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| BASE NECTARIS is a comprehensive resource for folks who are curious, confused or fanatic about the classic turn- based strategy games in the Nectaris, Military Madness, and Earth Light series. These games have appeared on numerous platforms in several countries over the years: from NEC's PC-Engine console to Sharp's X68000 personal computer in Japan; from the TurboGrafx-16 to the PlayStation consoles in North America; and in Germany, yes Germany, an original (if unorthodox) PC-DOS version of Nectaris was released. BASE NECTARIS is my attempt to document, as thoroughly as possible, each and every game in the series. Why did I make this site? First and foremost, I was unsatisfied with the available information on the Nectaris series. For English-language sites, coverage was limited to the two titles that were released in North America: Military Madness (1990, TurboGrafx-16) and Nectaris: Military Madness (1999, PlayStation). When I expanded my search, I found a few defunct Japanese websites that covered Neo Nectaris (1994, DUO), but the remaining games in the series had little -- if any -- coverage on the net (in any language). I completed the Neo Nectaris FAQ first, since an English-language website dedicated to this great game (arguably the flagship of the series) was long overdue. Then it occurred to me that the other neglected Nectaris games deserved similar exposure. Once I added the Nectaris GB FAQ (1998, Gameboy) and the Earth Light FAQ (Super Famicom) to the site, I knew I would have to keep going until all the games were documented. At this point, I realized that I needed a central hub to tie all the different FAQs together -- thus was the birth of BASE NECTARIS. The Nectaris PlayStation FAQ , Official Nectaris Guide Book , GB KISS LINK FAQ , etc. followed shortly thereafter. But things did not progress in a predictable, steady manner. Far from it, in fact. BASE NECTARIS stagnated for nearly two years before the PC-98 / X68000 Nectaris FAQ and the German PC-DOS Nectaris FAQ were added to the roster. At this point, you may be asking yourself .... - top - How many Nectaris titles have been released, on what platforms, and in what countries? Well, if you are in a hurry, the quick list of all Nectaris games (1989-2004) provides basic release information at a glance. For a more comprehensive look at the Nectaris series, however, I encourage you to delve into the Nectaris Legacy (a detailed history of the entire Nectaris series, including information on U.S. and Japanese magazine coverage, reviews, press releases from Hudson Soft, etc.). The most recent additions to the list include: (1) the 1992 X68000 port of Nectaris (seems to be the same as the PC-98 port) and (2) the cellular Nectaris games (the 2004 Vodafone port of 1989's PC-Engine Nectaris is the most recently released game in the series). - top - Wait, what is Nectaris ? And how is it related to Military Madness and Earth Light ? Basically, all of these games are turn-based war strategy video games set on the moon (but not limited to this locale). How are these games related? And why should they be grouped together? First, "Military Madness" is simply the North American title for "Nectaris" (only two Nectaris titles from Japan made it to American shores: 1989's Military Madness on TurboGrafx-16 and 1998's Nectaris: Military Madness on PlayStation). Second, Hudson Soft (of Bomberman and Bonk fame) developed all the titles documented on this site. And third, as a result of the latter, each release utilizes the same game engine. Well, the Earth Light games expand upon the core Nectaris game engine. For this reason, I classify Earth Light as a short-lived spin-off of the Nectaris series. Also, I have yet to extensively play the Gameboy Wars titles, but they might be loosely related to the Nectaris series, although the Gameboy Wars engine is distinct unto itself. Anyway, these are the general criteria I have used for delineating the Nectaris series and deciding what titles to include on this website. In Japan, Hudson Soft uses "SLG" -- an abbreviation for "Simulation Game" -- to denote the genre under which all of these games fall. This site, then, is an attempt to document several of Hudson's SLG titles. - top - Confused? Here is a brief introduction to Nectaris / Military Madness. Navigating this site (and related sites): To effortlessly navigate through all the FAQs on this website, go to the Base Nectaris SITE MAP. The site map allows you quickly get a sense of what this site has to offer, and precisely where to locate what you are interested in. BASE NECTARIS features FAQs, reviews, screenshots, weapon guides, instruction manual scans, guide book scans, package / box art scans, cheats, passwords, codes, trivia, etc. for each and every game in the Nectaris / Military Madness / Earth Light series. Each video game featured on this site has its own dedicated FAQ (well, there are a few titles that have yet to receive extensive coverage, like Luna Strike and the freeware version of Nectaris). NEW! NEW! NEW! [Actually, many of the following projects are offline now.] For more history on the PC-Engine (Japan) and TurboGrafx-16 (North America) consoles, please visit the new hub for most of my future projects, the TurboGrafx-16 Preservation Society (beta version, currently). The TG-16 Preservation Society is dedicated to documenting, archiving & celebrating all things related to the PC-Engine, TurboGrafx-16, TG-CD and DUO consoles. While there is a lot of TG-16 / PCE info out there, there is a real need for fresh, new & original content, something the TG-16 Preservation Society (TG-16-PS) will strive to do. In addition to documenting games that have received scant coverage on the web, TG-16-PS will examine the popular games -- but with a focus on the misunderstood or neglected aspects of these games. Check out the FINAL ZONE II PRESERVATION PROJECT to get a better idea of what I have in mind. While the Final Zone II Preservation Project is the inaugural game to be featured on the site, the TurboPlay Magazine Archives (TurboGrafx-16 Video Game Magazines) was actually the first project undertaken by the TG-16 Preservation Society. TurboPlay was the only magazine dedicated exclusively to the ill-fated TurboGrafx-16 video game console. This archive documents all 14 issues (1990-1992). Following TurboPlay's demise, two new magazines appeared (albeit briefly) to fill in the void: DuoWorld and TurboForce. These magazines concentrated on covering the TurboDuo video game console (successor to the TurboGrafx-16). As such, DuoWorld and TurboForce are also included in the TurboPlay Archives. - top - About me, or, the real reason why this site exists. Well, it can all be traced back to my childhood and my video game addiction. By 1989, my brothers & I were hardcore junkies and we were excited about the "next generation" consoles that would succeed the venerable NES (Nintendo Entertainment System). NEC's TurboGrafx-16 was the first "next generation" console to hit the U.S. market, so my brothers & I sold all of our NES games (sad, but true) to fund the purchase of TG-16. Blazing Lazers (a.k.a Gunhed in Japan) and Military Madness (a.k.a Nectaris) were the first TG-16 games I obsessed over. By 1993 I had graduated from high school and was looking forward to college. As a recovering addict, I would only dabble in video games for the next decade. Then, one morning in 2003, I woke up with an uncontrollable urge to revisit the video games of yesteryear. My wife witnessed this relapse -- to her utter horror. "Nerd" and "Dork" epithets sprang forth, hourly. I still love her, of course. - top - SPECIAL REQUEST: Simply put, I need your help! Any help you can offer providing screenshots, scans and basically any info on the Nectaris series would be greatly appreciated. I am especially interested in locating worldwide magazine / fanzine coverage of these games. Translating some unusual parts of the magazines / guide books / manuals / cinemas / etc. would be neat, too. If you can assist in any way, please feel free to contact me (please keep insults & epithets to a minimum). - top - |
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UPDATES :) 01.13.07 update: It saddens me to tell you that Military Madness does not run smoothly or accurately on Wii's Virtual Console. Thus far, Hudson has tried to downplay the glitches as minor, but all accounts suggest that the emulation problems significantly hinder gameplay. In stark contrast, the cellular version of Military Madness is very nice indeed! So here we are, in 2007, and we find ourselves with an ancient port of Military Madness on a cell phone outshining the offerings of a next-gen console. Sobering news. - top - 10.24.06 update: I fixed most of the broken links to the scanned images and made some slight modifications to the home page, so all of the instruction manuals should be available once again. Also, in more important news, Base Nectaris will feature a brand-new project created by a fellow Nectaris fan (Mike F). The new content will go live at the end of 2006 / early 2007. I don't want to spoil the surprise, but lots of folks will be happy when they see the new addition! On that note, and before I forget, I should update the credits page and note the contributions of Mike F. and David Fichtner ... Done! - top - 10.21.06 update: OK, it has been nearly two years since I have touched this site. Actually, about a year ago a kind soul -- David Fichtner -- was kind enough to provide an English translation of the text that appeared on the back of the German packaging. The translation went through several iterations and I think the version he ended up with is pretty polished. In other news... Base Nectaris has been offline for a month or two, but I kept receiving so many requests for it to go back online that I finally uploaded the old site to its new home at www.tg-16.com ... Of course, there are approximately 10,000 broken links as a result of the move... I don't know when I'll get a chance to fix them. If I am feeling particularly nice, I might fix some of the broken links to the scans. Drop me an email when you encounter something aswry. Don't be offended if I respond a month or two later. Yay! I just realized that Military Madness was not even available on cell phones in North America at the time of my last update, and now the game is likely to appear on Wii's Virtual Console. Who would have thought that there would be a sustained interest in this particular title? In the next update, I promise to have lots of fantastic content from a fellow Nectaris fan. He's been working on a very special project that many of you will appreciate tremendously. Don't hold your breath, but this site needs to be completely overhauled as well. I need to cut lots of redudntant text and devise a fresh layout for the pages. I'm hoping that I'll be able to do this by 2008! Don't laugh. - top - 11.26.04 update: THANKS! to the contributions of Lawrence ( nfgman ), I was inspired to create a dedicated FAQ for the PC-98 & X68000 versions of Nectaris. Similarly, THANKS! to the contributions of Richard Harper (scans of floppy disk, weapon guide, front and back box), I was inspired to finally create a FAQ for the German PC-DOS Nectaris. Anyway, I can't stress the following point enough: if it weren't for your contributions, this site would still be a stagnant and unfinished pile of trash. Seriously. In fact, once I finished the aforementioned FAQs, I decided to put the finishing touches on the German Weapon Guide and the Universal Weapon Guide (I have yet to update the guide for Neo Nectaris, however). I also discovered that there is a Japanese site already called BASE NECTARIS (although it focuses exclusively on the original PC-Engine version of the game) ! This stinks because I thought I had an original name for my site. So, in an effort to distinguish my site from its Japanese counterpart (and because I don't want to overhaul my entire site), I have decided that my site will now be officially known as BASE NECTARIS (USA). Yeah, that's pretty corny, but it's the best I could come up with. The Japanese site is really wonderful, by the way, and has been updated recently (unlike the other Japanese Nectaris sites that have long been abandoned). Finally, I made a slew of banners for all my sites. This was just a creative exercise, I reckon, because I doubt any of these banners will ever be used to link to my site. - top - 10.01.04 update: BIG NEWS! The TurboGrafx-16 Preservation Society (offline) is finally available. The first feature to inaugurate the site is the Final Zone II Preservation Project (offline) which encourages you to "Enjoy the Glorious Sights and Sounds" of this early CD-ROM game. IMPORTANT: All of my sites have been re-organized and transferred to new URL's... the old content has been removed (except for the "coming soon" pages that I haven't overhauled yet)...so old links will no longer work (although I will throw up a few "referrer" pages). Things to look forward to: (1) the TurboPlay Archives will be updated and include an expanded history and many, many more full-page scans of TurboPlay, DuoWorld & TurboForce... (2) New Nectaris info / scans from contributors (as soon as I get their stuff, I'll update the relevant pages)... (3) and the TG-16 Preservation Site has several projects in the works... - top - 09.09.04 update: Lots of new stuff to report. The biggest development is that Lawrence ( www.gamesx.com ) has been gracious enough to provide invaluable scans and information on two of the most elusive Nectaris games -- the 1992 port of the original Nectaris for (1) PC-9800 (NEC's personal computer series) and (2) X68000 (Sharp's personal computer). Dedicated sections for this PC software will be up soon. Until then, peruse some of these "new" pages (I say "new" because the old content has been completely overhauled and lots of new content has been added): GB KISS LINK FAQ (I've created a 2-page mini-FAQ focusing exclusively on GB KISS), Neo Nectaris magazine coverage (PC-Engine Fan scans, possible existence of a Neo Nectaris Guide Book). Plus, old content has been spruced-up and given a face-lift (original cinema scenes). - top - 07.31.04 update: Jesus friggin' christ it takes a lot of time and energy to update all these sites (my personal pages, nectaris stuff, and turboplay magazine). I have finally given proper treatment to the NECTARIS OFFICIAL GUIDE BOOK -- Full size images are now available for the old thumbnails, plus a few new images (and commentary) have been added. i have been trying to make this site look nicer, that's why many pages have a new format (i have yet to tackle the biggest section though--the neo nectaris FAQ). Whilst making things look prettier, I have also been revising and updating the content. Content is still quite choppy / repetitive in parts. Oh well. I have lots of new TG-16 / PC-Engine content in the pipeline (i think BASE NECTARIS is going to branch out and cover these consoles...) , but I don't dare work on them until I create, fix and complete the 2,0000 missing / incomplete pages already on this site. Does anyone even look at my site? Seriously, I don't know why I do this. It gets too frustrating too quickly. - top - 05.24.04 update: The most important news: BASE NECTARIS is proud to present the TurboPlay Magazine Archives for TG-16 and PC-Engine enthusiasts around the globe. The TurboPlay Archive is a natural offshoot for me since I am a big fan of the TG-16 / PCE consoles (as you may recall, BASE NECTARIS itself began as a Neo Nectaris FAQ). I am slowly overhauling this site to make it more aesthetically pleasing and easier to navigate. Well, "overhaul" is too strong a word, I guess I'm just tweaking this site (even this takes too much time, unfortunately). I finally acquired a copy of the German PC DOS Nectaris (thanks Rainer!), but my friend won't send it to me until i give him prints of the photos he took of my wedding (he's been waiting for three years for me to do this). I will gladly accept additional copies of this German software. The PC-98 software remains elusive and is #1 on my want list. Please help me! I'll gladly take scans, reviews, ... anything you can provide. - top - 12.10.03 update: OK, I finally added Gameboy images (black & white) to the OUTDATED Universal Nectaris Weapon Guide. As always, this site is still a work in progress, but I will be slowly adding content and stuff every other week. For example, here is some content I'm currently working on: A. Nectaris: American vs. Japanese storylines (discrepancies). B. Neo Nectaris: English translation of names/descriptions for 8 new units. You probably noticed that I don't have dedicated sections for the personal computer (PC) Nectaris titles yet. Well, expanded info on the Japanese freeware version (1997, PC, Win 95 / 98) will be up soon--but I still can't find software / manuals / packages for the PC-9800 (Japan) or MS-DOS/Win (German) Nectaris games. SO... any help you can provide translating manuals/cinemas, providing screenshots, scans, and basically any info on the Nectaris series would be greatly appreciated. I am especially interested in locating worldwide magazine/fanzine coverage of these games. So contact me now :) - top - |