177

177
Date: 2024
177-screen-shot

Japan

177 was a side-scrolling arcade game developed and published by Macadamia Soft, and released in 1986 for the NEC PC-8801 system. The game’s title references the paragraph in the Japanese criminal code that prohibits rape, ironically naming a game centrally focused on this violence. In 177, the player controls a male protagonist who chases a female character around a circuit, attempting to catch and rape her. Hedges and dogs function as obstacles for the player, who can throw rocks at the fleeing woman to slow her down. The player loses if the woman reaches her home. If she is caught by the protagonist, the side-scrolling arcade mode shifts to a stationary overview of a rape, during which the player must press various buttons in order to sexually satisfy the woman. If he is successful they are married; if he fails, he is arrested by the police.

177 followed the success of other sexually focused Japanese video games, beginning with Night Life (1982, Kōei), the first commercially available erotic game that was marketed as a sex manual for couples. Further eroge (or bishōjo, pornographic video games) titles followed, including Lolita Syndrome (1983, Enix) and My Lolita (1984, Kōei), a medical simulation involving the undressing of a young girl. 177 sparked controversy as the first commercially available game centred on rape, leading to its recall and re-release with the most controversial scenes removed. The game was introduced to the House of Representatives of the Japanese National Diet on 10 October, 1986 by Komeito political advisor Kusakawa Shôzô and led to a recommendation from Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry (METI) in 1986 that the computer industry self-regulate its products (Pelletier-Gagnon & Picard 2015). Although no classification authority was immediately established, Japan subsequently witnessed the infamous case of Tsutomu Miyazaki, “the Otaku Murderer”, who gruesomely murdered and sexually abused four Japanese children from 1988-89. Tristan Donovan (2010, 157) writes that, “Miyazaki’s hideous crimes provoked national outrage and stirred up a wider moral panic about the otaku”, a term used to characterise Japanese people with obsessive interests, usually related to manga and anime. Preceding the establishment of the Entertainment Software Review Board in the United States, bishōjo game producers established a content regulator in 1992, named the Computer Software Rinri Kiko, or the Ethics Organisation of Computer Software (EOCS). Donovan (2010, 157) writes that “The Computer Software Rinri Kiko’s first act was to restrict games featuring incest, bestiality and paedophilia”. – Liam Grealy

Further reading:

– Donovan, T. (2010). The history of video games. Yellow Ant: East Sussex.
– Pelletier-Gagnon, J. & M. Picard. (2015). Beyond Rapelay: Self-regulation in the Japanese erotic video game industry. In M. Wysocki & E.W. Lauteria (eds) Rated M for mature: Sex and sexuality in video games, (pp. 28-41). Bloomsbury Publishing: New York.

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