Re: Telefang in Large Game Boy Encyclopedia (2001)

[Torchickens(imported)]

I recently purchased the 2001 edition of a book featuring Game Boy games from 1989-2000 called Large Game Boy Encyclopedia (ゲームボーイ大百科), published by Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha (実業之日本社) from Hit-Japan and there's some amazing stuff in there. It was quite expensive, but worth it, even though it doesn't include games exclusive to regions outside of Japan. I first heard about this book from a forum post by Chris Covell somewhere who has a large collection of Game Boy games. The book isn't necessarily 'large' in size, but covers a lot of pages (271 in total). I was originally looking for information about Densetsu no Starfy for the Game Boy Color. I found what I was looking for, and quite a lot more than I expected.



The book covers a ton of content, so I've had to try posting a general summary of the book and as briefly as possible. I apologize if it seems rushed.

So there's some original content here I'd like to share, including two pages dedicated to Keitai Denjuu Telefang. I hope it's useful for anyone who can understand Japanese better than me who wants to look at the information.

Hit-Japan has re-listed one of these books, if anyone is interested.


Here's some details about what's inside the book:

There's a front sheet inside the book featuring an upcoming Picross game by Hudson Soft, Rockman EXE (Megaman Battle Network), Pinobee, another game which I can't identify and Space Net: Cosmo Blue version. Space Net as some know is the sequel to Sanrio Time Net, another monster-battling game.




The next two pages are the contents page and the front sheet for a section called 'Game Boy Advance World'.



Note that this looks like a prototype build of the Game Boy Advance, as you can see the buttons and 'Game Boy Advance' logo are different! You can also see this Game Boy Advance model on the back of the book.

There was also a Game Boy Advance BIOS dumped in Japan that features a different opening sound effect. I'm inclined to think this and the prototype build might be linked, although it could easily be a coincidence.

The GBA 'Debug' BIOS


Pages 4-5 then list some specifications and technical information about the Game Boy Advance system.

Game Boy Advance specs


The next few pages list one-three pages dedicated to anticipated Game Boy Advance games. They are respectively, Mario Kart Advance, Rockman EXE, another Japan-only game by Hudson Soft, the Picross game, Golden Sun, Napoleon, Pinobee and Winning Post for Game Boy Advance. (pp. 6-21)

From pages 22-23 there is some brief information for eleven Game Boy Advance games. One of them, notably is Horse Racing Creation Derby (aka, Baketsu Daisakusen 馬穴大作戦). This was an anticipated game to be published by Nintendo that was never released. There's more information about it here. It was going to support the Mobile GB Adapter in some way. There's hardly any information about it on the Internet, so this is why the game interests me (top-right)



Next up is a chapter called GB Megahit Armageddon, first off there is a whole section dedicated to Pokémon Crystal which was almost ready to be released by the time this issue of Large Game Boy Encyclopedia was published. It tells you about how the game will support the Mobile GB Adapter, but unfortunately there isn't much here that isn't covered on Nintendo or Game Freak's archives. The authors gave it top marks in every aspect.



Pages 30-34 cover The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons, mentioning a bit about Oracle of Ages, while Page 35 covers Oracle of Ages.

From Pages 36-49 there are various lesser known games. I unfortunately can't recognize most of them. A few include Wizardry, Harobots and Grandia.

Pages 50-51 cover non other than Telefang! It's interesting that the authors called it a Megahit. It scores top marks in three aspects, although Pokémon Crystal and the Oracle games scored top marks in everything. Here are the pages about Telefang.




Pages 52-53 are about SpaceNet: Cosmo Blue Version, the successor to Sanrio Timenet: Kako-Hen and Mirai-Hen. Strangely, there isn't a page about the Cosmo Red version.

Pages 54-55 are about a game called Jibaku-kun Twelve World Story, which seems to be based on a manga series.

Pages 56-57 cover the Cross Hunter Game Boy games.

Pages 58-59 cover a One Piece game.


If you want scans for any other the above, feel free to leave a reply and ask.


Pages 60-61 cover Densetsu no Starfy before the development had moved from the Game Boy Color to the Game Boy Advance. This was one of the reasons I bought this book as I was hoping it would have some information about it, and luckily it did. There's some extra content here that wasn't listed on Nintendo's website.



Pages 62-64 cover more Game Boy Color games in less detail, such as Mobile Golf.

Pages 65 is a front cover for ordinary dot-matrix Game Boy games ('GB Special Selection') illustrated with Setsuna Kai and Mirai Kaname from Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Children - Black Book and Red Book. Unfortunately this section onwards is all in black and white.

On pages 66-67 it tells you information about the first two Devil Children games.

Pages 68-84 have me stumped without having to do some research. There are no Game Boy games I know here.

From Page 113 is a section called 'Popular character analysis'. Pages 113-117 cover Donkey Kong Game Boy games. Pages 118-121 cover Kakurenbo Battle Monster Tactics by Nintendo/Spiral. That game is not often talked about, but its actually rather great. It plays a bit like Fire Emblem and involves slaying monsters, scanning their abilities, collecting their scalps, and using them for special attacks in battle. I'm unsure if it sold very well in Japan, however.






Page 122-125 is about the Mario Golf series. It also has information about Mario Golf for the Nintendo 64, but not Mobile Golf.

Pages 126-128 cover Phantom Zona, another Nintendo published game based on the Phantom Zona TV series by TV Tokyo.

Pages 129-159 is information about more DMG games.

Pages 160-162 talk about the Nintendo Power flash RAM service and list all the games available for Game Boy Memory cartridges.

Pages 163-264 covers a lot more Game Boy games from 1997 up to 2000. Mostly, there are ten Game Boy page for each page, with very brief descriptions and a screenshot for each one. There's 994 Game Boy games covered on these pages! Some are grouped together, like Pokémon Gold and Silver, and Robopon: Sun and Star Versions, though in the case of Robopon it seems like the authors missed the Moon and Comic Bom Bom versions.

Pages 199-264 are a lot of Game Boy games from 1989-1997, the structure is about the same as pages 163-264.


Finally, pages 265-271 is the glossary of Game Boy games where you can refer to a particular game and look it up.

[RacieB]

Awesome, thank you for sharing this! It's cool seeing that art of Fungus and Crypto fighting without text all over it, as it usually appears.

That monster-scalping game sounds like it's got a pretty weird premise (like an early Monster Hunter I suppose, though I haven't played those), but man I like the designs - the clothespin especially looks like something my sister would have drawn when she was little :3

Speaking of monster games, was there anything on Dragon Quest Monsters? I played the first one a lot with my husband, though I haven't gotten around to trying any of the sequels.

[shay-shay]

Nice

[LittleKochia(imported)]

Cool! Thanks for sharing the info!

I also recently ordered from Hit-Japan. That seller seems to have a lot of interesting things.

[KenjutheDenjuu(imported)]

Nice find! I've seen a few books like these for sale that document the different Gameboy Color games before. I recognise most of the games mentioned since I used to collect a lot of Japanese Gameboy Color games.

Hit-Japan are always good and reliable to import from, although their prices/shipping can sometimes be a little expensive. You can get good deals on the games though, they usually sell pretty cheap. I've bought from them a lot before.

[Torchickens(imported)]

Awesome, thank you for sharing this! It's cool seeing that art of Fungus and Crypto fighting without text all over it, as it usually appears.

That monster-scalping game sounds like it's got a pretty weird premise (like an early Monster Hunter I suppose, though I haven't played those), but man I like the designs - the clothespin especially looks like something my sister would have drawn when she was little :3

Speaking of monster games, was there anything on Dragon Quest Monsters? I played the first one a lot with my husband, though I haven't gotten around to trying any of the sequels.

It's a pleasure!

Here's the clearest I could get the artwork of Fungus and Crypto fighting each other.

Also, here's better image of Shigeki without his cap with the story text included. I couldn't see this on the Wiki, so I hope it might come in handy. In the previous scan, you could see the reflection on the edge of the first page, and it unfortunately covered up some of Shigeki's artwork and the text.

As you asked, here's something about Dragon Quest Monsters. Unfortunately, the blurb about it on the list of Game Boy games from 1998-1999 was the only thing which seems to cover it. I hope that's OK.

There wasn't anything about Dragon Quest Monsters 2, unfortunately. It seems the book only covers games from 2000 and not all upcoming games.






Kakurenbo (Hide 'n Seek) Battle Monster Tactics is an interesting game. I haven't completed it, because I stopped playing at the part where you could merge your powers but it has some good music and the gameplay is promising. Here's some extra artwork from it.

Characters
Monsters

The game was developed by Spiral. According to this page, Spiral is one of the companies formed under Marigul Management. This is seen in the staff credits by a heading called "マリーガル・マネジメント". Other Marigul Management companies include Ambrella, Clever Trick, Noise, Param and Saru Brunei. This suggests game series such as Cubivore, Doshin the Giant and Custom Robo are partly related to Monster Tactics, because Marigul Management was the parent company. In the final level of Cubivore, Doshin the Giant appears but the reference was removed from the US version.

Marigul Management was a company jointly owned by Recruit and Nintendo, and it was formed to support small developers financially in the N64 days. The companies under Marigul Management became joint subsidiaries of Nintendo. However, Marigul Management liquidated in 2003 and the only(?) companies that continued to make games were Ambrella (Pokémon spin-offs) and Noise (Custom Robo series).

Here are the Monster Tactics staff.

Cool! Thanks for sharing the info!

I also recently ordered from Hit-Japan . That seller seems to have a lot of interesting things.

Hit-Japan are always good and reliable to import from, although their prices/shipping can sometimes be a little expensive. You can get good deals on the games though, they usually sell pretty cheap. I've bought from them a lot before.

Hit-Japan is a great seller in my experience. I'm slowly building a collection of Japanese GB/C and GBA games too. Do you have any good recommendations?

I noticed, the 'Picross' game is actually a game called Hatena Satena (ハテナサテナ). It plays like a mix of Picross and Mineswepper. Do you know anything else about it?

Hit-Japan often have a lot of rarer games you might only see on Japanese auctions sites. Another seller who I'd recommend for Japanese GB/C games is street-of-game. They are French based sellers, but ship overseas and often sell some uncommon games for really cheap.

If you're interested in game guides, then I can recommend japan-ssdyuk. I bought from them for all Japanese Densetsu no Starfy strategy guides and some Starfy manga.

[KenjutheDenjuu(imported)]

Hit-Japan, street-of-game, and japan-ssdyuk are actually the main ones I buy imports from. They're all really good, although street-of-game can be a little bit slow with shipping and communication sometimes. A lot of their games are very cheap however and they're worth it.

I'd recommend Super Robot Pinball as something worth importing. It's a pinball game for the GBC and has some great music. The whole game is inspired by Gundam/Evangelion and you power up robots and fight them using the pinball table. Street-of-game had it for sale (i'm not sure if they still do anymore): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfJi4XtPLjg

I'd also recommend checking out Zok Zok Heroes and Monster Traveller too. Both are good games with good music and gameplay.

[Torchickens(imported)]

Hit-Japan, street-of-game, and japan-ssdyuk are actually the main ones I buy imports from. They're all really good, although street-of-game can be a little bit slow with shipping and communication sometimes. A lot of their games are very cheap however and they're worth it.

I'd recommend Super Robot Pinball as something worth importing. It's a pinball game for the GBC and has some great music. The whole game is inspired by Gundam/Evangelion and you power up robots and fight them using the pinball table. Street-of-game had it for sale (i'm not sure if they still do anymore): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfJi4XtPLjg

I'd also recommend checking out Zok Zok Heroes and Monster Traveller too. Both are good games with good music and gameplay.

Thanks for your recommendations! Super Robot Pinball was one of the games featured in this issue of the encyclopedia.

Maybe this will interest you.

From the video you showed me, it really looks like a fun game. I might get it.


I've heard of Monster Traveller and watched a few videos about it on NicoNicoVideos but there wasn't anything particularly stunning about it that encouraged me to get it.


Have you played Koto Battle: Tengai no Moribito? I picked it up lately, and it's a really great card-battle RPG, even for me who isn't really a fan of the genre. It was developed by AlphaDream, who are best known for the Mario & Luigi series, and it was directed by Chihiro Fujioka who was also one of the directors of Super Mario RPG.

I'm currently stuck at the ice town, because it seems this NPC wants me to get a certain Kotodama card.


I also think AlphaDream's second game, Tomato Adventure needs more attention. It's a really enjoyable action-command RPG just like Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. It might be a bit dull at the start, but it gets better as you play through it. It's really cheery, and has some great and interesting plot points.

Tomato (coincidence?), who is renowned as one of the main translators of Mother/ Mother 3 was going to translate Tomato Adventure, but unfortunately the project was cancelled.

Here's some videos about the game.

Translated intro

A little more of the fan translation

Demiru's Gimmicks (they're kind of like Bros. attacks)

Like Densetsu no Starfy, Tomato Adventure was once planned for Game Boy Color, but it was then known as Gimmick Land. Both Koto Battle and Tomato Adventure are games that appeared in the Nintendo Spaceworld 2000 listing.

[KenjutheDenjuu(imported)]

Thanks for the scan. Super Robot Pinball seems rare to find outside of Japan. The music is very similar in style to Zok Zok Heroes when you compare the two. I think it may possibly because it uses similar sounds for the notes but i'm not sure. I've heard of Kotobattle and seens a few videos but i've never played the game because it looked too complicated for me to understand with all of the card effects being in Japanese and such. It does have an interesting concept and nice art style though.

I personally enjoyed Monster Traveller, it's actually really fun once you get into it, but I can see how it would appear somewhat standard for a monster catching game to others. The branching evolution lines are really something unique, plus the space setting is another well inspired concept.

[Blaziken257]

This thread is fascinating... it's amazing that even though Telefang is sometimes considered an obscure game, it managed to get two whole pages here. I'm curious to what the description says about the game (probably the plot and the basic game mechanics, I imagine), and what the categories are for judging a game (and more importantly, which three Telefang scored high in). It's also interesting that they judged the game positively while there is no shortage of English-speaking people who love to slam the game. Obviously this is due to lack of bias from the Diamond/Jade bootlegs, especially when they probably didn't even exist yet (given that the book was released before Crystal was, leaving a very short time frame). The game is better than what most people make it out to be, after all...

The photos of the GBAs are interesting with the odd colors, but I do remember seeing those photos back in the day. I always wondered why I never saw white GBAs with cyan or orange buttons, even though there were photos of them. Oh well. Then again, Nintendo showed five colors for the Revolution Wii initially, but there are only white, black, and red Wiis. What a shame...

I'm also curious about the Donkey Kong games. I imagine this includes Donkey Kong '94, the three Donkey Kong Land games, and the GBC version of Donkey Kong Country (and I noticed the latter is on the front cover). I'm especially curious about the Donkey Kong Land games, since those were some of the first games I've played. I'm curious to what the book says about all three games. Not to mention, the first game had planned characters that never ended up existing, and unused music. The third game also has an unused character, and unused music...

Finally, if you like difficult Mario games, I would recommend the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 (a.k.a. Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels outside of Japan). It's part of the GBA Famicom Mini series. (Famicom Mini is known as Classic NES Series in the U.S. and NES Classics in Europe, but this game, like the original Famicom Disk System game, never made it outside of Japan.) It's somewhat difficult to find (years ago, I saw it go for as high as $140, but it's much lower nowadays), but it's worth it if you want a challenge. It's my favorite Mario game.