is a

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

developed by

Epoch In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured. The moment of epoch is usually decided by ...

and published by

Sunsoft , stylized as SUNSOFT, is a Japanese video game developer and publisher. Sunsoft is the video games division of Japanese electronics manufacturer Sun Corporation. Its U.S. subsidiary operated under the name Sun Corporation of America, though, ...

Summary

This video game was released exclusively in Japan on December 18, 1992 for the Nintendo Family Computer. As the title suggests, it is a video game where players use a Barcode Battler II (a card-scanning handheld) together with a Nintendo-licensed Famicom-Barcode Battler interface that came packaged with the game and not sold separately. A special set of Barcode Battler cards with barcodes imprinted on them were also required to play the game including the "White Card" that enabled players to scan any barcode (especially ones found on consumer products).Barcode World
Atari HQ. Retrieved 10 May 2011. ''Barcode World'' includes barcode cards that feature characters from many Sunsoft series, most notably ''

Hebereke is a video game series developed by Sunsoft that was released primarily in Japan, with a few releases in Europe and one release in North America. It was one of the company's main franchises during the 1990s. Hebe, the main character of the se ...

'' and ''

Gimmick! , released in Scandinavia as ''Mr. Gimmick'', is a platform video game developed and published by Sunsoft, and originally released in Japan for the Family Computer in 1992. The story follows a small green '' yōkai'' named Yumetaro who was ...

'', but using the White Card included with the game, players were also given the ability to scan a wide range of consumer products. Released during a period of great interest in barcode-swiping games in Japan, the game dates itself as directly from the early 1990s, but the game still functions today exactly as it did then and modern products may also be scanned in order to generate new content for the game (RPG-style stats and attributes, etc.).

Legacy

The use of the Barcode Battler unit in conjunction with the Famicom was made possible using the Famicom-Barcode Battler interface – a connector cable that came with the ''Barcode World'' cassette. In this way, the Famicom was given the capacity to scan external barcodes to expand gameplay for the game to include all manner of household consumer products. Soon books were released by third parties that listed in detail which consumer products had the strongest barcodes. Today, the setup has been seen as a precursor to the 2001

Nintendo e-Reader The Nintendo e-Reader, stylized as ereader, commonly abbreviated as e-Reader, known in Japan as the is an add-on manufactured by Nintendo for its Game Boy Advance handheld video game console. It was released in Japan in December 2001, with a ...

for the

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, 2 ...

. The two devices are very similar in that they serve the same purpose: to scan specially designed cards with barcodes imprinted on them as the primary means of using the device. The game continues to be played today often in emulated form, and modern emulators like

FCEUX FCEUX is an open-source Nintendo Entertainment System and Family Computer Disk System emulator. It is a merger of various forks of FCE Ultra. Multiplayer support The Win32 and SDL versions of FCEUX do not currently support TCP/IP network pla ...

feature support specifically for the unusual ''Barcode World'' setup.Kohler, Chris. ''Retro Gaming Hacks''. Chapter 4. Pg.161. 2006. .

References

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External links

Atari HQ
1992 video games Crossover video games Epoch Co. games Japan-exclusive video games Nintendo Entertainment System games Nintendo Entertainment System-only games Strategy video games Sunsoft games Video games developed in Japan Video games using barcodes

Summary

Legacy

See also

References

External links