Kojima worked on this game for a month in 1986. His name is nowhere in it. He is the one who tells us he was there.
Konami released Penguin Adventure on 28 October 1986. The credits name Ryouhei Shogaki and Hiroyuki Fukui as its directors. They do not name Hideo Kojima, who had joined the company that year. By his own account, he was on it for about a month, in planning, and among the things he suggested were the slot machine in the shop and ways the bosses could be beaten. The slot machine is in the game. The month is not in the credits. Nine months later he directed Metal Gear, and everything the world knows him for followed from that. This one is the month before the name. Most of what anyone does never gets signed. It still gets made, and it is still there in the thing.
About this game
Konami's 1986 MSX sequel to Antarctic Adventure: Penta the penguin must fetch a golden apple to save Princess Penguette, who is dying. It is also the game a newly hired Hideo Kojima worked on for about a month — and is not credited in.
Key Features
You run. The screen runs at you. Penta the penguin is racing against a clock to bring back a golden apple that will cure Princess Penguette, and between him and it are ice, forests, water, caves, bosses, and holes in the ground that turn out to be shortcuts. For a 1986 running game it carries an unusual amount of machinery: shops where you can buy equipment, minigames, boss fights, bonus stages in space — and treasures hidden well enough that most players will never find them. Those treasures decide how the story ends.
The Story Behind
Penguin Adventure went on sale on 28 October 1986. The credited directors are Ryouhei Shogaki and Hiroyuki Fukui; Shogaki is the credited designer. Hideo Kojima joined Konami that year. By his own account — given by him, years later, on Twitter — he took part in the planning of this game for about a month, and the ideas he suggested included the slot machine in the shop and ways the bosses could be beaten. His name does not appear in the credits. This is worth being precise about, because the internet often calls Penguin Adventure "Kojima's debut". He is not in the credits of this game. The first game he is credited as directing is Metal Gear, in July 1987, on the MSX2.
Tricks & Tales
The ending is not the same for everyone, and the game never tells you why. Penta brings the golden apple home to Princess Penguette either way. But if you found fewer than four of the hidden treasures on the way, she does not wake up — she dies in her coma. Find four or more, and the apple works. The game does not warn you. It does not mark them on a map. It simply remembers, at the end, how carefully you looked. There are two cartridges to know about: the Japanese release, and a separate European MegaROM release (product code RC743, sold in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands) titled in English as Penguin Adventure.
Collector's Guide
What to Watch Out For
Before buying, these are the points worth knowing — from someone who handles original Japanese Penguin Adventure copies regularly.
Is this "Hideo Kojima's first game"?
Not in the sense a listing usually means. Kojima is not in this game's credits at all — the credited directors are Ryouhei Shogaki and Hiroyuki Fukui. Kojima has said he spent about a month on the planning, uncredited. If a seller is pricing this as "Kojima's debut", they are pricing a claim the credits do not make. His first credited direction is Metal Gear (MSX2, 1987).
Which cartridge am I looking at — Japanese or European?
There are two. The Japanese release is titled 夢大陸アドベンチャー; a separate European MegaROM cartridge (product code RC743) was sold in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands as Penguin Adventure. They are different products. Check the listing, not the title.
Is it a cartridge, or disks?
A cartridge — a 128kB MegaROM. Of the three MSX formats (cartridge, tape, floppy) this is the one that has survived best, with no rubber belt and no tape to perish. The machine you play it on is the part that ages: see the MSX care guide on this site.
Am I going to see the real ending?
Probably not on your first run, and that is by design. If you reach the end having found fewer than four of the game's hidden treasures, Princess Penguette dies. The game gives you no warning and no map. It is worth knowing before you decide the ending you got was the ending.
Unexpected Discoveries
Games you weren't looking for — but might be glad you found.
Rooms this game lives in
Wander deeper — explore the themed rooms where Penguin Adventure sits alongside its kin.
Memories from around the world
This is a young museum, and this page is still waiting for its first voices. The memories people send reach Taisei personally, and the ones that move him find a home here over time — always with the writer's blessing. Yours could be the very first for this game.
Share your memory ↑