Lot Lot Lot Lot is due to arrive on Steam imminently, according to a message from Mindware's president. Mindware is publishing the game as the apparent 12th entry in the Video Game Classics series, which has provided access to other rare retro games over the years.
For those not in the know, Lot Lot began its life as a type-in program listed in a Japanese computer magazine, all the way back in 1984. At the time, games were sometimes shared that way. Readers could retype the code on their computers and gain access to a new game to enjoy on their home computers.
After initial success, Lot Lot was ported to other platforms by various developers. A Famicom edition was even produced by HAL Laboratory, better known today for the Kirby games. Development on that particular port was handled by Satoru Iwata, who later served as Nintendo's president. Not only that, but music was provided by Yuriko Keino (Xevious, Dig Dug, and Dragon Buster).
Given the game's history, you might have expected it to appear readily on other hardware by now, perhaps as part of Hamster's long-running Arcade Archives series. However, rights issues prevented that. Mindware had to track down the original developer, Yuki, a process the publisher found "extremely difficult." It's easy to see how that search might prove difficult, some four decades later.
Credit: Mindware
So, is the game worth all that effort expended on it? Apparently, the title did develop something of a following. Here at HonestGamers, we weren't so enthusiastic. We reviewed the NES version as an import title in 2008, and we admittedly didn't have a lot of nice things to say.
"This dull, monotonous, memorization-based puzzler will deliver the same dreary uninspired game each and every time," our critic wrote in our Lot Lot staff review. "It’s a memory game where the matches never switch."
While that experience sounds far from terrific, I'm still delighted to see a piece of history made available to play on readily accessible current hardware. The alternative is that we don't have an official way to access those old titles except with emulators, which never feels quite the same to me.
If you'd like to learn more about Lot Lot Lot Lot, check out the official Lot Lot Lot Lot store page on Steam.
