#personaware

[sakuraghosttown]

I wonder how ugaka for such small and entertaining content has gotten so much just so much fan stuff and even lots of drawings, I find it quite nice to see old web stuff,especially Japanese ones

I think it mostly have to do with the collaborative aspect, which is just deep rooted in the project, ever since it's early days, the program has always been greatly appreciated for being shareware and freeware. And, in my opinion, that's why it got insanely more popular than the original Personaware in the first place, because it was something that people could contribute to and it still is to this day, more than 20 years later.

You wish the program had more functions ? You can make them yourself, you don't like the default characters ? There are hundreds of those, here's one that plays music, here's one that plays game, here's one that has a story, here's one in Japanese, in English, in Korean, etc.

There's also the non-copyright, you could make fanart of the characters but also create products to be sold without being feared of getting in trouble for using copyrighted material. A bit similar to Touhou project which has a ton of fan content because ZUN doesn't restrict fans and let anyone create using his characters and world.

Also the fact that there is not only one Ukagaka program per say, rejoining my first point, thanks to the projecr being contributed by whoever feels like it, we have basewares on multiple OS making the use of Ukagaka much more accessible than if it was only 1 program, and if someone abandons their program, nothing's stopping someone else from making a new one, and as such the life of Ukagakas goes on.

...

That and of course other reasons such as, being talked about on Futaba Channel, being written about in newspapers or having fanart made by very popular artists and of course, NSFW content, which whether we like it or not, contributes to popularity.

[ukgk]

☆LINKS☆ [under construction]

▰guides▰

How to use a GHOST (🇬🇧)

Zarla’s ghost template & creation walk-through (🇬🇧) (Zarla has released newer templates which are even easier to use, but it's still quite a useful beginner friendly guide for how to get started on making your own ghost)

First guide (🇯🇵)

glossary (in progress..)

▰Developer Resources▰

Ukagaka Dream Team Wiki (🇬🇧)

UKADOC (🇬🇧)

UKADOC wiki

SATORI wiki

YAYA Information Wiki

Disc-2

Ukagaka Elementary

▰Windows baseware▰

SSP [available languages: 🇬🇧 ,🇩🇪, 🇨🇳, 🇷🇺, 🇰🇷 ] (recommended/most up to date/supported Ukagaka baseware for Windows)

C.R.O.W

Materia

▰non-Windows baseware & tools▰

Mac

【Big sur,Catalina対応】MacでWineを使って伺かを動かす。

PlayOnMac+SSP (Mac OS)

Nanika on "Ringo" (Mac OS)

Nanika on Ayase for Mac (for OS X 9)

Linux

Ninix-aya for GNU/Linux

Narue no Nanika (for Linux/Wine and Windows)

how to run (first)Sakura with Ubuntu+WIne

Web + JAVA based ports

Areka? (web Sakura)

Web application (web, coming soon)

Ikagaka (web/javascript)

Nanika Manager for Ikagaka (web)

void-tan (provisional) (Java + multi-platform)

Portable/mobile (+retro systems, handhelds, PDAs, game consoles)

Ukagaka for Android

Mamefrasco (iOS, very barebones)

Pocket Ghost (Windows Mobile, Pocket PCs)

how to run Ninix on Linux Zaurus (for Pocket PCs)

Ukagaka-poi Nanika on PSP (Playstation Portable) (rough TL: Ukagaka-ish something on PSP)

Nise-Haruna for WonderSwan

Are Igai no Nanika with "Nini" for RZ-J90(Leje)&DL-M10 (old Japanese flipphones)

▰other▰

how to change your system locale (windows)

Compatibility mode (windows)

RAY-KUDRYAVKA (🇯🇵)

shimeji

☆★music players☆★

FLUX

Sound Player Ghost "FLELE"

Nanika Song Player ♪

YunaSoft SexyFont Plug-in 2000 Version 7.9b21 ♪ (for WinAmp)

☆★Ghost portals☆★

⚠️※some may have external links to sites and ghosts containing R-18/NSFW content, proceed with caution.

GHOST TOWN

GHOST TOWN (old version)

Disc2 (newer ghosts)

Niji

Ghostcaptor Sakura

weekly-ukagaka

sakuranavi

nkukagaka (defunct)

Nanika Ghost Center

ukagaka weebly (🇨🇳 ghosts)

ukagakadreamteam (🇬🇧 ghosts)

ghost-log

☆★dev tools☆★

Vector (🇯🇵freeware+shareware catalog containing ghosts as well)

Sakura editor (text editor)

Notepad++ (text editor)

github

tama (debugger tool for AYA)

SSTP send module for VisualBasic6

Satolist (Satori ghost editor)

☆★creating your own ghost & translating☆★

Ukadoc

GhostHowTo

Disc2

AYAYA wiki

making an animated ghost (SERIKO/MAYUNA)

SAKURA script@wiki

MAKOTO plug-in

HISTORY (under construction)

Nise-Haruna VS Personaware

Mayura

ASCII art

Nini Radio (How web radio popularized Ukagaka and caused a riot )

community

Ukagaka Dream Team discord

Ukadon (Mastodon instance for Ukagaka developers)

[ukagaka2000]

Origin of Fake Haruna ━━━★

This is totally going to be different from what I normally post, but I thought it would be interesting.

We are all familiar with Fake Haruna (most commonly known as Nini-tan nowadays). She originally is a spoof off of Haruna who came from another desktop program called Personaware. Initially, Personaware was well received, being free and supported by a wide range of networks. Eventually as time went on, it had a paywall to it, it’s features were negatively being changed, and people were dissatisfied with the software.

Kuroi, the developer of Fake Haruna, was extremely unhappy with the way Personaware has changed. He began to release Fake Haruna to “chop Haruna into pieces”.  The new software, MATERIA, was evolving day to day, and the conversations with the desktop mascot were fresh and entertaining. As it grew and grew, more users of Personaware switched to Fake Haruna, and it grew into a major software with a cult following. 

The name that was coined was “arbitrary” (任意) as Fake Haruna could be whatever anyone could decide what her name should be, making her name optional. “Nini-tan” means any/arbitrary-tan and is what she is commonly called to now.

“Despite the silly name, users refer to the adorable mascot as a disdain for capitalist utilitarianism and a compliment to the author.”

[matsutake56]

[sakuraghosttown]

An Ukagaka archive blog !

␥ Illustration by Nakajima Yuka ␥

Ukagaka, formerly Nanika or Fake-Personaware is a Japanese desktop pet/virtual assistant freeware created in 2000. The program, though first made as a free and indie alternative to another licensed program, grew in popularity and evolved into shareware, allowing anyone to implement their own mascots and plugins to the base program.

Although Ukagaka have dealt with many issues over the years. The main idea is still alive today as the open source shareware will live for as long as people add content, Ukagaka is one of the oldest desktop pet program to still be maintained by a community of passionate creators to this day.

This blog is all about classic Japanese Ukagaka (from the early to mid 2000s) for content about newer, English Ukagakas, please visit @ukagakadreamteam

TAG LIST ! ٩( ᐛ )و

★ Media Types:

⌗ art

⌗ oekaki

⌗ video games

⌗ doujin

⌗ 3d model

⌗ goods/merch

⌗ comics

★ Image Tags:

⌗ official art

⌗ ref sheets

⌗ wallpaper

⌗ group

⌗ non ukagaka

⌗ crossover

★ Series:

⌗ xmas ghost

⌗ summer ghost

⌗ valentines

⌗ Coupy2 50 Prompts (Soon !)

⌗ Coupy2 50 Prompts 2 (Soon !)

⌗ ukgk games (soon!)

[ukgk]

The differences between nise-Haruna and Haruna

Do you know who nise-Haruna is? otherwise known as 『nise-Personaware with "nise-Haruna"』. the "nise" [Japanese for 'fake'], means there is also a 'real' Personaware. Which is called 『Personaware with "Haruna"』(however, there are few nise-Haruna users who call her the original instead).

The summary or TLDR; of the nise-Haruna controversy is that the creator of the original Haruna tried to cancel themere existence of nise-Haruna, claiming that nise-Haruna infringed on Haruna's copyright.

Is nise-Haruna really a copyright infringement? Is it plagiarism? Is it something that was never supposed to exist in the first place? If so, why are there so many people defending it? Let's start by looking at what nise-Haruna is. [Disclaimer, not all these opinions match up perfectly with my own and this is simply a translation of this page posted in 2001 before the actual court cases so some small details will be outdated such as Nini-tan's name pre-lawsuit. This is finely aged internet drama]

Have you ever heard of a desktop mascot?

Even if you don't know what it is, you've probably seen or imagined a software program that has a character on the screen that talks to you, or you might have seen one in a movie, cartoon or anime (even if it is just a picture)

There you have it. A desktop mascot is a piece of software that has a character on the screen that helps the user, talks to the user, and so on. Personaware is not the first to do this, but it has been around for a long time, and anyone can come up with one (not that everyone has the skill or resources can make one).

Both nise-Haruna and Haruna are desktop mascots (Haruna, or rather Personaware, is not just a desktop accessory, as the creator says, but... it's a desktop mascot/"accessory", after all(Oh, it's paid, so it's not free, though).

The big difference is that nise-Haruna is freeware（FREE!）, while Haruna is shareware（cost, 2500円 / roughly 25 USD）,

That's a big difference between the two.

Some people may think "I see, if nise-Haruna is free then why does it matter that she's plagiarizing Haruna?", That's where I have to say you're wrong.

Without further ado, let's examine the differences between （"fake"）nise-Haruna and Haruna.

This doesn't capture her likeness either. This is what happens when the Haruna from the other picture changes her clothes... But this one is indeed similar in the way her hands are folded, but I don't think a pose alone would classify as copyright infringement. Next.

Oh wow, I don't know about this one. with the twin-tailed hair and white clothes, this could be a close resemblance, or it could be that the fake Haruna is cosplaying as Haruna.

There may be many differing opinions on whether this is constitutes as copyright infringement or not (I think not), but no wonder it's called Nise "fake" Haruna.

I mean, it would be weird if there was no resemblance at all, even though it says "fake" in the programs title. Actually, Nini-tan is wearing clothes that resemble the way Haruna used to look when the software was still in it's early stages and was released to the public as freeware （i.e., not the default outfit of the current version）. Why is that you ask...? I'll explain later.

So is that all there is to it?　How does this "fake" nise-Haruna look like Haruna?　Hold up... there must be more to it

Oh!　It's similar. I mean, it's almost exactly the same, with the girl talking in a speech bubble!

Some people might say, "This is plagiarism no matter the price.." ...But wait a minute. A desktop mascot typically has a speechbubble just like that.

Thus, a character that speaks in a speech bubble is a standard feature for a desktop mascot, and it is a weak feature. It is not something that can be copyrighted.

However, what they're talking about... What the mascot does, in other words, is the function of the software.

The schedule, biorhythm checker, etc. seem to be completely covered, and the next page of nise-Haruna's menu even has a timer and alarm clock section. It's plagiarism this time!　...No, the implementation of such functions may not be related to copyright, but it must be plagiarism, right?

...That's what it looks like at a quick glance, isn't it? If that function really exists in nise-Haruna.

...There is no such function in nise-Haruna. Now let's have a look at the schedule item in nise-Haruna.

...Hold on, that isn't the schedule I recorded. It's nise-Haruna's made-up story. Naturally, it changes every time. By the way, the original Haruna really does manage the schedule.

Shall we take a look at her biorhythm checker?

It's a story she made up, after all. Of course, Haruna usually tells you your biorhythm as you'd normally expect. While we're at it, let's check if the timer works as well.

Wha..?, How dare she question the existence of timers.

In short, nise-Haruna doesn't even have the most basic features of Personaware. The features aren't functional. "I don't need a functional desktop mascot!" On the contrary, it's become a protest in defense of ironic humor and satire, that's why people classify it as merely being parody software.

「Well then, what can nise-Haruna actually do?」

The main selling point of both nise-Haruna and Haruna is their ability to fetch real-time information and communicate via the Internet.

They can pick up news from the Internet and tell you about it, update themselves and install add-ons, and link you to various websites.

「and・again・that's・plagiarism！they both have the same features right? :/ nise-haruna is just a lazy skinwalker」

Hmm, in a way, that may be true. Because Haruna was created before nini-tan.... But the difference is that Haruna didn't incorporate the Internet as much as the users were promised（although her creator was very enthusiastic about working towards that.

I felt that the original Haruna's use of the Internet was disappointing and solely used for simply passing on current mainstream news (if you want to check that out, you can just try going outside and touching grass for once). In other words, my take is that it's boring.

On the other hand, nise-Haruna gives us news but it's news tailored for otaku with strong story elements (or rather, stories made only for otaku i.e copypasta, satirical topics such as chiyu-12sai’s site),she also auto-updates to new versions very frequently (at one point a new update almost every day! she had an amazing pace...

when the program upgraded to the『何か。（仮）』[Nanika (igai)] phase, it became possible to set a clock, recommend you websites, check your messages and read (privately run) otaku-kei news websites and be notified of updates on them via "Headline Sensors".

nise-Haruna was by far the more advanced choice when it came to network capability. even though surprisingly, Haruna was the first software to implement the headline sensor. so plz no copy her, Haruna~!

Well, the headline fetching feature has created a larger fandom made up of different otaku-kei news site users uniting through nise-Haruna (she always had a tightknit community, but that crossover made us a lot more visible). nerdy otaku-kei types tend to have a softspot for cute characters like this.

a variety of different sites were actively cooperating with the integration of nise-Haruna. and nise-Haruna brought more attention to the headlines on them. There was a surprisingly peaceful symbiotic relationship between the two.

There's also something called SSTP ...I don't know much about this one, because I'm an amateur, but it seems that nise-Haruna has a function as a relay for SSTP servers. For example, if you have a homepage that supports this function, you can make nise-Haruna talk about updates and say custom greetings.

it's not only websites that are compatible, but some software can also be linked with nise-Haruna, such as the wellknown Iria software, which has its functions explained by nise-Haruna.

In the early days, the only software nise-Haruna was compatible with was Winamp (an Mp3 playing program, nise-Haruna can sing along with it). but thanks to Iria (http/ftp file downloading tool for Windows 95), gradually more and more software became compatible with nise-Haruna, and yet another large community was born through the freeware scene thanks to nise-Haruna.

You may be left wondering, why was it only nise-Haruna that went viral? After all Haruna also had a lot you could do with the network too... I think that, although the charm of nise-Haruna's character design is probably a factor to her rapid popularity, the major factor a diverse range of nerds all find appealing is in the creator's philosophy behind making it. I'll talk about the differences in philosophy another time.

The above is a look at the common features shared by nise-Haruna and Haruna. At a glance they seem to be the same, but in fact they are quite different...?

So, is the popularity of nise-Haruna due to these features?　Or is it because of her cute appearance?

Of course, these are the main reasons. But on their own, they are not so different from Haruna... I guess it's also hard to read gossip and news from the comfort of your desktop only once and then never again.

nise-Haruna has one more key distinguishing feature... and that's stand-up comedy!

nise-Haruna also has a sidekick（companion）that Haruna doesn't have.

For those of you who have been wondering what that lil' blue gremlin that has been casually appearing in the images with nise-Haruna is, his name is Unyuu.

Here's Unyuu doing a comedy routine with nise-Haruna（wait no.. all of their normal conversations are like this）.

nise-Haruna is equipped with a built-in AI. That's where the "nise" in her name comes in, it refers to the nise-AI（Fake/Pseudo-Artificial Intelligence）rather than being her actual name（although I don't know the difference between fake/pseudo-AI and real AI). It's technically more like an unintelligent Artificial Intelligence.

It works a lot like the Playstation game 『Doko Demo Issyo』* in how randomly （apparently not completely random） selected words are incorporated into sentences and a funny conversation ensues (a.k.a. "Dokodoitsu" function). Since it's just the two of them playing off each-other, it becomes a form of stand-up comedy.

*useless translator note: come to think of it, that's the same way dialogue in the game Tomodachi Life works if you want a more modern example

The true charm and appeal of nise-Haruna lies in the fact that the character actually feels alive.

That factor is what makes "fake" Haruna a real Haruna too, even in the face of destruction she stands unparalleled against the original Haruna, not the mention amongst all the other desktop mascot programs and artificially incompetent (or even artificially intelligent) characters that have come out so far. 　That's the reason the users love her so much, and that's why the users were so distraught that nise-Haruna was almost killed.

This is not just your average case of "freeware made by an individual is almost torn down and destroyed by a wealthy company offering a market share".

「nise-Haruna has been killed!」

it was like a tabloid headline to a shocking murder case... well to the minority of niche moe loving otaku who cared.

Whether or not nise-Haruna is legally in violation of copyright is something that can only be determined in a court of law, so I won't examine it strictly here, but I will declare, "If nise-Haruna is considered to be illegal, then something is wrong with the law!" 　...But that's just my personal opinion.

At any rate, I hope that you now understand the difference between nise-Haruna and Haruna...

[ukgk]

[ukgk]

(Real) Haruna/personaware [the ios app deleted the whole caption and links under this draft a really long time ago but a odd but interesting detail i noticed with some of the more forgettable legally shady nini-tan commission cameos in netrunner magazine have her drawn as having pastel lavender hair and a denim outfit i wonder if the commissioned artist wasn’t sent references of the correct haruna?]

[ukgk]

ABOUT 伺か part.1

伺か (Ukagaka/Nanika) is a desktop mascot application software which originally stemmed from a spinoff of the program ‘Personaware’ under the name ‘Fake Personaware・Are igai no nanika’.

In 1993 a student in Maizuru National Institute of Technology started development on a program under the concept name ‘Virtual Personality Agent Human Machine Interface’. In October of 1998 the program was completed and released as a freeware download under the name ‘Personaware‘(a.k.a ‘Personaware with Haruna‘), and quickly became popular for the simplicity of the window layout and the cuteness of the the default character bundled with the program, ‘Haruna’.

left is the original official Haruna, right is Nise-Haruna (Fake Haruna or more commonly referred to by a nickname, Nini-tan)

The so called psuedo-artificial intelligence software where a young girl chats with you and her personality differs based on what answers you choose to give her. You can change her clothes according to the season and update her online to download new dialogue. She can move, talk, cycle through a variety of expressions and even confess to you. It’s like raising a character inside your computer. Haruna became a niche interest to some otaku because of her twintails and the ability to change her clothes. It has undergone multiple name changes since the beginning of development and has been renamed from ‘Personaware‘ to ‘Chararina‘.

A free character development kit for users was released as well called “PDK” (Personal Development Kit) in which users could make their own desktop mascots and pseudo-AI using their own custom art and personalities. These are now known as “ghosts” in the somewhat evolved fanmade spinoff of the program usually referred to the project as ’Ukagaka/Fake Personaware ・Are igai no nanika’ or ‘Nise-Haruna/Fake Haruna’. A big reason as to why Ukagaka was made as a replacement for it was because the only free option for Personaware was a 30 day trial period. Since this software was developed commercially, you must pay 2,500 yen (around $25 USD) if you wish to continue using it

Ukagaka so succesfully rivaled Personaware that the original creator grew jealous of it’s opensource competitor due to losing most sales. He went as far as to to try to make a stop to it causing public downloads temporarily being taken down and the name ineeding to be changed to something more vague. In order to avoid legal problems with the program name it was changed from ‘Personaware with Haruna’ to “Are Igai no Nanika with Nise-Haruna”, which was quickly widely referred to as simply  ‘Nanika’

‘Ukagaka’ went on to create an entire niche underground otaku community (although they’re mostly from 2ch and Futaba) which I want to share more about in the future.