Megadrive Zero Wing manual scan discovered!

[Skyknight]

http://segaretro.org/images/3/3c/Zerowi ... manual.pdf

Mostly because I'm hoping someone fluent in Japanese can figure out from the commentary for the stages and enemies just *what* CATS is supposed to be. I've heard space pirates (pretty strong for space pirates, though, if they can somehow coerce the galactic government to give them control of your fleet's bases...), but all the organic enemies, especially in Bellon (that the stage's boss is named "Eve" doesn't help), are making me think some sort of set of rogue AIs.

[hecheff]

Nice find!
One of my first games as a kid, and still one of my favorites even if not for the infamous opening sequence.

For starters:
CATS apparently betrayed the Feddies after conspiring with them on their expansion (read: plundering) across Andromeda.
Which explains his sarcasm when he said "thanks to the Federation" in the original translation.

[dark]

Just took a glance, it literally says "space pirate Kats" in kanji (katakana for "Kats"). So I guess space pirates.

[BrianC]

All your booty are belong to us!

[Mortificator]

That's some killer artwork. I've always liked Zero Wing's aesthetic.

It looks like a couple enemies from the last stage have CATS in their name. I wonder if the cyborg from the intro's supposed to be in one of them.

[Pretas]

I'm surprised no one has yet tried to Kickstart a reboot of Zero Wing to cash in on its internet infamy.

[railslave]

Imagine the game artists in the world if we had that kind of encouragement in the west (outside of comics), love those manuals
You can just see the passion and love those guys pored into it with those sketches

[Drachenherz]

Yeah, Sega Retro has some great stuff online, I just recently discovered it and I'm delighted by all the stuff you can find there.

[Skyknight]

Dragging this back after almost a decade, on account of some extra discoveries I made after feeding .pdf snapshots to Google Translate.

—Natols (st.1) is a satellite of Legrous (st. 2), which in turn is an artificial planet.

—Hades (boss 1) is surmised to be at least 3,000 years old. It and Lady (midboss) are evidently cyberneticized dinosaur heads. (Ancient weapon technology with no parallels on Earth…and the Federation thought giving space pirates like CATS a free look was a good idea? SERIOUSLY?)

—Aquese (st. 4 and 5) was once home to the (apparently) now-extinct Pipiru. The one you find while dealing with Logstar in st. 4 is thought perhaps to be a spirit…

—Galapeepa (boss 5, specifically the giant serpent) is over 100,000,000 years old…

—Bellon (st. 7) is some manner of living planet—whose purpose, at least now, is creating living weapons.

—Gerbarra (st. 8 ) was supposed to be the new headquarters of the Federation.

—The final boss, Tenhead, is an accrual of ten distinct AI machines, meaning CATS is run by AI. If, despite the PC-Engine cutscenes, it isn’t outright composed of just rogue AIs…

[Steven]

The one you find while dealing with Logstar in st. 4 is thought perhaps to be a spirit…

If you mean the part where it says that Piriru is 幻の生物, that just means they are extremely super rare.

Lol there is what is probably the first announcement of Slap Fight MD there at the end of the manual. It was scheduled for a 1991 release... of course, with Ichikawa taking his time and almost dying (!!!), that didn't happen.

[jehu]

Wow, the art here is gorgeous. I wish they had adapted this manual for the recent Retrobit rerelease. I might have to steal one of those images for a new avatar one of these days...

The one you find while dealing with Logstar in st. 4 is thought perhaps to be a spirit…

If you mean the part where it says that Piriru is 幻の生物, that just means they are extremely super rare.

Lol there is what is probably the first announcement of Slap Fight MD there at the end of the manual. It was scheduled for a 1991 release... of course, with Ichikawa taking his time and almost dying (!!!), that didn't happen.

Steven, not to derail the thread, but I had a question for you specifically as a (afaik) recent purchaser of Slap Fight MD. I'm also thinking of picking up a copy, but it's difficult for me to know if Ebay prices are a good reflection of market prices. If you have a good sense for it, could you let me know what the going rate is for the game in Japan?

[Steven]

Wow, the art here is gorgeous. I wish they had adapted this manual for the recent Retrobit rerelease. I might have to steal one of those images for a new avatar one of these days...

Yeah, it really is very nice. Kind of glad I went for the MD Zero Wing from the Kickstarter now. The Retro-Bit one has some new artwork of CATS with the stage 1 boss, though, which is cool.

Steven, not to derail the thread, but I had a question for you specifically as a (afaik) recent purchaser of Slap Fight MD. I'm also thinking of picking up a copy, but it's difficult for me to know if Ebay prices are a good reflection of market prices. If you have a good sense for it, could you let me know what the going rate is for the game in Japan?

I paid 38,700 yen for my copy on January 25th. It's not complete, as it's missing the hagaki, but it's otherwise in practically mint condition... aside from the fact that it now has producer Uemura's signature on the front cover lol.

That's actually slightly cheaper than typical; it was kind of "on sale", if you want to call it that, but it was more like "hey, we just got this in! Buy it now and we'll give you a deal!". Typically the game ranges between 38,000~45,000, depending, but it's usually at around 40,000 yen. Surugaya's online store, which is where I bought mine, has some copies for 42,000, so I'd go over there and check it out, especially since they ship internationally now. It looks like it will only show up on the English page if you search for Slap Fight, not Slap Fight MD.

[jehu]

Thanks, Steven - that's super helpful!!

[Steven]

Sure, no problem. Might as well pick it up from Surugaya, depending on your currency; USD is super strong against yen right now, so it looks like you'd "only" pay about $330 for it there according to their converter thingy. Not sure what they charge for shipping outside of Japan, though.

[neorichieb1971]

You guys realize there is a UK PAL release of this game right?

I have it, and the manual in English. I will see what CATS means.

It only mentions cats once.

"The purpose of the bases is protection against intergalactic crime. The Federations prime concern is a band of space pirates led by Cats, the flamboyant cosmic freebooter who is secretly plotting the biggest performance...."

That is word for word. I guess even the guys writing the manual had a laugh with it.

[Steven]

I trust the original Japanese manual over the localized version. That was the age of horrible localizations with altered stories, poor translations, etc., and Zero Wing is perhaps the single most famous example of the latter.