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PostPosted: January 25th, 2013, 3:34 pm 
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Hi everyone,

I've been a long time fan of the Xak series and a collector of all things from this series, but I have yet to find originals of the Xak series on FM-Towns and I was hoping to see if I could get some help here if you don't mind.

I'm currently writing an article about the Xak series and I wanted to do some comparison studies between all the different versions of the games. Is there any way I could get a confirmed list of the Xak series games that were released for FM-Towns and would you mind uploading them if you still have them available? I would love to play through these and see the differences.

I know that at least Xak II and Xak III were released for FM-Towns, but I was never certain if the first game Xak The Art of Visual Stage was ever released for FM-Towns or not, or if Fray or Tower of Gazzel ever were as well. I don't think they were, but it would be one hell of a surprise if it turned out they did exist. : )

Thanks very much for your time and help!

Oh and I run the XyZ website that has extensive information about the Xak series here if anyone would like to check it out. I don't update it anymore, but I do plan to move this content over to a newer website format, retro-type.com, at some point in the future.

-Thomas

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PostPosted: January 26th, 2013, 12:56 am 
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Nice collection!

As far as I can remember, Fray CD is a PCE exclusive. Is it based on the MSX version, or is it a different game?

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PostPosted: January 26th, 2013, 2:00 am 
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I didn't get very far in PCE CD version, but from what I saw I assume it's slightly revamped MSX port (although of course there might be some changes later in the game). Too bad it's japanese only - MSX version (for which exist an english patch) is almost unplayable and PCE CD one looks and plays very decent... :(

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PostPosted: January 26th, 2013, 9:16 am 
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Hello. Here it goes. :)

Xak II (1991)(Micro Cabin)(Jp).zip (618.87 MB)
www.multiupload.nl/2KYVOEFWZR

Xak III - The Eternal Recurrence (1993)(MicroCabin-Nec)(Jp).zip (130.11 MB)
www.multiupload.nl/H5H9NNX46J


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PostPosted: January 26th, 2013, 1:18 pm 
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SkyeWelse wrote:
Hi everyone,


I'm currently writing an article about the Xak series and I wanted to do some comparison studies between all the different versions of the games. Is there any way I could get a confirmed list of the Xak series games that were released for FM-Towns and would you mind uploading them if you still have them available? I would love to play through these and see the differences.

I know that at least Xak II and Xak III were released for FM-Towns, but I was never certain if the first game Xak The Art of Visual Stage was ever released for FM-Towns or not, or if Fray or Tower of Gazzel ever were as well. I don't think they were, but it would be one hell of a surprise if it turned out they did exist. : )

-Thomas



The other Xak titles you list are not in the Towns Master list that someone made some time ago, based on the database at http://homepage2.nifty.com/ftowns/db/sdb.html
I believe. So Xak II and III are probably the only ones that are available on this system.
Missing versions that are currently absent from the web seem to be Tower of Gazzel for PC-88VA (Fray and Xak II are available) and Xak II for X68000. Perhaps there are also more for IBM-DOS, the Xak III port I posted in the floppy tavern is the only one I've seen so far.


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PostPosted: January 26th, 2013, 5:53 pm 
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Thank you very much for uploading these, cyborg001! I really appreciate it. Looking very forward to playing through Xak II especially since I've heard it contains voice acting.

Now I just need to find a good FM-Towns emulator.

At some point, I would like to get a FM-Towns or Marty at some point as well as an FM-77. I honestly don't know much about the older Fujitsu computer series since I've tended to stick mostly with MSX. I should be getting my PC98 computers soon, a PC98DO and a PC9821 Ce2 model so I'm sure I'll have many questions for those forums after they arrive. : )

Kaminari, and cpt. Misumaru Tenchi, Fray CD is definitely more than just an enhanced port. I plan to do an article about Fray and the various versions as well, but I can definitely say that while the story and general flow of the game is kept the same, Fray MSX and Fray CD, and even Fray Game Gear, are very different. Some have additional levels or completely new bosses. The last bosses in all 3 games are completely different fights. : )

Starscream the 2nd, thank you for clearing that up for me. I wanted the details of the article to be as thorough as possible. As far as I know, I do not think there was ever a Xak II for X68000 according to Microcabin's release schedule at their website here: http://www.microcabin.co.jp/sakuhin_intro/index2.html

I'm interested in learning more about this Xak III port that you said was for IBM-Dos, I've not heard about that version at all!

Thanks everyone again for your help! I'm still looking for Fray for PC98 as well, but I've opened that request in the PC-98 requests thread.

-Thomas

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PostPosted: January 26th, 2013, 6:23 pm 
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SkyeWelse wrote:
Starscream the 2nd, thank you for clearing that up for me. I wanted the details of the article to be as thorough as possible. As far as I know, I do not think there was ever a Xak II for X68000 according to Microcabin's release schedule at their website here: http://www.microcabin.co.jp/sakuhin_intro/index2.html
-Thomas


Right, makes sense that it isn't listed there though.
According to
http://www20.atpages.jp/tkhr000/x68soft ... t/xak2.htm
it wasn't directly published by Microcabin anymore.

The IBM Dos version is uploaded in the Floppy Tavern forum by me. You can take a look at it, as it's Korean you should probably ask Derboo over at Hg101 for possible background information.


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PostPosted: January 27th, 2013, 8:58 am 
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Wow, Starscream. These are indeed some interesting finds! Though, I'm not sure they are official games or not, but definitely worth mentioning in the article.

I will send the Korean version over to Derboo to see if there is any more information to be found about it. The Xak series article I'm writing is for Hg101, so I wouldn't think he would mind too much looking into it at least. I hope? : )

And I'm especially curious about that Xak II X68000. Is there a dump of that online somewhere, and what exactly is that list? Are these items that the Japanese webmaster might have in his collection? My Japanese is not that great, but it hasn't stopped me before... I created a Yahoo Japan Blog recently just to ask a Japanese blogger for permission to use box photos for ANAZA Kaleidoscope Special for a friend's article that he is writing, so if his website is the only lead, I'll be sure to contact him as best I can using my 悪い日本語!

Thanks again for this information. I'm learning new things that I never thought existed. : )

-Thomas

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PostPosted: January 27th, 2013, 6:42 pm 
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SkyeWelse wrote:

And I'm especially curious about that Xak II X68000. Is there a dump of that online somewhere, and what exactly is that list? Are these items that the Japanese webmaster might have in his collection? My Japanese is not that great, but it hasn't stopped me before... I created a Yahoo Japan Blog recently just to ask a Japanese blogger for permission to use box photos for ANAZA Kaleidoscope Special for a friend's article that he is writing, so if his website is the only lead, I'll be sure to contact him as best I can using my 悪い日本語!

Thanks again for this information. I'm learning new things that I never thought existed. : )

-Thomas


As I wrote in my first post, I'm unaware of a dump online for Xak II on X68000. You could try to get in contact with the database maintainer.
http://www20.atpages.jp/tkhr000/

Also, if you haven't tracked them down yet, you'd also want to include the PC-88 VA ports, as they're potientially different in about the same way as MSX 2 and Turbo R games are (you don't list anything regarding the VA on your page, making me think you were unaware of it).


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PostPosted: January 27th, 2013, 10:57 pm 
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Here is Xak II for X68000, it has been released in the 1992 by BROTHER INDUSTRIES, ltd so I presume it's not an official sequel.

http://www.mediafire.com/?sx5zl3n7a20cp7d


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PostPosted: January 28th, 2013, 2:54 am 
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Starscream: You are correct, I've never understood the difference between PC88 and PC88VA, so I thank you for pointing this out. I'm guessing the VA was a different version of original PC88 software run on a higher category of PC88 machines? If you think there is enough difference between the two versions, I will definitely follow up with this. Thank you very much!

Caius: Wonderfull! Thank you very much for finding this. Even if it turns out to not be official, I will certainly note this as a release in the article. : )

-Thomas

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PostPosted: January 28th, 2013, 4:07 am 
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SkyeWelse wrote:
Starscream: You are correct, I've never understood the difference between PC88 and PC88VA, so I thank you for pointing this out. I'm guessing the VA was a different version of original PC88 software run on a higher category of PC88 machines? If you think there is enough difference between the two versions, I will definitely follow up with this. Thank you very much!


Courtesy of some kind fellow on the forum a while back, these are the VA versions ( untested, other than checking that they start in VAEG ):

http://www.retroprograms.com/PC-88/VA_Fray_Xak_Xak2.7z


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PostPosted: January 28th, 2013, 9:57 pm 
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Hi Peter_j,

Thank you very much for providing this set for me to use to test out the differences between the regular PC88 versions and PC-88VA versions.

Looks like one of the original version I own is Xak II for both PC-88VA and PC-98VM in one box. Anything special about 98VM in the same way that PC88 is to PC88VA?

I've not really been too informed on all of these versions. I was always under the assumption that PC88 games would usually work on all PC88 models, and that most PC-98 games would work on most PC-9801 series, with the exception being some games released later during the life of the PC9821 series. Guess I may need to take a crash course on these NEC computers sometime. Is there a decent guide here at the site for beginners like me? Definitely would help to know considering I've got some hardware and software being imported at the moment.

Thanks again for all your help everyone. : )

-Thomas

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PostPosted: January 29th, 2013, 12:28 am 
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Think of PC88VA as a completely different system from PC88, though it is backward compatible with PC88 games. VA games will not run on any model of PC88 other than VA, VAII, VAIII. PC88VA is the "Supergrafx" of PC88.


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PostPosted: January 30th, 2013, 9:39 pm 
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I see, thanks for the explanation kazekirifx. That helps a lot, so we should really expect that the graphics and possibly the processing power in general for how a game runs or is displayed will be an improved experience from that of a regular PC88 game.

So what happens when you put PC88VA software such as my Xak II inside a regular PC88 machine? Will it try to load at all or is there any risk of breaking my PC88 machine? I have ordered a PC98DO which can emulate a PC88, but now I'm wondering if this mode will support PC88VA software. I was getting this as my one model fits all PC88/98 combo for Disk based games.

Thanks for your help!

-Thomas

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