Blandia

[Discoalucard]

www.hardcoregaming101.net/blandia/blandia.htm

I'd never heard of this fighting game before. It's actually a follow up to Great Swordsman and Gladiator, mentioned in the Pre-Street Fighter II fighting games article. It's also notable as one of the first weapon-based fighters, predating Samurai Shodown slightly. It's got some nice graphics, although it sounds terribly glitchy. Still interesting, though.

[KeeperBvK]

While the name only brings bad puns to mind (a bland Grandia?), the game at least visually seems pretty nice.

[Trickless]

The NEC PC 98 version is called Blandia 98, but practically nothing can be found regarding this port.

It's in the Tokugawa screenshot database, so someone there most likely has a disk image of it.

Also, this site has screenshots and ending comparisons too: re9801.blog.shinobi.jp/Category/1/

And I don't know if you're too bothered about this, but here are the box covers for each system (they're all the same artwork though)

[FM-Towns] Blandia Plus


[PC9821] Blandia 98


[Windows98] Blandia 98

[nickz]

Thanks for the help, Trickless!

I read the site and all of the sub-sequent pages about Blandia 98. It looks like the main changes involve less detailed backgrounds and new, higher resolution endings. It sounds like it is a better port than the Marty version. I'll have to see what I can do about revising the article and getting some comparison screenshots.

That is some pretty cool box art, too. Except that it makes McGill look smaller than everyone else, when really, the opposite is true.

[Discoalucard]

I tried to translate the differences they mention - it's mostly graphical stuff, plus the new endings, but it also mentions that the speed was tweaked. The author of the site says it is an improvement.

[cj iwakura]

Is that Satoshi Urushihara art? If not, that artist is sure trying to emulate him.

[Ganelon]

Hey, the developer name is Allumer, not Allamar. And wow, is this one of the few games where the PC98 version is actually better than the FMT version? Are there any redeeming qualities on the FMT?

[Gendo Ikari]

I was equally wondering why the company is continuously referred as "Allamar" when you can clearly read "Allumer" in the flyer. Did the company also produce a Gundam arcade fighting game? I wouldn't be surprise if it uses the same engine as Blandia. Speaking of the game in question, I didn't find the graphics that great and they haven't aged graciously; the fair bit of fanservice and the innovative details cited in the article are its only notable points. However, what a surprise that there's even a Windows conversion that, along with the PC98 one, seems better than the original! The new cinemas look good but contrast a bit too much with the rest of the game, though.

EDIT: forgot to point out that the links to the article about the oldest 1vs1 fighters are wrong. You have to remove "/blandia" from both of them.

[magus]

Jan 21, 2011 17:33:53 GMT -5 KeeperBvK said:

While the name only brings bad puns to mind (a bland Grandia?), the game at least visually seems pretty nice.

i swear i tought the same thing

[nickz]

It looks like the article was updated. Thank you, everyone who was involved for helping out.

[jorpho]

Is anyone else thinking that someone needs to photobomb that into "Blondia" ?

[KeeperBvK]

The system list reads "Arcade / PC-98 / PC-98". I guess one of those "PC-98"s supposed to be "Windows 98", but even then the FMT's still missing.

Edit: Is Arnold Swartzenhager supposed to be a spoof, or just one huge typo?