HG101 Digital Archive Project - Dragon Slayer

There's a labyrinthine history behind the Dragon Slayer games - you can read up on all of the site's Falcom articles for more information - but the gist goes something like this. Dragon Slayer was originally a very (VERY) early dungeon crawly RPG, but Falcom later turned it into a "brand", releasing several successors that, while technically very different games, sort of drew upon various elements of each other. While most of these games were action-RPG hybrids, this all stopped at the sixth Dragon Slayer game, Legend of Heroes (or Eiyuu Densetsu), which was a pretty standard Dragon Quest clone. (I have an unfinished article for a bit about that.) It was fairly popular and ported every which way, but the only version to make it Stateside was the Turbografx-16 CD version, which was probably the best of them anyway. It later spawned three other sequels known as the Gagharv Trilogy, which were the games released on the PSP a few years back (the PSP ports/English translations are baaaaad) as well as the sixth chapter, Sora no Kiseki, which in turn had three separate games, and there's a seventh Legend of Heroes coming soon.


Back to the point! The first Legend of Heroes game was the basis for an anime called (obviously) Dragon Slayer, which was released in Japan in 1992, and localized by Urban Vision in 1997. Other than a few scant mentions of Falcom in credits, this North American release wasn't tied in with the game, because it was based on an obscure something released five years earlier on a system nobody owned anyway. But hey, it was probably cheap to license, and it fulfilled their fantasy anime quota for a bit.


I won't lie - I've only watched a bit of this when it was recording. It's pretty bad. It's an OVA, which means there's not enough time for reasonable character development nor anything resembling an interesting plot. It's wholly generic fantasy fare and it barely has anything in common with the game it's purportedly based on. Sure, some of the characters names are the same, but they look totally different, and it doesn't feel the same, at all, even though it uses some music from it.

That's not really a positive, though, because Legend of Heroes' soundtrack was only interesting when arranged by Ryo Yonemitsu for the TG-16 port (who also did all of the TG-16 Ys games). In its standard form, it attempts to be rousing but is completely held back by the cheap orchestral synth (they called them "electric orchestra" back in the day). It was released separately with the name Symphonic Poem Dragon Slayer ~ The Legend of Heroes Vol. 2. I own this CD, and it is quite dull.


This isn't the first time this happened to a Falcom anime. There was also an OVA based off Xanadu, which originally had the look and feel of an action version of Wizardry and somehow got turned into a show about mecha and tentacle thingies. As much as I love Falcom, they have a tendency to farm out their properties and do as little as possible to make sure they aren't screwed up. (Those Ys DS ports, for instance.) I might post this Xanadu anime later, although it's still in raw Japanese.

The only thing I can't figure out is if this contains both episodes of the OVA or only one. I didn't notice any particular chapter breaks, but it is a bit over 40 mins total, which seems to suggest they combined both onto one tape.

Download here

<center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/dragonslayer-1.jpg"></center><br />There's a labyrinthine history behind the Dragon Slayer games - you can read up on all of the site's <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/company.htm#falcom">Falcom</a> articles for more information - but the gist goes something like this. Dragon Slayer was originally a very (VERY) early dungeon crawly RPG, but Falcom later turned it into a "brand", releasing several successors that, while technically very different games, sort of drew upon various elements of each other. While most of these games were action-RPG hybrids, this all stopped at the sixth Dragon Slayer game, Legend of Heroes (or Eiyuu Densetsu), which was a pretty standard Dragon Quest clone. (I have an <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/loh/loh.htm">unfinished article</a> for a bit about that.) It was fairly popular and ported every which way, but the only version to make it Stateside was the Turbografx-16 CD version, which was probably the best of them anyway. It later spawned three other sequels known as the Gagharv Trilogy, which were the games released on the PSP a few years back (the PSP ports/English translations are baaaaad) as well as the sixth chapter, <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/loh/loh6.htm">Sora no Kiseki</a>, which in turn had three separate games, and there's a seventh Legend of Heroes coming soon.<br /><br /><center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/dragonslayer-2.jpg"></center><br />Back to the point! The first Legend of Heroes game was the basis for an anime called (obviously) Dragon Slayer, which was released in Japan in 1992, and localized by Urban Vision in 1997. Other than a few scant mentions of Falcom in credits, this North American release wasn't tied in with the game, because it was based on an obscure something released five years earlier on a system nobody owned anyway. But hey, it was probably cheap to license, and it fulfilled their fantasy anime quota for a bit.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/dragonslayer-3.jpg"></center><br />I won't lie - I've only watched a bit of this when it was recording. It's pretty bad. It's an OVA, which means there's not enough time for reasonable character development nor anything resembling an interesting plot. It's wholly generic fantasy fare and it barely has anything in common with the game it's purportedly based on. Sure, some of the characters names are the same, but they look totally different, and it doesn't feel the same, at all, even though it uses some music from it.<br /> <br />That's not really a positive, though, because Legend of Heroes' soundtrack was only interesting when arranged by Ryo Yonemitsu for the TG-16 port (who also did all of the TG-16 Ys games). In its standard form, it attempts to be rousing but is completely held back by the cheap orchestral synth (they called them "electric orchestra" back in the day). It was released separately with the name <a href="http://www.rpgfan.com/soundtracks/ds-sp2/index.html">Symphonic Poem Dragon Slayer ~ The Legend of Heroes Vol. 2</a>. I own this CD, and it is quite dull.<br /><br /><center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/dragonslayer-4.jpg"></center><br />This isn't the first time this happened to a Falcom anime. There was also an OVA based off <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/xanadu/xanadu.htm">Xanadu</a>, which originally had the look and feel of an action version of Wizardry and somehow got turned into a show about mecha and tentacle thingies. As much as I love Falcom, they have a tendency to farm out their properties and do as little as possible to make sure they aren't screwed up. (Those Ys DS ports, for instance.) I might post this Xanadu anime later, although it's still in raw Japanese.<br /><br />The only thing I can't figure out is if this contains both episodes of the OVA or only one. I didn't notice any particular chapter breaks, but it is a bit over 40 mins total, which seems to suggest they combined both onto one tape.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.fileplanet.com/files/200000/208171.shtml">Download here</a><br /></span>

HG101 Digital Archive Project - Double Dragon

Double Dragon was unquestionably one of the most popular NES games in the late 80s. The series eventually grew less popular as the years progressed - no one really liked Double Dragon III, and while Super Double Dragon was far from bad, it also didn't quite command the same respect. This didn't stop the media blitz of Double Dragon stuff in 1994, at least a few years after its prime, with a live action movie and 26 episode cartoon series.

I haven't seen the movie, honestly. It's out on DVD and so won't be part of this archive project here, but you can check out the Nostalgia Critic's review for some insight into that bit o' disaster. The cartoon series is something different entirely - the movie very vaguely got things right, but the cartoon takes the concept of two brothers fighting crime and runs off in its own direction. For instance, they both wield swords! That shoot lightning! Also, they drive around in a car and fight all kinds of ludicrous Saturday morning cartoon villains! It's really bad. It actually went on for two whole seasons for a total of 26 episodes.


What's even worse is that someone, somewhere realized that the cartoon was so greatly removed from the game series that they made their own completely new, completely different video game to tie it in together. They even had the audacity to stick a numeral on it - Double Dragon V: The Shadow Falls, released for the Genesis, SNES and Jaguar. It eschewes the side-scrolling co-op beat-em-up action in favor of one-on-one fighting, which was the style at the time. It's also really bad. The Mexican designed rip off Rage of the Dragons for the Neo Geo is, somehow, a substantially better game in every regard. (Not being sarcastic - I actually REALLY like Rage of the Dragons. It's not all that popular amongst the SNK set, but something about the character designs, the flow, the crunchiness, and music really comes together. Never got ported, though a version of its spiritual successor, Goketsuji Ichizoku: Matrimelee, hit the PS2 awhile back.)


Anyway, here's two episodes for download from one of the tapes. I bought a few more so except some more eventually, some day.

The Price of Oblivion
Judgment Day




<center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/doubledragon-1.jpg"></center><br />Double Dragon was unquestionably one of the most popular NES games in the late 80s. The series eventually grew less popular as the years progressed - no one really liked Double Dragon III, and while Super Double Dragon was far from bad, it also didn't quite command the same respect. This didn't stop the media blitz of Double Dragon stuff in 1994, at least a few years after its prime, with a live action movie and 26 episode cartoon series.<br /><br />I haven't seen the movie, honestly. It's out on DVD and so won't be part of this archive project here, but you can check out the <a href="http://www.thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/2294-double-dragon">Nostalgia Critic's review</a> for some insight into that bit o' disaster. The cartoon series is something different entirely - the movie very vaguely got things right, but the cartoon takes the concept of two brothers fighting crime and runs off in its own direction. For instance, they both wield swords! That shoot lightning! Also, they drive around in a car and fight all kinds of ludicrous Saturday morning cartoon villains! It's really bad. It actually went on for two whole seasons for a total of 26 episodes. <br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/doubledragon-2.jpg"></center><br />What's even worse is that someone, somewhere realized that the cartoon was so greatly removed from the game series that they made their own completely new, completely different video game to tie it in together. They even had the audacity to stick a numeral on it - Double Dragon V: The Shadow Falls, released for the Genesis, SNES and Jaguar. It eschewes the side-scrolling co-op beat-em-up action in favor of one-on-one fighting, which was the style at the time. It's also really bad. The Mexican designed rip off Rage of the Dragons for the Neo Geo is, somehow, a substantially better game in every regard. (Not being sarcastic - I actually REALLY like Rage of the Dragons. It's not all that popular amongst the SNK set, but something about the character designs, the flow, the crunchiness, and music really comes together. Never got ported, though a version of its spiritual successor, Goketsuji Ichizoku: Matrimelee, hit the PS2 awhile back.) <br /><br /><center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/doubledragon-3.jpg"></center><br />Anyway, here's two episodes for download from one of the tapes. I bought a few more so except some more eventually, some day.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.fileplanet.com/files/200000/207952.shtml">The Price of Oblivion</a><br /><a href="http://www.fileplanet.com/files/200000/207954.shtml">Judgment Day</a><br /><br /><br /><br /></span>

HG101 Digital Archive Project - Zillion

The HG101 Digital Archive Project already hit its first stumbling block. Originally I had anticipated on storing all of these on my Fileplanet account, a holdover from the IGN/Gamespy hosting days of a few months ago. I was under the impression that we would keep these accounts, but no - the server was simply turned off last week without them telling anyone. All of the files are still accessible, but we can't upload anything more. The public upload utility is still there, though, which I think I'll have to use, going forward. Fileplanet has always sucked, but it's also more reliable than Megaupload, whose links haphazardly disappear for any number of arbitrary reasons.


But, we'll work with it! I recorded and encoded the first two episodes of the Zillion anime. For quick reference, Zillion was apparently some kind of laser tag toy from the mid-80s, which the anime (and video games) were tied into. Despite obviously being essentially little more than advertisements, I've always held a weakpoint for it, because those little doodles in the SMS game manual was essentially my introduction to anime. I was disappointed when I saw the anime and found that JJ, the awesome guy from the game, was kinda of a weenie in the show, but hey - Apple and Champ are still badass, those guns still look cool no matter how cheesy they are, and the Norsa (or Noza as they're called here) are still pretty badass. The anime shares a lot of music with the game, too, featuring vocal 80s J-pop renditions of much of the soundtrack.


Although there were numerous episodes televised in Japan, the US only got a handful - five tapes with a single 20 minute episode each, and a sixth tape with a 40 minute OVA. They were dubbed by Streamline Pictures, the same guys responsible for Macross and basically any of the anime distributed in the US during the 80s. The dubbing is actually quite good and they're still fairly watchable. Please enjoy. The Japanese episodes are also being fansubbed over at Anime Classic, so you can look forward to the episodes not released in English.

Just keep in mind that the quality on the second episode is a little sketchy near the end due to the iffy tape I have. The only VCR I have has a tendency to display a large ugly "VIDEO RECALIBRATION" message whenever it gets too staticy, which pops up a couple of times. It's annoying, but better than watching them on Youtube, at any rate.

Episode 1 - They Call me J.J.
Episode 2 - Hang Fire



The HG101 Digital Archive Project already hit its first stumbling block. Originally I had anticipated on storing all of these on my Fileplanet account, a holdover from the IGN/Gamespy hosting days of a few months ago. I was under the impression that we would keep these accounts, but no - the server was simply turned off last week without them telling anyone. All of the files are still accessible, but we can't upload anything more. The public upload utility is still there, though, which I think I'll have to use, going forward. Fileplanet has always sucked, but it's also more reliable than Megaupload, whose links haphazardly disappear for any number of arbitrary reasons.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLj0G-q51RyYBg8IARTTCoRJNKil96Qp44zi23FbDzWU56uaE4qYQfjy9UCioiYR6yZ8wXrSMNX9JuWyp5R7XzXpcx3g8NmK9Xqmqxozl0uzgAGW1wXx6iOtS6T9NRFuj6gmsb-L_10z-k/s1600/zillion-1.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5408645229031616818" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLj0G-q51RyYBg8IARTTCoRJNKil96Qp44zi23FbDzWU56uaE4qYQfjy9UCioiYR6yZ8wXrSMNX9JuWyp5R7XzXpcx3g8NmK9Xqmqxozl0uzgAGW1wXx6iOtS6T9NRFuj6gmsb-L_10z-k/s320/zillion-1.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" /></a><br />But, we'll work with it! I recorded and encoded the first two episodes of the <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/zillion/zillion.htm">Zillion</a> anime. For quick reference, Zillion was apparently some kind of laser tag toy from the mid-80s, which the anime (and video games) were tied into. Despite obviously being essentially little more than advertisements, I've always held a weakpoint for it, because those little doodles in the SMS game manual was essentially my introduction to anime. I was disappointed when I saw the anime and found that JJ, the awesome guy from the game, was kinda of a weenie in the show, but hey - Apple and Champ are still badass, those guns still look cool no matter how cheesy they are, and the Norsa (or Noza as they're called here) are still pretty badass. The anime shares a lot of music with the game, too, featuring vocal 80s J-pop renditions of much of the soundtrack.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlClC3LgxSrZgz-YV92r5FZNBYJovv84MqLS4ixXNlNtewNrdaX2s2RMKmg2DZb3Iu74PFxrPOXLa0ykjdRLNpjlt9kkylT7L2VUVWogrKyv0FM1UtxRNWzz3VmTBfRQ1mq3NyZcdRbvbu/s1600/zillion-2.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5408645296950779970" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlClC3LgxSrZgz-YV92r5FZNBYJovv84MqLS4ixXNlNtewNrdaX2s2RMKmg2DZb3Iu74PFxrPOXLa0ykjdRLNpjlt9kkylT7L2VUVWogrKyv0FM1UtxRNWzz3VmTBfRQ1mq3NyZcdRbvbu/s320/zillion-2.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" /></a><br />Although there were numerous episodes televised in Japan, the US only got a handful - five tapes with a single 20 minute episode each, and a sixth tape with a 40 minute OVA. They were dubbed by Streamline Pictures, the same guys responsible for Macross and basically any of the anime distributed in the US during the 80s. The dubbing is actually quite good and they're still fairly watchable. Please enjoy. The Japanese episodes are also being fansubbed over at <a href="http://www.anime-classic.net">Anime Classic</a>, so you can look forward to the episodes not released in English.<br /><br />Just keep in mind that the quality on the second episode is a little sketchy near the end due to the iffy tape I have. The only VCR I have has a tendency to display a large ugly "VIDEO RECALIBRATION" message whenever it gets too staticy, which pops up a couple of times. It's annoying, but better than watching them on Youtube, at any rate.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.fileplanet.com/files/200000/207747.shtml">Episode 1 - They Call me J.J.</a><br /><a href="http://www.fileplanet.com/files/200000/207687.shtml">Episode 2 - Hang Fire</a><br /><br /><br /></span>

HG101 Digital Archive Project - Maniac Mansion

Not too long ago I mentioned a desire to start capturing old VHS tapes and other not-commercially-available TV or anime shows related to video games, and releasing them on the internet. I got everything sorted out, so now we have...


Maniac Mansion, a Canadian sitcom produced in 1990. There were 66 episodes in total for the Family Channel, a cable network that, at the time, had pretty low penetration. (It was largely known for the religious show The 700 Club and since morphed into ABC Family, I think.)


Maniac Mansion is only very, very loosely based on the Lucasarts game. It ditches the whole bit with the teenagers and just focuses on the Edisons, except the Edisons are nothing like they are in the game. Sure, the head of the household is named Fred, he's a mad scientist, and there's a meteor in his basement (which isn't sentient like the games), but that's about all they have in common. The rest of the family is completely different, albeit with some quirks due to his experiments - his 4 four old son was turned into a hulking, halfway mentally handicapped giant with an annoying falsetto voice, and his brother-in-law was turned into a fly. The quote on the cover of the VHS tape I have says that New York Post claims it's "The '90s equivalent of the Addams Family". It isn't. It has none of the same horror-fueled charm as the Addams, nor even the schlocky atmosphere of the game. The house isn't even so much a mansion as just a large house, and the family certainly isn't crazy enough to be considered maniacs.


Anyway, it's a regular sitcom, so the family face dilemmas which they handle in humorous ways, then everything's happy at the end. Some consider it a spiritual successor to the Canadian sketch show SCTV, since some of the same people worked on it. It stars Joe Flaherty (best known recently for his role as the crazy dad in the excellent Freaks and Geeks) as Fred and was created by Eugene Levy (Jim's dad from the American Pie movies.) Despite its comedy roots, the show really isn't very funny outside of its slightly offbeat premise.


But why take my word? Grab the files yourself, which are uploaded below on Fileplanet and compressed with the Xvid codec. Please feel free to spread these around! These were taken from the sole VHS release called The Love Collection, which contained these two episodes. I paid entirely too much for this tape from someone off Half.com, so please enjoy them!

Flashback
Fred's A Courtin'



Not too long ago I mentioned a desire to start capturing old VHS tapes and other not-commercially-available TV or anime shows related to video games, and releasing them on the internet. I got everything sorted out, so now we have...<br /><br /><center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/maniacmansion/mm-tv1a.jpg"></center><br />Maniac Mansion, a Canadian sitcom produced in 1990. There were 66 episodes in total for the Family Channel, a cable network that, at the time, had pretty low penetration. (It was largely known for the religious show The 700 Club and since morphed into ABC Family, I think.)<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/maniacmansion/mm-tv2a.jpg"></center><br />Maniac Mansion is only very, very loosely based on the Lucasarts game. It ditches the whole bit with the teenagers and just focuses on the Edisons, except the Edisons are nothing like they are in the game. Sure, the head of the household is named Fred, he's a mad scientist, and there's a meteor in his basement (which isn't sentient like the games), but that's about all they have in common. The rest of the family is completely different, albeit with some quirks due to his experiments - his 4 four old son was turned into a hulking, halfway mentally handicapped giant with an annoying falsetto voice, and his brother-in-law was turned into a fly. The quote on the cover of the VHS tape I have says that New York Post claims it's "The '90s equivalent of the Addams Family". It isn't. It has none of the same horror-fueled charm as the Addams, nor even the schlocky atmosphere of the game. The house isn't even so much a mansion as just a large house, and the family certainly isn't crazy enough to be considered maniacs.<br /><br /><center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/maniacmansion/mm-tv3a.jpg"></center><br />Anyway, it's a regular sitcom, so the family face dilemmas which they handle in humorous ways, then everything's happy at the end. Some consider it a spiritual successor to the Canadian sketch show SCTV, since some of the same people worked on it. It stars Joe Flaherty (best known recently for his role as the crazy dad in the excellent Freaks and Geeks) as Fred and was created by Eugene Levy (Jim's dad from the American Pie movies.) Despite its comedy roots, the show really isn't very funny outside of its slightly offbeat premise.<br /><br /><center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/maniacmansion/mm-tv6a.jpg"></center><br />But why take my word? Grab the files yourself, which are uploaded below on Fileplanet and compressed with the Xvid codec. Please feel free to spread these around! These were taken from the sole VHS release called The Love Collection, which contained these two episodes. I paid entirely too much for this tape from someone off Half.com, so please enjoy them!<br /><br /><a href="http://www.fileplanet.com/hosteddl.aspx?/hst/d/i/discoalu/videos/maniacmansion_flashback.avi">Flashback</a><br /><a href="http://www.fileplanet.com/hosteddl.aspx?/hst/d/i/discoalu/videos/maniacmansion_freds_a_courtin.avi">Fred's A Courtin'</a><br /><br /><br /></span>