Part 6: Interlude - orenronen ~ Bonus Material

orenronen posted:

So I'm not exactly the patient type, and since I had plans in Tokyo yesterday anyway I decided to go into the city a couple of hours early and go through the retro game shops in Akihabara.

I couldn't find a boxed copy of Portopia. Famicom games are mostly sold as loose cartridges, and it seems the Japanese, by and large, started valuing keeping an entire package starting with the Super Famicom. I did spot a perfect boxed copy of the game's sequel for about $35, but we'll see about that.

What I did find is a copy of the strategy guide:



Not an official one, mind you. This one was published by Family Computer Magazine, and like most strategy guides of the day, is a tiny pamphlet-like book.

Japanese strategy guides of that era are interesting -- screenshots were hard to acquire, and so the editors tried to keep them to the required minimum, instead relying on some elaborate hand-drawn illustrations. This one, being a story game, reimagines the entire cast as cartoon characters. The bulk of the guide is written as a sort of narrative retelling the story of the game while highlighting the keywords you need to choose in the game's menus. The few parts that require maps (the game's mazes) are charmingly drawn.





Yasu's cartoon self is the most prominent in the book, appearing on almost every page, but our nameless detective was also given a face, and so was the viction (that's Kouzou at the bottom, with the green suit).

No promises (because, as has been proven with my own latest attempt at an LP, my free time is limited these days), but I'll try to translate relevant parts of the book as we advance in the story.