Ncs Daily Journal for March 06, 1998 [800x600]

ncs daily journal © NCS 1998

Sega of Japan announced the ship date for Shining Force III Scenario 2 last night in Japan. We should have our first shipments dispatched on April 30 for delivery by May 04. The April 30 date is the official date but we expect it to ship to distribution a bit sooner so we may have the game available at the same time that it appears in Japanese retail stores. The price has been posted at Y4800 and we expect to retail it initially at US$44. Scenario II continues the new Shining saga that began with last year's Scenario I with the same game engine but with new high drama and epic battles.

Another Japanese Saturn game was announced last night. Konami's Dracula X ~Symphony of the Night~ will start shipping on May 21. Playstation owners have been enjoying this latest chapter in the Dracula saga for over a year now and we expect Saturn owners to continue the adulation. Konami has set the retail price at Y3800 so we expect this one to clock in at US$39 stateside. Pre-orders for both Shining Force III and Dracula X may be submitted to NCS via e-mail. Customers may also fax pre-order instructions to our company at (718) 523-7069.

We've received a number of requests for special Bio-Hazard gear such as Bio-Hazard joypads and assorted esoterica. We have confirmed at least one Bio-Hazard 2 related accessory for next Monday. ASCII's Power Head Phone features standard issue Raccoon Police Department design and is described on our sales sheet as "Deep Bass Tone - Good for those games with special sound effects such as Bio-Hazard 2". The box that this head phone comes in reads "Special Tactics and Rescue Services". We are retailing the head phone at US$35 and will be posting more details when the stock arrives next week.

Things are picking up for the PC-FX. Well, sort of. This week, we took delivery of Anime Freak Vol. 6, the latest compilation of interactive anime episodes. Kendo Rage Z has been confirmed for delivery next Monday. Kendo is an RPG from NEC that features the popular swash buckling, red-headed swordswoman who has appeared in Super Famicom side scrollers. Back to back weekly releases are rare on the PC-FX so this is somewhat of an updraft for the FX scene. The PC-FX remains a niche console in Japan but it continues to enjoy a staunch and loyal user base.

After posting our view on future import console pricing in Tuesday's journal entry, a number of our readers and customers placed reservations for the upcoming Katana console. We appreciate the interest and we will begin maintaining a pre-order list but remember that Katana is still months away so there is no need to reserve a unit this early in the cycle. With the Saturn still very strong in Japan, Katana may even be delayed since the only sense of urgency for a new machine is right here in the floundering USA Saturn market. Perhaps we'll see a USA Katana before we see a Japanese Katana. The future is uncertain and subject to extreme flux...

Enjoy your weekend. We'll meet again next Monday with a 640x480 compliant What's New and a return to convenient navigation bars and boxes. A few customers have asked why we feel a need to conform to a 640x480 screen - well, quite a few of our customers still use Web-TV to access the internet and their screens can't comfortably accomodate an 800x600 resolution. Until the day of a single browser and a single viewing standard, we try to make pages that are easily viewed at the lowest common denominator of browser and screen. Of course, we like the screen real estate that 800x600 affords but 640x480 is okay for our purposes.

Send e-mail to ncs@escape.com

Visit yesterday's journal entry