January 1993 issue of Micom Basic has a DOS/V feature with the games available in Japanese. Also a photo of a DOS/V section in a store, where you can see the various (mostly western) games available including Life & Death. BestPlay Baseball (Ascii) Romance of the Three Kingdoms III (Koei) Princess Maker (Gainax) Let's Take the A-Train III (Art Dink) Super Daisenraikyu (SystemSoft) Nobunaga's Ambition: Bushou Fuunroku (Koei) Manhole (Ado Electronics) Shogi (Ascii) Janou Touryuumon II (Game Arts) Professional Mahjong Goku V (Chat Noir) [At least we have the full name for this now, not too much luck searching it, but it does seem to be on some warez disc that I haven't found a copy of yet] Sim City (Imagineer) [Should be Sim City Deluxe, Sim City 2000 doesn't mention Teradrive, but I think this one might] F29 Retaliator (Imagineer) [Another Imagineer one that might mention it] Drakkhen (Sega) [Still being mentioned as being released by Sega ... maybe this one does exist] Wizardry: Bane of the Cosmic Forge (Ascii) Flight of the Intruder (Ascii) Stunt Driver (Ascii) Tank (Ascii) Wing Commander (Ascii) And those should be all of the true DOS/V games released up to that point, thus ones which might have Teradrive specific files on them. The English ones are probably just standard DOS, although often marketed as DOS/V.
TAKERU TAKERU takeru... takeru There's a few of these online (like this) - little publications that tell you what's available on those Takeru machines I posted in the NEC Retro topic. The library changes every couple of months but DOS/V software was available. Granted, not hoards of it, but it's not hard to imagine a "compatible with the Teradrive" message being printed on-screen in 1991/1992. I imagine this also means a huge amount of unpreserved games for a variety of Japanese computer platforms. Nice.
Another one "PRODUCED BY APROS", but this just says "TERA" on the back. This one doesn't include the DOS converter for J-3100 (available separately for ¥2000). A bit about J-3100, although I still don't fully understand it as there isn't too much information. Toshiba introduced the T-3100 monochrome laptop in 1986 running MS-DOS. In Japan this was the J-3100, which could either run the standard MS-DOS, or Toshiba's Japanese version. That's what the DOS converter seems to be for, if you had the J-3100 Japanese MS-DOS you could run that and play DOS games without having to install standard MS-DOS. I was aware of the J-3100 thanks to the Columns port, but what I didn't realise is that they also released desktop versions with EGA and VGA (the original laptops ran used the odd "DCGA"), so you could actually play this in full colour. Now I wonder if these J-3100 games (there's quite a few, it seems to have been more popular for games than the "AX architecture") could be made to run on a Teradrive.
I was worried the J-3100 would come back to bite - I wrote it off as just being an IBM PC with a red screen, so you'd have to tailor your software for two colours. If there's more to it than that... well that's annoying.
Yeah, the Japanese magazines treat it as it's own format as I guess they won't run properly on a standard IBM PC. Here's a US copy of Prince of Persia that came with a different DOS conversion disk for J-3100 and instructions on how to use. It also lists other games in the "Shock Series" releasing December 12th (presumably 1990) including Turbo OutRun. And here's Tunnels of Armageddon, there's quite a few in this series (also available on PC-98 and Mac) which probably all say "TERA" on the back;
I went through Micom Basic's this month's new releases pages from when they started (1990-04 issue) through 1992. In 1992 it became a supplement and unfortunately I can only find two which have been scanned. The supplement is included in scans from 1994 until the 1996-04 issue which is as far as the current run of scans go. They generally don't bother with Japanese DOS releases (they covered imports in the overseas releases section) until 1993 when they publish the article (posted at top of page) with Japanese language DOS/V releases up until that point (9 Japanese, 9 localised). From the 1993-02 issue they have a DOS/V section for the month's new releases, but as mentioned they're currently unscanned. Anyway, they did cover J-3100 releases prior to 1993, which seem to have been started by Acclaim Japan, where they have an article about it in the 1990-04 issue where they cover 4 games (there's an Acclaim Japan ad which includes those + Laptop Chess which is mentioned in a later article on Acclaim's releases to date, so was probably amongst the first releases too). 40 titles listed, one of which was probably a utility (virus guard) as it was also available for Fujitsu's FMR and AX IBM-PC compatibles. Another (Goal Solution [Koei]) was business software. One was listed as coming soon but wasn't mentioned again (The Cycles), and two Sofbox releases; Wibarm USA and Dennou Shogi Shouryuu 2 (電脳将棋 昇龍). Black Squirrel posted Wibarm at the top of the thread, and it's the IBM-PC version with a J-3100 DOS converter, so not a true J-3100 title. Presumably Dennou Shogi Shouryuu 2 is too, and probably specifies Teradrive like Wibarm, but I could only find pictures of the PC-98 release. Which leaves 35 J-3100 games, the majority of which also have NEC or Sega versions; Tetris (Acclaim Japan) [Available Now (1990-04 issue)] Pinball Wizard (Acclaim Japan) [Available Now (1990-04 issue)] Solitaire Royale (Acclaim Japan) [Available Now (1990-04 issue)] Mini Golf (Acclaim Japan) [Available Now (1990-04 issue)] Laptop Chess (Acclaim Japan) [Available Now (1991-04 issue)] Pharaoh's Revenge (Acclaim Japan) [1990-04-2x] Tenkyupai (Studio Panther) [1990-04-06] Battle Chess (Acclaim Japan) [1990-08-20] Balance of Power (Ascii) [1990-05-25] Sim City (Imagineer) [1990-06-29] Grand Prix Circuit (Acclaim Japan) [1990-07-10] Mini Putt (Acclaim Japan) [1990-08-20] Misty Vol.6 (Data West) [1990-11-22] Bookmate Vol.1 (Zainsoft) [1990-11-1x] Nobunaga no Yabou Sengoku Gunyuuden (Koei) [1991-06-20] Tenka Tōitsu (SystemSoft) [1991-01-xx] Suikoden - Tenmei no Chikai(Koei) [1991-02-26] Strip Poker II (Acclaim Japan) [Available Now (1991-04 issue)] Centrefold Square (Acclaim Japan) [Available Now (1991-04 issue)] Block Out (Acclaim Japan) [Available Now (1991-04 issue)] Shogi 1st Dan Straight Strongest Edition (Home Data) [1991-03-0x] Daikoukai Jidai (Koei) [1991-03-19] Ishido: Way of the Stones (Acclaim Japan [1991-04-12] Teitoku no Ketsudan (Koei) [1991-04-18] Caveman Woolympics (Acclaim Japan) [1991-06-21] Continental Circus (Acclaim Japan) [1991-07-22] AD&D: Curse of the Azure Bonds (Pony Canyon) [1991-08-21] Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer 2.0 (Acclaim Japan) [1991-10-04] Columns (SystemSoft) [1991-10-25] Wizardry: Bane of the Cosmic Forge (Ascii) [1991-11-15] Lemmings (Imagineer) [1991-12-13] Super Shanghai Dragon's Eye (Hot Bee) [1991-12-17] Sim Earth (Imagineer) [1991-12-06] BestPlay Baseball (Ascii) [1992-03-06] Stratego (Victor) [1992-03-18] From Blockout Acclaim also released IBM-PC versions, so those could potentially mention Teradrive. After DOS/V released Toshiba made the J-3100 compatible with DOS/V through software whilst maintaining the J-3100 specific hardware until 1993 when they dropped the J-3100 hardware and went full DOS/V. This seems to be the point when J-3100 versions end.
a few months back, Mike Dailly was posting on mastodon that he'd gone on a kick and had gotten his hands on every single version of Lemmings ever made. He was going into some pretty obscure ports, so perhaps he also has a copy of the teradrive version.
I can confirm: - Balance of Power - Caveman Ugh-lympics - Lemmings - SimCity all had dedicated J-3100 versions (cough). However Koei aren't going to be nice to us. https://neokyo.com/en/product/yahoo/j1130669028 Their releases cover multiple systems!.. and in this case, it's not J-3100 branding, it's "DynaBook", which might mean J-3100... or might mean a different product, since there were a few devices sold under that branding. "FM NoteBook" is a Fujitsu thing... and I have no idea what "THE BOOK" is - I can only assume Koei got Sangokushi III to run on the King James Bible. I've spotted two other Koei games that do this. "98 Note", aka the "PC-9801 N" is NEC's attempt at one of these two-colour laptops. There are 98 Note-specific versions of games out there, which I've avoided because they scare me. It begs the question - surely surely surely if you're prepared to put out a version of this game for four relatively obscure laptops running flavours of DOS, there had to be a DOS/V version too, right? https://neokyo.com/en/product/yahoo/r1062741627 Of course!.. but the text is too small in these photos to read, I can't tell if it mentions the Teradrive. It's also a very short Window for Koei - a few months later they'd be pulling stunts like this: https://neokyo.com/en/product/yahoo/s1124543609 This is a DOS/V game, but it's targting the IBM PS/V, otherwise known as the "ValuePoint" series in the West. This was when IBM gave up on their PS/2 range, falling back to making standard PC compatibles again. Not particularly notable in the English speaking world, but in Japan when there's not as much competition, the PS/V could be treated as a standard. It's a 386-class machine too so this software shouldn't work on a Teradrive (but for slow-paced simulation games, who honestly knows).
I don't think there was a proper Japanese DOS/V release, although I'm sure the western DOS version would've been available. https://www.imagineer.co.jp/contact/over.php レミングス/FM-TOWNS CD-ROM PC(FMT) 1992年4月1日 レミングス/J3100 PC(J31) 1991年12月1日 レミングス/PC9801-3.5 PC(P98) 1991年12月1日 レミングス/PC9801-5 PC(P98) 1991年12月1日 レミングス/X68000-5 PC(X68) 1992年4月1日 レミングスMAC PC(MAC) 1992年10月1日
I made a list for the PC-98Note too; Tenkyupai Studio Panther 1990-04-06 5800 Harukanaru Augusta Note exclusive edition T&E Soft 1990-04-13 12800 Sokoban Perfect Thinking Rabbit 1990-05-0x 6800 Populous Imagineer 1990-06-15 8800 Suzukou Toryumon Game Arts 1990-06-15 9800 Dragon Slayer VI Nippon Falcom 1990-06-23 8700 Amber Testament River Hill Soft 1990-07 TBD D.C Connection River Hill Soft 1990-07-1x TBD Jakugo NOTE Victor Onsan 1990-08-24 7800 RYU: From Weeping Dragon Wolf Team 1990-09-15 8800 Suikoden - Tenmei no Chikai Koei 1991-02-26 9800 L'Empereur Koei 1991-02-26 9800 Daikoukai Jidai Koei 1991-03-19 9800 Sangokushi II Koei 1991-03-19 14800 Teitoku no Ketsudan Koei 1991-04-18 14800 Nobunaga no Yabou Sengoku Gunyuuden Koei 1991-06-20 9800 Nostalgia 1907 Sur De Wave 1991-12-20 9800 Inindou Datou Nobunaga Koei 1992-06-19 9800 Sangokushi 3 Koei 1992-07-17 14800 Leading Company Koei 1992-07-30 12800 Chinmoku no Kantai G.A.M. 1992-09-26 12800 Castles Victor Music Industries 1992-11-27 8800 There's quite a few Koei DOS/V titles, the later ones don't mention Teradrive support, but maybe some of the early ones do, but I couldn't find a clear enough image.
It really is difficult to tell with the timeline as it is. Prior to the Teradrive's launch, the only PCs in Japan that could run Lemmings were probably imported, so you're unlikely to make the effort with fancy packaging. Lemmings seems to have been an early 1991 release, so the best you're looking at is an added sheet of paper with Japanese instructions. But had you imported Lemmings after the Teradrive, maybe that sheet of paper mentioned it. Depends on how many people were importing Lemmings, and how much people cared about the Teradrive.
We've got an unverified list for that one - scroll down The place I stole this from wasn't good at names, but you get the gist.
Well, you never know: https://archive.org/details/the-bas...e 1991 10 Issue 101/page/n245/mode/2up?q=sega Listed among the Teradrives in this advert are Mickey's ABC's and Mickey's 123's (also spotted in that book), alongside the Disney Sound Source (i.e. half the reason those two games existed). They're almost certainly going to have Japanese manuals, and so might mention the Teradrive. Incidentally this VZ Editor advertises Teradrive support though when I looked earlier in the month for it, there was no mention on the box.
