kitsunebi

Great job, whoever scanned the mag this came from. 

I hope this came from the Internet Archive or something and we don't have this scan hosted here. 

I started to join these pages, but I couldn't lower myself to their level.  They'll just have to sit here till they can be replaced by a scan that isn't terrible.

On 3/7/2024 at 6:40 AM, tway12746 said:

If I have a digital copy of this issue (and other issues), can I upload it/them somewhere? Obviously larger than 512 kB...

Digital files created/sold by the publisher are not allowed here.  Retromags only allows scans created by its members. 

I'd say you could try uploading them to the Internet Archive, but in the past they had lots of PC Gamers removed after the publisher sent a complaint of copyright violation, so I wouldn't count on them not being taken down at some point.

2 hours ago, Areala said:

According to Google Translate, the title of this game means "Cordyceps sinensis" which is apparently a type of fungus which grows on caterpillars, and now I have so many questions...

I've never heard of that fungus, but they're all easy kanji, so I can tell you without using google translate that they mean (separately) "winter insect summer grass."

This and all issues of Go! are free supplements included with Computer and Video Games magazine.

5 minutes ago, Areala said:

Well, it only took 133 issues, but they're finally identifying themselves as an "Adult PC Game Magazine".

Ironically, the "adult" in "adult PC games" hasn't been a necessary inclusion since the time this mag was published, since it was the very late 90s/early 2000s that saw the almost complete death of PC gaming in Japan, from which point onward "PC game" became completely synonymous with "eroge."  (Something I learned awkwardly after some students asked if I played video games and I replied that I mostly played PC games - cue fits of hysterics)

They've had the same artist draw every cover since issue 3 (the first monthly issue).  It could be coincidence, but there seems to be an ebb and flow of lewd/chaste at work.  The first time it struck me was the 3 issue arc that went: dominatrix dripping wax on a guy's erection, cow-girl with giant udders, innocent girl w/teddy bear wearing ankle-length dress and covered by a giant pillow.

Pulling back after a few riskier covers could have been a reaction to reader feedback.  Remember, 100% of Japanese magazine scans are at the bookstore, so people had to walk up to the counter and pay for these things in person.  Apparently the first issue back in 1993 was infamous for being "embarrassing to purchase."  Which is almost cute, considering the state of adult magazines in Japan now, which are ALWAYS extremely explicit and sometimes downright gross.

I only gave them a cursory glance.  It's not my cup of tea.  You could be right, though.

This isn't the worst of it regarding Japan's obsession associating youth with sex.  There's an upcoming issue of MegaStore Gimix (which unlike this mag, is cover to cover adult games) which features a photograph of two girls who look about ten years old on the cover.

6 hours ago, Areala said:

Good lord, "Game Urara". I think that's all that needs to be said.

All 5 issues are at the Internet Archive.  It's sort of like Game Labo, but with less focus on hacking and more focus on adult stuff.  If the underage junior high school girl on the cover wasn't a dead giveaway that this is an adults-only mag, then you clearly aren't Japanese.

Anyway, if you ever wanted a mag that will show you how to hack Chrono Trigger, clone a SFC cartridge, and remove mosaics from porn all in a single issue, this is your jam...and let's not forget the cross review section in issue 1 where the reviewers rate various...erm...well, let's just say, those guys have been to Bosnia.

2 minutes ago, Straydog said:

You! The one who is moving now! Respond!

Experience Bij!

Nice.  If you've got higher res scans, don't be shy about uploading them.  Up to 2200px high is great.

The Internet is truly a land of milk and honey.

Sell me on this project of yours and I'll consider it.

J/k.  You're on your own.  The comics reprinted in this collection are easily found in a million places, so there wasn't much incentive to rip this.  For that reason, the collection itself is probably hard to find outside of torrents, though it apparently exits.  Search for: Sonic The Games – Millennium (Aug 2012) (digital) (alfablac)

Yeah, I'm never sure if ads like this are actually trying to fool people into thinking they're part of the magazine or if it's just a stylistic design choice. 

Anyway there are a few giveaways.  This ads comes from a Famitsu, so we're using that as a basis for determining that it's an ad.

1. The page is unnumbered.  All editorial pages are numbered.  Ads are not.
2. Copyright/trademark info.  This ad is copyrighted by Toho, and there is also a note in the bottom right stating that "Family Computer" and "Famicom" are trademarks of Nintendo.  Editorial pages would not need this.
3. It's not obvious from looking a this page out of context, but Famitsu bunches all of its ads together rather than interspersing them throughout the magazine like a typical American mag.  So this ad is right in the middle of a 20-page section of advertising.

What's even more interesting/suspicious is the fact that a lot of the "ads that look like editorial pages" in Famitsu come from pages advertising ASCII games.  I say suspicious because Famitsu is published by ASCII.  Gee, conflict of interest much?  Would you trust a publisher's reviews of its own games?  Or appreciate the fact that they use the magazine they publish to advertise the games they also publish by disguising those ads as editorial pages?

Maybe, but probably not.  Regardless, it definitely won't be available here, since our 10-year cutoff date means it wouldn't be allowed here until 2026.

Fixed this one for you, since it didn't require much work.

Btw, don't ever upload PNG files.  Save them as jpgs.  Your PNG was over 3MB, which is much too large for a gallery image.  After cleaning it up and saving it at the same size as a jpg, the size is only 700kB.

I figured it might be something you'd notice while editing.  It's obviously a tabletop gaming mag, I just wondered if there also might be at least a few pages covering computer games.  If only tabletop games, does that qualify it for placement in the non-gaming mags category, or do we mean "gaming" to include ALL gaming?  Like D&D mags and the like?  Because that's a whole new can of worms to add to the database.

Does this have any video/computer game coverage or is it strictly tabletop games?

On 5/31/2019 at 9:58 AM, volrion32 said:

I've been trying to find a copy of this magazine for such a long time (last had it about 15-20 years ago).  Maybe someone could let me know if there's a copy still in circulation?  

You can get this mag by becoming a member at Oldgamemags.

I've never looked for it, but Sega mags are definitely less common than something like Famitsu.  The Saturn was Sega's most successful system in Japan, so that could mean that there are more copies of this floating around than, say, a Mega Drive mag, however it could also mean that they are in more demand.  At any rate, I haven't got a copy.

When I did my compulsory search to confirm the release date, I searched for both "Bikou 3" and "尾行3" and didn't come up with much.  There doesn't seem to be much info in Japanese - not even a wikipedia page.  And almost nothing in English except for a review on gamefaqs likening it to Splinter Cell.

Your note prompted me to search again, this time leaving off the long "o" sound, and sure enough, "Biko 3" brings up a lot more info.

Just one more reason I don't play eroge.  Even ones that aren't marketed as rape games usually have rape in them, and if not that, some sort of pedophilia.  This #$%$ing country...

4 hours ago, Areala said:

I don't know what "Girls Mode 3" is. I just know that I want it.

I'm sure you've googled it by now (or was that just me??) but it was published for the 3DS by Nintendo in the USA as Style Savvy: Fashion Forward and was well-received by critics.

Name any further issues with this format please.

Yeah, I corrected the title of this for you a long time ago, but this is issue 128, which is printed in the fine print at the top of the page.

If I hit it with my browser's add-on translator, I get "Super Planet War".  But what's hilarious is if I just select the first two kanji - it gives me the Chinese translation of "super confused."

23 minutes ago, E-Day said:

I figured it's better to have a "bad" cover image for reference than not having anything at all. And it wasn't that bad compared to others I've seen, or to the ones I added last week in the Game Player's PC Strategy Guide section .

Yes, but even bad covers can and should be edited to look as good as possible, which is what I did here.

Also, I'm curious about these covers you mention uploading last week, since they don't exist in the gallery?  Are they hidden?