The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

Anything from run & guns to modern RPGs, what else do you play?
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Jonny2x4
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Re: The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

Post by Jonny2x4 »

There's also a part in the Pit Fighter manual where they deliberately mistranslate the title as 穴ぐら戦士 (which means something like Hole on the Floor Fighter).

The Gauntlet manual also has an elaborate commentary of Ed "Mr. Clean" Logg offering his commentary on the MD version, it's pretty interesting stuff.
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BIL
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Re: The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

Post by BIL »

Yeah, it's a shame it's nowhere to be found in the NTSCU manual - particularly as despite losing all the fun artwork and colour, it's otherwise pretty good at preserving the JP's booklet's hefty equipment tables. I wonder why - some obscure legal issue? (those did seem to follow Tengen about). Assuming it wasn't just boring old perceived apathy, of course.
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Re: The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

Post by Jonny2x4 »

Well Tengen is an American company, so I'm assuming all the commentary stuff was written specifically for the Japanese versions. From what I'm reading from the Japanese Wikipedia article, it seems the Japanese subsidiary wanted to stand out from other companies that had a habit of making dry manuals. They had a fanmail column due to how fast they released their MD games in Japan. Apparently they continued this practice during Time Warner Interactive era.
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Re: The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

Post by BIL »

Ah yes, I always forget their TWI incarnation. Taromaru's manual is very similar, to the point of feeling like a straight conversion to CD booklet. Lots of cute alternative artwork and several hefty pages of commentary, including some from Hiroshi Iuuchi IIRC. The front cover does no justice to the game itself (not that I'm complaining - just happy the damn thing made it out the door), but the contents of the manual certainly do. :smile: It's weird thinking back to this - I was into the Saturn many years before the MD.
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Re: The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

Post by Jonny2x4 »

Man, the aftermarket prices for Taromaru are insane. I knew it had a limited release due to TWI closing after its release, but most of the eBay auctions are asking around $1000 for their copies. And to top it off, there's not even a manual scan on Sega Retro or some other site. Consider yourself lucky. You could make a small fortune selling it.
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BIL
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Re: The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

Post by BIL »

I'm proud of my stash but there's a reason I've not played many games past 2006, and also why my PC hardware sucks. :mrgreen: Collecting JP consumer games from that era is about my only indulgence. edit: also helps that things weren't quite so obscene, back then... pricey, sure, but not the four figure fist fucks we commonly see today. :sad: I dislike it at both an immediate (no fun) and further level (this shit has to be attracting counterfeiters...)

I'd offer to scan my copy's commentary pages, not sure if my scanner is worth a damn though. Here's how Abadox's FC story page looked - I seem to recall shrinking it down, but it was like three years ago:
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Image
Lemme know if you're interested and I'll give it a go when I'm home tomorrow. :smile:
Last edited by BIL on Sat Jan 27, 2018 7:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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FinalBaton
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Re: The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

Post by FinalBaton »

BIL wrote: And yeah Baton, I did see the Nintendo World Championships name-drop in the manual! :mrgreen: Also a minor but distinct treat I enjoy in my JP versions of Western properties, cute little manga dudes!

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Nice! :D

Gotta love Chris Tang. great guy
And these Tengen jp manuals. they're such a cool quirk of retro gaming.
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Re: The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

Post by Jonny2x4 »

BIL wrote:I'm proud of my stash but there's a reason I've not played many games past 2006, and also why my PC hardware sucks. :mrgreen: Collecting JP consumer games from that era is about my only indulgence. edit: also helps that things weren't quite so obscene, back then... pricey, sure, but not the four figure fist fucks we commonly see today. :sad: I dislike it at both an immediate (no fun) and further level (this shit has to be attracting counterfeiters...)
You don't have to do it if it'ś too much of a hassle for you. I wouldn't want you to damage your own copy of the game just for doing me a favor. If you want, just scan or take pictures of the relevant portions.

That Abadox manual is pretty readable if it's any indication of the quality of your scanner. How curious that the story pages of every space shooter from the Famicom-era are always written as if they're historical accounts of previous battles. They always throw in the word 戦記 somehow.

Back on the subject of Tengen manuals, the catchphrase for the 007: Death Duel manual is a play on "You Only Live Twice", except it says "You Only Live 5 Times (But You Get a 1 Continue)". Not quite as obvious or catchy when it's translated though.
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Re: The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

Post by BIL »

Ta bud, but no worries - pretty sure I forever monged its value when I opened it all those years ago, as was always the plan. :mrgreen:

Tonight was a bust, so just got back and had a go at scanning the commentary page, from Michio Okano (project leader), and the accompanying little comic by Hiroshi Iuchi (graphic designer - he had some interesting, brief notes about Taromaru in this Ikaruga interview @ shmuplations). Apologies for the glare, I deliberately didn't smoosh the lid down (I'm not that selfless :wink:) but hopefully it's readable. Minor bandwith warning, kinda big @ 16mb:
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Re: The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

Post by BrianC »

FinalBaton wrote:
BIL wrote: And yeah Baton, I did see the Nintendo World Championships name-drop in the manual! :mrgreen: Also a minor but distinct treat I enjoy in my JP versions of Western properties, cute little manga dudes!

Spoiler
Image

Image

Image
Nice! :D

Gotta love Chris Tang. great guy
And these Tengen jp manuals. they're such a cool quirk of retro gaming.
Reminds me a slight bit of the JP FC Rampart, though that one had no involvement from Tengen/Atari Games.
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Re: The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

Post by BIL »

I'm curious about other ports now - the MD one is great, but boy is the pace relentless. Playing on Normal, was actually a bit tempted to shift down to Easy until I learned the ropes! But at the same time I'm enjoying the thrashing. Something I learned is not to treat capturing castles as an all-or-nothing effort; even if you only get 75% of the way there, you'll have a leg up in the next round. Simultaneously though, the allocating of time between repairing your existing fort and capturing new ones for more firepower is wickedly tight.

Really glad I took a punt at this. Anyone looking for an unusual yet balls-hard MD arcade port should do the same - unlike most of these Tengen gems, it's still pretty cheap.

Oh also, forgot my yearly update! Four years now without Snow Bros or Slap Fight melting on me, and 3.5 for V-V... so it seems the "dodgy Tengen carts" thing of Grind Stormer infamy didn't apply here, thankfully.
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Re: The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

Post by BrianC »

I should give my Gauntlet IV cart another play, as well, though I'm a menu nut (grew up on MS DOS) and usually play most games off the Mega Everdrive.

As far as ports of Rampart go, I found the NES and Atari Lynx versions to be fine ports. NES is from former Tengen staff, who also did the SNES version. SNES version has more new stuff added rather than being a straight up port. Lynx version has some nice cutscenes added, but is a straight up port otherwise.

I wathed a video of the SMS rampart. Doesn't look terrible gameplay wise, but has a disappointing lack of music and sound compared to other versions,
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Re: The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

Post by Jonny2x4 »

BIL, that page you've posted was so hilarious, I had to translate it. I've wont say anything further than that.
Taromaru pg.24 translation wrote: Such A Thing Also Happened

My parents are powerful. Or rather, it's more accurate to write that "My parents who lived in the country for many years are powerful." Similarly, as a one of the former country bumpkins that have populated Tokyo, everyday I like to put the airs of a cosmopolitan who cries for no reason when he reminisce of his old home, however...

On a certain day in June, my parents came to Tokyo to visit me. Because I said I was tired, we ordered a simple takeout dinner. After the dinner, my dad suddenly asked me something.

Dad: So what kind of work have you been doing all this time?
Me: Drawing
Dad: On a computer?
Me: That's right
Mom: By computer, you mean like a word processor?
Dad: Are you stupid? A word processor is something you use to write postcards. A computer is like a giant calculator.
Mom: Oh, so they're big calculators? As always, you know everything.
Me: ...
Mom: Now that you said that, I heard that the Sakai's (not a real name) daughter, Aki (not her real name), is also working as a designer in Tokyo. Seems like you got some competition.
Me: Something like that...
Mom: What do you mean something like that? Aki-chan is an ugly girl who always talking nonsense. She's the kind of person who would steal ideas from other people. Don't show this Taromaru thing to her.
Mom continues to badmouth Aki-chan (not her real name) endlessly.
Dad: *sigh* I'm all worm-out. I'm going to bed soon
Mom: Well then, as soon as you go to your company tomorrow, go make a word processor. Sleep well.
Me: ...
A Japanese game created by the children of typical Japanese parents like mine. While medieval Europe and the near future are good settings, ancient Japan is fine too, so please enjoy the game to your heart's content.

Project Leader Michio Okano
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BIL
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Re: The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

Post by BIL »

That was unexpected. :mrgreen: Thanks for translating!
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Re: The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

Post by soprano1 »

So I was looking for some nice MD boxart for my collection, and saw that the console got ports of Valis, Valis III, and the exclusive original game SD Valis, with the weirdly localized name Syd of Valis (Heh heh, so funny! :roll: ).
Anyone who played these knows how they compare to the PC-Engine CD originals? And how's SD Valis?
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Re: The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

Post by FabulousVioletGuy »

Started Monster World III this weekend. I'm not quite digging it as much as Dragon's Trap. Only beat 2 dungeons though, so we'll see how it goes.
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Re: The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

Post by BrianC »

soprano1 wrote:and the exclusive original game SD Valis, with the weirdly localized name Syd of Valis (Heh heh, so funny! :roll: ).
I haven't played it much, but I heard mostly bad things. It's crazy how the box art for the US version was actually taken from a PC Engine game named Naritore the Sugoroku '92. Not to mention that characters from other Telnet games like Cosmic Fantasy that don't even appear in Valis SD are on the box.
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Re: The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

Post by charlie chong »

speaking of funny art i remembered about this funny version of a localised version of mortal kombat for megadrive. i think this was posted on arcade otaku..
https://imgur.com/a/Fljjt

that manual would be the pride and joy of my collection if i had a copy :lol:
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Re: The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

Post by BIL »

The fucked typesetting really makes it. :lol:

HIT MOUTES like ORAGON FIST II

Still more charming with the colour illustrations and screenshots than the typical official Genesis manual, too. :mrgreen:

edit: more at MAMEworld. I think it's actually a SNES bootleg? Too damn good either way. So that's what LEGENOARYNINLIA's username and former avatar were referencing. Image
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Re: The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

Post by BrianC »

FabulousVioletGuy wrote:Started Monster World III this weekend. I'm not quite digging it as much as Dragon's Trap. Only beat 2 dungeons though, so we'll see how it goes.
I liked it quite a bit, but it definitely wasn't as good as Dragon's Trap.
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Re: The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

Post by Kino »

.
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Re: The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

Post by charlie chong »

BIL wrote:The fucked typesetting really makes it. :lol:

HIT MOUTES like ORAGON FIST II

Still more charming with the colour illustrations and screenshots than the typical official Genesis manual, too. :mrgreen:

edit: more at MAMEworld. I think it's actually a SNES bootleg? Too damn good either way. So that's what LEGENOARYNINLIA's username and former avatar were referencing. Image
damn i couldn't even get the format right .. i thought it was megadrive from the way the character select screen looked :oops:
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Re: The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

Post by Sumez »

I've seen the box art from that one before, but never the manual - man that is amazing.

There's some A-class OCR going on there. Especially enjoying "RAYOEN" and "SUB-ZERD"
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Re: The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

Post by FinalBaton »

Fucking Sub-Zerd :lol: is killing me. With the shitty nephew drawing combo, it's a win
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Re: The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

Post by soprano1 »

I don't know, seems OK for a 90's Western developed game. :lol:
Joking, it's really bad. Funny, though.
Thanks for the input on the Valis games, everyone.
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Re: The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

Post by spmbx »

FabulousVioletGuy wrote:Started Monster World III this weekend. I'm not quite digging it as much as Dragon's Trap. Only beat 2 dungeons though, so we'll see how it goes.
I'm a bit biased because of the nostalgia tinted glasses, but mw3 is an amazing although for adult bit too simplistic game. It has pretty good graphics, and the music is amazing and helps set a wonderful atmosphere.
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Re: The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

Post by BIL »

SUB-ZERD sounds like a villainous and very perverted rogue AI from a 90s h-game Image (though admittedly not quite as much as CYBER VAWG)
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Re: The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

Post by charlie chong »

sub zerd definitely comes from space not china like boring arse sub zero . i've just been reading the wikepedia of sub zero and the back story is pretty mental tbf :lol:
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Re: The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

Post by Sumez »

BIL wrote:(though admittedly not quite as much as CYBER VAWG)
Image
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Re: The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

Post by BIL »

Haha, exactly. :mrgreen: Fictional crises demand fantastical antagonists. Meanwhile here on boring old Planet Motherfucker, every man woman and child with internet is being blasted with CYBER VIOLENCE. Not even by a mischievous and strangely erotic rogue AI with an existentially tormented rod for buxom space babes - just some Doritos-addled twink in his bedroom screeching down a headset. :sad:
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