Compile’s Windows 95/98 compatible line of Disc Station maga-game-adver-zines were wonderful, impossible, things, gaming buffets in mixed media form. The CDs included with every volume would always contain some sort of playable fun—which could mean ridiculous microgames, exclusive (if slender) complete experiences, or the latest part of a grand commercial-grade release—alongside wallpapers, screensavers, and other enjoyable bits of digital fluff.
A quick click through the menus of Vol. 25, released 15th Jan 2000, and Vol. 26, released 15th April 2000, make me feel like I’m the guest of honour at a Compile-themed party, both discs ready and willing to do everything from try to woo me into buying PocketStation compatible Puyo games (a ploy that has definitely not worked, honest) to showing off the grand finale of an energetic action RPG. Poke around, have fun, and come back whenever—Disc Station’s happy if I’m happy.
The most significant games on these volumes are the final two parts of Wander Wonder, and both parts of Geo Conflict 4, split across the two CDs. Both of these are great games that are well worth spending some serious time with, the action-puzzling of Wander Wonder contrasting with the more hands-off nature of Geo Conflict’s party building/party sending-offing-on-an-adventuring well. Both games later received standard PC releases in Japan, with Geo Conflict 4 also getting an official Taiwanese translation, published by TGL. That particular disc also contained Geo Conflict 3, Geo Conflict Adventure, and the spinoff action game Mystic Arts, making it something of a convenient all-in-one bundle of Windows compatible Geo Conflict (difficulty of getting hold of the damned thing aside). It’s not unreasonable to assume Wander Wonder had something similar, although that’s purely a guess on my part and not based on any evidence.
I should probably mention that, unlike the full releases, the later segments of these larger games run as standalone programs. They’re not patches to be added on top of the first part, and they don’t require a save carried over to run (although you can absolutely do that if you please). It’s actually quite a nice way to play an RPG, just dropping in and out as my curiosity takes me or as I’m able, like catching a TV show a few episodes in and deciding for myself how to proceed from there. One day, if we’re really lucky, more games might allow us to do the same.
Present on both discs is a Nazo Puyo editor. If you’re unfamiliar with that series, think of it as Puyo Puyo‘s, er, puzzle game spinoff. It’ll all make sense in a moment, promise. The difference is the game board—normally empty and then filled with chain-creating puyos in the standard game—in Nazo is always pre-filled in very specific and often highly unnatural ways, and it’s then up to you to clear them under various conditions. This cute little program makes it very easy to create, save, share (with owners of the same software), and of course play your little dabbles with game design. I am terrible at Nazo Puyo and always will be, but it’s still lovely to see a program like this released to the public (and to see the fantastic pixel art within too).
Beyond that there’s a quiz game starring Compile’s bizarre duck/Tamagotchi hybrid “Champ” creatures, the usual guessing made all the more exciting by the enforced game of tug o’ war needed to select the correct answer, as well as a lightweight sound novel with multiple endings that’s so short there’s a slight chance it took you as long to read this as it did me to clear the game.
The magazines themselves are just as enthusiastically scattershot in their approach to their contents, filled with unique goodies unavailable anywhere else. Geo Conflict 4 gets two short (but gorgeous) page covering comics—one per issue—as well as beautiful multi-page spreads that serve as a cross between a lavish instruction manual and info-rich features. Wander Wonder gets similar features, but no comics this time around. Arle and friends of course see plenty of action, paraded around as everything from reader-submitted fan art to even more comics, 4-koma, and vast quantities of mail order merchandise (an order form is included in the magazine), some of which was edible when it was sold, 24 years ago (there’s a puyo-shaped butter cake in there that looks delicious). Jump Hero, a great PC-98 game that played like a vertical platformer with an emphasis on speedrunning and, uh, penguins, gets a lush full colour comic too. Why shouldn’t it? It’s fun, it’s Compile—and that seems to be the only criteria that matters here.
Even just a casual flip through any one of these magazines makes it easy to see why Compile were—and still are—so beloved. The need to be creative purely for the sake of putting something new into the world is so strong it’s almost palpable, and it makes me feel as if I’m standing in the presence of wildly inventive people who just needed to make whatever their hearts desired, even if whatever that happened to be short, or silly, or not especially commercial or “useful” in a capitalistic, brand-building, sort of way. It almost makes me want to weep, to see that at one point a “serious” developer was able to let their hair down in a way that their modern counterparts are rarely allowed to. I want every developer to be able to make their own kind of Disc Station, I think the world would be better for it.
So, should you rush out and grab yourself a Disc Station or 20 of your own? Yes, but with a few caveats. The games are designed for Win 95/98, which makes their usability on modern hardware a bit hit and miss—and in the case of the two volumes shown here, more miss than hit in my experience (I was able to run them just fine on an XP machine though). And the magazines themselves can be a bit bewildering, a strange procession of references to games that only existed on previous editions and comics that may contain Arle wearing a moustache. But if you’ve got an old computer lying around and you’re happy to indulge Compile’s unique brand of weirdness, then you’re in for a real treat.
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Kimimi The Game-Eating She-Monster 