Konami & The Picno Preservation Project [ピクノ保存計画] - Part 1

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Published on June 29, 2019 8:08:39 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULGY3yI93ic

Duration: 1:02:13

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Hello! Today, we have a slightly more peculiar video for your viewing pleasure -- an addition to our small "Gaming Obscura" video series outlining Konami's "Picno" (ピクノ). Released in 1992/1993, the Picno was an obscure edutainment system that had a large emphasis on drawing and writing software (but also covered counting, spelling, reading, matching and animation) and utilized a large drawing canvas and stylus to interact with your T.V. screen. It was released a few months before Sega's "Pico", with which it shares basic similarities with (but was considerably more expensive, which likely played into its early demise). Released only in Japan at the initial price of 29,800 yen, roughly two dozen known titles were released for it between 1992 and 1995 (a few miscellaneous pieces of software such as the Save Card and Anime Box not being actual "games").

There isn't currently a detailed breakdown of its specs, though it did have a modest 160-range color palette and could produce composite video right out of the box (though it "should" be capable of RGB). Besides the Pico, similar technology existed such as Sony's 1989 HB-A5000 and successor line of sketch pads and animation computers (which are interestingly known as part of a line of hidden MSX hardware). Here's some info about the titles in this video below (in order of appearance).

RX 102: Montage [モンタージュ]
Synopsis: The only launch software for the Picno other than the "Save Card". A drawing tool with many pre-made graphics and objects to fiddle around with that are on the goofier side of the spectrum, but still quite limited or basic compared to some of the later titles.

RX 110: Real Montage [リアルモンタージュ]
Synopsis: Modify a man or woman with over 500 (505) parts and 186 facial features, add a background or other accents, and share with others. It's an evolution to "Montage" released two years prior and the possibilities are immense, but it's still not a really interesting title.

RX 109: Picno Art Puzzle [ピクノアートパズル]
Synopsis: As far as "quality" Picno software is concerned, PAP is much less about edutainment and more about straightforward gameplay, as it is one of the few actual games on the platform as well as one of the best on the system. It's a puzzle game that features 49 very detailed artworks that can be played in four various ways such as a traditional jigsaw puzzle, sliding picture puzzle, etc., and even utilizes the save card to let you save your ranking data (name, stage, settings, quickest times). A "must have" of sorts for Picno collectors.

RX 112: Anime Box [アニメボックス]
Synopsis: The player gets to make an animation, frame by frame, select a backdrop, and then show it to their friends and family. Of course, animations can be saved to the save card. In the right hands, a fairly ambitious Picno title.

RX 108: Picno de 1-2-3 [ピクノで123]
Synopsis: An educational title that is a compilation of different memory, shape and number-related games. Quite a bit of spoken dialogues and little animations are in this one, and it also teaches you how to write 0-10, count forwards/backwards, and more.

RX 111: Kiiroi Kyouryuu-kun Parasa no Obake Taiji [きいろい恐竜くん パラサのオバケ退治]
Synopsis: A basic interactive coloring book with a story, and with its premise, one could call it an epic version of NES' "Color A Dinosaur", lol. Coloring certain objects reveals little accents like flowers, clouds, creatures and animations. Play as Parasa and the Dinky Dinos, which is interestingly a copyright to Stewart Moskowitz who is an American cartoonist, writer and illustrator best known for this and American Rabbit. It just goes to show that he was even popular in Japan.

RX 101: Save Card [きこりの与作]
Synopsis: Not an actual game, but an early form of memory card used to store save data. You do get a cool little demo if you pop this in and wait though. Not all software titles utilize it.

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For more info, you can reference these links below:

https://videogamesdensetsu.tumblr.com/post/142354502350/the-konami-picno-ピクノ-1992-a-drawing-tablet

https://team-europe.blogspot.com/2017/11/pico-or-picno-or-is-it-new-console.html

https://www.msx.org/forum/msx-talk/hardware/hidden-msx-hardware?page=0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V_clu-0g5M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nICQHJe2WI

There are a few other links, but they stray closer to emulation sites, which I won't list here for obvious reasons. I can say that close to a dozen titles have been dumped. Please enjoy!

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NOTE: Here is a time table to jump around the video folks.

Intro: 0:00 - 0:46
Live Segment: 0:46 - 13:19
Montage: 13:20 - 19:50
Real Montage: 19:51 - 23:43
Picno Art Puzzle: 23:44 - 31:20
Anime Box: 31:21 - 36:05
Picno de 1-2-3: 36:06 - 48:51
Kiiroi Kyouryuu-kun Parasa no Obake Taiji: 48:52 - 55:05
Save Card / System: 55:06 - END

Here is also a zip of high quality box covers:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/zi5a3eiaf2u4us4/Picno_Project_A.zip/file

It should be noted (in text) that the Picno has Mono sound. Enjoy.