Get ready to explore the fascinating world of online gaming’s spicy past as we delve into A History of Lewd Games Online.
The history of lewd gaming is vast and goes back as far as gaming has existed. Lewd versions of community and tabletop games have existed right alongside their mainstream counterparts with the lewd versions played in more intimate settings. If you’re talking about video games, the same is true. As soon as video gaming hit the masses, adult versions followed right on their heels. From early home computers that ran on Dos to modern online platforms like Steam, there are lewd games to fit any genre or gameplay that you could possibly want.
A History of Lewd
In order to talk about a full history of lewd games online, you first have to define what a lewd game happens to be. There are plenty of examples of them, but if you’re an English speaker, calling a game “lewd” sounds awkward and forced. That’s because the lewd part of lewd gaming is mostly a Japanese translation. It all goes back to western ports of Japanese hentai games. The word “lewd” is a translation of the Japanese word “ecchi”, which itself is an abbreviation of the word “hentai”. It essentially means sexy, dirty, or naughty. So, anytime you see lewd games, you can understand that they’re naughty games meant to satisfy your sexual deviancy. [Update: See our full “What does Lewd mean?” article for more on the origins of “Lewd” in Lewd Games.]
First Lewd Games
The very first lewd games existed at a time when the internet was far too infantile for streaming or downloading, in 1981. It was called Yakyuken and it was based on a Japanese TV show. The show itself had contestants playing Rock, Paper, Scissors, with the losers having to take off an item of clothing in front of the audience. Yakyuzen was very similar to that concept. It was created for the Sharp MZ-80K and MZ-700 home computers. Players were shown extremely simple and angular rendering of women. They would then get a countdown and have to type in a 1, 2, or 3. The program would then reward your wins by removing an article of clothing from the character on screen. 1982 would bring about a pixel art game titled “Lolita”. This game featured a young, presumably underage girl in her bedroom. The players goal was to undress her, at which point the police would arrive and end the game. That game would go on to influence the advent of graphic novels while both games would turn into the online lewd gaming industry we know today.
Online Gaming
As the internet exploded and matured in the 1990s, online gaming became widely available to anyone with a modem and internet connection. Not only did they allow people to play games on the internet, instead of buying and installing discs, it also allowed them to play against each other in early arena servers. It was now possible to download an adult game called Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards and play it offline. That game is widely seen as one of the biggest reasons lewd gaming became so popular, but the next evolution would turn them into household staples.
Japan in the 2000s
While games like Leisure Suit Larry were being turned into ongoing series of lewd games, Japan was seeing a major explosion in their hentai and erotic gaming world. These creators were pushing boundaries in how far they could take things and what they could show their players without being shut down. It was very common for Japanese publishers to explore the territories of incest and forced sexual encounters with games that anyone could download or stream on gaming sites. RapeLay, for instance, was released in 2006. This game put you into the shoes of a “chjikan” or someone who carries out sexual actions against another person’s will. The goal of the game was to stalk and rape an entire family consisting of a mother and two daughters. This is also the time period when Flash became widely used as a way of creating and sharing games. They’re also known as browser games and they made it easy to visit online gaming platforms, like Newgrounds, to play games right on your internet browser. Newgrounds also became a destination for lewd gamers and there was no lack of independent adult games to be found.
Nutaku
Then came Nutaku. It was founded in 2015 and made lewd games for a western audience. Its main objective was to take Japanese erotic games and translate them for their site. They offered many free to play titles with microtransactions for their users to take advantage of, in order to add assets and gameplay to their lewd games. The site has continued to grow since its inception and is now seen as one of the largest and most popular platforms for all lewd gaming across the entire planet.
Current Lewd Gaming Environment
Lewd gaming is now more accessible than it’s ever been. One look at /r/lewdgames will not only show you thousands of titles that members are sharing, but also hundreds of platforms that anyone can visit to play adult games. It’s easy to see that lewd games will continue to grow and thrive with little to get in the way. Major mainstream gaming sites, like Steam, have massive sections dedicated to lewd games. It’s also possible to play lewd MMORPGs. Games like Red Light Center let you interact with other people and have virtual sex with them, complete with fetish and kink aspects. Lewd gaming is now evolving with AI and there’s no telling what the next explosion will look like.
Conclusion: Lewd Gaming is always Around
It’s almost more difficult to spend time online without seeing lewd games than it is to miss out on them. They’re offered on mainstream platforms as well as sites dedicated to lewd games and nothing else. These games have existed along with mainstream games since the beginning and they’re not going anywhere. Anyone can create them, from independent amateurs to large studios. Whether you’re into lewd parodies of other games or brand-new adult universe exploration, you’re going to be able to find plenty of games to satisfy you.