First in the country, the origin of the word "krypton gold" is quite interesting. It itself is a rare ore in World of Warcraft, and there was also a popular saying in the past that "I was blinded by krypton gold dog eyes". Later, people discovered that the pronunciation of "krill gold" is similar to that of "kid gold" in Japanese, meaning to spend money, so they naturally mixed the two.
But now when it comes to krypton gold, what flashes through your mind is probably a "free" game that needs to be recharged and drawn cards. The dazzling array of cards was full of sexy and cute girls, silently waiting for the diamonds, gold coins or something that the players smashed over. The common mode of
is affected by the exchange cards and gags. But in the 1990s, a trend of collecting "commodity barcodes" was also closely related to the emergence and development of "krypton gold card drawing".
barcode warrior
barcode is something that can be seen everywhere. When you check out in the supermarket, every time the cashier "beeps", there will be an extra line of heartbreaking fees on the bill. Even in the game, there is one on the back of the head of "Killer 47". In the popular drama "Kamen Rider, the Emperor", there are also funny scenes of scanning codes (scanning cards) to transform.
For ignorant children, the barcode is like a black hole, unknown and mysterious, and contains eye-catching magical power. It was not until I grew up that this naive longing was not an isolated case.
Time Back in 1992, inventor Norman Joseph Woodland sorted out his clothes and came to Washington , waiting for President George Bush to award him the "National Technology Innovation Award". His achievements were to bring the first product with a universal product code to a small supermarket in Ohio 18 years ago, greatly reducing the time for queues to checkout and merchandise in and out of the warehouse.
Woodland may not have thought that at this time, in Japan, a handheld machine, , made based on this technology, was selling well.
is exactly the opposite of today's cutting-edge AR technology. Japanese developers in the 1990s were trying to "bring things in reality to the virtual world." Epoch, a Japanese company that started with toys, was even more keenly aware of the trend that was about to explode. So in 1991, they launched a game console with unique gameplay - Barcode Battler.
At that time, on the shelves of major stores, there were either GameBoy or GameGear. It was obvious that it would not work without some outstanding skills. The feature of Barcode Battler is that it can read the barcodes of different products, then convert them into characters in the game based on a set of algorithms, and then display values such as health, attack and defense on the handheld screen.
You can use this character to fight against computers or players, or then put equipment on your characters by "scanning the code" to enhance your abilities. Compared with the official barcode cards, players prefer to "do not take the ordinary road", take out the packaging bags in the trash can, or scan the goods in the supermarket one by one to see if there will be any unexpected surprises.
collection and exploration concept is in line with the popular Pokémon in the future, and it also involves the Japanese insect culture. At that time, the summer homework of Japanese primary schools was mostly for students to catch insects and then submit observation reports to the teacher. And putting two strong unicorn fairies in a cage to fight is a romance of a generation of Japanese. The emergence of
Barcode Battler just fills this need, and the barcode corresponding to rare characters is saved and then circulated in the "black market" spontaneously formed by players. You can use extra barcodes to redeem other characters, or “buy” them from others with 50 yen and coarse snacks. To some extent, this can be regarded as an early form of krypton gold.
At the same time, "Barcode Warrior" (Light Code Warrior) inspired by Barcode Battler began serializing in the primary school hall. At that time, the comic was full of topics. The "female protagonist" Asugawa Sakura, who looked pitiful, was revealed to be a fake girl in the end. This enlightened figure in the pseudo-girl world also indirectly led to the popularity of the game console itself.
As more and more people joke that they are "barcode warriors", Epoch took advantage of the situation to launch the second generation of Barcode Battler. The new product has an additional single player mode, which makes the gameplay richer. Even Nintendo was attracted by the creativity of barcode games and authorized its own IP to expand content.
Barcode Battler has an exclusive "The Legend of Zelda: The Triangle Power of the Gods". It also has 30 barcode cards, including heroes, enemies, items and spells, released with the game. Players can choose to play as warriors or wizards, use item cards to increase weapon attributes, restore life, and strengthen defense. Only when all the fish are defeated can you scan the Cannon card and fight the final boss.
"Exclusive Zelda" theoretically cannot tell you too many stories in vivid form. It is very similar to board games. The characters' backgrounds are printed on barcode cards, and the plot is mainly based on players' own thinking. The text introduction of the game also seems more relaxed and playful, and it is inevitably a bit subtle. As for barcode games with better senses, I'm afraid it's necessary to start with "additional devices" of all sizes.
Next page: Fall and inheritance
Fall and inheritance
The second generation Barcode Battler itself is an additional device. Although it can operate alone, there is also an interface on the left side of the game console, which can be connected to the FC through a data cable, and the screen will eventually be output to the TV. Originally, it was accompanied by a game called "Barcode World", which supports barcodes for any product and has many handsome mecha characters preset.
Later, Epoch was linked with Nintendo several times, such as "Barcode Warriors Warriors" that continues the gameplay of "Barcode World", and the picture became more refined. SFC's "Legend of Heroes 2: Dragon Slayer" and "Lupin III: The Legend of Legend" also add some content available for scanning the code, with the purpose of allowing players to explore realistic materials to enhance playability and interactivity.
With the hot sale of the second-generation Barcode Battler, Bandai, who holds a large number of IPs, can no longer sit still and has stepped up the development of a peripheral called Datach. It can be inserted directly into the FC card slot, and the gameplay is still the same. If you stuff the barcode into the "card slot" of the device, you will have corresponding feedback on the screen.
Domestic players may be more familiar with Datach's bundled content, such as "Dragon Ball Z Fierce Fighting World's First Martial Arts Club " and "Youyou White Book Fighting Dark Martial Arts Club", which are both quite interesting fighting games on FC. Since they were cracked by pirated manufacturers at the time, they could directly enter barcode numbers to call out the characters, so most people don’t have a clip of “scan code” in their memory.
"Dragon Ball Z Fights the World's No. 1 Martial Arts Club" not only has basic character codes and prop codes, but also has some ability codes that can allow the characters to acquire new skills, and even multiple "transformations", which is very close to the original work. Datach also supports arbitrary barcodes, but according to rumors, the official has imposed some restrictions in order to ensure balance, and the characters obtained in this way are relatively weak.
Barcode Battler and Datach trend has not lasted for long. Their core fun is undoubtedly collection and battle, but their weakness is also obvious, that is, there is no growth factor at all, you only need to spend time finding a barcode with a numerical explosion. The result of the battle is basically stuck, and it is inevitable that it is boring over time.
By 1994, Toshiyo Ono, who painted "Barcode Warrior", claimed that the craze for "barcode game consoles" had passed, so he stopped comic serialization.
In the European and American markets, local young people are always immersed in the happiness brought by Game Boy and Game Gear, and have no interest in "catching insects". They think Barcode Battler has a repetitive gameplay and a bad experience, and this product is quickly forgotten by the public.
However, the barcode gameplay is still inherited. In the 1997 PS game Monster Farm, Tecmo developed a "CD Read" system that can generate random numbers by loading different discs to define the properties, breeds, and characteristics of monsters. Starting with Monster Farm 3 on PS2, DVD-type media has also been included.
For this system, the development team carefully designed many small easter eggs.If you read the DVD of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets while playing Monster Farm 4, you will get an owl with a unique shape. The result of inserting the Christmas music album is the appearance of a "Santa Claus" monster. Put it in the CD of "Death or Life" and you will see an elf named "Xia".
Since the beginning of the millennium, Japanese arcade halls have begun to introduce "arcade card game ", which are obviously inspired by barcode games. Sit on the machine and scan it gently, and those special characters and props that belong to you will appear on the screen, including stars, racing cars, mechas, everything. At this time, the half-baked barcode has long been replaced and has become an exclusive number on the card, which has less fun in random exploration.
But there are many breakthroughs in how to play arcade card games. Sega's "The Three Kingdoms War" directly throws the cards onto the machine as a control medium. Players can choose multiple cards to fight according to Cost restrictions. The movement of generals and troops corresponds to the physical card positions. Covering the cards with your hands can also activate special abilities, which is quite interesting.
At the same time, the original "barcode" became a krypton gold item with clear price tags. In "The Three Kingdoms War", you can play three games with 600 yen, and then you will get a random card, which will display the portraits and data of the generals. The "Fleet Collection" that landed in the arcade hall in the past few years required a separate cost. The price of each new card was 100 yen, and the charging methods were different.
is not difficult to find that this model subsequently affected a large number of F2P content, gradually forming the common mobile card drawing game today.
It is worth mentioning that in 2001, when he made a lot of money in arcade card games, Nintendo later launched the GBA peripheral e-Reader. It comes with an LED scanner that can read paper cards printed with special codes.
e-Reader itself does not provide any gameplay. Just by scanning the code, players can obtain new levels of "Super Mario", " Animal Forest " props, or mini games in "Malio Party", which can be regarded as the predecessor of Amiibo.
As for home computers, PS Eye can be regarded as the "last guardian" of barcode games.
In 2007, there was a PS3 work called "Judgment of the Demon Eye". The supporting cards and nine-grid table pads were required to be placed in the camera of PS Eye. Then the corresponding characters and monsters will be displayed on the screen, and the two sides will fight against each other. Because PS Eye itself is not popular and the cards of "Judgment of the Demon Eye" are quite difficult to buy, after that, the barcode game on the console gradually disappeared.
With the popularity of smartphones, scanning of various "codes" can be solved at one time, and barcode game consoles of Barcode Battler have become even more irrelevant.
But the craze it triggered still has a profound impact on the industry. The biggest legacy of barcode games may be to remind designers to break out of mindset, whether it is Amiibo or Krypton gold card game business model, it has been derived from this. Others believe that it ultimately paved the way for the emergence of Pokémon.
Reference:
Commerce Conflict Barcode Battler Handheld
Not even Mario and Zelda could make the Barcode Battler any good
