I stumbled across a post talking about this completely by chance and am very glad I did! Someone uploaded a VHS demo tape they received from Working Designs in 1995. Take a look!
Re: New Lunar 2 Demo VHS?
Posted: Sat Sep 21, 2024 6:21 pm
by Temzin
I was trying to recall where I'd seen this video before...it turns out we have it right here! The youtube may be slightly higher res?
Plus we have *scant* information on the actual tape. It just... is around. It's an educated guess as to when/how it was used.
Re: New Lunar 2 Demo VHS?
Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2024 7:33 pm
by Imperial Knight
I do find it a bit ironic that the lead magazine quote is from GameFan, seeing as their review (which was sharply critical of the localization) led to a feud between Victor Ireland and GameFan Editor-in-Chief Dave Halverson.
There's also a quote from a preview by VideoGames (which they somewhat bizarrely call VideoGamesMagazine). Although the preview it was taken from did not have a byline, much of their RPG coverage was provided by Zach Meston. Vic himself had occasionally written for their previous incarnation, VideoGames & Computer Entertainment, and had had a semi-regular column in sister publication TurboPlay/DuoWorld.
A final thing I found notable in the magazine quotes is that a couple referred to the "anime" scenes, which is a bit of a sign of the times. In the 80s and early 90s, most localizers took pains to hide (or at the very least not emphasize) the Japanese origin of their games, hence the common practice of creating new cover art (even WD did so for some of their TurboGrafx games). By 1995 anime is starting to get enough cachet, at least within the subculture, that games are starting to trumpet these roots a bit more.