http://game.signage-cloud.org/md_book/index http://game.signage-cloud.org/pce_book/index http://game.signage-cloud.org/ss_book/index So this could be the best accidental find in years - scans of video game books from Taiwan. The quality varies a bit, but it's well within the bounds of acceptability given the contents. This is a lot of content, and it needs to be mirrored on our wikis as a priority. It is far too much for me to handle on my own - I've had a hard enough time just proving these things exist before now, so I need volunteers to get these up there. Most are destined for Sega Retro or NEC Retro. Get this tool, crop some things, upload. Right this second I'm not too worried what happens after that (i.e. what happens about wiki pages). A solution to that will come later - the priority is to mirror. help pls
I've checked a few of these against the Japanese game guides and they appear to be exact copies with the text replaced. I wonder if they were authorized or not. There don't seem to be any credits connecting them back to the staff/publishers from Japan. It's known that Chinese game magazines would copy layouts exactly from Japanese magazines and just change the text without any kind of permission. Not sure what happened in Taiwan.
Do you know which Japanese books map to these Taiwanese editions? Some seem obvious but I don't have a Japanese library to compare against. Just because at some point I'll have to give the files names, and it's easier to translate Japanese into English.
File:WorldAdvancedDaisenryakuKoutetsunoSenpuu Book TW.pdf I took an easy one to show it should be done. I used this Firefox extension to quickly download every page, did a bit of re-arranging and saved as a PDF. For the two page spreads, use this tool.
One day I'll get people interested in this stuff. Anyway proof, if you needed it, that this stuff originates from Taiwan: China (as in, the People's Republic) exists in Super Daisenryaku, but Taiwan isn't keen on China existing (and vice versa) so it's removed the five stars from the flag and made it a bit more pink. That'll show them.
I'm in the process of saving everything. Taiwan uses traditional Chinese text instead of simplified, so that's another way to tell. https://www.chineseconverter.com/en/convert/find-out-if-simplified-or-traditional-chinese
Excellent work guys. Sonic Retro remains the best and most exhaustive monolith of collected Sonic history in existence. Stuff like this is awesome to see.
I will do this soon. I recognize most of the game guides. However, the "Top! Mega Drive" volumes are a mystery to me. I recognize a bit of the content (mainly interviews) from Beep! MD, but there are some pictures (for example, of the tablet and keyboard) that I haven't seen elsewhere. These could be from a Japanese magazine or book I haven't seen.
Here is more information on the game guides (everything but the Top! Mega Drive issues). I'm linking to the original Japanese books on Surugaya for convenience. Most of the books are part of the "Terebi land wan pakku" (TV land one pack) series of game guides. Let me know if you need more info. 1. Super Daisenryaku Contains three translated sources: 1) Super Daisenryaku Attack Manual Book 2) Super Daisenryaku manual 3) Super Daisenryaku catalog 2. Phantasy Star II Contains two translated sources: 1) Phantasy Star II Attack Manual Book Part 1 2) Phantasy Star II Attack Manual Book Part 2 3. Tatsujin and Golden Axe Tatsujin and Golden Axe Attack Manual Book 4. Herzog Zwei, Mystic Defender, and The Revenge of Shinobi I don't know the sources for these. Some parts are taken from the game manuals. They might otherwise be original works, or taken from game magazine walkthroughs. 5. Sword of Vermilion Vermilion Attack Manual Book 6. Sorcerian Contains three translated sources: 1) Sorcerian manual 2) Sorcerian Attack Manual Book Part 1 3) Sorcerian Attack Manual Book Part 2 7. Phantasy Star III The scans here are actually two books combined (look at the page numbers). I don't have the original Japanese books, but I'm almost sure they are these: 1) Phantasy Star III Attack Manual Book Part 1 2) Phantasy Star III Attack Manual Book Part 2 8. Bahamut Senki The cover here shows both Shining in the Darkness and Bahamut Senki, but the book only contains Bahamut Senki. I think the Shining in the Darkness portion was not scanned. I don't have it, but the source is probably this book (there aren't any others): Bahamut Senki Official Guidebook 9. Advanced Daisenryaku This is also two books where the pages have been mixed (check page numbers). The two original sources are: 1) Advanced Daisenryaku manual 2) Advanced Daisenryaku Official Guidebook 10. Ransei no Hasha Not sure about this one. The back cover seems to suggest this is a general guide the PC-98, X68000, and MD versions. I'll finish the remaining few later.