Sokoban 80s Product Codes

_{Published: 2024 April 23}

There is something interesting found in early Sokoban games between 1982 and 1984 released on cassette tape.

These games came with a product code provided by SoftBank, a company that distributed business and game software. You can read about this (in Japanese) here.

The product code is in the format AAAA-00000 and is known in Japan as the 'SB code.'

This is interesting because it allows us to discover insights about the release order of the games.

List of known product codes:

Considering all Sokoban 2 releases occurred in 1984, the product codes suggest the following release order for Sokoban:

• December 1982: Sokoban 1 for PC-8801 only.
• 1983: Sokoban 1 for Sharp-X1, MZ-2000, and PC-6001mkII (including 32K version).
• 1984: Sokoban 2 for PC-8801, and Sokoban 2 and Sokoban 1 for both PC-8001mkII and FM-7. (Compare with magazine I/O January 1984, page 104)

There's a question about the official December 1982 release date for Sokoban 1 on the PC-8001mkII. According to Wikipedia, the PC-8001mkII launched in March 1983. This is further supported by a picture of the machine offered for sale in magazine I/O March 1983, page 2.

Analysis of the product codes suggests a 1984 release for this version, which aligns with the known launch date of the PC-8001mkII.

Here's a table summarizing other known product codes for Thinking Rabbit games: