Beautiful Japanese Artwork Magnified

Yesterday we mentioned the FM Towns inspiration for Howard's Ralari, but the image in the update we linked to dates back to 2002. That might seem just like yesterday, but our graphical standards have changed a little since then. We've always tried to post as a high a resolution as feasible, so here's a big boost. This is a high res scan of the manual instead of the box cover, so there is less text over the image. Even if our main image was on the smaller side back then, I'm happy to see that the associated FM Towns map scan is a impressive 2400x3300 pixels. They probably thought we were crazy for that one in 2002, but that was before 2560x1600 monitors.

Wing Commander (1) for the FM Towns: the FM Towns was a Japanese computer produced by Fujitsu throughout the first half of the 90s. The system is best known for the high number of X-rated anime games produced for it... but it was also one of the first personal computers to feature a CD-ROM drive. As such, it had some amazing ports of popular early-90s games, including several Ultimas, several LucasArts adventures and... Wing Commander. So what's so special about this edition?

• Partial speech: all the in-flight comms are spoken (in Japanese).
• The original Universe Map: a nifty fold-out plastic road-map of the Vega Sector is included.
• Soundtrack: The game disc doubles as a music CD, with 40-odd high quality tracks that will play in a normal CD player.
• Cool new box art: Confed fighters attack a Fralthi... and Blair's flight suit looks eerily like those that later appeared in the movie.

The Other Sims

GUILDFORD, UK April 16, 2008 —The Sims™, a Label of Electronic Arts, Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS), today announced a significant entertainment milestone, celebrating 100 million units sold around the world, thanks to players of The Sims everywhere. The first game from The Sims was sold in 2000 and has gone on to become the best-selling PC game franchise of all time and is sold in 22 languages and 60 countries around the world. The Sims franchise has inspired millions of players to tell stories, create characters, explore relationships, live through generations, design fashions, and build homes and design home interiors for their Sims. TheSims2.com, the vibrant online community of players of The Sims, has more than 4.3 million unique visitors per month, who have downloaded more than 70 million user-generated creations. A place to discover player creativity is on YouTube, where more than 100,000 videos and movies of The Sims have been shared, with about 200 million views.