User:The C of E/hs

HappySoft Limited, also known as Jiji Software, was a Japanese homebrew video games company intended to release parodies of the gaming industry. The company produced only one game: Hong Kong 97 which was viewed as one of the worst video games of all time. Owing to the trouble they had releasing it, the company folded shortly afterwards.

History
In 1995, HappySoft Limited was set up to capitalise on a trend of Japanese interest in Hong Kong culture as well as parody computer games developers. The first video game they produced was Hong Kong 97 for the Super Famicom, which was designed and made by Japanese journalist Kowloon Kurosawa in a week. The actual design and release of it only took two days as an Enix friend could only give that time to assist and Kurosara stated he was drunk during most of the production. HappySoft sought official endorsement from Nintendo. However owing to the game's introduction using the word "fuck", the game over screen showing a real dead body and using an unauthorized image of Jackie Chan to represent "Bruce Lee's relative, Chin", Nintendo refused to give it official endorsement. HappySoft then attempted to distribute it themselves even including an advert after the games start up in order to get stores to stock their games. Despite this, Japanese stores did not stock it to the extent that there are no known physical copies of the game in existence. Kurosawa set up mail-order correspondence in order to sell their games.

Following this failure, the company folded after a few months though their legacy was remembered in Japanese and Taiwanese gaming communities with parodies of their game being made. They were also noted for being correct in assuming that the President of the People's Republic of China, Deng Xiaoping would have died before the handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to China.