#crazyballjr

[crazyballjr]

Yu☆Gi☆Oh! Extreme! Duel Monsters!!

Here's something I've had for a pretty good while. I've never had much to say about it, except I just think it's super cool!

This tape is purely just a promotional recap of the original Toei adaptation of the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga, featuring new lines from Muto Yugi's seiyuu, Megumi Ogata. Looking up catalogs of this online, the tape was released in late October of 1999. (Honestly not entirely sure it's exact purpose, given the series stopped airing a year prior, and the Duel Monsters anime came out just about half a year later...)

I've never honestly found a recording of this tape that features the opening so I had recorded this tape back a good while ago, thinking it would be in a good quality AND in good taste to do so. Needless to say, the tape upon arrival was severely damaged but I recorded it anyway for fun... so don't mind the dust so to speak ^^. Check it out if you want the good old VHS experience.

Also at one point tried making captions. I'm so embarrassing...

[crazyballjr]

プリンセス・ナディア 「ふしぎの海のナディア」より

ENG: "Princess Nadia - from Fushigi no Umi no Nadia"

I had purchased this little book some odd months ago now. It was surprisingly pretty cute and not much information or scans are shown online so I thought I would shed some light on it!

Published under the Japanese entertainment magazine Animage's "Animage Bunko" label, which refers to its size and material, in September of 1990. This edition features 90 pages worth of snapshots, artworks, and promotional materials of Nadia the Secret of Blue Water all centered around Nadia La Arwall herself. It's quite a treat to look at!

For those wondering, Bunkos' (short for bunkobon) in Japan, are paperback books that are characterized for their small compact size, and cheap retail price. Often, they bear slip-on covers, and will typically have surprisingly thick, and durable pages.

Not much else to say really, it's just a cool booklet ^^

Whenever I get the chance, I'll post a mega link to the scans of this book when I finish doing that.

[crazyballjr]

Here's something kind of cool I found a few months ago!

A loose spinoff of the Möbius Link series of PC space simulation games (with one exception on the PlayStation) that were developed by I.MAGIC in the mid 1990s.

TARGET GEAR or ターゲット　ギア, was released in the summer of 1997.

If you're familiar with those games or just the bit least curious the connection between the two. Not a whole lot! They take place in the same timeline, and that's about it. Not even the same area. But I think it's a good way to introduce this game!

In the story of TARGET GEAR. A political tension is brewing between a newly colonized planet's weak federation, and a rising group of extremists that fight for liberation of the new home; a planet free to govern itself without outer influence from neighboring planets. After measures were attempted to invoke peace between the two sides, negotiations fell through, and war broke out. In TARGET GEAR, you play as GEAR pilot Nagisa.

You and three other civilians are drafted into the Federation's Special Forces Unit, ALGA. Where you are to pilot the specialized combat mechs known as GEAR.

Unlike the aforementioned Möbius/Alpha games being tactical space war sims. In Target Gear, it's a standard 3D first person mech shooter with a focus on action and speed.

The missions in the game will have you doing the same things pretty much. You fly into enemy territory. Blow up robots and enemy bases, and you'll usually have one of three fellow ALGA members shooting with you, with occasional support from the Federation. Honestly, its not entirely a unique game on its own. There are plenty of mech shooters exactly like this that came out around the same time, one of my favorites being the Gundam Gaiden games released on the Sega Saturn.

The game really only features a small amount of content. Only about ten levels or so, as it often reuses maps and objectives in multiple levels. It could certainly be a bore to anyone, but I found lots of reasons to still enjoy it. The 3D visuals aren't really great even by 1997 standards, but they're certainly charming! (Besides maybe the CG Cutscenes) The artwork that is used on character portraits in the game are also really cool to look at.

AND UGH... The music is such a bop I can't stand IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The game actually caters seemingly well to it's short length. It's incredibly fast paced and jam packed with tons of enemies, where you may find yourself wanting to repeat levels to beat your own time, or you just want to shut your brain off and go jumping around! The gameplay is incredibly loose I must add. Sometimes it feels hard to hit targets at times, but it actually feels great. The lightweight jump of the mech reminds me a lot of Jumping Flash on the PlayStation actually ^^.

Enjoy crusty recorded footage if you want...

Overall, it's an incredibly basic mecha simulator from the Windows95 era. But I really love it!

DL I happened to find after writing this (that's probably safer than the DL I found) : Target Gear : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

[crazyballjr]

"Dragon Ball Z Movie Theme." An opening used in the FUNimation home release of the DBZ TV specials. Composed by Andy Baylor, and Dale Kelly (The original voice for Captain Ginyu.)

Footage in the video uses the level-sets release for higher quality over the original VHS video.

Additionally, there exists a remixed version of this theme (allegedly two to four variations exist) that was released as part of a limited edition 3-CD set, that contains multiple tracks created for the soundtrack used in The History of Trunks (even containing such bands as Dreamtheater, and Buckethead, who were friends of Kelly.) Given the rare nature of these collectable CD's, information is sparse. Only 4000 units are said to have been produced, being only purchasable in the Dragon Ball Z store during late 2001, and early 2002.

According to Kelly, in an interview seen here "Balish Interviews Dale D. Kelly - YouTube" ...

One of the revisions of the movie theme had actually been thought up as a new potential opening title theme for the series.

Thankfully, you can find some of the remixes on YouTube if you go looking ^^

[crazyballjr]

Back in 1995, 13 Episodes of the original Dragon Ball were adapted for English speaking audiences.

This early dubbing of Dragon Ball sported an exclusive score, and brand-new opening. Commonly referred to as the "BLT (Productions) dub."

Released in 1996, this CD marks the only release of this soundtrack.

The insert pamphlet of the CD includes an introduction to the world of Dragon Ball, and a biography about Akira Toriyama.

Linked below is a rip of the album with proper track listings, all in lossless audio:

https://mega.nz/folder/8DpnkZxB#K3S76seY6uA5hYEyrH_3Fg