Hey all,
I've recently been experimenting with some random small-time MSX games from the '80s that I've had my eye on for a while, and while I'm usually pretty good at sussing out how to play these old games just through experimentation -- and can generally find Japanese-language walkthroughs that explain how to play them, failing that -- both Drainer and Thunderbolt seem to be largely undocumented games with mysterious, unintuitive goals and gameplay mechanics.
Drainer is a game by Fun Factory (best known for Shout Match and the War of the Dead games), and seems to be a bizarre hybrid of a maze game, a snake game, and a shmup -- it's unlike any other game I've played (on the MSX or otherwise), so I'm really interested in playing through it if I can. Problem is... I don't actually even know what I'm supposed to do, much less how to do it! Everything about this game seems very original, and that includes the goal and the gameplay mechanics -- and I can't really make heads or tails of it.
Here's a gameplay video from someone who seems to be as confused as I am:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qbukpP2IpI
As for Thunderbolt, I've been able to determine through Japanese-language discussions online that it's a sequel to the Japanese cassette game "Zeta 2000" (which is a pretty awesome game, albeit HARD AS NAILS), and was supposed to be the second game in a trilogy (one source even says 5 games were planned), but the company that made it (Pixel) was going through some tough times and was forced to not only cut a lot of the content they'd promised from Thunderbolt, but ultimately to close their doors after releasing it, never finishing the series. Every site I found discussing Thunderbolt basically just talked about this, and about how disappointing a sequel it was because of all the features that had to be removed, but nobody actually talks about how to play it, or even what you're supposed to be doing. I have no clue what my goal is, and I'm not even sure if there's a trick to attacking the enemies without taking damage, or if you're just SUPPOSED to either take damage or avoid combat at all times.
Here's a brief gameplay video of it in action, from MSX.org's very own Dan Dunn:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_yNUzVvWTM
Does anyone have scans of the manuals for these games, by any chance? Or, failing that, has anyone ever figured out how they work?
Thanks, for any answers anyone can provide!
-Tom
Thanks!
