[Music]
foreign
it was a familiar story two European
investors with the help of local
government set up a software development
company it's as common as two guys
walking into a bar but there's something
uncommon about the story and it's where
the company was set up and which local
government was helping them out none
other than the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea better known as North
Korea you thought India was the cheapest
place to Outsource it to think again the
company was called nosotech and they
quickly found work from a number of
European companies looking for cheap
software development they were mostly
known for mediocre mobile games like
Bobby's blocks by far most of their work
came from Europe in the US the
government had sanctions and trade
embargoes that made working with a North
Korean company almost impossible though
somehow American film studios did
allegedly manage to commission The Big
Lebowski bowling so yeah nosotech was
hardly Turning Heads but was absolutely
fascinating from a geopolitical
standpoint you know how sometimes people
go to North Korea for tourism and
occasionally they come back alive well
you can't actually actually fly directly
into North Korea unless you live in
Beijing that is how most people from the
outside get in they go to Beijing first
and from there a company like Courier
tours will gladly bring you into North
Korea North Korea is Courier tourism
specialty it's plastered all over their
website despite the fact that right now
they're not actually allowed into the
country due to that non-computer virus
you may have heard of but back in 2012
they were looking for a way to promote
their services and had an interesting
idea why not make an online game about
North Korea and commission real North
Korean developers to create it what
resulted was a game called Pyongyang
racer Pyongyang being the capital of
North Korea at first it looks like a
joke that some edgy kid made on
Newgrounds but nope it's really real and
recently while hanging out with friends
I had randomly remembered it existed and
wanted to show them but there was a
problem the game was written in Flash
and since the Epic downfall of the
Shockwave Flash Dynasty the game had
been removed from its website at found
few sites that had mirrored the main swf
file but it didn't seem to make it past
the opening logos and I was really upset
because I looked like a damn fool in
front of my friends trying to trying to
show him Pyongyang racer when it didn't
seem to exist anywhere they were just
like did you just [ __ ] make this [ __ ]
up Matt this is the last time I'm
inviting you over I brought up the story
on stream one day and the chat convinced
me to run the game through a flash
decompiler to see if there are any clues
about how to get it working again
so that's today's plan decompiling a
Chinese Flash game you know that's not
actually a bad idea I don't know how far
we'll get let me see if I can find the
swf again now oof I'm glad I didn't show
that on stream oof oh no I'm trying to
download this uh Pyongyang
racer.swf and it's on one of those
shitty websites where all the banner ads
are like ChatterBait let's have a look
at this okay so here is a flash
decompiler I don't know why it's a
styled like office 2007. is it full of
dodgy anime ladies Matt
no oh speaking of uh dodgy anime ladies
Jesus Christ that's kind of creepy
that's like a uncanny valley Japanese
robot thing oh yo what the [ __ ] why is
it just her decapitated head oh God why
is it she putting her hand up like she's
about to slap a [ __ ] maybe that's what
happens when you go to North Korea
you're American
honestly this is more of North Korea
than I've ever seen I mean they're not
very high res but it's more than I've
ever seen before who's this is that me
winning is that like the the player
character yeah that's the player
character because it says best
I mean it looks like it says best Roger
but I think it says best racer sadly
what we found was that the game relied
on external server-side assets that
hadn't been archived with the game since
the website was long gone there didn't
seem to be any hope getting them now but
in vain I started looking into the
company to see if I could find any leads
the first Western invested I.T joint
venture company in North Korea
developing computer games various
problems such as the iPhone j2me and we
there were Wii games
Korea what three games that they make or
are they games that were only ever
released in North Korea one very big
role-playing game for for the Nintendo
Wii why is it showing me this oh these
are the people that made it these are
the people that made the game well I'm
glad that the image resolution hasn't
improved since this game quietly churned
out various popular games including one
very big role-playing game for the
Nintendo Wii why is that in quotes it's
like it's making fun of it like yeah
they that's what they say wink how many
of these people are still alive oh God
don't say that how many of them have
been like Thanos snapped by Kim Jong
himself see the problem is now I
definitely can't go to North Korea
because I've been talking them live on
stream they're going to watch this and
be like this guy needs to die wait wait
wait wait wait wait wait company video
company video Red Alert Red Alert oh
[ __ ]
uh damn the account was murdered just
like all these people probably were
is this the company
this even looks like some Soviet Union
propaganda yo yeah well I want to go to
this convention I've gone to VidCon I've
gone on to RTX I don't know if I've been
to anymore but that's why I need to go
to this one European Business
Association DHL and the DPL yeah there's
a lot of references to German companies
yo I wonder what music is like in North
Korea what are the top hits apart from
the hit that Kim Jong-un puts out on you
when you visit the US Air Force out of
de facto he went to North Korea and
became the movie star as the American
bad guy in their movies holy [ __ ] I'm a
big believer and you got to fill your
niche in the world that's a [ __ ]
niche in the world I won't lie filling a
niche but at what cost it's like that
Warrior meme this is the guy that moved
to to North Korea to become a movie star
yeah here we go here we go finally
someone asking the real questions oh
this is that video that video once again
it was around as late as 2017. hang on
this is what we got to do
I've got to go to North Korea I've got
to find the like Novo you know I've
already forgot their name oh no it was
noso Tech why do I keep thinking it was
no root okay I gotta find Nosa Tech I
gotta find the people that haven't been
killed I gotta read their servers and
find the assets to Pyongyang racer The
Adventures of Matt Casey and his
questifying careers first ever racing
game I mean part of me actually thinks
that's really interesting I have to tell
myself that that's not a good idea I
have to tell myself that the US
government themselves says please do not
travel to North Korea serious risk of
arrests and long-term detention okay no
no it's actually it's okay I'm not a US
national I'm okay I'm okay they're not
gonna kill me hang on what's the
Australia North Korea travel advisory we
continue to revise do not travel oh wait
wait wait wait wait it only says do not
travel due to the impact of covid-19 I'm
safe I'm fine yeah let's do it let's go
to North Korea fellas wow they actually
have quite a bit of info about this I
thought the meme was that their covert
rates were zero because the people with
crew magically vanished that was the
meme for a while but now the yeah more
recently they've actually been coming
out and being like Oh shoot we actually
have a problem wait wait wait wait wait
wait there's another vehicle holy [ __ ]
it's unbelievable is that a phone number
on the back does this car even have
wheels I like how it comes to a dead
stop this [ __ ] built like a [ __ ]
concrete wall and the ladies like do not
hit cars or Vans if you hit three
vehicles you will be stuck oh that's
what this uh decapitated head counter is
it's three times that she's had to come
out and [ __ ] tell you off you can hit
a car again I swear to God I will
backhand you your Wonder talk Australia
is fake true wait
the arch of the Arch of Triumph with
without the traffic jams of Paris did
North Korea really copy a landmark from
Paris hang on mottled off it literally
is
they just they copied a [ __ ] French
Landmark just to be like yep we've got
one too no way does North Korea have a
have an Eiffel Tower oh it's China
[Laughter]
man I don't know why I think that's
really funny
here they come off they found me dude
I need my family like yeah I didn't I
didn't say it was bad
I said it was funny in a good way
turn left you shouldn't be allowed on
the road exclamation point full stop my
guy is playing the the game has a
humiliation fetish oh God playing this
bow to go spank me mommy instructed
that's the thing though you could
actually go in and probably find the
dialogue and make it say some some weird
[ __ ]
concrete does that supposed to say
congratulate the Natural Evolution of
conglaturation is great
oh texts
like this is just like
you are stopped for bad driving oh if I
can edit it this would be so cool oh
edit there's an edit button at the
bottom
you are I don't know
good enough
I think some North Korean developers
thought that couldn't great was the past
tense of congratulations let's congrat
everyone oh hey this is that text hang
on hang on hang on there we go
[Music]
excellent
[Laughter]
so I ended the stream feeling kind of
determined to try and get a copy of this
game I covered a lot of the background
of it and watched a pretty substantial
amount of a playthrough of it but I just
knew I wouldn't be satisfied without
playing the real thing I quickly found
that someone had made an attempt to
Archive this game while it was still
online they made a copy of their entire
browser profile and uploaded it to
GitHub the browser cache contained all
the assets needed to play the game great
but it was still pretty difficult to get
running the included sea monkey binary
was Mac OS only and I couldn't for the
life of me get the profile opening in
any other version of sea monkey however
what I did find was a tool that was able
to browse the profile data externally
and from there I could extract all the
assets and place them alongside the swf
file after that the game would finally
play and I was so relieved that the
files weren't lost forever and excited
at the prospect of sharing them until
two minutes later when I realized the
game actually had been archived with all
of its assets as part of the
preservation project Flashpoint I never
used Flashpoint before and um not a huge
fan of how you have to install several
gigabytes just to in this case play a 10
megabyte Flash game but it is all there
and of course I very much appreciate
meticulous preservation efforts such as
this one either way I could now finally
play the game which I will after a
message from our sponsors do you need a
website then look no further than
Squarespace Squarespace is the
all-in-one platform for creating a
beautiful and professional looking
website with no hassle if you're looking
to start a business blog online store or
really any kind of web presence
Squarespace is the easiest way to do it
they have hundreds of responsive
templates to suit any need you may have
and you get a fantastic wizzy wig editor
that lets you do anything no code
required but if you do like to code you
can also enter custom CSS and header
code anywhere you want I especially like
running my online store on Squarespace
because it means that all that delicate
payment information is being handled by
widely used and well-tested code rather
than something coupled together by me at
2AM so if you're looking for a
convenient and straightforward way to
make a website look no further than
squarespace.com they have a free trial
lets you check out all of their features
and when you're ready to launch go to
squarespace.com to save 10 percent of
your first purchase and now back to
Pyongyang racer are you a Pyongyang
racist that's what I do I race around
Pyongyang therefore I am a racist anyway
I thought uh why not let's all play this
game on stream are we ready let's go
[Music]
it even sounds like for Country
propaganda I tried searching for more
info about news tech for a while after
the last stream I got a bunch of dead
ends yeah they seem to have been scraped
off the internet and perhaps murdered in
real life as well we have no
that's actually really loud
we don't need these propaganda albums
talking over me well
I guess here we are here
racing around Pyongyang I guess it's
appropriate that they that they're sort
of Soviet you're looking the buildings
with all the uniform shapes but there's
some uh there's some skyscrapers thrown
in as well man this is really exciting I
I'm glad I'm racing against all these
opponents on the screen did you see that
car that just went by wow wow another
car that went by don't you feel excited
oh oh [ __ ] I just missed missed the gas
this is gonna be like the Ghostbusters
NES game where two guys are gonna come
out and start pushing the car eventually
doesn't this make you want to visit
North Korea
ghost
I accidentally mounted the curb which
obviously means that I died don't you
want to see them out
[Music]
hit cars or Vans this is uh says the
lady I'm visiting your country I'll do
whatever I want true hey look we're
actually coming across some like
landmarks I think these don't look like
the the ordinary oh well
let's try again we've got 100 this game
at least once shouldn't this be the
resolution if I resize it yeah this is
whoa what the hell is this what is up
here okay okay all right let's
let's have a look at the uh the bonus
content around the borders of the game
why did you make this game surrounded by
Green Screen I I didn't that's just how
the game is as you do I'm going on a
leisurely drive around North Korea very
exciting City to be in drive straight on
don't stare at me I'm on duty you can
shut up now
well what are you doing apart from
standing in front of my my view every 10
seconds can you turn those intersections
that's a good question I'm gonna I'll
turn at the next intersection I see
drive straight on don't tell me what to
do
oh well they're just like nope well this
now this
is a great car destination you're going
the wrong way go back or else holy sh it
teaches you with a valuable lesson of
only driving on North Korean government
approved route or you'll get shots I
mean that's that's kind of what's
happening I love driving green grass in
Pyongyang green grass is in Pyongyang is
the most fun you could possibly have
while driving a car so my Driving School
gets a lot worse when I have to read
chat is the frame rate this [ __ ] in real
North Korea yes it is the clouds are
also like that as well the game is less
racing and more trying to hit barrels
without hitting the cars adjacent to
them yeah I don't know where the racing
comes in like who exactly are we racing
apart from the uh authoritarian
government trying to kill us before we
return home tell you what rather than go
for 100 run that might be a bit
ambitious let's just try to get to the
end all right I should get the fuel
because we run out of fuel so I'm gonna
try to pick up fuel might not pick up
all the monuments but I do want to get
around the entirety of Pyongyang before
the end of the stream
oh [ __ ] I forgot
what this car is so hard to control at
slow speeds okay fine all right we're
back okay I've got a deal I've got a
deal if we cannot beat Pyongyang racer
I'm gonna open up the uh Flash
decompiler and try to write a an
infinite health cheat
just because I want to actually get
around this whole map oh this is that uh
that monument that was stolen from
France the Arch of Triumph that's right
we built our own [ __ ] you France all
right I think we're actually getting
close we only have one third of my
health left but I think we're actually
getting close to to the starting point
turn right have you just passed your
test that must mean yeah I think in in
North Korean that must mean thanks
friend turn right here enjoy the rest of
your day or maybe just like have you
passed your tests because I bet you got
a hundred percent on that test turn left
you shouldn't be allowed on the road see
that that's another mistranslation in
North Korean that means left is a a cool
way to go and you're a cool guy well
done ah congratulations oh it's spelled
congrat we covered this last time rather
slow but getting their time was eight
mins 53 sex I got 11 out of 11 sites I
only missed three petrol drums I was one
two out of three times well this was
your first drive through Pyongyang why
not travel to dprk with choreo tours and
see it for yourself it's a persuasive
argument I mean the first thing that I
would do in Pyongyang is is drive
because
maybe that's the only thing there is to
do in North Korea driver's licenses are
probably only for the government I mean
yeah uh
uh tell you what I'm having second
thoughts about this going to North Korea
and driving around thing that is pretty
obviously not the same car you were
driving yeah what they looked like a
scooter or something because they say
what car you're supposed to be driving
yeah I drive a foreign
PS4 it's a I guess a Chinese car and I
oh it's a it was developed in
cooperation with Porsche and he was
borrowed technology from BMW uh yeah I
was driving a uh luxury European car in
North Korea no big deal no big deal
brilliant [ __ ] four more like that's
what I'm saying let me let me actually
read this article the car was scheduled
for launch in Germany Europe's largest
national car market in 2007 following
poor crash test results of the bs6 model
and ensuing press comments a western
launch was postponed at the last minute
when the vehicle structure was expected
to be modified in order to achieve
improved European crash test rating
after modification it achieved zero
Stars zero stars from who for safety
oh God no wonder they were so uh
concerned about me driving into cars
they were like this car could explode
any second ride quality is reasonably
comfortable but steering is vague and
you know what I think they really
captured that in Pyongyang racer I think
this the vague steering I think I was
right on the money the European
market-based version a sloppy five-speed
manual gearbox is offered yeah mate love
me a sloppy five speed uh I like how the
Wikipedia article is genuinely roasting
this car interior plastic is Harsh and
cheap and leather quality cheap at least
it's not harsh however ESC which has
become mainstream for European cars of
this class is not offered how is that a
however it's just you're still
criticizing it the Brilliance you'd be
better off in a go-kart apparently you'd
probably be better off just standing on
the road
all right let us examine let's see how
well this uh this car crashes
I mean it doesn't look great but it
could be worse jeez
wow
he doesn't look like he's having a great
time after that one I mean props for
having an airbag at least they got that
bit oh god oh no
that's got to be an achievement to
achieve zero points oh under the old
hero end cap guidelines the PS4 would
have achieved three stars but the the
bs6 was worse a score that the bs6
needed two tries in a structural
redesigned to match okay okay how bad
was the bs6 you know it's gonna be good
when the first paragraph is safety
welcome to Dinah's drive into death how
bad all right let's do it let's look
wait this is the same footage isn't it
or is this a different car oh no oh no
it is a different car that is so much
worse oh no what is this car made out of
[ __ ] paper
oh
no
this is literally we were joking about
the buildings in the game being made of
cardboard this looks like [ __ ]
straight up cardboard
just to be clear they are meant to
crumple at the front yes that is true
they're supposed to have a crumple Zone
to sort of be a shock absorber make the
impact lesser heavy for the passengers
but
I don't know if this counts I don't know
if this is supposed to be in the crumple
Zone
Kalisa crumples are it is great job I
love the manufacturer's response to this
test saying we make cars for careful
drive that's right driver it's your
fault okay so aren't we all looking
forward to going to North Korea and
having a drive in one of those and so
concludes my journey with Pyongyang
racer thankfully no trips to North Korea
were required and hopefully none ever
will be as always thank you so much for
watching and I'll see you all in the
next one bye guys
[Applause]
foreign
[Music]