Lunar Threads

from EGM Number 26, September 1991, page 34.


I'm sure someone remembers this.

my question is, do these pictures seem different at all, from the final game released on Mega CD ~ Sega CD ?

Definately different. The 1st, 3rd and 4th have different artwork for Alex and Luna in the introduction than the final game did. The 5th picture is the Black Dragon, which was faught way underground at the bottom of his lair, not out in open land (perhaps they originally planned to have the Black Dragon still terrorizing the great plain at Pao as part of the Dyne/Ghaleon legend instead of having it sealed in it's cave).

The 6th and 7th might be normal pictures, but I don't really know. And the final one I've never seen. That looks like the temple area in Quark's cave, but it's completely different in layout. And are those things giant treasure chests?

The 2nd picture also looks like one of the boss fights that shouldn't have been out in the open like that, but I don't remember for certain.

I recognize where the last screenshot is supposed to be; it's the Silver Spire. Lemme just respond to all of it...

1) The first and fourth screens, Luna had distinctly blue hair, not brown. There's actually quite a bit of artwork which show Luna with brown hair; this more solidly proves that her hair color was changed later on.

It might've been due to wanting to make blue hair a defining feature of goddesses. That wasn't entirely implemented (EB Lucia yes, but not Lucia from DS), but it could have been a thought at the time.

2) The third screen is of a monster you fight either in the Grindery, or Althena's Tower. It's not supposed to be outside, but a lot of early screenshots like this are made by piecing together stuff from testing or putting together sprites and backgrounds to get some photos out, since it's so early in development.

3) The first screen on the second row, same thing. It's the Black Dragon and the fight is underground. Likely the same deal as the other battle screenshot.

4) The other three screens on the bottom row are the same as they'd be in the final version. The one on the bottom-right is from the top room in the Silver Spire, in Vane. It's where you pick up the Mirror of Althena.

This is a really interesting find. What's the date on that article? KF

I remember EB also having beta screens, and I think it was also in EGM. I believe I have the magazine, so if I ever get around to unboxing those boxes, I'll scan that. These would be helpful to put on the site.

AirRaid, do you mind if I post this on LunarNET in a future update? You'd be given credit.

I think this came up in a discussion thread in the Lunar 3 section

ummm....yeah here it is

http://www.lunarthreads.com/viewtopic.php?p=13737&highlight=#13737

It's from an issue of EGM circa '93-'94.

Rune busted out a pic brown haired Luna two posts later.

Brilliant!

Yeah I remember the information from that thread, just not the pictures and specifics.

Roas wrote:I'm sure someone somewhere has old EGM's scanned into torrents or something. Maybe some bloodhound could track them down for us

So is this where your bloodhound pointed? KF

Kizyr wrote:Brilliant!

Yeah I remember the information from that thread, just not the pictures and specifics.

Roas wrote:I'm sure someone somewhere has old EGM's scanned into torrents or something. Maybe some bloodhound could track them down for us

So is this where your bloodhound pointed? KF

It would seem so Course...I'd forgotten I hired those bloodhounds.

thanks for the replies guys, very interesting.
I'm not an expert on Lunar games, even though I have SegaCD Lunar,
SegaCD Lunar: Eternal Blue and the Playstation versions
(I'd really like to someday get the MPEG Saturn version of Lunar,
as well as Saturn Lunar: Eternal Blue.)

I have not yet finished either version of Eternal Blue, nor the
Playstation version of Lunar. not enough time

GhaleonOne - by all means, please indeed post this on LunarNet,
plus any and all Lunar, and RPG forum that you want to.
the more people that see it and offer some replies, the better.
I don't even care about credit, just to read the thoughts of others.

btw, that picture comes from:

EGM Number 26, September 1991, page 34.

I'm trying to find the EGM that had a small preview of MegaCD
Lunar: Eternal Blue, but no luck so far.

I'm not certain it was EGM. It could have been another magazine. I just remember seeing a small article or news bit about a sequel to Lunar TSS. At the time, at least according to the magazine, it wasn't set so far in the future of TSS though.

GhaleonOne wrote:I'm not certain it was EGM. It could have been another magazine. I just remember seeing a small article or news bit about a sequel to Lunar TSS. At the time, at least according to the magazine, it wasn't set so far in the future of TSS though.

the small preview that I remember, was almost definitally from EGM,
or possibly Mega Play, but I really think it was EGM.
IIRC, they mentioned Hiro as the main character.

AirRaid wrote: Number 26, September 1991, page 34

'91, eh. I only thought it was 93-94 cuz that is when the guy showed me the article. He'd cut it out of his magazine, so I'd never seen the actual issue.

Roas Atrades wrote:

AirRaid wrote: Number 26, September 1991, page 34

'91, eh. I only thought it was 93-94 cuz that is when the guy showed me the article. He'd cut it out of his magazine, so I'd never seen the actual issue.

yeah, so Lunar was previewed before the MegaCD
came out in Japan which was late 1991.

since Lunar was shown in the September 1991 EGM,
the pictures must have been gathered sometime during that
summer, given the 1-2 month lead-time for magazines.
so that's 2 to 3 years before 93-94 ^__^

besides, Lunar: The Silver Star came out in Japan around mid-1992
and that was before the U.S. release of the Sega CD system.
the U.S. version of Lunar: The Silver Star came out in 1993.

the first mentioning of Lunar that I could find on the internet, so far,
dates back to July 4, 1991

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.game ... urce&hl=en

and this post mentions that, LUNAR by Game Arts,
was announced in Famicom Tsushin, June 28 (1991)


Now I am definitally no expert on Lunar or anything,
I just like to find out when things first get announced ^__^

AirRaid wrote:besides, Lunar: The Silver Star came out in Japan around mid-1992
and that was before the U.S. release of the Sega CD system.
the U.S. version of Lunar: The Silver Star came out in 1993.

I first read about Lunar myself in an EGM preview. I thought it looked cool, and it was the only RPG I saw for my new SegaCD, so I put it on my X-mas list that year.

Couple months later I had it, and I played it...and thus the long journey began.

Wow. When that add came out, I was only in first grade... still living in Germany. I didn't even realize the mega cd was out already. Heck, I didn't know about the Sega CD until around, like '96, '97ish.

phyco126 wrote:Wow. When that add came out, I was only in first grade... still living in Germany. I didn't even realize the mega cd was out already. Heck, I didn't know about the Sega CD until around, like '96, '97ish.

well, when that preview of Lunar was published, the MegaCD was still a few months away from being launched in Japan, and roughly a year or so from the SegaCD launch in the United States.

The CD-ROM unit for the Mega Drive had been mentioned as far back as early to mid 1989, shortly before the Genesis launched in the U.S.

there were artists conceptions of the CD-ROM unit and preliminary specs in magazines in 1990, but the final Mega CD-ROM unit revealed in 1991 was more powerful, with an additional 68000 CPU and chip for hardware scaling & rotation, and the Mega-CD of 1991 was more expensive than what was expected in 1990.

I did not get my own SegaCD until 1993, and I got the fugly top-loading, side-mounted SegaCD2 unit, instead of the beautiful front-loading original model that sat completely under the Genesis. one of the first games I bought of course, was Lunar

AirRaid wrote: I got the fugly top-loading, side-mounted SegaCD2 unit, instead of the beautiful front-loading original model that sat completely under the Genesis. one of the first games I bought of course, was Lunar

Dude! what are you smoking! The original unit was a piece of crap! Mine, along with everyone else I knew who had one, had it eventually crap out within a year of getting it. Some people even lost game discs because the damn thing would not open unless turned on, not to mention saved data.

Hell, I lost my entire TSS saved game up to the Blue Dragon Helmet because of that piece of crap. I had to start over again (during my first run through ever, so I was pissed at the time). I was lucky I knew the owner of the shop I took it to for fixing. He was awesome, because when he saw he could not fix mine, he gave me the new version SegaCD for free. I was so damn happy. The SegaCD 2 was and is a superior machine to the original. Mine still works to this very day.

Wow, I can't believe it, I was 10 or 11 when Lunar was first mentioned and it wasn't until I was 13 that I first got to play it :p That is so weird to me. Wow.

I had issues with my model 2 Sega CD. Sometimes music would skip, or stop completely, or the game would freeze. I always kept my discs immaculate so it wasn't the software. DieHard GameFan used to publish a lot of information on Lunar but I don't know if the magazine was established when the first Lunar was developed.

I know this is off-topic for this board, but on the subject of Mega-CD games, didn't they bring over Langrisser 1, Fantasm Soldier Valis, and other RPGs (FALCOM is a different story! LOL)?