Phacts

PS Manga:

There have been many short PS manga pieces created over the past fourteen years; some were published in Japanese magazines, like SPEC, and some were published in collected form with other Sega character pieces. The pages below were published in the Game Gag 1P Comic book from 1997. Note that the original work appeared in Japanese; the text shown here has been translated by Nick and overlaid upon the original by myself (forgive the crudeness of the retouches.) Click on the thumbnails to view the larger images, and be sure to read the panels from right to left.

Originals: Page 1 | Page 2

PSPages National Exposure:

We all know it's cool when Phantasy Star is mentioned in gaming magazines... but how about when The Phantasy Star Pages site is mentioned? Check out the first issue of the Official Sega Dreamcast Magazine, where the staff has graciously given a nod to this very site! (And thanks to several visitors for bringing this to my attention!)

Dreamcast Magazine Plug

Also, according to Victor Börjesson, a PS fan from Sweden, the PSPages was recently featured in a magazine called Internetworld. The site received an ten out of ten-star rating and a half-page review as one of the best gaming sites of the year.

It seems the Swedes can't get enough of the PSPages. Here's a pic from a Swedish magazine where this site is chosen as one of the favorites of the editorial staff.

Game Gear Games:

There have been two Phantasy Star games on the Japanese Game Gear. One is entitled Phantasy Star Gaiden (meaning "side-quest".) It was released some time after PSII. It is a simple RPG that follows Alis' adventures on another planet.

PS
Gaiden

The other Game Gear game is called Phantasy Star Adventure. It is not a true RPG, but is an text-with-sparse graphics adventure game.

PS Adventure

For those interested, there is a book of Sega game illustrations that features art from both these games. The ISBN# is 4-7661-0772-1. It is expensive, but can be ordered without too much difficulty. There is also a fantastic PS Compendium book (in Japanese, of course); it's ISBN# is 4-89052-782-6. You can view a translation of the compendium here.

More information on these two Game Gear games can be found in the Mysteries of Algo section of the Fringes of Algo website.

Tele-Modem PS Games:

There were also several Phantasy Star games released over the Japanese Tele-Modem gaming network (for the Mega Drive.) Eight small games, each based on a character from PSII, consisted of a text and graphical interface, similar to early Sierra PC games. These text adventures were also released for the Mega Drive CD platform on two CDs. Aside from these, one or both of the Game Gear games may have been available over the network. Click on any of the thumbnails below to view a larger version of the Tele-Modem images.

More information on these eight Tele-Modem games can be found in the Rare Japanese PS Games section of the Naflign's Ego website.

Mega Drive PSI:

A Mega Drive version of PSI was produced in Japan. Only a few thousand (perhaps as few as one thousand) were made. The game DID NOT have any enhancements, graphically or otherwise. The storyline remained intact. It was made in conjunction with a contest to celebrate the anniversary of the original PSI. Click on the thumbnail to view the larger image of the box.

PSIV 3-D Dungeons:

Early development versions of PSIV had 3-D corridor dungeons similar to PSI. They were smoother and more detailed, of course, than their 8-bit predecessors. They also supported more than one enemy appearing onscreen at one time. The dungeons were replaced with the top-down mazes in the final game, probably due to the memory limitations of the Genesis cartridge format. Click on the thumbnail to view the larger image.

PS Television Commercials:

In Japan, there have been live-action commercials for three of the PS games... that's right, live-action! They featured actors dressed up as the PS heroes, and wild special effects. PSII is apparently the only game that did not get live-action treatment, opting for a screenshots-only approach.

PSI Commercial PSIV Commercial

Algo Cameo:

The Japanese Master System game 'I Seek the Stars' (Hoshi wo Sagashite) - The Story of Mio - is somewhat similar to Phantasy Star Adventure in its gameplay, but there is a more concrete connection. In the game, you are presented with the option of taking interplanetary vacations to... Motavia, Palma, and Dezoris! Click on the thumbnails to view the larger images.

Algo Star System:

We all know about the Algo (or Algol) star system from the PS games, but not so many know that Algol actually exists. Algol is an eclipsing binary star located in the Perseus constellation. In fact, the 'ghoul' star was thought to represent the eye of Medusa, due to its variable brightness. It would seem, then, based on PSI, that Sega was inspired by the real system. For background on Algol, click here. Click on the thumbnails to view the larger images.

I'd like to thank all those who've contributed info in this quest. Their names are listed below. And if anyone else out there has anything to add to what is above, drop me a line.

Mike Ripplinger, Chris Cantrell, Ryan, Motoki, Shado, K. Megura, Mike Steffes, Peter Miller, Lord Soth, Bryan Gore, Barry Cantin, Paul Jensen, gargoylesox, Trevor, Andreas Thorstensson, David Auria (with an assist from Clint Dyer of SOA) and Garret McGowen.