Re: Network Boukenki Bugsite

Discuss the Bugsite games here.
Zephyr(imported)
Posts: 113
Joined: Wed Dec 06, 2006 7:37 am

Re: Network Boukenki Bugsite

Post by Zephyr(imported) »

So! As I said in my other topic, I located a ROM of Network Boukenki Bugsite and am witnessing firsthand for the second time playing through a ROM where I have no idea what people are saying. (First time was Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, but at least that was Pokemon... and they had walkthroughs for it.) Through a stroke of sheer luck, I would say, I managed to overcome a bewildering obstacle and progress farther in the game. I documented my adventure so far with screenshots, and I'll share them with you. :D

Image
Skipping the title screen this time, you start the game with your starter monster (I think) telling you some random crap (think Professor Oak) and then you're in your room. And again, you have a single, stay-at-home mom... well, I suppose it's the tried and true formula, there isn't anything really wrong with that. Anyway, so I bypassed a mysterious and intriguing door in my bedroom and went straight downstairs, to have my mom lecture me or whatever. I tried to go out that door to the right, but she wouldn't let me. So I went upstairs again, and into the other door.

The room was empty, apparently, save for a strange-looking thing that, despite the stellar graphics, I couldn't tell what it was and still can't. But anyway, I went up to it and talked to it. It gave me stuff. :D Then apparently it was a communicating device, because a whiny tech geek whatever started talking to me (even though he was clearly not in the room.) And then of course it was Japanese, so none of it made any sense. After more dialogue, I got to choose my player's name (no English name entry that I saw, pfeh), and then a peculiar cutscene happened in which my character was evidently going into the internet. You got the most awkward shot of the player's pants. o_o I don't know what they were thinking; problem is that you end up having to see this every time you connect to the internet.

Then I was in an area with multiple doors, three of which were closed, one of which was open. However, the portal that the open one led to had a huge X over it and would not respond to anything I said or did. Hmph. The door to the far right had something to the side of it that, when talked to, presented you with a password entry. I had no clue what the password was; I tried UTOPIA (that's written on the internet overworld), but to no success. I then decided it was something you unlocked later and gave up.

I pointlessly ran around the area for a while, suffering from the trippy music (which would have been good if it didn't keep missing beats) and fretting to myself that I had no idea what to do. It was this cursed Japanese! I decided that there must be some item that I got and pressed start.

Image
The start menu has that ADORABLE hamsterthing (I presume it's a Bug) that makes it all worthwhile. <3 Anyhow, the first option is to view your Bugs. (That's what they're called, although only some are insects.) The second option is your items. The third, I believe, is your lineup, although I fiddled around with this for quite a while (later, after I got more than one Bug) and have no idea how to change it. The fourth option is your Dex of sorts, which obviously doesn't work unless you have Bugs. The fifth later on is a sort of Trainer card that lists player info. The sixth and seventh are options, and I have no idea what they do. The eighth closes the menu.

I ran around pointlessly for a while, got generally frustrated, turned to the internet with no avail, and then eventually shut the VBA off. Maybe I had done something wrong.

After taking a little while to cool off, I decided to try again. This time, I got some screenshots of the intro sequence...
Image
That yellow light fades in and out (by the way, the game has this really obnoxious fade-to-black-in-between-transitions thing that really gets on my nerves). Eventually two silhouettes of Bugs appear and initiate a battle.

So I started a new game (feeling no remorse; I didn't get very far in the last one, anyhow). And I caught a screen of the guy you start with. He's nagging you about something, or saying "welcome to teh internetz good for battling monsters and not much else" or whatever. I'm playing Alpha version, so I bet he's different in Beta version. Here he is:
Image

Same drill... I started in my room, went downstairs. This time I stayed downstairs and talked to my mom a second time, and suprisingly she let me go through that door that I hadn't gone through before! It led out into town. (Wow geez, three-room house... planning on expanding much? Still, better than the Pokemon trainer's house...)

Town was interesting, and populated by many diverse people that were not in the least bit freaky (a bit of a relief after Telefang 2, to be honest). The graphics were breathtaking for GBC, though. :D I would give a kidney to be able to sprite like that. I walked around admiring the town (which was very big!) and eventually paused to screenshot something that caught my interest:
Image

A boat! Very pretty. This was out at the docks and led to more or less a dead end, although I presume something interesting happens there at some point during the game. So then I went back home, after I had explored the entire town (something else that caught my interest was a lab-like building towards the back of town... but it didn't let me in. Phooey.) So I returned home and met someone new with a purple overworld sprite who I presume is important to the plot. We had a long conversation and then he walked away.

So then I was back in my house. I talked to my mom again for no apparent reason and then decided to try the room of doom again. Same old, same old-- I got some mysterious items and got to choose my player name. This time, I named myself something different from the default. I knew I wouldn't be able to recognise Japanese symbols, though, so I named the player "...!?". Because I could.

So back to the internet and the awkward pants shot and the off-beat music. I wandered around pointlessly again. This time, though, I decided to take a good look at my items. Several pockets, one of which I assume is Key Items because there was no quantifier for the items. I was looking through the pocket I assume to be this when I noticed that the item had english text in its item description. ...Hey, that password thingy had english text entry, too. So I entered the text shown there, "AMFE10" or something, into the password entry, and... BADABING! IT WORKED! The door opened and a working portal appeared.

Image
REJOICE!!1 So I went into this portal and came out into an interesting place...

Image
Teh interenetz, apparently. Everyone you talk to has LV 0 or LV 3 or LV ? under their names... anyway, I went in the building labeled "Beginner's center" (Yay for english text! Unfortunately, it was just a bunch of people without lives who stood in the internet... all day... and taught beginners (apparently only one; you) about the world. Inside the building...

Image
Question mark-shaped tiles on the floor. xD Anyway, this place consists of three different rooms-- one about "vaccines" (that's the one here), one to the north about "battle," and one to the east about "Bugs." It would be so awesomely useful if only I knew what they were saying. D: But they didn't give me anything free, so I left soon after.

I headed down to the lower right-hand corner (it wouldn't let me in any of the shops, and the people didn't say anything of use) and came upon a building labeled "Yamaheko" or something... No idea what that means. I entered it, and a cutscene of sorts began. I saw one of the guys standing around outside talk to a guy in the middle of the room, then leave and go around back to a strange room with lotsa glowy thingies or whatever. Naturally, I followed him. I came to the strange room, and the Bug that's been heckling me ever since the game's intro joined. Then the guy ran up and challenged me to a BATTLE OLOLZ.
Zephyr(imported)
Posts: 113
Joined: Wed Dec 06, 2006 7:37 am

Re: Network Boukenki Bugsite

Post by Zephyr(imported) »

--SPLIT INTO TWO POSTS FOR IMAGE ALLOWANCE--

Image
That was his monster. It had like 8 HP. He was a total pushover-- I pwned him in one hit. No screens of the battle this time around... So anyway, my monster leveled up and I got COLD HARD CASH YES and the guy I beat blew up or whatever. (He just vanished... but I just wanted to say that. :P) So there was more dialogue... either between me and that nerd guy or me and my monster, I forget. Oh, I got a screen of the place:

Image
Right. So when nothing else interesting was happening there, I went back out. I take a few more steps and WHAT DO I FIND but another guy who wants me to own him. This time, though, I got some more screens of the battle...

Image
It's fairly simple... I presume the battles are 3 on 3, but since we each have only 1, it's just 1 on 1 here. :P You select the first option... and then you attack... nothing so special... Good graphics, though.

So I trounce his butt (in one hit... again), then I go exploring with my new Bugs. Still can't enter the shops... oh well. I go to one of those "transit points" (the one in the south) and examine it. It brings up another menu, which I don't have a screenshot of so I'm not gonna elaborate on, and I eventually click on an option that brings up-- quite literally-- a webpage.

Image
Notice that address at the top? xD A little shameless plugging for Smilesoft. The ironic thing is that it once worked, but no longer does. Anyhow, there's more to the page than that-- those choices at the bottom are actually a complete monster dex. Handy. They're in the format of webpages, which is interesting and new-- selecting one brings up a splash page, and pressing A leads you to a list of monsters. You can then view what I presume is the equivalent of a Pokedex for each. That is seriously useful. :D And the monsters look dang awesome. Here's an example of one of those dex screens:

Image
I like this fella. :D

...I've done more, but I haven't gotten any further screenshots. Let me hear what people have to say first, and than I'll continue the walkthrough. ^^
User avatar
andwhyisit
Site Admin
Posts: 1197
Joined: Fri Dec 14, 2007 9:24 pm

Re: Network Boukenki Bugsite

Post by andwhyisit »

Looks nice.

...

..stupid language barrier. <_<
Kimbles(imported)
Posts: 470
Joined: Mon Dec 24, 2007 3:17 am

Re: Network Boukenki Bugsite

Post by Kimbles(imported) »

Man, this is really making me want to play...^^ (We just got the games off ebay hell YEAH)

By the way, the site still exists: http://www.rocketcompany.co.jp/bugsite/
Now hosted by the company that ate smilesoft. :D The main character's name is Daichi, apparently. You can see the "bug sensor" attachment it came with, too. XD (4th option)

Image
This guy's name is Spiral... I'm pretty sure he's your starter in both versions, actually.
Here, he's saying "If you can hear my voice...." Badass. D:

Image
"You can return through the site gate!"

Image
This guy's name is Netizen, as in net citizen. Says here he was "created from a certain mascot character". Huh. His "maker" is FE, whoever they are. D:

Image
The encyclopedia seems to be sorted by these, in any case. From the top, we have FE, Sting, Lugar(?), Tahiro, Junk, and Auction. (wtf? XD)

Maybe this helps a bit...? XD Some of it is probably wrong, don't worry.
The game looks pretty unique for just another monster raising game... Seems it was released in the year between Telefang 1 and 2, and never got a non-limited release. That means that any of them that you find on ebay will come with the free blinking thing. :D In any case, good luck with your rom! Games like these are a lot easier even if you can only read katakana, which is just used for the names and engrish words. ...Not so much if you need to find where to go next, though. ):
User avatar
andwhyisit
Site Admin
Posts: 1197
Joined: Fri Dec 14, 2007 9:24 pm

Re: Network Boukenki Bugsite

Post by andwhyisit »

Kimbles wrote: Man, this is really making me want to play...^^ (We just got the games off ebay hell YEAH)

By the way, the site still exists: http://www.rocketcompany.co.jp/bugsite/
Now hosted by the company that ate smilesoft. :D
So is one for telefang:
http://www.rocketcompany.co.jp/telefang/

Resembles RacieB's site or vice versa.

Oh and:
http://www.rocketcompany.co.jp/dino2/
Kimbles(imported)
Posts: 470
Joined: Mon Dec 24, 2007 3:17 am

Re: Network Boukenki Bugsite

Post by Kimbles(imported) »

Also!!
http://www.rocketcompany.co.jp/t2/
http://www.rocketcompany.co.jp/dd/
The Dyna Device one was so hard to find and it sucks, bwaaah! ;_;
Now we have all of them, though~ :D
User avatar
andwhyisit
Site Admin
Posts: 1197
Joined: Fri Dec 14, 2007 9:24 pm

Re: Network Boukenki Bugsite

Post by andwhyisit »

Kimbles wrote: Also!!
http://www.rocketcompany.co.jp/t2/
http://www.rocketcompany.co.jp/dd/
The Dyna Device one was so hard to find and it sucks, bwaaah! ;_;
Now we have all of them, though~ :D
it is "dino" not "dyna", look at the logo for the site:
http://www.rocketcompany.co.jp/dino2/images/d2_02.gif

But it was nice of Rocket Company to keep the Smilesoft sites up.
DeKaFu
Posts: 90
Joined: Thu Dec 20, 2007 11:31 pm

Re: Network Boukenki Bugsite

Post by DeKaFu »

andwhyisit wrote: it is "dino" not "dyna", look at the logo for the site:
http://www.rocketcompany.co.jp/dino2/images/d2_02.gif

But it was nice of Rocket Company to keep the Smilesoft sites up.
Well, the Japanese says "DAINA" which could theoretically be read as "Dino" but is obviously pronounced a lot closer to "Dyna".

Either way, I've learned not to take English writing in Japanese products to be the end-all official name. A good example from Digimon was Horusmon, spelled HORUSUMON, which was named after the Egyptian hawk-headed god Horus. The Japanese show showed it spelled "Holsmon" in English, which doesn't actually mean anything. Then the dubbers were left clueless and butchered it further to "Halsemon" which means even less.


Edit: That said, because "DAINASOA" is apparently a legitimate spelling of "Dinosaur", in keeping with the principle of parsimony, I think we should continue to officially refer to the series as "Dino Device" in places like the Wiki, at least until evidence to the contrary shows up. For example, if words like "dynamo" or "dynamite" are used consistantly in the game, we'll change it accordingly.

I just want to say, though, that it'll makes my brain die a little inside every time I'm forced to mentally pronounce "Dino" as "die-nuh". Which will be every time I read the word in the game. Thanks a lot, Smilesoft. :(
Milnivri(imported)
Posts: 351
Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 10:14 pm

Re: Network Boukenki Bugsite

Post by Milnivri(imported) »

If you check the hex code for Dino (Dyna) Device 1, in the 11th line from the top you can see that it says: "DINO DEVICE".

Even they called it Dino Device in the game, even if the image was wrong. >_>
DeKaFu
Posts: 90
Joined: Thu Dec 20, 2007 11:31 pm

Re: Network Boukenki Bugsite

Post by DeKaFu »

wrote:If you check the hex code for Dino (Dyna) Device 1, in the 11th line from the top you can see that it says: "DINO DEVICE".

Even they called it Dino Device in the game, even if the image was wrong. >_>
I didn't think the image was wrong, I was just saying the English might be wrong. XD It has happened before with Japanese products.

Either way, it is said like "dyna device" out loud, and only spelled like "dino device" in writing.
Post Reply