Hyper Catalog discs

[Black Tiger]

Hyper Catalogs are PC Engine demo discs with a database of every official release.

If you wanna see some screenshots, take a look-

http://members.shaw.ca/turboduo/hc.html

[Keranu]

THANKS FOR THE LINK! I have always been looking for more screenshots on these and this is just awesome! By the way, how much do these things cost and how rare are they? I'd like to have one myself some day.

[dj898]

they are fairly rare expecially the vol.1...
I've been collecting those as part of my PCEngine collection and I will need to check how many volumes I got...

if you lucky you can find one on Yahoo Japan for 500-900 yen but sometime it will be listed 3000-10000 yen! O_o

[Keranu]

Not as bad as I thought actually. What about the Ultrabox Series? What were those all about? They looked pretty interesting as well from screenshots I have seen in the past (Thanks to that program on NEC-Ro-Pole which I no longer have and can't find for download ).

[dj898]

ok let me dig up my copy of Ultrabox...
though these aren't that rare and can be found for around 500yen for a copy...

[m1savage]

If you keep your eyes open you can find the hyper catalogs and the Ultrabox for fairly cheap. I collected these a few years back. The Ultrabox series has game demos and such plus game catalogs, backup managers and some pretty strange mini games. If you're easily entertained like I am, they'll keep you occupied for quite a while.  

[Black Tiger]

If you keep your eyes open you can find the hyper catalogs and the Ultrabox for fairly cheap. I collected these a few years back. The Ultrabox series has game demos and such plus game catalogs, backup managers and some pretty strange mini games. If you're easily entertained like I am, they'll keep you occupied for quite a while.  

Cool man.

I always forget that they exist and have never picked one up. Of course, before I knew what they were I saw them all the time and dirt cheap.

I remember magazine ad mail-order companies selling "Ultrabox" as an RPG game back in the day. As a full priced game. What a bunch of losers.

[dj898]

If you keep your eyes open you can find the hyper catalogs and the Ultrabox for fairly cheap. I collected these a few years back. The Ultrabox series has game demos and such plus game catalogs, backup managers and some pretty strange mini games. If you're easily entertained like I am, they'll keep you occupied for quite a while.  

except the volume 1 I'm afraid...
even in Japan the first volumes are fairly expensive nowadays...

[akamichi]

I love the Hyper Catalogs!  I have all 6 + the DuoRX one (which is exactly the same as Vol 6 in terms of content).

I personally don't think any particular one is rare.  They are on Yahoo JP auctions pretty frequently.  Even #1 isn't that expensive.  I remember going crazy over #1 because it had a playable demo of Winds of Thunder.  I had to have played stage 1 like a million times over before the actual game was released!    And who can forget that awesome stage 1 music!?  
Unfortunately, I lost my #1 book.  Still have the CD, but somehow the book disappeared.  That sucks.  

A neat bonus that the capsules had was completely playable version of 15 stages of Nectaris spanned across 3 Hyper Catalog CDs (3-5).  Lots of other cool stuff on the CDs too.

I recommend every volume.  My favorites are Vol 4 and 5.

[Black Tiger]

I love the Hyper Catalogs!  I have all 6 + the DuoRX one (which is exactly the same as Vol 6 in terms of content).

I personally don't think any particular one is rare.  They are on Yahoo JP auctions pretty frequently.  

Yeah, but those of us who don't speak/read japanese are screwed.

There are so many Tengai Makyo goods that never appear on eBay that go for nothing everyday on Yahoo Japan and I don't know how I'll ever track them down before learning japanese.

I used to go through the auctions looking for international sellers, but I think I only ever found one or two(selling stuff I want) and they either only accepted some kind of japanese online payment or never responded to my e-mail.

[Black Tiger]

Alright, I just played through the Kabuki Den demo.




The only differences I noticed between this and the real deal is:

-no saving.

-no sound effect when you climb ladders in the mine.

-different and/or additional sound effect when you open the golden lion statue.

-curser position saving.

-if you don't tap a button to end a text box with an arrow, it eventually clears itself(these last 2 maybe menu options in the full version, but I don't remember them).

-when you select the "Finish/Stop" command at the end of the Kanbie battle, it keeps flipping and you have to use one more regular attack instead to get him to talk.

-when Jyoukou offers you the Demon Sword, he also drops a chest that has some sort of equipment in it(armor?).

-when you leave Jyoukou's mansion, you get a full screen ad for Kabuki Den, with Kabuki spelled in Hiragana, featuring the date and price. You have to reset to get rid of it.

-some of the sprites and or graphics looked a little different colorwise for the mostpart, with a couple portraits that looked like they were later touched up. This could just be from my seeing the game in S-Video for the first time.

-I'm pretty sure that there were one or two other minor (sound effect?)differences.

This is pretty much the same deal as the Tengai Makyo II demo that was on a disc with a Dragon Slayer demo to promote the Super CD format. In that game, the demo also ends after you beat the first boss.

[akamichi]

Yeah, but those of us who don't speak/read japanese are screwed.

There are so many Tengai Makyo goods that never appear on eBay that go for nothing everyday on Yahoo Japan and I don't know how I'll ever track them down before learning japanese.

If you can afford to take a trip to Japan, you'll probably find so much stuff you never knew existed that you want... badly.   At least that's what happened to me.  I even lived in Japan during the entire 8/16bit console wars and still find stuff from that time that I've never seen before.    

I understand ebay is pretty much the only place to get good stuff (especially PCE) since Yahoo JP is so anal about foreigners being able to sign up let alone the sellers not sending outside Japan.  But, if people really want to bid on Yahoo Japan, check out http://rinkya.com/.  It may be worth it for you... or it may not.  I'm not familiar with the service (ie fees, etc), but they've been online for a while.

[Black Tiger]

Yeah, but those of us who don't speak/read japanese are screwed.

There are so many Tengai Makyo goods that never appear on eBay that go for nothing everyday on Yahoo Japan and I don't know how I'll ever track them down before learning japanese.

If you can afford to take a trip to Japan, you'll probably find so much stuff you never knew existed that you want... badly.   At least that's what happened to me.  I even lived in Japan during the entire 8/16bit console wars and still find stuff from that time that I've never seen before.    

I understand ebay is pretty much the only place to get good stuff (especially PCE) since Yahoo JP is so anal about foreigners being able to sign up let alone the sellers not sending outside Japan.  But, if people really want to bid on Yahoo Japan, check out http://rinkya.com/.  It may be worth it for you... or it may not.  I'm not familiar with the service (ie fees, etc), but they've been online for a while.

Oh my god, thank you so much!

Thats exactly what I've said for years that someone should do. I just gave up hope on it ever happening.

[Kaminari]

I'm pretty sure that there were one or two other minor (sound effect?) differences.

The only notable difference is that the intro soundtrack of the taikenban is in PCM instead of CD.

[Black Tiger]

I'm pretty sure that there were one or two other minor (sound effect?) differences.

The only notable difference is that the intro soundtrack of the taikenban is in PCM instead of CD.

You know, I never even bothered to watch the intro cinemas. But I just did and their isn't any PCM.

However, the Macbeth/Garp intro is missing.