History of NScripter in Timeline

By Popular Timelines Editorial Team · Updated: June 22, 2025

NScripter is a game engine and scripting language developed by Naoki Takahashi, designed for creating visual and sound novels. Released between 1999 and 2018, it gained popularity in Japan due to its simplicity and free availability for amateur developers. The SDK is Windows-based. Initially supporting only Japanese characters, later versions expanded to include single-byte characters. Its capabilities have been extended through forks, enabling support for additional languages and cross-platform compatibility.

1998: Scripter3 Development Start

In 1998, Naoki Takahashi started developing Scripter3, a free proprietary game engine.

September 1999: NScripter Available

Since September 6, 1999, NScripter became available, leading to the community behind Scripter3 switching to it.

November 1999: Last Version of Scripter3 Released

On November 27, 1999, the last version of Scripter3 was released and the developer recommended to switch to NScripter.

1999: NScripter Development Started

In 1999, NScripter's development started under the production title Scripter4, being the successor to Naoki Takahashi's previous engine, Scripter3.

February 2002: ONScripter Development Started

Since February 6, 2002, Studio O.G.A. has been developing ONScripter as a free and compatible equivalent of NScripter.

March 2002: NScripter Documentation by Masato Sagara

On March 26, 2002, Masato Sagara created NScripter documentation.

October 2004: CCScripter Support and Updates Stopped

On October 18, 2004, support and software updates for CCScripter were stopped with version 0.8.24, and the author proposed users migrate to ONScripter.

2004: First Official NScripter Book Released

In 2004, the first of four official books for NScripter was released.

June 2005: English Translation of NScripter Documentation

On June 11, 2005, an English translation of Masato Sagara's NScripter documentation was released for ONScripter users.

2005: Second Official NScripter Book Released

In 2005, the second of four official books for NScripter was released.

2006: Third Official NScripter Book Released

In 2006, the third of four official books for NScripter was released.

2007: Fourth Official NScripter Book Released

In 2007, the fourth and last of four official books for NScripter was released.

2008: ONScripter-ANSI Fork Developed

In early 2008, Andy_Skull developed ONScripter-ANSI, a fork of ONScripter-EN, to support ANSI (Windows-1252 character set).

April 2009: NScripter Capabilities Extended Using Lua

Since version 2.93, released on April 1, 2009, NScripter's capabilities can be extended by using Lua.

September 2009: Sunday Game Engine Prototype Release

In September 2009, a prototype version of the engine was released under the name Sunday Game Engine.

2009: NONS Clone Designed

In early 2009, Víctor Manuel 'Helios_VMG' González designed NONS as a clone of ONScripter with functionalities such as support for Unicode, some functionalities of PONScripter, or the ability to stretch a low-resolution image to full screen.

October 2010: Last Version of ONScripter-ANSI Released

On October 10, 2010, the last version of ONScripter-ANSI was released, and the project seems to be abandoned.

November 2011: NONS Project Inactive

After the version of the engine dated November 26, 2011, the NONS project became inactive.

2011: PONScripter Fork Developed

In 2011, Uncle "Mion" Sonozaki developed PONScripter, a fork of ONScripter providing proportional font and Unicode support.

2011: Mandarin Translation of NScripter Documentation Started

In 2011, a Mandarin translation for ONScripter users of the English translation of Masato Sagara's NScripter documentation was started.

August 2012: Official Beta Version of Sunday Game Engine Available

On August 31, 2012, the official beta version of the Sunday Game Engine was made available after continued development.

2013: NScripter Terms of Use Simplified

In 2013, the terms of use for NScripter were simplified to allow free use for participants in games and contests, regardless of cash prizes or distribution methods, as long as the work is distributed for free.

2015: ONScripter-RU Fork Developed

From early-2015, ONScripter-RU was developed as a fork of ONScripter-EN with the aim of supporting the Russian language.

2015: Mandarin Translation of NScripter Documentation Completed

In 2015, the Mandarin translation of the 11 June 2005 English translation of Masato Sagara's 26 March 2002 NScripter documentation was completed, after being abandoned and then resumed.