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A History of Korean Gaming

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매릭슨 Marixon
Founded: February 1st, 1993
Status: defunct
Key People: unknown
Website: none

Profile:

Very little is known about Marixon. The company entertained three development teams in early 1994 and was still expanding1, becoming one of the most productive Korean game developers in that year. Yet Marixon made huge losses with investments in switchboards, facing the company with severe financial problems, resulting in them also giving up their game department2. Given the fact that their games aren't remembered well at all and unpreserved, most were probably very minor releases even compared to the average Korean game back then.


Games:

각개 겹파 (Gakgae Gyeokpa) - PC-DOS (February 1994)


Gakgae Gyeokpa

Gakgae Gyeokpa

Marixon's first release was a fighting game featuring antropomorphic animals. The title is a translation of the military term "defeat in detail".


Artwork



Gakgae Gyeokpa

Gakgae Gyeokpa

닥터 큐 (Doctor Q) - PC-DOS (February 1994)


Doctor Q

Released simultaneously with Gakgae Gyeokpa, Doctor Q shrinks players to microscopic size to fight germs and illnesses inside a human organism.


Cover


Doctor Q

슈퍼캅 (Super Cap) - PC-DOS (August 11, 1994)


Super Cap

Super Cap

Super Cap


Artwork

Super Cap (sic!) is by far the most well known game from Marixon, mostly thanks to a demo circulating on abandonware sites. The game around a young student turned super cop borrows heavily from Apogee's platformer formula, to a degree it's hardly recognizable as a game actually done by another company.

In each of the 8 stages, the player has to find a certain number of floppy disks before succeeding to the stage boss. Overly sensitive controls make the game feel hectic, and it can be a bit tricky to perform tasks like climbing ladders. The protagonist only has his standard gun, but it can be upgraded twice.



Super Cap

Super Cap

Super Cap

대통령만들기 (Daetongnyeong Mandeulgi) - PC-DOS (1994)


Daetongnyeong Mandeulgi

Daetongnyeong Mandeulgi

Marixon also did some pioneer work as one of the first Korean companies with a graphical online multiplayer game. Daetongnyeong Mandeulgi means "A president in the making", thus players were competing in a virtual election campaign over the Korean presidency.

It could be confirmed that the game actually went online3, but given Marixon's retreat from the game business, it probably wasn't available for long.



Daetongnyeong Mandeulgi

Daetongnyeong Mandeulgi

우먼파워 (Woman Power) - PC-DOS (1994)


Woman Power

Woman Power

Woman Power

Woman Power (old version)

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Same as Super Cop, Marixon's Woman Power looks just like a forgotten Apogee platformer, almost like a feminist version of Duke Nukem 2.

Woman Power release status is not 100% secured: Developer Baek Seungki explicitly states on his blog that Woman Power was an actually released game2, but it was never in any release lists in any retrospect articles, nor does it have an entry with the Game Rating Board. In theory, it might have been available in some kind of shareware form, but the complete lack of accounts from players of the final game suggests otherwise.


Concept art


Woman Power

Woman Power

Woman Power

Woman Power (old version)
Unreleased Titles:

Hack Format (1993)

References
1. Game Champ 4/1994, page 50
2. http://blog.paran.com/haneter/32372449
3. Junja (Jeonja Sinmun) 11/8/1994


A History of Korean Gaming

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Table of Contents

HG101 Index