_____ ._

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
_____ .__
/ \ _____ ____ |__| ____
/ \ / \\__ \ / ___\| |/ ___\
/ Y \/ __ \_/ /_/ > \ \___
\____|__ (____ /\___ /|__|\___ >
\/ \//_____/ \/

____. .__ .___.___
| | ______ _ __ ____ | |_______ ___.__. | | |
| |/ __ \ \/ \/ // __ \| |\_ __ < | | | | |
/\__| \ ___/\ /\ ___/| |_| | \/\___ | | | |
\________|\___ >\/\_/ \___ >____/__| / ____| |___|___|
\/ \/ \/

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
for the Famicom

(A Guide by Lagoona)

Table of Contents:
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

* Introduction
* Game Controls
- Getting started
- Menu Screen
* Game Mechanics
- Basics
- The Magic Jewel
* Play modes
- 1 player mode
- 2 player mode
- Flash
* General tips
* Block elements
* Questions
* Version history
* Legal stuff
* Credits

------------------------------++++++++++++++++--------------------------------
+ Introduction +
------------------------------++++++++++++++++--------------------------------

Welcome to my guide covering the pretty obscure Famicom title Magic Jewelry
II. After writing a guide for the first Magic Jewelry it was only a short step
to doing one for the sequel as well, especially as there was no FAQ available
before this one... As far as I'm aware, this title - developed by Hwang
Shinwei and published by RCM in 1991 - only appeared outside of Asia on a
'multiple games' cartridge (150 in 1 or so), without the official license from
Nintendo.

Magic Jewelry II is a Tetris-inspired puzzle game. It is almost exactly the
same as Columns on other systems such as the Master System. Generally, you try
to get as many points as possible by making combos of blocks disappear that
fall from the top of the screen and that you can align afterwards.

The game has (at least part of) its name from the fact that the building
blocks consist of differently colored jewels. The 'magic' part possibly is
there only for fancyness. ;-)

-----------------------------+++++++++++++++++--------------------------------
+ Game Controls +
-----------------------------+++++++++++++++++--------------------------------

As a premise, here's the NES Joypad:
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

|#|
________________|#|__________________________________
| _________________________________________________ |
| | |_____________| | |
| | ___ ,-------------. | |
| | | | |_____________| Nintendo | |
| | ___| |___ ,-------------. | |
| | | ,-. | |SELECT START| ___ ___ | |
| | |___ `-' ___| ;=============` |,-.| |,-.| | |
| | | | | === === | |._,| |._,| | |
| | |___| ;=============. '---' '---' | |
| | |_____________| B A | |
| ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ |
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
(the cross in the left part is the direction pad)

In the menus:
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

Start - On the title screen: go to the READ ME screen and the OPTIONS screen
On the OPTIONS screen: confirm choice and go to the next option
Start game on the 1 player / 2 player screen

Select - On the OPTIONS screen: on the third option deselect/reselect blocks
to be counted for the jewel score
1 player / 2 player screen: change between 1 and 2 player option

A button - Confirm option choice and go to the next option

B button - Confirm option choice and go to the next option

Direction pad - Move the cursor to the desired option

When playing the game:
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

Start - Pause and resume game for player 1

Select - Pause and resume game for player 2

A button - Change order of jewels downwards (lowest of the three becomes
highest)

B button - Change order of jewels upwards (highest of the three becomes
lowest)

Right on the direction pad - Move the block of three jewels to the right

Left on the direction pad - Move the block of three jewels to the left

Down on the direction pad - Makes the block of three jewels fall down faster

Up on the direction pad - ( not used )

_______________
Getting started
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

First of all, a warning. Get your remote ready to turn down the music volume
and be prepared to turn on the radio or to put a CD you like in your stereo...
and now, on to eliminating sets of jewels and racking up highscores!

At the title screen press START to get to the READ ME, where you find step by
step directives of how to navigate in the following MENU screen until you can
play the game. I adapted the directives and some spelling for a better
understanding. I will add the unaltered version later in this document.

For now, press START to get to the MENU screen:

___________
Menu Screen
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
_______________________________________
||/ --------- \||
|| {1} | STAGE | ||
|| --------------------------------- ||
|| || 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 || ||
|| --------------------------------- ||
|| 1. JEWELRY , , , , ||
|| 2. FRUIT |__| |__| ||
|| 3. CARD , , , , ||
|| {2} 4. HAT {3} |__| |__| ||
|| 5. DICE , , , , ||
|| 6. BLOCK |__| |__| ||
|| 7. MAHJONG ||
|| ||
|| | |MUSIC: | | | |FLASH: | | ||
|| | | {4}| | | | {5}| | ||
|| | | ON | | | | ON | | ||
|| | | OFF | | | | OFF | | ||
|| | | | | | | | | ||
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

The screen is divided into five sections, each corresponding to a menu option.

Going from top to the bottom (and from left to right), you go through the
options by pressing START: (move the cursor with the direction pad)

{1} Stage select:
This determines what difficulty level you start at. The higher the
number the faster the blocks fall down. And this number also
indicates how many rows at the bottom of the play field will be
filled with randomly colored blocks when you start.

{2} Block design select:
Select what the 'jewels' look like. The alternatives are self-
explaining and are displayed in menu option {3}.

{3} Block select:
Deselect/reselect kinds (colors) of jewels that are counted in the
jewels counter (see Game Screen) by pressing the SELECT button.
Deselected jewels are blacked out.
You can also see the block design you chose in option {2}.

{4} Music:
Choose ON to play with music and OFF to play without it.

{5} Flash:
Choose ON to play with a time limit in 2 player mode (no effect for
single player).

Next is the screen where you select if you want to play in 1 player or in 2
player mode. (NOTE: if you wait for a while on the intro screen without going
to the options menu, you will get here automatically.) So make your choice and
start playing!

-----------------------------++++++++++++++++++-------------------------------
+ Game Mechanics +
-----------------------------++++++++++++++++++-------------------------------

______
Basics
¯¯¯¯¯¯

The game concept is quite simple. Blocks are falling down from the top of the
screen in a 'quantized' movement. Each of these blocks consists of three
elements in the form of jewels on top of each other. These jewels have
different colors (also their form is different, but the color is more easily
recognizable).

In order to prevent the screen from filling up and the blocks from reaching
the top of the screen - which means GAME OVER -, you have to arrange the
jewels such that they form rows of (at least) 3 of the same kind, either
horizontally, vertically or diagonally. Also more complex arrangements are
possible, of course. This causes said row to disappear and the blocks above
the vanished ones to fall down and fill the free spots. And the more jewels
you make disappear, the more points you get!
But mind you - the longer you play and the further you progress, the faster
the blocks fall and thus the more difficult the game becomes!

As the player, you can move the blocks sideways and switch the order of the
jewels, but unlike in Tetris, you cannot rotate the blocks. The rearranging
works as follows:

..with (R), <O> and [B] representing red, orange and blue jewels,
respectively...

_____ _____ _____
| | | | | |
| (R) | | [B] | | <O> |
|_____| B button |_____| A button |_____|
| | <--------- | | ---------> | |
| <O> | | (R) | | [B] |
|_____| ---------> |_____| <--------- |_____|
| | A button | | B button | |
| [B] | | <O> | | (R) |
|_____| |_____| |_____|

Using this, it's rather easy in the beginning to arrange three jewels of the
same color in a row.

E.g.

_____ _____
| | | |
| (R) | | (R) |
|_____| |_____|_____ _____ _____ _____
| | | | | | | |
| (R) | | (R) | | (R) | (R) | (R) |
|_____| |_____|_____ |_____|_____|_____|
| | | |
| (R) | | (R) |
|_____| |_____|

Now, as an example of more complex arrangments possible, also including more
than one color:

_____
| |
| (R) |
|_____|_____ _____ _____ _____
| | | | |
| (R) | <O> | <O> | <O> |
|_____|_____|_____|_____|
| |
| (R) |
|_____|_____
| |
| (R) |
|_____|

With some luck or even better, careful planning, you can cause chain reactions
with the jewels filling the disappearing ones' holes that may clear half a
screen and net you a lot of points.

_______________
The Magic Jewel
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

After every 70 jewels that you make disappear, a bonus block consisting of
three x-symbols appears. This block makes all jewels of the one color
disappear, on which it lands. With this, you advance one level and the speed
of the falling blocks increases a bit. Thus, the further you get and the more
jewels you make disappear, the more challenging the game becomes as you have
less time to react and arrange your blocks.
The Magic Jewel is NOT indicated in the 'next block' indicator (see next
part).

NOTE: If you deselect a block color in the corresponding menu option, all
jewels of that color will not count towards the Magic Jewel. So if you
deselect all 6, you will never get one.

------------------------------++++++++++++++----------------------------------
+ Play modes +
------------------------------++++++++++++++----------------------------------

_____________
1 Player mode
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
This is your basic mode where you tackle the highscore alone.

____________________________________
|| |_| |_|_|_|_|_|_| ||
|| |_| |_|_|_|_|_|_| SCORE {2} ||
|| |_| |_|_|_|_|_|_| ||
|| | |_|_|_|_|_|_| JEWELRY {3} ||
|| next |_|_|_|_|_|_| ||
|| block |_|_|_|_|_|_| LEVEL {4} ||
|| {1} |_|_|_|_|_|_| ||
|| |_|_|_|_|_|_| ||
|| |_|_|_|_|_|_| ||
|| |_|_|_|_|_|_| ||
|| |_|_|_|_|_|_| ||
|| |_|_|_|_|_|_| ||
|| |_|_|_|_|_|_| ||
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

The center part of the screen (6 units wide and 13 units high) is the one you
play in.

To the upper left of it you can see:
{1} what block consisting of what jewels will come next

In the right part of the screen you can see:
{2} your score
{3} how many jewels you made disappear
{4} your level (this determines the blocks' speed)

_____________
2 Player mode
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
Here, two players play simultaneously. However, there's no interaction between
the two play fields.
____________________________________
|| |_|_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_|_| ||
|| |_|_|_|_|_|_|{1}#|_|_|_|_|_|_| ||
|| |_|_|_|_|_|_|# #|_|_|_|_|_|_| ||
|| |_|_|_|_|_|_|#{2}|_|_|_|_|_|_| ||
|| |_|_|_|_|_ oo{3}oo |_|_|_|_|_| ||
|| |_|_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_|_| ||
|| |_|_|_|_|_| o{4}o _|_|_|_|_|_| ||
|| |_|_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_|_| ||
|| |_|_|_|_|_| o{5}o _|_|_|_|_|_| ||
|| |_|_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_|_| ||
|| |_|_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_|_| ||
|| |_|_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_|_| ||
|| |_|_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_|_| ||
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

Here, all info is indicated in the center of the screen between the two play
fields:

{1} Next block indicator for player 1
{2} Next block indicator
{3} Scores of player 1 (upper line) and player 2 (lower line)
{4} Jewelry counter of player 1 (upper line) and player 2 (lower line)
{5} Level indicator of player 1 (upper line) and player 2 (lower line)

__________
Flash mode
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
This mode is a variation of the normal 2 player mode. When activating the
Flash option in the options menu and choosing 2 player, there will be a timer
at the top of the screen, counting backwards from 5005 to zero (corresponding
to about 500 seconds).
So basically this is a race against time of who will get the most points in
the given time without going 'Game Over' by filling up the screen, because if
you do, you have to restart with 0 points (and less time).

------------------------------++++++++++++++++--------------------------------
+ General Tips +
------------------------------++++++++++++++++--------------------------------

Besides getting used to the basic flow of the game... get used to watch the
'next block' indicator to the upper left of the screen! It makes planning your
next step a lot easier.

Make good use of the Magic Jewel. Watch the 'Jewel' indicator to know when
it's going to appear (at multiples of 70), as it's not shown in the 'next
block' indicator.

More jewels disappearing at a time means more points (a six jewels combo
yields more than two three jewels combos) - keep this in mind when going for
the highscore. But don't take too much risk by building up jewels too high
when aiming for chain reaction combos unless you're really sure of yourself
and of what you're doig. :-)

Stick to playing with the basic Jewel block design when playing for
highscores, they are easily recognizable and distinguishable also on high
levels. Others may be more confusing.

If you're really desperate, you can pause the game (by pressing the Start
button). The 'next block' will still be visible. This gives you the time you
may need to plan how and where to place the next block(s).

When playing Flash mode and both players are good players already, the use of
'Down' on the direction pad to accelerate the block placing will more than
likely be the decisive factor, as this will give you more blocks in the given
time. But don't overdo it if you don't already see where you're goning to put
the next block, you'll also have less time to think on that. And you don't
want to give your opponent the satisfaction of a Game Over screen...

-----------------------------++++++++++++++++++-------------------------------
+ Block elements +
-----------------------------++++++++++++++++++-------------------------------

This section gives a short list of the jewels you encounter in the game and
their equivalent alternatives selectable in the menu.

Jewels:
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
Red - round.

Blue - square.

Green - square with slightly rounded corners.

Yellow - square with rounded corners.

Purple - square with strongly rounded corners.

Orange - square standing in a corner.

x x x - the magic jewel, three times a black x on a pale pink background.

Alternatives:
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
Jewels Fruit Card Hat Dice Block Mahjong

Red Apple Hearts Crown One Pink Sign 1
Yellow Banana Diamonds Cylinder Three Yellow Sign 2
Blue Peach A Pointy hat Two Green Sign 3
Purple Watermelon Spades Cowboy hat Four Purple Sign 4
Orange Lemon Clubs Melon Five Red Sign 5
Green Grapes Star Boyscout hat Six Blue Sign 6

(Heh, sorry for the Mahjong ones - I have no idea how the stones/signs are
called.)

In my opinion, the basic Jewels are the best to play with, their are all
readily and well distiguishable with strong colors. Others such as Dice or
Mahjong stones are a pain to recognize especially at higher levels.

-------------------------------+++++++++++++----------------------------------
+ Questions +
-------------------------------+++++++++++++----------------------------------

This section is dedicated to commonly asked questions. So far, there aren't
many... But I will update it whenever I feel the need of it - which means as
soon as somebody asks a question that isn't already answered in this guide.
So if you have a question, or have found a mistake or would like to have
something added, don't hesitate to contact me at: DrLagoona (at) hotmail (dot)
com.

__________

Q: What's your highscore in this game?

A: Starting on level 0, it's: Score: 98350 Yeah, I know it's not much,
Jewels: 649 but I never really tried for
Level 9 highscores...
__________

Q: Further up, you promised you'd add the READ ME menu word by word. Now,
where is it?

A: So you really want it? Then here it is:

READ ME

1. Move arrow to select stage
Push START to next field

2. Move arrow to select kind
Push START to next field

3. Move arrow to a block
Push SEL (=select) to disappear it
So the block can be not scored
Push START to next field

4. Move arrow to ON/OFF music
Push START to next field

5. Move arrow to ON/OFF Flash
If 2 player and Flash on
There be timer for contest
Push START to next screen

6. Move arrow to select 1P 2P
Push START to get ready

7. Push START to pause/restart Player 1
Push SEL to pause/restart Player 2

(The 'arrows' in the READ ME refer to the directions you can put in on the
direction pad, meaning 'up', 'down', 'left' and 'right'.)
__________

----------------------------+++++++++++++++++++-------------------------------
+ Version history +
----------------------------+++++++++++++++++++-------------------------------

Version 0.9 - Basic parts of the guide done, with table of contents and
the general structure, tips and ASCII header.
Version 1.0 - Added the READ ME after a certain comment. ;-) This is the
first official, accepted version.

-----------------------------+++++++++++++++----------------------------------
+ Legal Stuff +
-----------------------------+++++++++++++++----------------------------------

This guide is copyrighted 2007 by Lagoona.
The only websites allowed for hosting and public display are up to now

www.gamefaqs.com
www.neoseeker.com

No part of this file can be used without the permission of the author and
credits to the author. To get permission to host this guide on your website,
drop a line to DrLagoona (at) hotmail (dot) com, wait for an answer and abide
to it. Of course, you can also use this address if you have comments or
questions about my guide. Make sure you have <Magic Jewelry II> in the subject
line, or else I'll shred and eat the e-mail without reading it. ;-)

Magic Jewelry II is a trademark of RCM.

-------------------------------+++++++++++------------------------------------
+ Credits +
-------------------------------+++++++++++------------------------------------

..to Hwang Shinwei and RCM for creating and publishing this game.

..to http://www.network-science.de/ascii/ , as the header ascii was created
with this ascii-generator.

..to odino for pointing me to the game.

..to Osrevad - I slightly adapted his ASCII art of the NES pad.

..to me for writing this. ;-)

And thanks to CJayC for running GameFAQs.