A History of Korean Gaming
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단비 시스템 Danbi System
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Profile:
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Danbi System was founded in 1993 by the former Soft Action programmer Kim Sungshik, who had already made himself a name with Fox Ranger, among other games. Hist first officer at Danbi was his own wife, Yun Jeongseon1. After some early successes the company specialized on adaptions of comics or cartoons, often with questionable quality standards. Because of this, Danbi soon lost the faith of the customers and their releases became more and more obscure.
For some reason the company started targeting the arcade market in 19992, a time when it already began to lose its popularity against the PC Bang. On June 17th, 2002 Danbi System merged with the publisher GamToU, an offshoot that split from Samsung's game division in June 20003, and seems to have closed its doors towards the end of 2003.
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고고 우리별 (GoGo Uribyeol) - PC-DOS (December 25th, 1993)
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일지매전 ~만파식적편~ (Iljimae-jeon: Manpa Sikjeok-pyeon) - PC-DOS (October 1994)
Iljimae-jeon: Manpa Sikjeon-pyeon
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Iljimae-jeon: Manpa Sikjeon-pyeon
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Iljimae-jeon: Manpa Sikjeon-pyeon
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Iljimae-jeon: Manpa Sikjeon-pyeon
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Iljimae-jeon: Manpa Sikjeon-pyeon
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Cover
Iljimae-jeon is based on the same scenario as the RPG by Sanjini, but it takes much more liberty with the template. So instead of the medieval Korean setting Danbi presented a futuristic shooter from the Space Harrier school.
Other than the protagonist in the Sega classic, the three heroes are confined to the ground, but they compensate that lack with a number of special melee moves that at the same time are useful to avoid enemy attacks. The stages contain a lot of obstacles, but anything that isn't flat on the ground can be destroyed. Certain enemies drop extras like weapon boosts, autofire and, most importantly, life recharges. These bonuses come in healthy supply, but in the later stages it becomes difficult enough to survive from one recovery item to the next. There's also a ticket to a shop where all those extras in addition ot upgradeable super attacks can be bought. But dying resets the status of the ticket, so it is not very likely to see the store ever again beyond the second stage.
Seeing anything beyond the first stage is not a given either, as the number of continues is strictly limited and many bosses take ridiculous amounts of damage before giving up. Only the super attacks harm them more significantly, but they of course are only available through visiting the store, and using up continues downgrades them again. Getting the aid of a second player makes things more controllable, but both have to share not only the extra items, but also draw from the same tiny pool of credits.
Iljimae-jeon seems to be one of the more technically solid Korean games. There's hardly any bugs to find, and everything moves fast and smooth. Genre-typically close objects appear very pixellated, but the action is intense enough to make one not notice the issue. The package is rounded up by a classic chiptune-style soundtrack. If it weren't for the extreme difficulty putting off most gamers, Iljimae-jeon might have become one of the poster childs of Korean action gaming like the For the Day series. Danbi announced a sequel in 1996, which never came out.
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Iljimae-jeon: Manpa Sikjeon-pyeon
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Iljimae-jeon: Manpa Sikjeon-pyeon
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Iljimae-jeon: Manpa Sikjeon-pyeon
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Iljimae-jeon: Manpa Sikjeon-pyeon
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Iljimae-jeon: Manpa Sikjeon-pyeon
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마이러브 ~카오스 대작전~ (My Love: Chaos Daejak-jeon) - PC-DOS (April 1996)
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Cover
With Danbi's first license based game began all of Danbi's problems. The comic series apparently is a crazy, Dragonball-esque mess, which is pretty well represented in the cutscenes. The story revolves around three kids, which all are playable at the same time by up to three players. There's also a weird mode where one of the player's takes control of the monsters, but as that player has to follow the same restrictions for extra lives and credits, that one doesn't quite work out.
The game itself isn't as bad as some of Danbi's later beat 'em ups, but the controls feel very loose. Often it is plainly impossible to attack enemies without taking damage oneself, and passages with holes in the ground are a pain in the ass.
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까꿍 (Kkakkung) / Kakoong - PC-DOS, Windows (February 1997)
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뱀프 x 1/2 (Vamp x 1/2) - PC-DOS, Windows (December 1997)
Vamp x 1/2 (DOS)
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Now this is a complete joke of a game. The controls are crap, the four (non-selectable, every player has to take the one that is locked to his position) protagonists barely have any moves, and everything feels and looks cheaply made. It is also extremely badly programmed, on all three tested systems it would just repeat the first stage over and over again.
There's a four player mode and a special panorama display to fit them better on the screen, but that only means four people not having fun at the same time. Probably no one was caring about games by Danbi anymore by the time this was released, that appears to be the only explanation for there not having been any outrages because of this awful piece of garbage.
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Vamp x 1/2 (DOS)
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12지전사 (12-ji Jeonsa) / Assault of Hellkaiser - Windows (December 1998)
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뱀프 x 1/2 (Vamp x 1/2) / Vamp x 1/2 2 - Arcade (August 1999), Windows (2000)
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탱글탱글 IQ (Tangle Tangle IQ) - Arcade (2000)
Tangle Tangle IQ
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Know this puzzle where you use the same seven geometric shapes to create all kinds of figures? This is it, no more, no less.
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Tangle Tangle IQ
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Office 女人天下 (오피스여인천하 / Office Yeoin Cheonha) / Office Women Power - Windows (January 18th, 2001), Arcade (September 2001)
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동글동글 해롱이 (Donggeul Donggeul Haerongi) - Windows (December 26th, 2001), Arcade (2002)
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으랏차차무대리 (Euratchacha Mu Daeri) - Windows, Arcade (2003)
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일지매전 2 (Iljimae-jeon 2) (1995-1996)
Shadow Ranger (1995)
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References
1. PC Champ 4/1997, page 143
2. Danbi System Homepage (archived)
3. Game Meca 20/6/2002
4. ET News 10/9/2001
A History of Korean Gaming
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