BASE NECTARIS (USA) : All things Nectaris, Military Madness & Earth Light 

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BASE NECTARIS: all things Nectaris, Military Madness & Earth Light

   
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For your viewing enjoyment (and for those times when you need to reference source material), BASE NECTARIS has archived seven Nectaris game manuals in their entirety (additional manuals have been partially documented).  The two English-language manuals -- Military Madness (1989) for NEC's TurboGrafx-16 and Nectaris: Military Madness (1999) for Sony's PlayStation -- are useful references for folks who have questions about the game.  The remaining manuals, on the other hand, are in Japanese.  Despite the language barrier, the Japanese manuals are neat because:  (1) most of the weapon guides remain useful (for the specs),  (2) you will find many interesting advertisements for various Hudson-related products,  (3) you can witness first-hand the inferiority of our manuals when compared to their Japanese counterparts, and  (3) you can always try to figure stuff out by looking at the pictures (I often pretend that I am an illiterate Japanese gamer when I look at these manuals, myself).  
  

Nectaris Game Manual  (1989, PC-Engine, Japan)
Military Madness Game Manual  (1989, TurboGrafx-16, North America)

   
Both manuals are 14 pages in length, but the TG-16 manual (devoid of illustrations) cannot compare to the snazzy layout of its' PC-Engine counterpart (I particularly like the cute depictions of the military units in the weapon charts).  But the best part of the Japanese manual is the last page, which is an advertisement for  No-Ri-Ko and Fighting Street (a.k.a. Street Fighter), the first two CD-ROM games ever released for a home console (PC-Engine + CD).
  
Neo Nectaris Game Manual  (1994, DUO / PC-Engine + CD, Japan)
   
The Neo Nectaris manual (20 pages, full-color) features the nicest-looking weapon guide (4 pages) out of the entire series (also, it is the only guide that documents the eight new military units unique to Neo Nectaris).  Actually, in terms of layout and overall aesthetics, this is the best look- ing manual in the entire series.  Fans of the PC-Engine / Hudson Soft might be particularly inter- ested in the last page of the manual -- an ad for Humor Network, Hudson's fan club.  The pictures are miniscule, but you can see a freebie (calculator?) adorned with the Humor Network logo.
  
Nectaris GB Game Manual  (1998, Gameboy, Japan)
   
Scans of the single page (2-sided) insert are available, along with the entire 44-page, full-color Nectaris GB game manual. This is, hands down, the most interesting manual featured on BASE NECTARIS.  Why?  Simply because it is the best source of information for Hudson's GB KISS and GB KISS LINK features.  Unfortunately, the relevant parts of the manual (the final 13 pages) have yet to be translated.  These pages hold the answer to questions such as: Why is a telephone held up to the Gameboy's speaker on page 38 and page 40?  Is Gameboy acting as a speed dialer?  Or were you actually able to send KISS MAIL over the telephone (in addition to the regular infrared method)?  Or are you calling Hudson (note the phone numbers) to access a special feature? I would love to find the answers to these questions. Until then, enjoy the pictures.
  
Nectaris Game Manual  (1998, PlayStation, Japan)
Nectaris: Military Madness  (1999, PlayStation, North America)

   
The Japanese manual (26 glossy color pages) is so superior to the 18-page English manual that it isn't even funny. The nicest part of the latter looks like a poorly photocopied cut-n-paste of the former.  Surprisingly, I find the Japanese manual far too slick for its' own good. An advertisement for the Official Nectaris Guide Book can be found at the end of the Japanese manual; on the equivalent page in the English manual, we are graced with the passwords for the first five levels.    
      
Earth Light Game Manual  (1992, Super Famicom, Japan) 
  

At a whopping 64-pages, this is the biggest manual available from BASE NECTARIS.  Overall, the full-color layout is very nice and amply illustrated throughout.  When I see the extensive treatment and careful attention Hudson put into this manual, I have to wonder if they had high hopes for Earth Light.  However, according to Lee Pappas (perhaps the first person, outside of Japan, to create an extensive Nectaris fan site), Earth Light was a limited release for Super Famicom.  
   
Earth Light: Luna Strike Game Manual (1996, Super Famicom, Japan) 
  

Like its' predecessor, Luna Strike has a huge manual.  It is highly unlikely that BASE NECTARIS will ever scan the manual in its entirety, however, because Luna Strike is quite dissimilar to the Nectaris series and has yet to win my affections.  That said, it is immediately apparent that a lot of time and energy went into the manual (it has a crisp, refined layout and a bunch of superb illustrations).  Again, I am curious if this title was successful in Japan.  Perhaps the niche for strategy games in Japan was so lucrative that Hudson could release games like this (late in the life of the Super Famicom, I might add) and still break even.  
  
Anyway, in the interest of the three (possibly four) people who are curious about this game, I have scanned a few pages from the manual.  Your welcome.
   
    At some point in the future, I hope to document (at least partially) the remaining manuals in the series... if you can assist in any way please contact me. Thanks.
    
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