Recently, CHAZumaru, a fine fellow from the Insert Credit boards returned after a brief hiatus with a long and interesting post which, among many other things, contained a link to another post of his on another forum in his native tongue regarding a snazzy looking book from Japan that’s all about my favorite game system of all time, the Genesis (well, the Mega Drive as it’s known in Japan).
I asked Chaz for a translation of the text and he was kind to provide it. So here it is, since I figure more people should know about this book…
I brought back something that might interest you guys from my trip with Tanguy.
This :
as usual in shittywebcamovision
Released while we were there. A book “for megadrivers custom” describing every single game on the machine. A kind of encyclopedia also including the 32X and the Mega CD. It seems taht the Megadrive cult is growing stronger and stronger among japanese retrogamers and it kind of overshadows the saturn 10th anniversary, IMO, but well…
yummy fat 16bit font
can’t tell if you ‘re able to read it, but the book was produced by the “Continue” collective, also producing a monthly magazine of the same name that I don’t read because it’s japanese level is too tough for me.
that book is ok though, not too complex (especially if you know JP game vocabulary), since there are only quick summaries and anecdotes for each game. Some find the book too simplistic but it must be because their japanese is better than mine (which ain’t hard, actually).
Usually 3 games per page but a few key-titles get half a page or even a full page, like here Alien Soldier from Treasure, the game that made popular the cult engrish expression “for megadrivers custom”…
…that you can find about anywhere in the book, like in this article about the megadrive’s release. You noticed the book is fully-colored, with a quality of paper my lousy webcam doesn’t give justice to.
There’s also a Naka interview, I’ll confess I didn’t try to translate it yet.
But then why such a big (and magnificient) cardboard box for a simple book ?
HYAKUMEGASHAKKU!!
One mini megadrive w/ two games and a gamepad !
Well to be precise it’s a Genesis, not a Megadrive. Must be cool for a japanese gamer jap, less exciting for me. “Games” offered are Virtua Fighter 2 & Comix Zone (at least in my box). As you can see, you really have to plug the whole thing ; there’s even the secret hatch for the Mega CD (…well, Sega CD). Isn’t it cute like hell ? Alas cables were not provided, otherwise you can bet your ass I would be playing it with a manifying glass and steel-stained toothpicks right now. 
… Interesting (and quite nice) to hear that interest in the Mega Drive (okay, so is it one word or two?) is on the rise in Japan. I gotta get me that book. Guess my only option is to brave Amazon Japan once more. I’ve only used it once, and that was to pick up a copy of wordimagesoundplay that was mistakenly placed in the DVD section (Amazon does no allow the sale of video games overseas for a variety of reasons), and even then, it was a daunting task despite some help from a very friendly and helpful GAFer. If I ask nicely, maybe I can get some help once more…
