Momotarou Dentetsu (Famicom)
Guide by E. Phelps, ver. 1.0
(aka LastBossKiller)
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- - - = = = === Disclaimer === = = = - - -
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This document may not be reproduced under any circumstances except for
personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise
distributed publicly without advance written permission by the author. Use of
this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is
strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright.
Copyright 2015 E. Phelps
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- - - = = = ====== Intro ====== = = = - - -
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Momotarou Dentetsu (or "Momotarou Electric Railway") is a board game
style NES/Famicom game released by Hudson in 1988. This is the first
installment in what has become a hugely popular, long running series in
Japan. The name is a parody of the classic folktale Momotarou Densetsu ("The
Legend of Momotarou"), and the game features characters from the story.
A sequel was also released on the NES/Famicom, Super Momotarou Dentetsu,
which is significantly better. If you are familiar with that, then both play
similarly. This version does not feature the cards, and in this version, each
character has their own goal destination, so you are not racing to get to the
same location. There is also no God of Poverty. In total, there is much less
opportunity for strategy in this game, and you are mostly relying on the luck
of the dice. But I still find it kind of fun, and it's interesting to see how
this series all started.
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- - - = = = = Getting Started = = = = - - -
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At the game startup, you will have the following four options:
ゲームを はじめる - "Begin game"
プレイヤーの へんこう - "Change players"
ルールの へんこう - "Change rules"
メッセージスピードの へんこう - "Change message speed"
These options are explained in detail below.
---Begin Game
The game will start using the options as they are set. First, you will be
asked if you'd like to change the ordering of the players. Choose はい ("Yes")
and the game will scramble the player turn order.
---Change Players
When you select the change player option, you will be taken to a new screen.
First, you will have to select the number of players from the following
options:
ふたり - Two
さんにん - Three
よにん - Four
Next, for each character, you will have to select if they are a human (ひと)
or a computer (C1, C2, etc). For each player, you will be asked to enter
their name. You can use the Japanese alphabet, and the options もどる ("Go
back") and おわり ("End"). Press "Start" when you are happy with the name.
---Change Rules
You will be asked to choose how the winner of the game is decided. The
options are:
ねんすう - "Number of years". The game ends after the set number of years. The
winner is the person who nets the most profit from assets on the last
year.
しゅうえき - "Earnings". The game ends when a player gains the set amount of
money in profits at the end of a year.
ももたろうランド - "Momotarou Land". This option is only available if all the
players are human. The game ends when a player purchases the Momotarou
Land (ももたろうランド) asset in Okayama (おかやま), a city in the Western
end of the main Japan island. The asset costs 50おく円, which is huge,
and will take a very long time to play. It has a different ending than
the other two options.
---Change Message Speed
The options are:
はやい - "Fast"
ふつう - "Normal"
おそい - "Slow"
Even if you set the speed to slow, you can hold down "A" to make the text
scroll faster, so this is probably a good option for non-Japanese speakers.
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- - - = = = === How to Play === = = = - - -
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---Victory Condition---------------------------------------------------------
The victory condition for winning the game will depend on the game option
that you set. See the "Getting Started" section above for an explanation.
If you are playing with the "Number of years" rule, then the game will
automatically end after the pre-set number of years has passed. The winner is
the person who gained the most profits on the last year. Your profits are the
flashing number that is shown on the summary screen at the end of each year,
and is only obtained by owning assets. Even if you have all the money in the
world, if you did not buy any assets, then you will gain no profits and you
will lose. So getting a lot of money from dice rolls and reaching your goal
destination is meaningless if you don't spend that money on assets.
If you are playing with the "Earnings" rule, the game will end when a player
makes the pre-set amount of money in profits. Again, what is important is the
amount of profits you gain from your assets, not the amount of money you have
in hand.
---Currency------------------------------------------------------------------
Money is given in units of 万円 (10000 yen), which is about $100. If you have
10000万円, it will be shown as 1おく円, which is about 1 million dollars.
For example, 49950万円 would be shown as 4おく9950万円. It's weird for a non-
Japanese speaker, but I think you'll get used to it fast.
---Goal Destinations---------------------------------------------------------
At the beginning of your first turn, you will see some text shuffling very
quickly. Press "A" to stop the text on the name of a city. This city will be
your goal destination. When you reach this destination, you will receive some
money (which is often a large amount) and you will then choose the next goal
destination by stopping a text shuffle again.
To see where the goal is relative to you, press "B" during your turn to open
up a menu. Then select らいきデータ ("Next term data"). You will see a map.
Remember your train color. The game will cycle through all the player colors.
A colored dot represents a player's location, and the colored flag represents
that player's goal destinaton.
Unlike Super Momotarou Dentetsu, you do not need to beat the other players to
the goal desination.
---Assets--------------------------------------------------------------------
When you stop on a city, you will see a graphic representing that city, a
layout of the railroad tracks around the city, and some menu options. At a
city, you can purchase railroad lines and businesses. These assets will
return you a profit at the end of each year and are essential to building up
enough money to win the game.
To purchase a railroad line, select てつどう ("Railroad"), then choose one of
the paths shown at the center of the screen. The price is indicated next to
the path, and the name of a player will also be nearby if it is already
owned.
To purchase a business, select ぶっけん ("Article"). Businesses and the price
for each will be shown. The name of a player will also be shown on the right
if it is already owned.
If something happens to you (like a bad dice roll) and you owe more money
than you have, you will be forced to sell your assets at half the buying
price to cancel your debt. If you run out of assets, the remaining balance
will be waved (you won't have negative money). So don't buy assets unless you
have a money buffer to pay fees because you can't afford to buy businesses
and then sell them right back at half price. It seems that the game doesn't
make you sell your railroads, but just the other businesses, so it's probably
best to focus on buying railroads primarily until you accumulate a healthy
fortune.
To view all of your current assets, you can press "B" during your turn to
open the menu, then select こじんデータ ("Individual Data"). Select the player
whose assets you want to view.
There are also a few "hidden cities" on the map, where you can go shopping or
watch a music concert. In my experience, the shopping doesn't have any real
effect, and the concert costs you money, but you might gain more money after
the concert ends for some reason, so the investment is worth it.
---Flow of Time--------------------------------------------------------------
Each year is divided into four seasons. You take one turn per season, so you
get four turns per year. The current season is represented by the following
symbols that can be seen in the lower-left corner of the screen:
春 - Spring
夏 - Summer
秋 - Autumn
冬 - Winter
At the end of each year, you will see a summary screen that shows the profits
each business has brought you. In the upper-left corner, you see how many
years have passed (#ねんめ - "#th year"). The main list shows the categories
of all the business types and how much profit you received from each. The
business groups are:
てつどう グループ - "Railroad group"
ホテル グループ - "Hotel group"
デパート グループ - "Department store group"
レジャー グループ - "Leisure group"
たべものや グループ - "Restaurant group"
のうえん グループ - "Farming group"
At the bottom of the screen is shown the total profits this year (ごうけい)
and the amount of money you have in hand (みち金).
After all players have viewed their individual summary screens, a final
summary screen shows the comparison of all players. The flashing numbers are
the profits this year for each player and are the sole numbers determining
who is in first place, second place, etc. The current ranking is shown above
the player's name, indicated by #とう ("#th place").
At the beginning of a new year, sometimes a picture of Momotarou will appear
and it will be announced that all dice rolls will yield twice the gain (or
loss) during this year.
---Take the Ferry------------------------------------------------------------
Just South of your starting location (Tokyo - とうきょう) is an anchor icon.
Move onto that and you will be able to ride a ferry. This is a very important
part of this game as you'll need it to reach Hokkaido (the island to the
North), and it will take you to the opposite end of the main island as well,
which is important for reaching certain destinations quickly.
To take the ferry, select はい ("Yes") after landing on the anchor, then
select your destination. ながさき ("Nagasaki") will take you to the far left
side of the map, and くしろ ("Kushiro") will take you to the Northern island.
From a different ferry, you can select ちば ("Chiba") to return to this ferry
location near your starting point.
While on the ferry, you don't roll the dice to move, you move a set distance.
But you do roll to get random events each turn.
---Dice Roll Outcomes--------------------------------------------------------
On each turn, you roll dice two times. The first time is a one die roll and
you move the number of spaces that you roll. The second time, you roll two
dice which will determine what event happens to you during that turn. On a
side note, the dice will be flung after you release the "A" button, not when
you press it, so hold the "A" button down to continue shaking the dice.
Dice roll events are different depending on the season. In general, you are
pretty safe from bad events during the spring and summer, but during autumn,
and especially winter, the bad events are much more likely. Below, I list all
of the dice roll outcomes for each season.
Thanks to the following website from which this information was obtained:
http://wainn.gooside.com/indmofc.html
---Spring
Dice roll Event
2 + 1000万円
3 + 800万円
4 + 500万円
5 + 300万円
6 + 200万円
7 + 100万円
8 + 50万円
9 - 50万円
10 - 100万円
11 - 200万円
12 - 300万円
---Summer
Dice roll Event
2 + 2000万円
3 + 1800万円
4 + 1500万円
5 + 1000万円
6 + 800万円
7 + 500万円
8 + 300万円
9 + 200万円
10 + 200万円
11 - 100万円
12 - 100万円
---Autumn
Dice roll Event
2 A helicopter immediately takes you to your goal destination.
3 Acquire an asset for free. If there are no assets left, you get
1000万円.
4 Somone offers to buy one of your assets for four times its
value. Choose はい ("Yes") to sell it, or いいえ ("No") to
reject the offer. If you have no assets, you get 800万円.
5 Advance to the next city. If you are on the ferry, you lose
1000万円 instead.
6 The poorest player receives a free asset. If there are no
assets left, you get 500万円.
7 Roll a dice and move a number of spaces that are two times the
roll. If you are on the ferry, you lose 50万円 instead.
8 Lose a turn.
9 Gain profits that are based on how well you did in spring (not
sure about the exact effect here). If you have no assets, you
lose 500万円.
10 Instantly go to a random location by helicopter.
11 Lose profits that are based on how well you did in spring (not
sure about the exact effect here). If you have no assets, you
lose 2000万円.
12 Lose an asset. If you have no assets, you lose 2000万円.
---Winter
Dice roll Event
2 + 500万円
3 + 300万円
4 + 200万円
5 - 300万円
6 - 500万円
7 - 800万円
8 - 1200万円
9 - 2000万円
10 - 3000万円
11 - 5000万円
12 - 8000万円
---Endgame-------------------------------------------------------------------
When the game ends, a special congratulations will be give to some players by
three kings. The Hotel King (ホテル王) will congratulate the person who owns
the most value in hotels, the Railroad King (鉄道王) will congratulate the
person who owns the most value in railroad lines, and the Restaurant King
(外食王) will congratulate the person who owns the most value in restaurants.
In Super Momotarou Dentetsu, you would gain an extra monetary bonus for
getting one of these, but I don't think there is any bonus in this game.
The winner will be decided based on the rules that you set at the beginning
of the game, which is usually the person who gained the most profits in the
last year of play. That person's name will appear on the scrolling billboard
on top of the big building in the middle of the screen and that is the end of
the game.
Apparently, if you are able to buy all 15 hot springs that are scattered
about the game, you will view a graphic that shows naked girls at a hot
spring. I haven't tried this, but I've seen the graphic on a Japanese site:
http://www25.atwiki.jp/famicomall/pages/1264.html
---Strategy------------------------------------------------------------------
There is almost nothing to say about strategy in this game. You need to get
lucky with the dice first of all. But after that, try to buy a lot of assets,
focusing mostly on the railroads at first since you won't have to sell them
if you go into debt. But make sure you always have a healthy amount of money
in case you get a bad dice roll in winter and have to pay 5000 (or even more
if you're really unlucky).
It's better to have a lot of assets that are not expensive rather than one
asset that is very expensive because there is a chance that this asset will
be immediately lost on a dice roll during autumn. That doesn't mean you
should avoid expensive items, but just keep this problem in mind.
Focus on getting to your goal destinations since you will get a good amount
of money for each one you reach. Use the ferries to travel faster whenever
you can.
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- - - = = = ====== Menus ====== = = = - - -
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During your turn, press "B" to open the following menu:
らいきデータ - "Next term data". Shows the map.
こじんデータ - "Individual data". Shows player assets.
ひかくデータ - "Comparison data". Shows the estimated profits for all players
and their money in hand in a single summary screen.
およびでない - "Don't call". Close the menu.
When you arrive at a city, you will see the following menu options:
てつどう - "Railroads". Purchase railroad lines in this city.
ぶっけん - "Articles". Purchase businesses in this city.
しさんひょう - "Balance sheet". See all your currently owned assets.
かわない!! - "Don't buy!!". Leave the city.
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- - - = = = === Conclusion === = = = - - -
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I hope you found this guide useful. If you have information that you'd
like to contribute or other suggestions for how the guide can be made better
or if you find any mistakes, please send it to
[email protected]. I
will give you the proper credit for your help.
Thanks to the NES FAQ Completion Project regulars for providing a fun
environment for exploring old, obscure games!
