TSUKKA Software was a doujin group founded at some point in the 80's, with their first COMIKET appearance being in 1987. They were actually more prolific with the PC-8801 computer family, but I've put them here as I'll be discussing their two PC-9801 products:
According to an archived version of the site's history page, the founding member likely goes by TSUKKA themself. Member CHOBIN, who worked on the music for many of their products, seems to have joined around the same time. Other members who I've found names of include Inubishi Rei (Hoshino Reiko?), Yoshikun (よしくん), Morino Kurumi, and Moriguchi Aran. The TSUKKA Software website has been "under construction" since December of 2004, and seems to have gone defunct at some point after 2022.
Products for the PC-8801 family that they've published include:
All products listed here are available to download on the internet. It appears many of their software has been lost to time.
Crim is a puzzle game where you play as a little witch finding her way through various rooms. In order to progress to each room, you must collect every key without touching or getting hit by an enemy. You have the ability to stun enemies with your wand, but some are immune to it and all of them will hurt you even when stunned. At the end of each round, you're treated to either a "Crim Theater" cutscene (similar to Pac-Man) or a "coffee break" CG. Enemies and stage setups become harder over the course of the game. The game has a permanent scanline effect (even if disabled in the emulator,) which is probably from it being originally made for the PC-8801.
There's not really much to say about this game, but it is really fun! I have yet to complete it, so I'll come back and talk about the game more in-depth if anything else happens. There's a level select option if you hit the END key.
Okiraku Block CHOBIN de Run-Run is a simple Arkanoid-like breakout game where the protagonist is tasked with destroying blocks in TSUKKA Software member CHOBIN's way. The game offers three girls to choose from in the beginning, and every three stages you're rewarded with a CG of the girl of your choosing with less clothing on.
The game also introduces a secret girl with very experimental (and I would personally say frustrating) stages, but you're also allowed infinite continues, so don't worry about having to start over from the beginning.
Plot is gleaned from Google-translating screenshots from the game. There could be and are likely small discrepancies
After starting the game, you're greeted with a picture of CHOBIN, who introduces himself as the ship captain. He's on his way from Midorigaoka to Higashi-Ikebukuro, but it appears there are blocks stopping him from going forward. He asks the player to destroy the blocks for him, and in return you'll get CG of a girl.
The girls you have the options to select from are given a full profile. Each girl has a name, birthdate (to the year,) age in-game, measurements, address, favourite subject, hobby, sport, and stuff they like.
The first girl is named Horie Chiaki, a 16-year-old girl who enjoys reading and likes Mickey Mouse. She is dressed up like Alice from the Lewis Carol book. She was born in 1976, so she would be in her 40's today. The second girl is named Kawano Mai, who is 17 and enjoys using her PC. She looks like a normal high school girl and apparently likes stuffed animals. The third girl is our only of-age character, Mizusawa Nami. She is 20 years old in-game and plays piano. She also apparently likes cars. The birth years are given in Showa, so it took me a minute to realize they weren't born in like, 1947.
The game gives you the opportunity to play with each girl selected, simply selecting the next one when you've completed the first one's CG. The secret girl is an idol, but we have no information on her other than that. I've elected to not show her on this page to allow for users to discover her themselves.
After completion of the first three girls, CHOBIN again asks for your help and gives you the secret girl as a reward. Once you've completed her CG, CHOBIN warns you about a very dangerous boss, allowing you to proceed to the final stage. This final stage is just a series of blocks making up a photo of CHOBIN sleeping, and has no power-ups or hazards to avoid. At the end of this, you learn that CHOBIN successfully made it to his destination and bought a copy of Star Fox (1993) before returning home.
The gameplay is no different from any other Arkanoid clone, but it does feel a bit easier. This isn't the group's first breakout game, as evidenced by one's appearance in 100 Yen Soft Part 7 Final Special, and it's certainly more polished than their previous attempt. Each girl is separated into three sets of three (for a total of about 36 stages in all,) and your power-ups are reset after each CG is shown. Stages don't appear to become especially difficult until girl 3, and the secret girl's stages are incredibly frustrating in comparison.
The game features many power-ups, which include:
Nearing the end of the stage, you're given a BOM power-up that spawns a bunch of MEGA-powered balls to remove the rest of the stage's blocks. The music becomes much more intense and reminiscent of the trance genre, but the loop is much shorter and can become quite annoying as opposed to the each girl's stage music. Typically, you aren't at this part of the stage for long, however I am very bad at controlling balls. This power-up does not appear in the final stage.
The game comes with a music room (that you must reset to exit out of) and some developer notes. The music room contains a visualizer and the entire soundtrack of the game, alongside a FM/PSG test audio, music for a would-be Crim 2, and a song from Sonic 2, strangely enough. It seems many members of the group contributed to the developer notes, if not everyone involved in the game. This was TSUKKA Software's second-to-last PC-98 product, so I find it really sweet that the developer notes are so long.
At some point in the future, I will be publishing a playthrough of the game. I need to git gud first, though, so it may be a while...