Only two titles in the Nectaris series were officially released in North America: Military Madness (1990, TurboGrafx-16, HuCard) and Nectaris: Military Madness (1999, PlayStation, CD-ROM).

	The original game. Note that the updated PlayStation version retains this layout almost completely.	In the original game, battles are portrayed in scenes like this.  You can simulate this in the new PlayStation version (troops remain polygons), or you can choose to have a more dynamic camera that changes points of view.

Military Madness (known as Nectaris in Japan) was the game that started it all--an addictive, easy-to-learn, and most importantly FUN turn-based war strategy game.  Starting in 1989/1990, the lunar war simulation won over many fans in Japan (more than 200,000 copies were sold) and established a cult following elsewhere.  Unfortunately, fans of the series would have to wait a full nine years for the next North American Nectaris/Military Madness title to be released... 

In Japan in early 1998, Hudson Soft released a PlayStation update of Nectaris (the penultimate installment in the series, as it turns out).  Would this game make it stateside?  Thankfully, the answer was "yes."  Jaleco decided that the PlayStation version of Nectaris was worthy for an official North American release.  For its' stateside appearance (roughly one year after being released in Japan), the PSX game was re-titled Nectaris: Military Madness-- an attempt to reveal its' lineage to the TurboGrafx-16 title U.S. gamers were familiar with (well, a handful of them, at least).  
 
To date, it appears that Nectaris: Military Madness is the final installment in the series--a series spanning ten years (1989-1999) and countless platforms (Gameboy, PC-Engine, TurboGrafx-16, PC-98 computers, Playstation, IBM-PC). But with the final PlayStation installment, the series truly comes full circle (although the series never deviated far from the original game, anyway): only the battle scenes received a significant face-lift (3-D polygons). Otherwise, the PSX version looks and plays like the original: only 23 military units are in your arsenal (thus ignoring the additional weapons offered in Neo Nectaris and Nectaris (German, PC MS-DOS); all battles are located on the moon (again, ignoring the diversity of locales provided by the aforementioned games); even the soundtrack stays true to the original (Neo Nectaris is the only title that offers fresh new tunes).  Thankfully, PSX Nectaris provides plenty of new maps (108 total, of which only 32 are recycled from the original 1989 campaign)...

I am still trying to obtain information / magazine coverage of a Nectaris contest held in Japan prior to the release of PSX and Gameboy Nectaris titles.  As far as I can gather, the contest was arranged through a magazine (Weekly Famitsu and / or Login Magazine) and fans submitted maps to be judged by Hudson Soft.  Winners' maps were included in both PSX and Gameboy Nectaris releases.  If you can clarify/expand upon this, please contact me.

Both the PSX and GB (and Win95 freeware) titles feature a map editor, so you, too, can create original new maps. Get a head start on the next contest ;)

If you are short on time or patience, then check out the Quick List of All Nectaris Games. Otherwise, you can take your time working through the Nectaris Legacy  for a comprehensive account of all titles in the series. A close cousin of Nec- taris -- Earth Light (1992, Hudson Soft, Super Famicom) -- is profiled there as well.  Earth Light reworks Nectaris' core game engine and may be of interest to Nectaris fans.