Here is another discovery from Sshori’s blog, this time on a game called 東方知霊奏 that was created by doujin cirlce AloMarron.
東方知霊奏 Website Link: https://web.archive.org/web/20160321160626/http://alomarron.com/trs/
東方知霊奏 トーナメント戦 (Tournament Match 1) on Youtube: https://youtu.be/MBu2mC7vAHI?si=u077PABZu2f_1lCD&t=128
東方知霊奏 is described as a “QUIZ x STG” which had the player answer quiz questions while dodging danmaku. Additionally, this game had online support for multiplayer, where tournament matches of up to nine players competed for the best score by answering the questions correctly while dodging waves of danmaku for each question.
By the way, this game did not limit itself to one question format, instead opting to use multiple question formats, such as multiple choice, true or false, spell the word, fill in the blank, etc. Also, question genres were not restricted to only Touhou and as such there was genre like gaming, science, and sports to name a few genre that could be selected. Speaking of selection, the game was able to quickly describe the question format and question genre to players with a “spiritual score” that used musical notation as shorthand to describe the upcoming set of questions.
Moreover, players were not restricted to answering a default set of questions as players had the option to create their own set of questions. That pretty amazing for an online quiz game. Plus, the visual presentation and soundtrack work together with the forest fairytale vibes its tries to build on. Overall, I say 東方知霊奏 is a pretty Touhou quiz game, if this game was still playable in 2024.
As a piece of lost media,東方知霊奏 was an online Touhou game and its servers have been long shut down, rendering it online multiplayer unplayable. Nevertheless, AloMarron distributed versions of 東方知霊奏 as physical discs for doujin events, so finding these discs should hopefully contain software still playable offline. But that is not the only release to be searched for. What if I told you that there was a playable Unity port of 東方知霊奏 on iOS?
As a preview iOS release, this iOS version was not on the app store and instead people had to buy a download card from AloMarron that contained a serial code for iOS users to download the game on their device.
Twitter Post: https://x.com/karinharp/status/464238774013018112
Release: https://web.archive.org/web/20150202032808/http://alomarron.com/trs/HR11/
UDID Connection Guide: https://x.com/karinharp/status/464912850301882369
Anyway, 東方知霊奏 is not the only release of AloMarron that should be considered lost media. According to this catalog on Suruga-Ya AloMarron released Touhou games from 2010-2016, but most of these releases are location test versions of his Touhou games. Of these releases, AloMarron released four other pieces of Touhou fanworks:
AloMarron Works 2010 SUMMER with MQMAIII (A CD of unknown purpose)
AloMarron Works 2010 Autumn with MQMAIII (A CD of unknown purpose)
東方知霊文 and its v1.5.0 remaster update (Quiz x STG Game)
東方紅奏饗 (Quiz x Rhythm Game)
That is all the information I have for now on AloMarron with their Quiz x STG genre fusion game.
Further Reading/Watching/Viewing:
AloMarron Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20160403212742/http://alomarron.com/
東方知霊奏 Web Manual: https://web.archive.org/web/20190324163011/http://alomarron.com/trs/manual/trs_C83_web_manual.jpg
東方知霊奏 トーナメント戦 (Battle Match) on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdbp9DeHuWU
東方知霊奏 トーナメント戦2 (Tournament Match 2) on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbCCljlIENA
Antamanide’s collection of Alomarron Download Cards: https://x.com/Antamanide/status/665796926567116801
Blog Post about 東方知霊奏: https://blog.goo.ne.jp/tetuyou3/e/e328106a4ee87b46256e583d39a131f0
DMRevolution's Review of 東方知霊文: http://dmr443.blog21.fc2.com/blog-entry-208.html
Quiz Magic Academy (QMA) by Konami; the game being parodied: https://p.eagate.573.jp/game/qma/18/top/index.html