Bokosuka Wars
1983 video game
Bokosuka Wars is a 1983 action-strategy role-playing video game developed by Kōji Sumii and published by ASCII for the Sharp X1 computer, followed by ports to the MSX, FM-7, NEC PC-6001, NEC PC-8801 and NEC PC-9801 computer platforms, as well as an altered version released for the Family Computer. It revolves around a leader who must lead an army in phalanx formation across a battlefield in real-time against overwhelming enemy forces while freeing and recruiting soldiers along the way, with each unit able to gain experience and level up through battle. The player must make sure that the leader stays alive, until the army reaches the enemy castle to defeat the leader of the opposing forces.
The game was responsible for laying the foundations for the tactical role-playing game genre, or the "simulation RPG" genre as it is known in Japan, with its blend of role-playing and strategy game elements. The game has also variously been described as an early example of an action role-playing game, an early prototype real-time strategy game, and a unique reverse tower defense game. In its time, the game was considered a major success in Japan. The NES version was later released for the Virtual Console service for the Wii, as well as by Hamster Corporation for their Console Archives series for the PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2.
Release
Originally developed in 1983 for the Sharp X1 computer, it won ASCII Entertainment's first "Software Contest" and was sold boxed by them that year. An MSX port was then released in 1984, followed in 1985 by versions for the PC-6001mkII, PC-8801, PC-9801, FM-7 and the Family Computer (the latter released on December 14, 1985).
LOGiN Magazine's November 1984 issue featured a sequel for the X1 entitled New Bokosuka Wars with the source code included.
The public source identifies “Bokosuka Wars” as 1983 video game. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Bokosuka, Wars and video.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q388168. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1983, 1984 and 1985.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bokosuka Wars” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.