Satellaview Harvest Moon broadcasts discovered after 23 yrs

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dpb
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Hi all! DPB from RanchStory.co.uk here. A week ago (on February 12th) a Satellaview archivist uploaded VHS recordings of the four Satellaview broadcasts of Bokujou Monogatari. These were special exclusive versions of the original SNES game for the satellite service that were pretty much thought to've been lost to time. Below, I've linked to all four episodes in sequential order.









The user's gameplay's not very impressive (it was a whole new genre and the full game had only been out for a month!) but nevertheless, these videos give us a glimpse at one of the rarest versions of Harvest Moon to ever exist as they were intended to be experienced. Weird licensed music and Japanese skits and all. There's a lot of curiosities to look into, like what the objective for each episode even was, if the Wada mentioned by the voiceover is Yasuhiro Wada and if he had any new insight into the game or its development, and what 1996 contemporary music was thought to've fit Harvest Moon's atmosphere so perfectly they were licensed for the occasion.

Hopefully some folks here find it interesting!
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Bluie
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Wow, this is a rare thing to behold. I'll admit that the cheesey skits and era music do add a bit of charm to the overall experience. Seeing all the old artwork is really nice too!

Thanks for sharing!
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Terranigma Freak
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Wow, that's really cool! I take it the [b]Very Bad Thing™[/b] was never preserved. Though from what I can see, it looks just like the regular game but with commentary.
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venus14!
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dpb wrote:Hi all! DPB from RanchStory.co.uk here. A week ago (on February 12th) a Satellaview archivist uploaded VHS recordings of the four Satellaview broadcasts of Bokujou Monogatari. These were special exclusive versions of the original SNES game for the satellite service that were pretty much thought to've been lost to time. Below, I've linked to all four episodes in sequential order.









The user's gameplay's not very impressive (it was a whole new genre and the full game had only been out for a month!) but nevertheless, these videos give us a glimpse at one of the rarest versions of Harvest Moon to ever exist as they were intended to be experienced. Weird licensed music and Japanese skits and all. There's a lot of curiosities to look into, like what the objective for each episode even was, if the Wada mentioned by the voiceover is Yasuhiro Wada and if he had any new insight into the game or its development, and what 1996 contemporary music was thought to've fit Harvest Moon's atmosphere so perfectly they were licensed for the occasion.

Hopefully some folks here find it interesting!
Is this like... A Prototype of what eventually became Harvest Moon? :o It was originally a Minigame of sorts inside another game? The MC was originally a City Girl with Red Hair and a Pony Tail? o:
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Bluie
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venus14!
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I see then... o: So it was a precursor of the Internet of sorts? It sounds pretty Cool... Having an Interactive Menu to choose games that plays like a game itself... I guess the Red Haired Girl with the Pony Tail is the precursor of the Mii, the XBox Avatars and the Playstation Home?
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dpb
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Terranigma Freak wrote:Wow, that's really cool! I take it the <b>Very Bad Thing™</b> was never preserved. Though from what I can see, it looks just like the regular game but with commentary.
I'm not sure what the Very Bad Thing™ refers to, but it wasn't quite the same. For example, one major thing is that each episode had some kind of objective you were meant to fulfill, and that there was no town or NPCs, which seems really weird! I just wish I knew what the objectives were supposed to be and if maybe later Bokumono games ever did anything similar. Like if maybe the conquest system in Story of Seasons had any similarities or something.
venus14! wrote:
I see then... o: So it was a precursor of the Internet of sorts? It sounds pretty Cool... Having an Interactive Menu to choose games that plays like a game itself... I guess the Red Haired Girl with the Pony Tail is the precursor of the Mii, the XBox Avatars and the Playstation Home?
The Internet and even fully featured online games existed for some time before 1995, but yeah, Sattellaview is a very cool curiosity! Gamifying something as simple as a menu was a really neat idea, and though the avatar wasn't very customizable it was still neat to have one. There are lots of unique games and special versions of games that were never rereleased, so it's a very interesting little piece of Nintendo's history.
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