Writing about Japanese games is very, very different from writing about the games from any other country. At some point I had to admit that the format I use for these country pages simply doesn't work for Japan. So this page, in its current format, is something of an interim. I hope it will still be useful.
Japanese Windows games available for download have their own page and are not listed in the tables below.
| NEC | Fujitsu | Sharp | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8-bit | PC-8801 | FM 7 | X1 |
| 16-bit | PC-9801 | FM Towns | X68000 |
| Space Invaders | Coin-Op | Shoot 'em up | 79 | Toshihiro Nishikado |
| Pac-Man | Coin-Op | Arcade | 80 | |
| Soko-ban | NEC PC-8801 | Puzzle | 82 | Hiroyuki Imabayashi |
| Zaxxon | Coin-Op | Arcade | ||
| Chain Shot! | Fujitsu FM 8/7 | Puzzle | 85 | Kuniaki Moribe |
| Thexder | PC-8801mkII SR | Puzzle | ||
| Arkanoid | Coin-Op | Breakout | 86 | |
| Family Computer Othello | Famicom | Othello | ||
| Metroid | Arcade | |||
| Final Fantasy | Famicom | RPG | 87 | |
| Fruits Fields | PC-8801mkII SR | Puzzle | ||
| Zeliard | Action | PC 1990 | ||
| Oh! Hajiki | Sharp X68000 | Arcade | 88 | Takeshi Maruyama |
| Herzog Zwei | SEGA Genesis | RTS | 89 | |
| Puzznic | Coin-Op | Puzzle | ||
| Shisen-Sho | Puzzle | |||
| Sweet Home | Famicom | RPG | ||
| The Adventures of Lolo | Puzzle | |||
| Columns (Sega) | Coin-Op, Genesis | Columns | 90 | |
| Dr. Mario | Coin-Op, Famicom | Tetris | ||
| Wall Street Kid | Famicom | strat |
The oldest Windows games I have found, and thus the oldest Japanese freeware games I have access to, are from 1991.
| Bubble Bath Babes | NES | Tetris | 91 | |||||
| Dragon Knight III | PC-98 | RPG | ||||||
| The Atlas | PC-98 | strat | ||||||
| Peek-A-Boo Poker | NES | Strip Poker | ||||||
| A-Train | PC 98 |  |
 |
strat | 92 | Take the A-Train III | ||
| Ningyō Tsukai | PC 98, FM Towns | Fighter | ||||||
| Wizardry: Story of LLylgamyn | SNES | RPG | ||||||
| SameGame |  |
 |
|
Puzzle | ||||
| Lady Sword | PC Engine | RPG | ||||||
| EmPipe | |
Pipeline | 93 | Yutaka Emura | ||||
| Nankin | |
Puzzle | Ikuo Hirohata | |||||
| Strip Fighter II | PC Engine | Fighter | ||||||
| Cosmology of Kyoto | |
|
Adventure | 94 | ||||
| NumLis | |
Tetris | Kaoru Kusunoki | |||||
| SimTower | |
|
sim | |||||
| Marble Cooking | PC 98 | |
Puzzle | |||||
| Metal & Lace | |
Fighter | ||||||
| Princess Maker 2 | |
(RPG) | ||||||
| New Horizons | SNES | |
RPG | |||||
| Pretty Fighter | SNES | Fighter | ||||||
| Super Metroid | SNES | Arcade | ||||||
| Power Dolls | PC 98 | |
strat | 95 | ||||
| Runaway City | |
Adventure | Original title Meisou Toshi | |||||
| Chrono Trigger | SNES | RPG | ||||||
| Dragon Quest VI | SNES | RPG | ||||||
| Lufia II | SNES | RPG | Original title Estpolis Denki II | |||||
| Legend of Another World | SNES | sim | ||||||
| Terranigma | SNES | RPG | ||||||
From 1996 on, the two dominant platforms are Playstation and Windows. The rule of Nintendo, with their rigid censorship for exports, has come to an end.
| Don Den Lover Vol. 1 | Coin-Op | Othello | 96 | |||||
| Immoral Study | |
Adventure | ||||||
| Radical Dreamers | SNES | Adventure | ||||||
| Resident Evil | PSX | |
Action | Original title Biohazard | ||||
| Final Fantasy VII | PSX | |
RPG | 97 | ||||
| Lord Monarch Online | |
strat | ||||||
| The Maid's Story | |
sim | ||||||
| DonDen | |
Puzzle | 99 | Ichikawa Shinji | ||||
| Yoot Tower | |
|
sim | |||||
| Fairy Nights | |
|
Adventure | 00 | ||||
| RPG Maker 2000 | |
GCS | ||||||
| FreeTrain | |
strat | 02 | Kohsuke Kawaguchi | ||||
| Pipeful Sunday | |
Pipe Mania | replicorn | |||||
| Metroid Fusion | Game Boy Advance | Arcade | ||||||
| Metroid Prime | GameCube | FPS | ||||||
| RPG Maker 2003 | |
GCS | 03 | |||||
| Booby Reversi | |
|
|
|
Othello | Toshihiko Okuhara | ||
| Catast | |
Arcade | Sho Narita | |||||
| Crocodile Garden | |
Soko-ban | Anahara Masataka | |||||
| RPG Maker XP | |
GCS | 04 | |||||
| Metroid: Zero Mission | Game Boy Advance | Arcade | ||||||
| Galshell 2 | |
Shoot-'em-up | 07 | Hareo Sakaba | ||||
Games that incorporate Japanese culture but are of foreign origin are Sword of the Samurai, which is very well researched, Throne of Darkness, The Last Ninja, and, to a lesser degree, Geisha and Karateka.
