This is a piece of history: the complete The Black Onyx series, the first hit computer role-playing game created in Japan for the Japanese market. Dutch computer programmer Henk Rogers following the girl he loved. He got an NEC PC-8801 computer, wrote The Black Onyx for it, and established the company B.P.S. in order to market and sell it. The game was SO big, he had to split the game into two parts, creating The Fire Crystal as the second chapter. The game was a hit, inspiring an RPG revolution in Japan and directly influencing games such as Dragon Quest.
The Black Onyx may be the first CRPG to use a colored health bar that turns from blue to red instead of hit points in a numeric display. This mechanic broke from the RPG genre and can be seen in countless other games.
Rogers later became famous as the man who teamed up with Alexey Pajitnov and negotiated for the distribution rights to Tetris from Soviet-era Russia.
The Black Onyx was Rogers' first game.
This is a piece of history: the complete The Black Onyx series, the first hit computer role-playing game created in Japan for the Japanese market. Dutch computer programmer Henk Rogers following the girl he loved. He got an NEC PC-8801 computer, wrote The Black Onyx for it, and established the company B.P.S. in order to market and sell it. The game was SO big, he had to split the game into two parts, creating The Fire Crystal as the second chapter. The game was a hit, inspiring an RPG revolution in Japan and directly influencing games such as Dragon Quest.
The Black Onyx may be the first CRPG to use a colored health bar that turns from blue to red instead of hit points in a numeric display. This mechanic broke from the RPG genre and can be seen in countless other games.
Rogers later became famous as the man who teamed up with Alexey Pajitnov and negotiated for the distribution rights to Tetris from Soviet-era Russia.