Net Yaroze games for PS1

A new (old) Yaroze title for PlayStation!

Magic Castle (by Kaiga)

Developed to beta in 1998.
Finished by a different Dev in 2020.

interview/history http://netyaroze-europe.com/Media/Magic-Castle

download https://archive.org/details/magic-castle-2020-23-dec

manual

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Easter Eggs

Art Gallery

In KAIGA folder on disc, KAIGA.GME memory card file alongside this text file:

You have found an easter egg! (There’s more)

This memory card image contains different pictures of classic paintings and also empty canvasses you can replace with your own pictures. To do so, you can use a hex editor if you’re experienced with this procedure, or a tim editor like TimView+ or Tim2View.

To access the art gallery, go to the options menu, highlight the memory card option and press SELECT.

Here’s an image I extracted from it:

KAIGA_000001_04b_01c

QR code

in QR.txt on disc, decodes to web address Magic-Castle

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Texture Viewer

Go to the options menu, select Game Options, then highlight the Tag Style option and press SELECT. Detailed help is given. Use Left/Right/Cross to navigate.

Sound Test

Go to the options menu, select Sound Options, then highlight the BGM or SFX option and press SELECT. Use Left/Right/Circle/Cross to navigate.

not usually my cup of tea but i’m enjoying this random gauntlet sort of vibe.

  • 20 levels in total
  • head bump the Fairy for overhead view
  • basic controls in readme
  • some items described in readme
  • press start to configure your HUD
  • use the fountains to buy items

2-player should be great, 4-player even better!

Looks impressive for a Net Yaroze game.

My memories of these were they would occasionally come on demo discs with gaming magazines and usually be uninteresting. There was one called Gravitation that captured our attention because after it loaded you could put in one of your own music CDs and listen to that while you played. It also had a split screen feature which gave it legs. Looks a bit basic now but I can still see how those features and the general physics style gameplay would have caught our attention.

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Looks like a fun romp, the user interface is very impressive as well. It would have been great if Sony released a Net Yaroze PS Archives player for the PS3 and PSP to keep these games around on modern (at least back then) hardware.

Love the tricks used on the windows here: https://youtu.be/7vsuuRCVHr4?t=1093

It’s quite accomplished for sure.

I’ve changed this topic to be more general Net Yaroze.

Other notable Net Yaroze games:

Good timing.

Making a game using Net Yaroze.

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Just came here to link to the same Twitter thread. Pretty interesting that Net Yaroze wasn’t actually limited in the PS1 hardware it could access like I assumed.

Magic Castle playthrough.

I gave up eventually as I’m not good enough. This is a very difficult game!

The more I look at it it the more I’m reminded of the excellent Xanadu Next, which is my favourite Falcom game.

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Yes that a very similar.

You can now play Magic Castle in your browser.

And I’ve added a link to the manual in the OP.

New build of Magic Castle came out in May.

Oh wow, didn’t know the community kept this up! I guess you can just run it all on a PC now without thinking of an actual Net Yaroze?

The Official UK PlayStation Magazine (phew what a title), used to add a handful of Net Yaroze games on their Demo CDs. I had a lot of fun trying these out as they were a nice bonus to get in addition to the monthly demos!

Sure! Run it on a PS1/2 emulator or retail hardware.

Net Yaroze not required for playing.

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I remember there was a demo cd alongside the console when you purchased PS2, that allowed you to code for the machine and save them to your memory card. Was this based on Net Yaroze?

No, that was PS2 Linux.

Net Yaroze was a special type of PS1.

Have edited my post above, I play Magic Castle on my PS2 slim even though it’s a PS1 game. You should be able to use any method to play on PS1 or PS2.

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Thanks for clearing up that, I knew the Net Yaroze was a physical dev kit like black PS1, but I have long thought the PS2 stuff was a continuation of that software or something.

Trying to remember some of those Net Yaroze games I tried back then.

Super Bub was amazing, Puyo Puyo style, me and my dad were addicted: Super Bub - Net Yaroze - Gameplay PSX (PS One) HD 720P (Playstation classics) - YouTube

Terra Incognita was very impressive: Terra Incognita (Net Yaroze) Playthrough - YouTube