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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).
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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). |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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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