Konami & The Picno Preservation Project [ピクノ保存計画] - Part 2

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Published on August 23, 2019 12:23:19 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z73olGGqBU

Duration: 40:38

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Hello! Today, we have more odd software 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).

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RX 103: Fushigi no Kuni no Alice [ふしぎの国のアリス]
Synopsis: Released after Montage, it is essentially a coloring book with a simple story based on "Alice in Wonderland", and it's a sort of predecessor to "Kiiroi Kyouryuu-kun Parasa no Obake Taiji", "Son Goku", and other coloring titles. Aesthetically and feature-wise, this is one of the worst pieces of Software on the system; there's no music in which to speak of and most of the graphics appear more 8-bit than 16-bit, but, like Parasa, there's some very basic animation, such as when you fill certain objects with color. There are a little over a dozen screens to color, then you "beat" the game and get access to story mode, where the game goes in order while revealing all the hidden interaction points to tell the story.

RX 105: Picno de ABC
Synopsis: A comprehensive way for Japanese children to learn the English Alphabet, players can learn how to speak, write, and associate their ABCs. There's also a Concentration mini-game for one or two players.

RX 106: Anime Enikki [アニメ絵日記]
Synopsis: The player gets to use presets with basic animations, add a backdrop, draw accents when needed or create your own scene from scratch to tell a story to tell your friends. You can add notes to your creation or use the added space to describe your scene. There's a decent amount of presets, for what it's worth.

RX 122: Son Goku no Bouken [そんごくうの冒険]
Synopsis: A late coloring book title released in 1995 based around Son Goku(u) and the "Journey to the West" tale. It was one of the last titles released for the Picno. The game tells its story through quite a bit of animated 8-bit scenes as well as through its illustrations, which are more complex than the titles before it. Not only that, but there are a few basic music tracks, several sound effects and more animations than other coloring titles. As a result, there are only ten scenes and coloring is limited to filling, but as far as these titles go, it's fairly involved.

RX 107: Picno de AIUEO [PICNO de あいうえお]
Synopsis: Like Picno de ABC and 123, this is a fairly comprehensive language learning suite for children. Each one touches on different things with mini-games and clear instructions, but AIUEO may be the most ambitious as a learning tool. It covers Hiragana and Katakana, image and word association, a recorder that can store and playback your words, and you can draw characters. With a smooth framerate and a few sounds and music tracks for good measure, it is the "must-have" of the learning suite.

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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
Fushigi no Kuni no Alice: 0:46 - 7:55
Picno de ABC: 7:56 - 14:41
Anime Enikki: 14:41 - 20:46
Son Goku no Bouken: 20:46 - 33:31
Picno de AIUEO: 33:32 - END

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Here is also a zip of high quality box covers:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/7i9k5n2jsajzy2h/Picno_Project_B.zip/file

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