Famitsu Magazine scans, Satellaview content in Famitsu

I've been keeping my eyes open for the last few months looking for a copy of the issue of Famitsu magazine with that BS Zelda advertisement on its back cover. Unfortunately it seems that the move to digital preservation of old gaming magazines hasn't really caught on in Japan yet and so complete scans seem to be impossible to recover. I'm not giving up on the idea entirely, but at the very least I'll say that such scans are proving to be very elusive.

So for the past few weeks I've had my eyes on the Japanese auctions instead, hoping that I can locate a cheap copy of that particular Famitsu issue. While that issue seems to be pretty hard to locate even for sale, I have come across a number of scans from magazines of interest and so I'll use this thread to dump them as I find them. Here are a few satellaview-specific ones including some reposts as noted.
Feb 24, 1995 coverscan (note the BS-X theme with Necky the Fox)
Feb 24, 1995 table of contents (note the miniature cover pic in the upper left)
reposted page from Feb 24, 1995 (satellaview, BS-X, memory pack, and gold mario)
yet another scan from Feb 24, 1995 (satellaview and satebo)
May 5, 1995 back-coverscan (the familiar "Satellaview poster")
June 1995 back-coverscan (the familiar "Satellaview poster" again)
June 9, 1995 back-coverscan (the familiar "Satellaview poster" yet again)
reposted July 28, 1995 coverscan (repost of a cover advertising for a BS Zelda article in the lower right)
reposted July 28, 1995 scan (reposted BS Zelda article)
reposted Sept 15, 1995 back-coverscan (this is the ad I want to find a larger version of)
January 5-12, 1996 coverscan (note Satellaview Tsushin mascot, Sabi the Flying Squirrel)

The other thing is that at last I do see an auction where that particular magazine of interest is included. In fact it's included in 1 of a series of 8 different auctions each for complete (48-issue) yearly runs of Famitsu between 1992 and 1999. Of the auctions online, only 3 are of note for those how are interested in the Satellaview.
1993 collection (From various sources online I've determined that there are 2 issues in this set that have articles covering Satellaview topics)
1995 collection (Apparently there are 38 issues in this set that have articles covering Satellaview topics; This set also includes the issue with the BS Zelda advert)
1996 collection (Apparently there are 20 issues in this set that have articles covering Satellaview topics)
Currently these sets are running at up to 1500yen ($20USD) apiece but they will probably go up within the next 4 days when the auction closes. I hope that whoever ends up winning the bid decides to scan the articles for the posterity. And if anybody here wanted to pursue them then PM me because I'd be interested in helping to acquire them.

So, does this mean standard Famitsus from 97+ wouldn't have anything on the Satellaview?

Anyway, I really do hope these get in the hands of preservers who'll share with us the relevant Satellaview stuff. That Parabou artwork, especially, would be great to have...

This post has been edited by KiddoCabbusses on Sep 16 2011, 02:10 AM

I've seen nothing to suggest that there is anything Satellaview-related in the Famitsus from 97 and later, and so I suspect not. Although 1997 was during the lifetime of the Satellaview, I think it's telling that Satellaview Tsushin folded in 1996. I'm pretty certain that important aspects of it like the published timetables went online at that point. In fact I've managed to recover several official timetables published online by St.GIGA. This would have meant that magazine coverage wasn't essential and, with the N64 coming out in later 1996, I'm guessing that there just wasn't that much interest in covering the older system.

Anyway I do check magazines from 1997 to 2000 if I find them but there's also very little of that kind of material on the auctions for some reason. Everything pre-1994 is well-represented but 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999 are relatively more difficult to find in the auctions. And I've never found any Satellaview material in 97+ mags.

EDIT:
A note on the auctions I linked above: The shipping & handling would also enter into it obviously, so that would add another $17 to the price per set. So all told, we'd be talking about something just over $100 for the whole set of 144 mags (or really for only 60 Satellaview-content mags... and only 5 related to the BS Zeldas). Might take some sniping skills, too, considering that all auctions are bid on with one of them having two bids... The value is also considerably better if you live in Japan since S&H fees drop by half.

This post has been edited by MadHatter on Sep 16 2011, 02:05 PM

I found a few more scans to add here too. I'll just use the same format as above:

October 6, 1995 back-coverscan - This is a less common poster, but one that I'm sure we've all seen. I like it a lot actually.

These are from the Famitsu spin-off, Virtual Boy Tsushin. It's the equivalent for the Virtual Boy that Satellaview Tsushin was for the Satellaview, but I think it had an even shorter run. I picked these up from Planet VB actually since MegaUpload was ruined. I have to give props to Planet VB. They basically run a similar operation to this one here. They are always searching for more info on the VB and archiving it and keeping the spirit alive. Anyway:
VB Tsushin Pg. 98 ads section - typical sort of Satellaview promo.
VB Tsushin Pg. 99 ads section - Mario in space. The image is old, but the text may be new.
The scans are too cloudy for me to make out the kanji but if someone else wants to take a swing, they might have something interesting to say.

I have a bunch more Famitsu I intend to post later too, but this is it for now.

Ok, we -seriously- need someone to look at that one with the Seiken Densetsu 3 logo.

EDIT: Berri looked at it. Quote log because I'm lazy;

This post has been edited by KiddoCabbusses on Feb 12 2012, 09:50 PM

OK here's some more info from the same page as one of the BS Zelda articles I posted previously. I've covered up the BSZ article, but that's what's under the white card in case anyone is curious.

This article is an interview with the NABA-chan sensation (part of the SoundLink Magazines if memory serves me). I'll provide the raw J-text and leave it to anyone else who wants to take a crack at translating it.

Weekly Famicom Tsushin. No.347. Pg191. 11 August 1995.

I'll post some more again pretty soon. School is currently trying to interfere with my translating... >:(

This post has been edited by MadHatter on Sep 27 2012, 06:34 PM

Now here's one that covers Wario's Woods and some related inter-player competitions (event games) and prizes. Again I have the J-text below. As you may have noticed, I'm completely ignoring all furigana because I can't think of a good way to present it and it's redundant anyway. But if anyone wants furigana clarification and the image is too blurry then let me know and I'll post it. If anyone wants better quality detail shots I can make those available too because I can see from this image that the lower left leaves a little to be desired in terms of clarity....

Weekly Famicom Tsushin. No.352. Pg.145. 15 September 1995.

More to come as I get to it. This next week and some of the weeks after look to be rather busy but I'll try not to leave you guys hanging.

Ah, dur, I'm slow! Just saw these now.

I would like some nice scans. Not just for the articles, but if that artwork can be given a high-quality scan, that'd be good!

This set of articles covers:
1) A new Satellaview variety show (Soundlink magazine I'm guessing) called "Kiteru Land Housoukyoku" (Can You Hear Land Station). It's apparently based on "Challenge Land" and is hosted by Meg-chan (pictured).
2) The announcement of the second SoundLink game after BS Zelda, Super Bombliss Cup '95. Apparently this is a time attack challenge for Super Bombliss, and there is supposed to be inter-player competition, but no indication of prizes is given so the results may have just been a published list of winners.

Apologies about the lower left corner again. I can make a better shot of this section if anyone needs it. And I'll make sure to get you some higher-quality scans of the artwork, Kiddo. I'm scannerless at the moment and my camera isn't great, but I'll do the best I can. Anyway, J-text for these new articles is below.

Weekly Famicom Tsushin. No.358. Pg.175. 27 October 1995.

More to come at some point.

Super Bombliss Cup info! That's good.
That's one of the ones that's eluded me for some time.

A small (half-page) Satellaview Tsushin ad. Nothing too interesting but a few titles are listed so maybe there's something new there.

Weekly Famicom Tsushin. No.358. Pg.181. 27 October 1995.

Oh and if anyone notices any typos or other errors in the J-Text I've been providing please point them out to me so I can correct my personal notes. And maybe if someone proficient at translating wants to give these a try that would be cool too. Where did bluesun go?

Explanation on the "list price" thing?

Also, dear lord, Chou Aniki...? The poor sucker who downloaded that...

Based on the listing of "Wedding Peach" and "Bounty Sword" I take it that the Satellaview's 1995 years made heavy use of the Super Famicom library's anime license titles.

EDIT: Once again did a size comparison check - both the regular Super Famicom Bounty Sword and Chou Aniki are too large to fit in 8Ms, so the Satellaview versions are ones to look out for. Wedding Peach is likely similar to retail.)

This post has been edited by KiddoCabbusses on Oct 4 2012, 06:43 AM

Yeah... if you find Chou feel free not to let us know

I'm pretty sure that's the unit price for Satellaview Tsushin Magazine if you don't have a subscription.

Also BS Chou Aniki would be amazing. I find the concept hilarious.

Anyway, here are some articles on a Same Game competition and some quiz events like SatellaQ and Wai Wai Check. The SatellaQ stuff is kind of intriguing to me personally. It looks from the screenshot like the quiz material is pretty Japan specific trivia.

Weekly Famicom Tsushin. No.351. Pg.183. 8 September 1995.

Would have posted yesterday but freeimagehost was down...

Another Satellaview Tsushin ad with a few screenshots and a nice plug for BS Zelda among several others. JText is below. And I haven't forgotten your request for better images of the screenshots, Kiddo. I'll probably post them toward the end after I've posted all the text.

Weekly Famicom Tsushin. No.351. Pg.192. 8 September 1995.