Riverse Kids

Riverse Kids
Title screen.
Publisher	Atmark
Developer	Jap! (EJ Corporation)
Console	Super Famicom
Date	December 1996

Riverse Kids (りばーす☆きっず) is an unlicensed adult Super Famicom game developed by EJ Corporation (under the name Jap!) and published by Atmark.

Overview

Gameplay.

This game is a variation of reversi (Othello), which is played against a girl named Mirika. The player can choose to play against either a younger or older version of Mirika, which act as easy and hard modes, respectively. Each opponent has her own set of voice samples played throughout each round. There is also an option to display handicaps on knowing where to place pieces. Besides that, it's standard Othello, with a particularly difficult CPU. Of note, however, is that the computer will get an "attack chance" once per round and replace one of the player's pieces with its own, presumably to make up for deficiencies in the AI. Also, there is a time limit on placing pieces, and running out of time results in an instant loss. Between winning consecutive matches, you're rewarded with animations of your opponent in various stages of undress.

Gallery

Box and contents (plastic case w/ donor cart).

Back of box (plastic case).

Standard box variation.

Top-loading cartridge.

Custom-manufactured "SEM Board" from a top-loading cartridge of Riverse Kids, with an empty DIP socket for the cartridge ROM.

Front of PCB.

Rear of PCB.

Trivia

• Similar to Super 3D Noah's Ark, this game is one of a few known Super Famicom games to use a top-loading cartridge mechanism in order to bypass the Super Nintendo's CIC lockout chip. The acronym "SEM", which is seen in the manual, stands for "Software Editing Machine", which is the name of this system. However, some copies of the game use donor carts, like most of the other games developed by EJ Corporation. Also, some copies of the game come in standard boxes, while others come in plastic boxes resembling VHS cases.
• This is the only game that EJ Corporation is known to have released outside of the SM Choukyoushi Hitomi series of games.
• According to Geromi Eroba, the staff member behind the graphics and sound for the game, there were some character designs and other assets that were scrapped because of the limited storage capacity of the Super Famicom cartridge that was used. (One example is a middle-schooler version of Mirika, who is missing from the game but still appears on the packaging.) He remarks that the fully animated CG sequences took up a large portion of the game's ROM and prevented the development studio from adding more content.
• There were two unreleased pieces of music that were intended to be used for this game. One of them, composed by the staff member (YMD)A, is available in MML format here.
• The key illustrations for the adult version of Mirika were created by the manga artist Ginkamen (銀仮面).
• This game shares its music and sound effects with the other game developed by Jap!, SM Choukyoushi Hitomi Bangai Hen 2: Maki no Love Love Panic.
• Clicking on the individual characters at the top of the settings screen will display each of the game's animations.
• The complete source code of this game and various related tools like the program used to create its animations were published on a CD-ROM that came with the book Underground Games Reader (裏ゲーム読本) in 1998.

External Links

• Webpage by one of the game's developers (archived)
• Blog post by (YMD)A about the game's music, including song titles