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In this issue:
	Re: the $4,200 pc engine game

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From: dfw@umich.edu
Date: Wed Apr 13 08:48:06 EDT 2005
Subject: Re: the $4,200 pc engine game


 >  I was a promotional only sort of title, very few copies of it
 >  were made (hence the extreme rarity and high price that it fetches).
 >  Last I heard it was getting $1,500 per copy.

Actually, afaik it was a regular title done by NHK that wasn't sold in 
game stores just like Circus Lido.  Akiyama Jin is sort of a "professor" 
from a series of TV shows on NHK.  NHK is a channel in Japan run by the 
government, so the kind of shows it produces are akin to what you'd see on 
PBS (ie educational, shows about Japanese culture, news, foreign language 
instruction, etc).  Akiyama Jin teaches various things and is targetted 
towards kids.

 >  It has 2 parts, one is an interactive comic, the other is a quiz
 >  sort of game.  Both parts appears to have math problems in them.
 >  Of course they are completely in Japanese, so soem knowledge is
 >  needed to get anywhere in them.

I've never seen the game in action, but this particular title has math as 
its focus.  "Suukagu" in the title means mathematics, but Akiyama Jin 
TV shows, books, tapes, etc teach other things such as science.  Basically 
typical elementary school-type topics.

 >  (I would love to see any images, if you can email them to me
 >  I can put them up on pcecp.com -- I do have a copy of this title,
 >  it came in a jewel case with no manual, only backing art, so I
 >  do not know if it is 'compelte' or truly missing the manual since
 >  I have no idea how it was actually distributed.  It is included
 >  on PCECP, but I have not had a chance to uplaod images for it yet)
 > 
 >  Anyone else care to chime in and fill in the missing details ?

If I remember correctly, this game came with a book (or maybe just a large 
case that looked like a book) that, from the pictures I've seen, look like 
your standard PCE Mook size (ie Hyper Catalog series, Emerald Dragon Demo 
+ mook).  I have a small picture if this, I'll try to find it and stick it 
online somewhere.

As for the $4200 dollars that this game isn't worth, sometime early last 
year, reminiscent of Circus Lido craze, Amazon Japan carried this game 
brand new for the original price of Y8400.  By the time I found out, they 
were already gone and oddly enough, the game appeared on Yahoo auctions 
commanding over $3000 soon after.

------
David Woodford
dfw@umich.edu



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