia and PC Power Zine issues and belong either to Mincom, Jeu Media, Mirae Sidae or KBS Munhwa Saeopdan. Other sources for images used are listed at the end of each part of the main text. There may be a few sources that have been forgotten, please inform us if you happen to know any missing references.
In regards to screenshots, there are many games that so far are only known through video game magazines, with no coverage whatsoever on the web and copies completely unavailable in the scope of this article. For many of those games, the actual resolution is not known, and proportions on the screenshots may differ from the original. Copyrights belong to the individual magazines' publishing houses.
Some important terms particular to the Korean context
| Term | Explanation |
|---|---|
| cafe 카페 | Korean style message board. The functionality is actually more akin to a blog. |
| dongin 동인 | Indie game. Translation of the Japanese doujin. |
| jaebeol 재벌 | Huge conglomerates that used to reach their arms out into any thinkable kind of industry. Many of them have been diffused into several independent companies by now. The term is the direct equivalent to the Japanese zaibatsu. |
| jeonseol 전설 | "Legend"; common element in game titles. Based on the same Chinese characters as the Japanese "Densetsu". |
| Hangeul 한글 | The Korean script. |
| manhwa 만화 | "Comic Book"; based on the same Chinese characters as the Japanese "Manga". |
| moheom 모험 | "Adventure"; common element in game titles. Based on the same Chinese characters as the Japanese "Bouken". |
| oejeon 외전 | "Side Story"; common element in game titles. Based on the same Chinese characters as the Japanese "Gaiden". |
| oraksil 오락실 | Arcade, literally "entertainment room"; originally called jeonja oraksil (electronic entertainment room). |
| package game 패키지게임 | (Offline-)PC game sold in a box, often used as an antagonism to online games. |
| PC Bang 피씨방 | Internet cafe. In Korea, these are social meeting places where people often come toghether to play online games. |
| Samgukji 삼국지 | Records of the Three Kingdoms. From the Chinese Sanguo Zhi (known in Japan as Sangokushi). Spawned legions of adapted versions throughout East Asia, be it video games, comic books or TV dramas. The term is also found in Korean video game titles, but mostly for localized Taiwanese and Koei games. |