Roommania #203 Manual Translation w/added comments 1.21

Table of Contents

I. Copyright Information
II. About this FAQ
III. Contact
IV. The Translation
V. Ending Tips
VI. Acknowledgements


I. Copyright Information-
    As of version 1.2 of this FAQ, since information aught to be free, I
entitle anyone to freely use and distribute this FAQ in so much that it is
used and distributed for private uncommercial use and it is not altered in
anyway from its original, complete and unedited form, unless under terms of
"fair use". The free use of this FAQ extends to sites which derive profit
from
indirect means such as banner ads, but it may not be used if it bundled with
a
sold product or put into such an area/state which requires payment so that
it
may be viewed. So far, the public WWW entities which have contacted me in
using this  FAQ for their use are the site domain gamefaqs.com and
cheatscc.com and cheatcity.com.  Copyright 2000 Casim Neff.

II. About this FAQ
   Version 1.0-
       This FAQ is planned to be a translation of the Roommania #203
manual.
However since the manual often doesn't elucidate certain topics very well
when talking about the various games aspects, I will be adding in extra
comments framed in paranthesis where I think appropriate. What needs to
noted
though is that since I haven't played the game entirely, this won't be a
walkthrough, but more translation of how to play this very weird but neat
game
(as the manual says) along with my own tips. Also, as of this version of the
FAQ I'm going for a functionality approach to learning and translating the
manual, rather than translating it verbatim. In example, the way the text in
the manual is set up, as if it is sometimes third person speaking and
sometimes from a first person voice. I'm not going out of my way to make
these
distinctions, since I'm just getting stuff down for now.
       Also also great portions of my translation can be wrong, plus as to
make some explanations flow better I'm also taking some liberties with the
text, just so you know. The information will be the same, or at least it
should be.
   Verision 1.1-
       Completed all useful pages in the manual (page 18). Wrote up Ending
Tips and Acknowledgments. Added my extra note in Contact etc. section.
   Version 1.2-
       Updated copyright section. Fixed some spelling errors.
   Version 1.21- Added a beginning list of people contacted.

III. Contact
   If you'd like contact me at [email protected] for any questions, or
telling me how royally I messed something up or if this was useful or not or
if you want to send me some ASCII art 'cause I suck at it or ANY tips at
all,.
it'd be appreciative. I'll make sure to list you as contributing:)
     NOTE: I would like to add to this FAQ a listing of people who actually
own Roommania #203 and their email addresses. Since I do not actually own
this
game anymore I am not in the posisition to answer many questions about
problems in the game. Again contact me at [email protected], if you don't
mind at having your email addy listed so you can get in touch with other
Roommania owners.

IIIa. Other (previous or otherwise) owners of Roomania to bother:
   Charis Hoo - [email protected]

IV. The Translation
   Page 4-
        (At the bottom of the page under the table of contents) This game
uses memory (VMU). You'll be able to save your game as well as play mini-
games. A varying number of memory blocks will needed to use (especially) the
mini-game and save function respectively.

   Page 5-
        (Top of page on) The year is 2002, its January. You have come down
from the heavns to the human world for 50 years. From a year before, you
have
watched a student name Neji Taihei living in this apartment. This is your
third journal now (on him?) and more or less hasn't done anything. But
you've
come to be interested in this apartment and this boy and recently you
thought
perhaps you will introduce some ups and downs into this boys life and make
some drama happen for him.
       From now on, you have decided to intervene in his life and started
changing things. At the outset though, what will you do? Below is the
observations you have made to date of Neji.
       Pictures and info tabs at bottom of page (Neji is the guy on the
games
front cover btw): Neji, he's an average student who has come out from the
country to goto a city college.He seems to enjoy his time alone but he
doesn't
seem to do very much of anything when spending it. He likes music,
especially
Serana Poji (she's the girl on the poster in his room). He seems to have
many
friends, but none harldy ever come over to his apartment.
       (Also there is a guy's next to Neji's portrait here whose name and
bio
I forgot to write down, but I'll wing it) He is totally opposite of Neji,
he
is very outgoing and sometimes he comes over to visit Neji.

   Page 6-
       (From top the title) The Means of Intervenention. In intervening
with
Neji's life you'll be using a Dreamcast Controller. Since it is a 1 person
job
only, the controller must be put in controller slot A. Also, use your
oberservation journal (your save game file/VMU I believe is what it means).
       Controls: (These are self-explantatory and faster learned with the
least bit of experimenting than actually reading them, however there are
some
unituiative contols these are..) Pressing A+B+x+y=Start takes you out the
main
load-up screen. A button is for confirming and throwing the mode altering
ping-pong balls at things (this is the most important command in the game,
as
you throw the balls at things in Neji's room to get him to be interested or
throw them at objects when he is not in the room to move them).

   Page7-
       When you push the start button at the title screen you'll be taken
into the area where you have the tools to change Neji's life or the Mode
Select (this is the intro start screen, from top to bottom the choices are
with their further break downs into other menu's if you choose them)
           -Start Game (for starting the game the first time, created new
save file)
               Omake Menu (you are taken here after pressing start)
                   Start game
                   Omake
           -Continue Game
               Omake Menu (you are taken here after pressing continue,
below
are your two choices)
                    Start game
                    Omake
           -Option (breakdown of the option menu, and their options as they
appear on screen after selection)
           -Sound Setting
               Stereo
               Mono
            -Jump Pack attach
               Use jump pack
               Don't use jump pack
           -Screen adjust (the red circle should be covering the black hole
in the middle)
           -Display (meaning area)
               Normal
               Big
               Small
           -Internet (I haven't used it so I don't know what the sub-menus
are)
       Description (under mode select)- This is where you can listen to
(from
left to right, the icons) TV clips that Neji has watched in the game so far,
radio music clips or progreams, CD songs of Serana Poji, or things he has
said
to himself (like "its so cold"
       Live video feed (last section on page) - If you leave the Dreamcast
running at the Title menu (before start menu) the game will go into a live
camera mode where you can watch Neji jus going about his room or sometimes
other video clips.

   Page 8-
       Fundamental Knowledge, the things I can do. 1. Move inbetween times
(meaning the calendar select option during game play. 2. Get Neji to be
interested in things (this is the basis of the game, you do this by throwing
what looks like ping pong balls at items in his room). 3. When Neji's not in
the room, you can move objects (TV, books etc.)
       Things I should do- In the course of his life up till now, Neji
hasn't
had a whole lot going on. But you will have chance to change this for the
better. Neji will have various drama points where he will confront some sort
of action. At these points its possible to help Neji, or not. Depending on
which you choose you'll influence his life accordingly. Sometimes these
drama
points will occur out of order (maybe if you've played the game before you'd
know this) and you will simply skip over some conflict point or perhaps
return
to them later. Regardless, the drama points (the manual calls them nabi) are
important to what happens with Neji's life.

   Page 9-
       Nabi presentation: At the start of each calendar time frame, the
game
will present a short clip which will describe you mission you want him to
complete. Complete it and good things will happen. However, depending on the
time of day you choose in the calendar select, Neji will not always be home
(usually in the mornings he is out). Also, sometimes you will have to
complete
2 or more objectives in a given time frame.
       Intervention results: after completing a time period allotted to you
for a given mission (not the mission itself though, you have to use your
alottment of days, even if it is to just waste), you a results check telling
you how well you've done with Neji. (The various elements that all the lines
at the bottom of the page are pointing to are as follows from the left side
first)
           -Total clicks for the given time period (or ping pong balls
thrown
in the past time period)
           -Total clicks which resulted in a good mood for Neji (this is
misleading tho, its as if the game gives you easy money here. As long as
Neji
is in a good mood to begin with and you just keep throwing ping pong balls,
but don't get him in a bad mood, you'll get points for this)
           -Total clicks which resulted in a bad mood for Neji (same as
above
in house this click count works)
            -Total clicks to date
             (now the bottom, this line points to)
             -This bar represents the ratio of how well you've done with
Neji. Blue is the clicks throughout, green are effective clicks and red is
the
amount of detrimental clicks.
             (from the right, top to bottom)
             -The day you were watching over him.
             -Status of Neji's life (I don;t understand how this is rated,
perhaps by how many points you have to date)
             -Score to date
             -Status of the current nabi under review (whether you've
completed passed it successfully or not, you can tell by the chimes if
you've
donw good or bad, more on this on the next page)

   Page 10-
       Inverntion day decisions: Intially at the calendar select screen, if
you have taken choosen the tutorial, you will start out during January of
2002. If not, Febryar of 2002. Per nabi event, you will be given a period of
days in which to complete your mission, and at the calendar select screen
you
must pick which days you will carry out your mission.  (Sometimes you will
be
given as few as two days, sometims as many as 6, again this is a misleading
section since you while you may be given say 6 days you can never  use up
all
the 6 days as each day is split into a morning section and a night section.
What you are given per nabi event is the ability to choose a certain number
of
these morning or evening time periods. So say you have 6 time periods over a
7
day period in which to carry out your mission, you could have 6 morning
sessions with Neji and 1 night session. To find out how many of these
morning/night sessions you have per nabi period, push B on the calendar
selection screen. Here you can review past nabi events or review your
current
nabi. Current nabi will list how many sessions you have to complete your
mission. It is the number next to the concentric squares symbol. Also if you
want to see the nabi event mission movie again, push the A button in this
screen, or the B button to get back to the calendar select.
       Other elements of the calendar select are a timer where you must
pick
a day before the time runs out or a day will be picked for you. Finally
below
are the three symbols you will see on review nabi selection from pushing B
in
the calendar select screen, these symbols on the bottom of page 10 in block-
type paranthesis).
           First symbol- failure
           Second symbol- success (this is the symbol on all the nabi's in
picture at the bottom of the page)
           Third symbol- The current nabi will succeed when it finishes.

   Page 11-
       (explaining just the things marked by the larger swirls on this
page.
The symbols(words) next to these large swirls can be matched up to the
picture
on this page, starting from the top swirl on the page
       Cursor- This is your cursor, what its pointed on you click(throw
ping
pong balls at)
       Time left- How much time you have left during your morning/night
session. (Some sessions give you as little as 20 seconds, watch out)
       Neji's list- This will show the mental list of what Neji is thinking
of doing. This list constantly changes, and the item is at the top of his
list
will be doing (usually smoking of watching TV). The more you click on
something, the more likely it will come to the top (try getting him to do
something easy for a while, like listening to a CD). Items marked in red are
items which are directly related to the current nabi mission at hand (you
want
to do these).
       ChibiNeji- This is the little figure at the top corner of the screen
which matches Neji's motion on screen. Besides showing what he is doing
(sometimes you can't view Neji say when he's going to the bathroom), it also
show's Neji's mood as shown by the ChibiNeji color and the words which hit
it
on the head every so often.. You'll notice the more you click the more green
dots surround the image of the ChibiNeji. There is a limit to how many times
you'll want to click on anything to get Neji to do anything. If you click
way
too much a fill up the ChibiNeji frame with all red, Neji will leave his
apartment.  As for the ChibiNeji model's color, if it's is red, he's happy
and
active, if white he's neutral, if blue he's tired or depressed. Also in
relation to the ChibiNeji frame, the weather also affects Neji's moods. When
it good weaher, he'll be more happy and active, when normal weather he'll be
more neutral, when its bad weather he'll be more depressed. (Sometimes its
difficult to determine the type of day. You can usually see the type of day
through the window, or hear it in case of rain) As can be expected with
these
moods and mood elements they either will make him either easier or harder to
get to do things.
       Camera number- this shows you what camera number you are currently
on.
You can usually switch between a number of cameras per session of watching
Neji, or in case of when he is not home, you will be able to fly freely
about.

   Page 12-
       More explanation on clicking on things: Click on things with your
cursor to get Neji to do something. (basically, its harder when its
rainning,
and you have to keep clicking on something to get Neji's attention. Usually
one or two clicks every second or so is good. You'll be able to tell how
close
you're getting Neji mad by listening to pitch of the sound when you click
(throw ping pong balls).
       More on changing cameras: Sometime you'll get  more cameras than
normal. Switch between the cameras with the B button.
       Listening to the Radio: Its possible to listen to the radio to
varying
effects. If the Radio DC or Powerstream  program comes on when listening,
you'll get sound clips you can listen to in the omake menu. Also there is a
relaxing music program which can relax Neji if he is in a bad mood.

   Page 13-
       Serani Poji: He REALLY like listening to Serani Poji CD's and it is
possible to get him in a good mood by listening to her so.
       Incomplete List of Nabi missions (covering the tutorial month
mostly,
with the titles of each of these Nabi missions and tips on what to get him
to
do.
           001- Because I clicked on something, watching. Click on anything
and make him do anything.
           002- Thoughts, during this time. Read Neji's diary
           003-  Gotta long and important day (tommorrow). Set Neji's alarm
clock.
           004- Whose words? The computer is curious…
           005-  For the mean time, water. Get Neji to drink some water
           006-  That was different, I saw it! Move the kotatsu (his table,
or anything else I think in his room) around when Neji's not home.
           007- The call of nature. Get Neji to goto the bathroom by having
him drink lots of milk and water.
           008- Ah, Serani. Get Neji to listen to some Serani Poji

   Page 14-
       When Neji's not home. (more or less everything has been explained
previously. However you fly about freely when Neji is not home, instead of
switching between camera's. Also you can access Neji's chat log on his
computer, or his personal diary. Sorry, no translation of them though.

   Page 15-
       Let's play some tricks: You can play various tricks on Neji while he
isn't home by moving things around, turning things on etc.. (in the picture
below) in example, his computer, his table, his curtains.
       ChibiNeji?- When Neji is not home, sometimes a ChibiNeji will be
hiding out in the room (the same little figure that is in the top corner
frame
when Neji is in the house). If you hunt him down and find him (after finding
5) you'll receive a present of a downloadable game for your VMU. Therafter,
every 5 you find from the first, more puzzles will be available for download
to the VMU. When one is in the apartment(not always) you'll hear "ChibiNeji
sagashi yooi don" (in a weird little muchkin like voice).

   Page 16-
       (Note: I never played this min-game, so this is right out of the
manual, so it may be right or very wrong, if someone could help me on this)
       Mojiouchi (the name of the downlaodable game(- Once you've collected
enough ChibiNeji's, after the game is saved and you recontinue, from the
omake
menu (right after you press start or continue option on the main menu) you
will be presented with a "present" option alongside of the start game and
omake option. If you go into this menu, you will be able to download the
mini-
game onto a VMU.
       The game- The game is played by switching two letters in a given row
of letters so that you try to create a correct word. Creating the word with
the least amount of mistakes results in high points. These points can then
be
used and will be added to the total points acculmulated in Neji's life so
far.
       The VMU- A-Button, choose the two letters to be switched.
                           B- Attempts to pass the puzzle
                           A+B- Starts the mini game from the main menu on
the VMU
                           Control pad- Moves the cursor around to
highlight
letters in the game

   Page 17-
       Internet (This section describes only a bit how to get online with
Roommania and how to obtain Dream Passport interenet software from Sega. The
instructions simply say push the A button over the internet option on the
main
page and away you go. However, since I've never been online with my DC, I
can't give you any better instrcutions than that. Also, I'm going to leave
out
the section that entails how to send money to Sega of Japan to obtain a
Dream
Passport, unless some English player in Japan really needs the address).

   Page 18-
       (This page includes a short description of the options menu which I
previously brokedown, also..) You can receive a hint for a particular nabi
(sorry, I don't have any hint translation) in the game by either reading
Neji's journal while he is out or going to the nabi listing screen when a
"!"
"?" is presented next to the nabi (meaning you're yet to complete it), as a
hint will be presented there next to it.
       Also you can exit the game through the pause screen (hitting Start
while inside a Nabi mission) the options which result are (from top to
bottom
as they appear on screen)
           -Continie mission
           -Quit watching (quit this particular attempt at the mission, go
back to the calendar select screen)
           -Return to title screen (quit out of game)
       Finally, when quitting out of the game through the pause menu, be
very
careful since the game will autosave while you are quitting out of the game.
So if you turn off the power before you get to the title screen you may
corrupt your game data.

V. Ending Tips
-The game autosaves after every mabi missions attempt and at exiting the
game.
I don't think you can do anything about this but have copies of more than
one
save game at a time.
-Finding ChibiNeji is pretty easy, just fly around Neji's room until you
hear
one of them talk (they'll say stuff like, "ack close!!") when you're near
(except in Japanese of course).
-If you've already beat a Nabi objective early on in a time period, you can
get him more bonus points by doing it again or simply by getting lots of
happy
clicks on him.

VI.  Acknowlegdments
Thanks to..

Gamefaqs.com- What a great site, too useful.
Japanese people and culture, specifically anime and video games which
constantly impress me and from which I owe so much inspiration for learning
Japanese- Maido!
LiTtLeBoY319- For my buying my copy of Roommania, and being a sport with me
taking so long to write up this manual translation.


"Through these thousand millenia, I have thought only of you" -Ifurita from
El
Hazard
Copyright 2000 Casim Neff

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