Developers on TV: Techno Quest

In this edition of Developers on TV, we head to Japan, via the Australian TV show Beyond 2000, to visit the offices of Techno Quest and check out the "next generation of video games." The year is 1985, so that means LaserDisc games. (Never mind the fact that LaserDisc arcade games are on their way out at this point.)

Techno Quest was a computer graphics production company that was also a subsidiary of Taito. They ran into financial trouble after Taito founder Michael Kogan died, then turned to video game development to help pay the bills.

Only two games are known to have been developed by Techno Quest: The infamous Famicom kusoge Ganso Saiyuuki: Super Monkey Daibouken and the game featured in this Beyond 2000 segment, the MSX LaserDisc shooter Rolling Blaster.

Yes, it's an MSX computer game, on a LaserDisc. Unlike LaserDisc arcade games, where the game data are still on ROMs on a board, the program is actually encoded on the disc. It's a concept Pioneer would revisit with the LaserActive. However, these MSX LaserDisc games only work with certain Japanese MSX computers from Pioneer that can be connected to a LaserDisc player, so there can't be too many copies kicking around. They can also be used with some other MSX1 models with an expansion unit from Pioneer.

Anyway, we don't get to see much game development going on, but we do get to see how they did computer animation back in those early days of CG. It's just as well, because the game's not very good, and the animation is doing most of the heavy lifting. Such is the case with most LaserDisc games.

The segment starts at 05:04:

Actually, I think Rolling Blaster is okay, but I'm not willing to commit to that for various reasons.

The game is only four stages ("rounds"), not that they're short. If you die, you have to start all the way at the beginning. And you can't skip the cutscenes that play before each stage. They sure knew how to pad things out.

I'll give them credit for trying to switch up the gameplay: The first and third stages play like a typical vertical shooter, but the second and fourth stages play quite differently. You can only move left and right, and you have to steer your missiles into enemies. While you're steering, you cannot move your ship. An interesting change, but these are the most frustrating parts of the game.

CHEAT: Is it a cheat if it's in the manual? Press the left SHIFT + CTRL keys at the menu to bring up two secret options to select your round and amount of lives.