Woodcutter Yosaku Family Basic Demo

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Woodcutter Yosaku Family Basic Demo

Hack of Family Basic V3

Description

Programmer "Masando Vision" published a Youtube demo, attempting to remake SNK's 1979 arcade game Yosaku, on the Nintendo Entertainment System / Famicom, using Family Basic V2.

This hack from Garrett Gilchrist recreates that demo and features some new graphics, replacing the generic Family Basic graphics.

Family Basic was only available in Japan, and allowed for minigames to be programmed in Basic, within limited RAM space and using default graphics. Family Basic V3 (1985) has more RAM but is still limited.

The results resemble the familiar Yosaku game, although you do not actually lose life if hit by enemies, so you're basically on the honor system. The woodcutter must chop down both sides of two trees while avoiding snakes, charging boars, and the droppings of birds. He can jump with A and swing the ax with B.

Source is included, for other hackers and programmers recreating this game.

Yosaku (与作) is an action arcade game developed by Shin Nihon Kikaku in 1979. One of the first SNK games, it is extremely rare today and a ROM has not been dumped to the internet.

"Yosaku" (与作) is a 1978 song by Saburō Kitajima. It is an enka song about the labors of a woodcutter named Yosaku, which means something like gifted work or participation work. A brief quote from the song was licensed for the arcade game, and is retained here (hei hei ho).

The player is a woodcutter who cuts down trees while being attacked by animals. To avoid the dangers, the player must hide behind trees or attack animals with the ax. The dangers are: a boar that charges by, snakes that rise from the ground, branches that fall from the trees and birds that fly above and launch projectiles.

In 1981 a simpler, unauthorized conversion named Kikori no Yosaku (きこりの与作) was made by Epoch Co. for Cassete Vision. In 1991 a clone of the Cassette Vision version was released for Sharp's X68000 home computer. Sancho's Forest for the Atari 2600 VCS (1983) is also based on Yosaku. In 2000 a remake of Yosaku was included on The King of Fighters: Battle de Paradise for Neo Geo Pocket Color as a secret mini-game.

Title

Woodcutter Yosaku Family Basic Demo

Game

Family Basic V3

Released By

Masando