Zemina

Founded: 1981

Defunct: 1992

Headquarters:

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Zemina (재미나) was a South Korean video game developer, notable for playing a crucial role in the development of that country's game industry, and for its modern status as one of South Korea's most recognized native video game companies.

Company

Established in 1981, Zemina was one of many companies which produced software exclusively for the South Korean market. Beginning with the Daewoo Zemmix (an MSX computer) before progressing to the Sega Master System, the company saw a significant amount of financial and critical success in its home country. South Korea generally lacked software copyright laws until 1987, and Zemina spent a number of years hacking their logos into overseas games. The legality of some of their later releases is also questioned too, as newer laws protected only the game's actual code, and not the intellectual property that was being copied.

Zemina would eventually fade away during the 1990s, as copyright laws became more strict and Japanese competitors were eventually allowed to enter the market.

Games

Many of Zemina's Sega Master System games were actually SG-1000 games housed in a Master System cartridge and utilize the system's SG-1000 backwards compatible graphics mode. As the company's games were generally ports of existing MSX titles (which themselves were often bootlegs of commercially-released games), the similar architecture between the MSX and Master System standards meant games were relatively easy to port to the home system.

Softography

Master System

F-1 Spirit: The Way to Formula-1 (1987)
Nemesis (1987)
Nemesis 2 (1987)
New Boggle Boggle 2 (1989)
Super Boy II (1989)
The Three Dragon Story (1989)
Block Hole (1990)
Eagles 5 (1990)
Flashpoint (1990)
Puznic (1990)
The Micro Xevious (1990)
Cyborg Z (1991)
Penguin Adventure (1991)
Super Boy 3 (1991)
Wonsiin (1991)
Street Master (1992)
Super Boy 4 (1992)

References