after reading this thread, i, too, have become a giant Cleopatra Fortune fan
seriously, though, that Zuntata track is the best thing i've heard in a while
shame that the Saturn version is so pricey, and that i will also probably buy it :\
@isfet#7976 How much will you spend on it? How much are you willing to spend on it?
As for me: I dunno if I'd drop $200 on it, but maaaaaaybe I'd do $100. Just seems silly to me to buy a game for the price of a rare Dreamcast.
On the other hand, I'd easily drop $200 on a flip phone that somehow played the imode Cleopatra Fortune!!!!!!!!!!!
On tonightās daily search for Arcadia April 2002 issue, Iāve found concrete proof that this issue has concept art for Cleopatra Fortune Plus!!
Source: http://leece-brand.sakura.ne.jp/leece-brand/gallery/craft/craft-game/patorako/patorako_files/patorako_06/patorako_06.htm
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/S9TyKR8.png]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/S9TyKR8h.png[/IMG][/URL]
I'm not quite sure what these are. Construction paper cut outs? Either way, they take the artist quite some time. The witch outfit took 20 hours??
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/7hmwnok.png]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/7hmwnok.png[/IMG][/URL]
I like that in the description of the Nurse outfit, the artist mentions that in the arcade game's player notebook (the concept/subject of which was mentioned elsewhere on this forum), a player wished Nurse Patrako would see them:
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/TMZSjlm.png]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/TMZSjlm.png[/IMG][/URL]
Heck, I might as well save them all for posterity. Here's their tutorial Patrako:
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/Pd04ywW.png]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/Pd04ywW.png[/IMG][/URL]
"Is it possible to get so much attention by just wearing glasses on your everyday clothes?" The answer is Yes.
Swimsuit Patrako. This is the second type; Patrako also wears a school swimsuit in another costume:
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/t3ERsp3.png]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/t3ERsp3.png[/IMG][/URL]
An alt translation suggests that the request was by Sho Takegami, a doujin nakama of the artist. You can see their twitter here https://twitter.com/TGsho
School uniform with glasses cosplay:
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/EiGAM2S.png]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/EiGAM2S.png[/IMG][/URL]
The artist took the liberty of making Patrako wear Azumanga cosplay here. It's a neat time capsule when looking it up, because 2002 was peak Azumanga mania, with the anime being aired and the Azumanga Daioh Puzzle Bobble also being in arcades at the same time!
Unfortunately in the original game, Patrako is just wearing a regular navy seifuku (the non-glasses version is a blazer though):
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/8ow2ZEH.png]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/8ow2ZEH.png[/IMG][/URL]
Interestingly, in the Dreamcast version, the non-glasses blazer outfit is colored tan. I wonder if that was a reference or just a regularly accepted standard blazer color for that era? [URL=https://i.imgur.com/VOangXv.png]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/VOangXv.png[/IMG][/URL]
Patrako in a family restaurant waitress uniform:
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/36rypF4.png]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/36rypF4.png[/IMG][/URL]
I'm surprised this wasn't an Anna Millers restaurant uniform, since that was so popular with anime fans back in the day. Maybe that was prior to 2002 though? Loosely related, I ate at an Anna Millers a few years ago and got to see their uniforms in person. There's only like 3 Anna Millers left, with one of them being in Hawaii apparently?? At least, that was the case 2-3 years ago.
Patrako in another school uniform, no glasses:
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/ViTHtZl.png]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/ViTHtZl.png[/IMG][/URL]
The artist colored the uniform after a Ojamajo Doremi character?? I guess?? I don't know anything about Doremi. Here's what that uniform looks like though:
Patrako cheer lady:
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/leO09X9.png]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/leO09X9.png[/IMG][/URL]
I like that they colored it to match Patrako's normal clothing colors. This poor artist living in 2002, with no way to see what the official colors are, as Japanese fan sites apparently didn't have photos of them (at least as far as my wayback machine research has dug up), and Youtube wouldn't be invented for another 4 years, by which the artist probably moved on to other maniac intersests. I cry for you, my past Cleopatra Fortune brethren.
Anyway, overall, what a nice and lovely snapshot/time capsule of this era's fanbase. Such an intimate look; I can truly feel our soul's connections beyond the gap of 18 years. I hope you're doing ok, mystery Cleopatra Fortune fan.
Here's their gallery if you want to see the 9 outfits they made without google translations: http://leece-brand.sakura.ne.jp/leece-brand/gallery/craft/craft-game/patorako/patorako_op/patorako_op.htm
Also their non-Cleopatra Fortune game work, which includes Bridget, Waku Waku 7's Tesse, Nico from Spica Adventure, Justice from Magical Drop III, and more! http://leece-brand.sakura.ne.jp/leece-brand/gallery/craft/craft-game/game/game_op/game_op.htm
Also their Pop n Music characters gallery: http://leece-brand.sakura.ne.jp/leece-brand/gallery/craft/craft-game/popn/popn_op/popn_op.htm
@Personasama#8042 i think, realistically, iād drop somewhere around $100 on it, give or take a few 10s of dollars. i donāt need a pristine copy, necessarily, just a nice one that works.
however, yes, totally understand the flip phone thing
Jumping on the Cleopatra Fortune bus, Iāve been playing the Dreamcast version for the last couple days. Itās fun! I'm terrible at fast puzzling, so it took me a while to clear level 40. Being bad at puzzle games is fun, too!
@Personasama#8043 This seller's trying to make a Cleopatra Fortune off someone and that's ridiculous! I recommend they bury all their gems and ancient sarcophagi in the ground like the rest of us.
Thanks as always for the stash of official and fanstuff on this obscure puzzling game! It would have been so cool to experience it all as it happened, or to play against one of those versus grandmasters and try to steal all their techniques first-hand.
>
@Personasama#8069 Interestingly, in the Dreamcast version, the non-glasses blazer outfit is colored tan. I wonder if that was a reference or just a regularly accepted standard blazer color for that era?
HMmmmmmmmmm aren't these the colors from one of those famous 90s visual novels like AIR or Canon or Memories Off or something!? It's sparking some memory in my brain here.
In today's Cleopatra Fortune-related discoveries, I found out that Altron, the developer of all the console ports of Cleopatra Fortune + and the Naomi sequel, also developed:
Pocky & Rocky with Becky
Maybe someone mentioned it earlier in this thread, but I've long since forgotten. Now I want to see a Pocky & Rocky with Patrako or some other Taito mashup though.
Impressive that Altron is still around. Their last big game seems to be porting Disney Infinity to 3DS? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altron
Or wait, they've done heaps of licensed games: https://www.altron.co.jp/
IMpressive
Yeah, some of Natsumeās people split off and went to Altron around that time, and so Altron was tight with Taito for a minuteāa lot of the later Taito GBC conversions, like the Elevator Action game that got reskinned as Dexterās Laboratory, were also made by Altron.
From memory, they were also the people who did Tetris Plus for Jaleco while still at Natsume (which isn't a great Tetris game, but whatever).
oh man, I just remembered to set Shinin Queen as my new ringtone for my new phone.
So I hope someone calls me soon!!
I hope the person calling you is prepared to have to wait three minutes for you to pick up
I'm in a Cleopatra Fortune tourney to ring out the end of 2020! Come watch right now! https://www.twitch.tv/puzzlejuicey
https://challonge.com/xee8yiyg
In semifinals, yahoo
@Personasama#12487
Now I'm in Finals, yahoo
nicely done !!! I'm watching the stream and this game looks cool
@Personasama#12488
I won, yahoo
You can catch my grand finals replay here:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/856063848?t=00h05m42s
dang dude, you are on some galaxy brain stuff here - I see youāve done some looking in to what actually gets score/does damage, because I wouldāve assumed longer smaller chains would be the thing, but giant two-chains seem to be doing it for you? though I guess the ideal is both so you attack from the top and bottom. Also, I am kind of marveling at your spacing and how youāre filling the potential gaps with blocks and using the gems as spacers - I see the other guy trying to do the same but your setups are just better. Dang!! I need to get some learninā next time I go down to LA.
@exodus#12865 TBH, I was just trying to make 4 chains and failing constantly. In the end, Iām just way more familiar with how to build faster and where itās safer to place stuff so I was able to win.
Watching the footage again, I now understand that I should've always prioritized getting line clears and not waste time doing small 2 chains, because they don't really send junk to the enemy. Early game, I should've focused on filling up blocks to get rows, putting caps on areas where blocks would fall, and then setting up those easy one line chains to roll into the big thing.
MORE IMPORTANTLY, in tonight's āI should be working but instead somehow ended up finding Cleopatra Fortune things onlineā:
THERE'S AN EBAY LISTING FOR A TAITO F3 PCB FOR CLEOPATRA FORTUNE!!!! Should I get it??????????????????????? It's still cheaper than what the Dreamcast version of the game goes for (which is $500-1000 looool)
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/EQXG4yI.png]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/EQXG4yI.png[/IMG][/URL]
I'm sooooo tempted because how often does something like this pop up?? But also, if I want to play it, I'd need the F3 motherboard and a supergun and an ossc or whatnot and that's a whole other world I don't really know much about. But on the other hand... a PCB of my game of the year 2020 Cleopatra Fortune.......................................
I guess I'll keep an eye on it and struggle internally.
More importantly, I finally found a copy of Arcadia 2002 with the Cleopatra Fortune art in it! I've also found THIS BEAUTY:
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/rGKSIcF.jpg]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/rGKSIcFh.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/ROQbco0.jpg]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/ROQbco0h.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/uRc26VU.jpg]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/uRc26VUh.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/35s1Pha.jpg]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/35s1Phah.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
Info from the seller:
>This is a flyer and instruction manual for an arcade game that I got around 1996.
> It seems to be traded as a rare item in auctions, so I put it up for sale.
> This is the first time I've ever seen it.
> I'm not sure if this is a good idea, but I think it's a good idea.
> Search: Arcade Flyer Japan TAITO Taito
It's in such amazing condition for a 25 year old sheet of paper! If I get it, what would I even do with it? Laminate it? How do I preserve an arcade sheet and instruction manual? If anything, I could at least do a crazy high resolution scan and give that to the internet, that only has the low res ones.
It's $80 not including shipping for something that might be a repo for all I know but who cares, LET'S GOOOOOO
Wait, shoot, I just found a tweet from a shmup loving uncle with a ridiculously high res scan of both of these things:
https://twitter.com/VIC_UJAUJA/status/1160765111377657858?s=20
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/4hhvXH7.jpg]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/4hhvXH7h.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/TgB7RyD.jpg]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/TgB7RyDh.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/WaReN4c.jpg]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/WaReN4ch.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/VlzxqZf.jpg]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/VlzxqZfh.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
Anyway, no more resistance, I'm gonna get itttttttttt regrets are for those who get trapped in a pyramid with mummies!!!