The Dougram Boardgames (Part 2)

Last time I gave a basic overview of both games.  This time I shall show the sequel/advanced game in a bit more detail of components and rules:

(If I haven't said it a bazillion times in this blog, you can usually click for larger images.)

 We see here the full Kalnock map laid out.  Unlike it's Stanrey brother this one only goes together one way.  But it is quite nice looking, especially for its age.  One thing is though that the hills could also be ravines given the way the art is drawn.  Probably officially hills but.. they could easily be depressions as well.

 Finding where the trees go is a matter of finding all the green + signs.  It can be a royal pain to find the last few.  If the game wasnt so old and rare I would probably just use a gold paint marker on the hexes for trees.

 The mech Battletech fans know of as the Scorpion doesn't perfectly fit in the small hexes but the others do as do the counter chits for non mech units.  1/600 scale Pico Armor miniatures would be fine to use as well.  http://www.picoarmor.com/ has a ton of super cheap 3mm/600 scale minis that would be useful for this game.  

 (I bought a small sample pack but I have no clue where the hell they are at right now.  Here is a picture of one with some 600 scale Uncharted Seas ships and an AT 43 walker. )

Yes that tiny little silver thing there that is about an 8th of an inch long is a 1/600 scale tank.

While the seemingly excellently laid out manual isn't properly translated you can see how neat it looks and how the little line of sight periscope works!  It even has a little cockpit sticker so it looks like what the mech's pilot would see!  You also can see more elements that Battletech took like jumping.

The original reference card and the translated one.  Yes you need the original because of photocopying making the second number unreadable!  And yes another thing Battletech took from this game:  HIT LOCATIONS.  You see Battletech's creators got their design rights from the same company who imported and translated this game.  So yes, these two games are basically Battletech 0.5.

Now I am just going to show photographs of the English translated manual so we can all read it.  

Yeah they somehow took a larger manual and shrunk it to 4 pages.  Somehow I think a few things were missing in spite of them REALLY wanting to protect it.  Odd.

Yet thanks to the Internet Archive I was able to rediscover a website that first let me know of these games with most of it still intact for download.  I am saving this fine fellow's work for posterity and my own use.

Yes the original translators left a lot out.  This puts some of it back.

Now the question I pose is this:  Should I actually do a full proper playtest of these games?  Would anyone be interested in seeing the game expanded and improved upon?

The Dougram Boardgames. (Part 1)

For those of us who grew up in the robot boom of the mid 80s we might barely remember ROBOTECH.  Except Robotech was two different things.  A cartoon show made up of three vaguely similar Japanese animated shows that all involved alien invasions, transforming piloted robots, and musicians is what most people who do remember Robotech remember.

Except it wasn't the first Robotech thing, and not where the name was invented.

(As always click images for more bigger ones.)

No, it was imported model kits from Revell that first came out and who came up with the name.  And since one of the shows Robotech was made up of was already IN the model kit line Revell was releasing well.. synchronicity!

The two part Robotech Defenders comic that has nothing at all to do with the cartoon.  But the mecha involved are all pretty much Dougram ones from the Revell line.  I am apparently one of the few people on the planet who enjoyed this comic.

The primary models in the Robotech line were originally from an early 80s anime called Fang of the Sun Dougram.  Though much like an import company whose import we will be talking about, other lines were used.  

And in some cases the Japanese toymakers even brought out limited releases of some of these products over here like the two big and chunky die cast toys in this image:

Top left and right are the Takara toys in question.  Top middle are Revoltech toys of the same designs (albeit made 20 odd years later) and below are "Capsule Toy" versions.  And a card for where said import company sublet the designs to that maybe they were not so allowed to have done..

(Want to go back and just go on a memory trip of Robotech/Battletech?  http://wargamedork.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-stuff-techmacrossrelated-stuff.html here is the start.)

But some of those models from various shows were repackaged then, and rereleased semi recently as our star Dougram model shows:

Some Macross rerelease kits along with the Dougram rerelease.  The Robotech kit is from Orguss.

The other Dougram rerelease kit I got and did assemble painted in my own style.  A Robotech Destroid toy that was rereleased in the 90s, and another Destroid from Robotech/Macross but a model kit I also painted my own way.  Also all three are designs used in Battletech.  Its.. complicated!

But this import company itself would in fact release a couple Japanese board games over here (although not all of the Dougram wargames, and not the Votoms board games most similar in design to our friends below: )

The Dougram Simulation Games!  The Battles of Stanrey and its sequel/advanced mode version Kalnock.  I had been searching for these things for YEARS once I found out about them.  I have since gotten both games and an extra Stanrey box which was more a mix of a variety of components from both of these sets giving me more models.

The back of the boxes.  Still in Japanese so I dunno why anyone would buy them outside of COOL TOY FACTOR.

The sides showing what minis were included.  One of my sets had helpful writing by someone to tell you what robot was what.

And the included goodies!  One set was super cherry (Stanrey) with not even the STICKERS applied to the little line of sight checking periscopes.  The Kalnock set was not only base painted in factional arrays, but labeled!  The little beads are my own inclusion just to keep track of what model has activated.  See the metal models have ultra tiny numbers on them but.. it is really too small to tell in gameplay so unless I want to paint numbers on each mech or get a bunch of counters made up, this is the cheap way to do things.

The original manual and quick reference cards along with the VERY light and hastily made translation.

The back of the instructions.  The Japanese one showing most of the main characters, and the translation having the card translated.  Mostly.

Stanrey has 6 mapsheets you are intended to put together a certain way but there is a little bit of flexibility to made different battlefields with them.  The + symbols are where you put the happy little trees.

The Stanrey manual is so rad looking and cute as heck!  I mean seeing some of the show characters PLAYING THE ACTUAL GAME is fun and cheery, plus for Dougram/Battletech fans it is a treat to see some nice art of the mechs from that time.

Sadly the translation is vastly truncated and lacks all of the charm of the original manual.  And they seem to be very protective of their translation.

Join me next time where I show a bit more from this game and Kalnock plus perhaps begin a new project I have had in mind for a couple YEARS now.  Much like my kitchen faucet I do eventually get things done.  Sometimes.

Robotech RPG Tactics: Miniature Box First Look/Unboxing

  Like I mentioned in my Kickstarter rant http://wargamedork.blogspot.com/2014/08/kickshart-my-heart-or-why-kickstarter.html I had gotten into the Robotech RPG Tactics Kickstarter yet not only is it stupidly late (something most Kickstarter projects tend to be, and Palladium stuff is anyhow) but my picks would not only be later, but the damned game would be out at retail before my stuff came in!  So one of the local FLGSes had gotten in a shipment of the main game and a number of the box expansions, running around 36-39 dollars MSRP.  (Around 30ish shipped on ebay right now.)

  So what did my 36.50 get me?

 The box is kind of pretty enough.  

 The back shows you what you are getting.  4 models, 2 of each chassis.

 There is a helpful (ish) computer rendered instruction sheet, data cards, the bases, a BIG pack of waterslide decals, and squad cards.

 The other mech is on the back, and there are squadron cards for larger units, including some that require other boxes.  But it seems as if both factions can use the models included, which is very nice.

This however is the problem.  A pair of mechs per sprue.  Not really poseable as they have a default pose pretty much.  Except the way they are assembled requires you to build both mechs at once, and many of them have three or more sprue gates.  It does look to be normal plastic you can use model cement on thoughI am not 100% sure of this yet.  The detail looks pretty solid but..

Around 30 pieces per roughly two inch tall mini?  These are supposed to be GAMING MINIATURES.  To put together a decent army is going to take forever just to assemble, much less paint and finish.  This was not very well thought out.  At least a third of these parts shouldn't be there especially with the generally static poses.

Expect a follow up whenever I get around to building the models so I can compare and contrast to their Battletech cousins and similarly sized Macross models.

Retrocomputing: Why Bother? Special: Fun with the Commodore 1084 Monitor! Duo Style!

As we have seen in previous posts, the Commodore 1084 is a lovely piece of kit that is excellent for making your computer's video output be nice and wonderful.

Since I am lazy here is that information on my blog so one can catch up:  http://wargamedork.blogspot.com/2013/05/more-fun-with-commodore-1084-monitor.html
Also it itself has links to more info I have on it.

With all the lovely knobs and dials you can even tweak color and brightness back in the days where the games themselves gave no damns.

(Please click for bigger if you would like.)

 You can turn MEH.

Into: Not as meh!

Meh!

A hell of a lot LESS meh, eh?

 Or those funny black buttons on the front and back and just go full black and white without messing with color settings.

(If I haven't mentioned these are screencaps from an actual monitor taken with a camera and then given a light edit with Sony Playmemories.  Which kind of sucks but it is free till I get an iPad Air with iPhoto and that photo dongle thingie.)

Of course based on the color choices done by developer, some games like this RPG based on Ali Baba (with a Greek mythology game on the other side!) where you can have multiple players with their own character are only going to look so good...

But.. there is another handy thing this little wonder monitor can do as one of my links mentioned:

RUN YO CONSOLE GAMES.

Given how most modern HDTVs don't even bother having S Video inputs which is really the other best choice for retro gaming, and even then it only does so much depending on system and console:

32" 1080 HDTV.  SNES.  S Video with "smart" fullscreening.  Some softening of pixels and a very light color bleed visible even to the naked eye and not just this 14.1 megapixel camera.

And Chuckles.  

Always must you hound me Bueche?  

Game Boy Color games with original GB capability and preset Super Game Boy palettes. From a sub 3 inch screen (diagonal) to the better part of  24 out of the HDTV's 32 as is the Super Game Boy's wont.  I AM DOING IT WRONG.

Or am I doing it very very RIGHT?  I shall have to test my Game Boy Player on my Gamecube with various video output solutions to be sure.  And plug the Commodore 1084 back in and try composite mode for both GB solutions.  Game sounds FANTASTIC coming out of 5.1 speaker setup though.  Even if the composer does deny his nation's WW2 atrocities.  :(

But the main point here is to show a good friend that SA forums and IRC bros (irc.synirc.net #retrochat) Vkeios and Acid Police inspired me to do.  Kind of.  

To take out my long traveled and much abused pal, the Turbo Duo.  One of the best looking pieces of game electronics ever made, especially in its' Japanese form where it has some blue and violet buttons, and even glorious white and off white models.

An upgraded Turbografx 16 which I have showed in my epic Let's Play of Dungeons & Dragons: Order of the Griffon this one included the nearly 200K ram booster that the earlier PC Engine US model the Tg16 is did not have built in.  The Duo ran about what a Sega CD unit ran at the time and came with a buttload of amazing games making it a no brainer to get new games and to jump on the CD game and music revolution!

(My first music CD?  Tribute.  Ozzy.  Randy.  Live.  Hell yeah!)

My Duo has been on multiple airline trips.  Shipped multiple states in the mail.  Had stupid anime stickers up over the white military stencil marker I used to ensure no effective theft of my machine would happen.  (People in the Navy would steal your damn sweat covered ball cap if they needed one themselves for work!  Hell, they stole E7 rating hats!)

One of these days I will use some Goo Gone and Simple Green and bring this sucker back to its shiniest possible, removing all Naval influence.  You can see right next to the main unit is the 5 player adaptor.  Because the Turbo consoles only had a single built in controller port.  I guess it kept the price down and the inherent looks nice but it does add a giant dongle in the front if you want to go multiplayer.

 And what I will be using to play this puppy today!  The enormous power brick that takes up like 3 spaces on a power strip in spite of not even being a polarity two prong plug, the Turbostick joystick controller I got a pair of for 10 dollars each when you could still buy some Turbografx products from the company behind the Duo and the last gasp at saving the Turbo in the US from NEC's own incompetence, and the composite cables that are standard on the Duo. (These were not standard on the Turbografx or the original PC Engine model.)

And the dongle that was like five dollars which STILL made the Turbosticks cheaper than getting more official control pads. 

Well let's plug it all in and get to gaming!

We shall start with the game in the unit, probably having been there for the years it has been since I last played this machine which was all covered with dust.  (I felt bad because it was super dusty and gave it a dusting with one of those tickler dusty thingies, then a wipedown with a slightly moist paper towel, then a dry with another one.)

 I use this legendary classic known as Splatterhouse to get the turbo settings juuust right and to get used to the controller.  Look at the crisp pixels and lines on this monitor.  While the stock settings of the 1084 obviously aren't perfect with some overscan issues and a bit of color bleed to have things vivid enough it looks VERY good!

 I sadly failed the shotgun drop trick via having said gun fall into a pit.  I still owned this guy.

 My second least favorite boss in the game.  Note I have the Golden Cleaver.  I was once gonna dress up as TG 16 Rick for Halloween, spraypainting a glow in the dark cleaver while leaving the soft edge glowy.  Sadly I was unhappy with how my mask was turning out and scrapped that plan.

 HELP MEEEEE!!!

 The manual says you are fighting through the Birth Canal.  Rick is in a giant hoo hoo punching giant bubble floating fetus monsters.  There is.. something off here...

I am totally blaming the controller for me dying on the final boss.  But not bad for a no continue run if I do say so myself.  While I am no Caitlin of the SA forums and Splatterhouse/making Famicoms look GOOD fame, I do alright for myself.  (Protip: Don't turn turbo to maximum.  It makes it so you don't always attack PERIOD.)

(I should probably compare it to the Wii Virtual Console release of this same game on said system using Component cables or the PS3's arcade original emulated as a bonus on the game of the same name.  Eh.  Maybe later or in another post.)

 My Little Working Designs: Victor Weeabooland is.. well not Magic but he is something.  (This is Parasol Stars.  It kicks ass.)

 World Court Tennis! It has no pause in game so I cannot show you how short the women's skirts are.  Panty shots would never been seen on a Nintendo game.  We shouldn't see them PERIOD but sadly Japan will be Japan.

 The real reason I bought this game.

 IT HAS AN RPG MODE WHERE YOU PLAY TENNIS FOR YOUR COMBATS.  This is so brilliantly stupid I can't help but adore it.

Let's bring a little SUPER CD-ROM(2) into this shizzy.  Will the 1x CD drive still work?  

 Crispy animu hero face shows up!

 What are we buying this stuff for?

 The music starts rocking with hard guitar stuff.  It can mean only one thing:

 LORDS 

OF

THUNDER

 My only regret is that my 1084 isn't the later S model with stereo sound.

Let's do one more game and call it a day shall we?

 OH GOD ITS MINMEI!  RUN! RUUUUUUUNNNN!!!

 Macross 2036!  Gotten relatively cheaply at like 25 bucks or so.  I have seen this game going for Rondo of Blood prices before which is fricking stupid.  Hell it is stupid for said Castlevania game!  Or any game really.

 Some more animu so we can see our alternate history Macross Valkyrie being all Macross.. Valkyrie.

 Transforming seems to just happen when they tell you it will.  I can't read Japanese so no idea if I can go to Gerwalk (Guardian if you are Robotech) mode or not.  It's pretty fun but I have it on Easy and Slow bullets.  Because this game is a ONE HIT AND DIE SHMUP otherwise.  Thankfully not too power up dependent and your extra lives access right then and there.  No Gradius checkpoint crap.

A quick trio of in game shots from an emulator for comparison:
(Magic Engine Emulator and uploaded to Facebook.)

This folks, is Magic Engine's screencaps at the normal TurboDuo resolution.

 This uses the Macross movie as canon and thus all the looks and designs are meant as a sequel of sorts to that movie.  (The anime Macross 2 takes place like 35 or so years after this.  So its part of an alternate continuity.)

Yes friends, emulation or game consoles with no region lock out (at least for CDROM games.  In the Duo's case I would need a converter card to play HuCard games.  Though what those things go for these days (about a hundo) I might as well just buy one of the later PC Engine models for Japanese HuCard titles.  It would be about the same price.  Sadly the nicest looking PC Engine is only RF output without the CD Dock.  And the two cooler options are VERY expensive. (Supergrafx and PC Engine Shuttle) Or you know.. I could just buy the cards and play in an emulator.  Not as authentic but.. it does well.  Save States and being able to take PC screenshots and do Let's Plays has some advantages even if this is more legit.

But sadly this being a Japanese game and on the NEC PC Engine family we have to have some serious character development of our main heroine:

(NSFW probably.)


Don't tell Harmony Gold.

Especially don't tell them I also own Macross games on the Dreamcast, Saturn, and Playstation Portable and am thinking about seeing if I can eventually collect a complete Macross/Robotech game collection.


They will get mad.  These are people who sent lawyers after Bandai and Hasbro.  Companies who make more money in a week than Harmony Gold probably does in a YEAR.

(Seriously this might be NSFW so take this as a friendly warning.)

Oh Japan.  Oh PC Engine and your T&A games.  Their failure of a follow up console was apparently nothing but this.  If not more hardcore.

(I guess it IS less revealing than many of the outfits or going ons in many recent Tecmo games or the Rumble Roses games.  Or many Soul Calibur character outfits.  This isn't saying much.  Japan please join us here in the 21st century please.  Also switch to English so I can more easily play your turn based wargames and RPGs.)

So there we go!  Another great use of a good composite monitor!  Not just playing your classic computer games at their historical best, but your console titles too.

While I am primarily a computer gamer there are dozens and dozens of console titles I love as well.