Playdia: The Otakus' Console

During the '90s, the Land of the Rising Sun gave birth to a console that to this day has always lived in the shadow for those of us outside Japanese borders, and even more so for those in the other hemisphere. Created by Bandai, the console was called Playdia and was known as the otakus' console, since the games it played were interactive movies where manga and anime series showed their hidden sides along with puzzles and riddles and lots of content never seen before.

The Otakus' Console

The world of Japanese otakus (I emphasize the Japanese ones because... well, it's obvious) is a different world from all other fans of the most fandom-worthy topics that exist on the whole Earth. Their devotion and admiration for even the most secondary characters of the series they watch is gigantic and has no equal in the pursuit of any image, object, sound related to their favorite and even physically idealized characters. Creators of a large part of the best drawings, wallpapers, t-shirts, cosplays games, amateur series, hentai, and stories in any format that exist on the net, in 1994 the Japanese otakus also got a console that was almost specifically conceived for them.

We're talking about Playdia, a console manufactured by Bandai whose main function was to play interactive movies with a quite distinctive seal in the genre and in the origin of the products. Developed by the Japanese company and distributed only inside its borders, Playdia went unnoticed by the rest of the world—except to the otakus in your neighborhood, who coveted it in silence while drawing Vegeta's eyes pressing the pencil harder.

Playdia Hardware

On a hardware level, the console had an 8-bit processor and used the CD format as the standard for Bandai and associates' interactive movies. Marketed in a traful blue with an emerald green base, the console matched the colors it displayed and could be controlled via a wireless joystick that worked thanks to infrared, in an ideal nod to the consumer as if saying, “so you can watch them from bed, friend”.

For the experts, the list of Playdia components is as follows:

• Sanyo Lc89515 - CD-ROM Host Interface
• Toshiba TA2035F - CD Focus tracking server
• Toshiba tc9263f - CD Single Chip processor
• Rohm 6398FP - 4 Channel BTL Driver for CD Player motor
• Toshiba TMP87C800F - 8 Bit Microcontroller (8K ROM, 16K RAM) - 8 MHz Operation, can access 64K (TLCS-870 series which is based heavily on the Z80)
• Sharp LH52B256 - 256K (32K x 8) Static RAM chip
• NEC μPD78214GC - 8 Bit Microcontroller (16K ROM, 512 byte RAM) - 12 MHz Operation, can access 1MB (NEC 78K series)
• Toshiba TC514256JAJ - 256K Word x 4 Fast Page DRAM Chip
• Asahi Kasei AK8000 - Audio / Video processor
• Philips DA8772AH - Triple 8Bit DAC converter
• Sony CX1229M - NTSC/PAL Decoder
• Rohm BA10324AF - Quad Op Amp
• Sanyo LC78835K - 18BIT DAC with filter
• Rohm BU3052BCF - Dual 4 Channel Analogue Multiplexer

Quality Content, Happy Otakus

The population the console was aimed at we already discovered in my previous generalizing and stereotypical comments about otakus, but Bandai (which developed the console using the codename BA-X) knew that with just interactive movies for otakus the business wasn't going to be entirely profitable compared to other alternatives for watching these videos (though not interactive in the sense we like).

For that reason, and being the sole responsible for this fifth-generation console and with a very small and very critical audience due to their knowledge of each series and detail, Bandai took care to provide excellent content in the form of movies, using classic series as their strong base and also offering a mass audience approach to others not so idolized. The final list wasn't as extensive as one would like, but what was seen made the difference.

In the playback was the action, but the interaction remained behind the menu and with the remote control in hand. Playdia offered many riddles and mini games that made the playback itself a unique entertainment experience and they were the ones that raised sales in times of weakness for the console. Meanwhile, the rest of us mortals could only play with contrast, volume, and sharpness (never, never, never did I see that change anything on TVs. Never.).

DBZ: Playdia's Star

If we stop a Japanese otaku and ask which series generated the least content but the most madness, he'll surely look us in the eyes and say: ドラゴンボール. With a surprised face we'll then look at the dictionary to translate it as Dragon Ball Z. One of the reasons for this madness were the hidden endings of Dragon Ball Z, which didn't leave any fan of Papa Tori (-yama) indifferent. The movie in question is Dragon Ball Z Shin Saiyajin Zetsumesu Keikaku, based on the game of the same name that came out for the Famicon console and that we all remember as a somewhat complicated RPG to follow (especially if you didn't know Japanese).

In parallel with the game for the console, two OVAs (Original Video Animations) came out to serve as a tutorial or narrative guide on how to solve the game. These movies had their interactive side in Playdia's movie-games, where you had to decide which way the story went through decisions you made with your controller, as you did in Daphne and with which you emulated laserdisc. As content within these games, Bandai took a chance and inserted several alternative endings for stories that elsewhere, and on another continent, we had already considered finished.

We also had unreleased content, like the following intro for Dragon Ball Z Chikyuu Hen or the ending for Chô Genkidama with which we all, all, all cried.

Playdia went down in history not as the best or best-selling consoles, but its legacy among the otakus of the land of the Rising Sun is remembered forever, and it was time some Westerners had the chance to know it a little and, if interested, search for more information and videos about it. To finish, nothing better than a Playdia promotional video, in the most Japanese style.