Policenauts Unwrapped

As excited as I was about playing Policenauts in English, when I actually got my discs, I never even bothered to open it up. I still don't have the time to really give it my full attention, but I thought it might be nice to show it off for anyone who's never seen a Japanese Playstation game.

(Beware, awful webcam pictures in store)



I myself don't own many Japanese games and I guess that makes sense; not having a machine capable of playing the games will do that. The only one I've owned in recent times was a copy of Final Fantasy V.



Anyways, I was sort of surprised to see how games are wrapped in Japan. I'm not sure you would call it shrink wrapped, the plastic loosely hangs off the jewel case like an envelope. The back contains a surprising amount of English, rather than you try and strain your eyes to read it off my awful pictures.

"In the year 2010, Mankind made it's first great advance into space with the completion of the first human space colony "Beyond Coast". Three years later, 5 policemen, charged with the responsibility of maintaining the security of these colonists, arrive on the "Beyond Coast". Gatse Becker, Joseph Sadaoki Tokugawa, Salvatore Toscanini, Ed Brown and Jonathan Ingram. These 5 policemen, the Earth's elite, formed a new force of Space Police known as "Policenauts"."

Since the game isn't shrink wrapped, the plastic envelope is sealed with a small strip of tape. I wanted to try and preserve it in it's state, but unfortunately the tape was torn in the process. After opening the jewel, I found something that those who purchased multidisc games back in the day were well acquainted with, loose discs. I could do nothing but sigh a sigh that only discontent can bring among a man.



The game itself was in good condition despite being jumbled around while flying half way around the world. Disc 1 has a picture of Jonathan Ingram holding a gun while smoking a cigarette, not too surprising considering that this game is done by a Hideo Kojima. The art on the disc is of fantastic quality, looks like Japan got a much better deal with Playstation games than we did.



Disc 2 has a contrasting picture of a pale man with long pink hair, the same that is seen on the cover. Since I've only read brief summaries and seen pictures, I'm sort of clueless on who this man is supposed to be. My gamers intuition tells that this guy isn't the nicest of men. Once again, the art on the disc is stunning.



My favorite part of opening new games has always been the first whiff of the printed ink laid upon the pages of the manual. Even though my copy was a brand new one, I wasn't really expecting a heavy scent from it. Maybe it's my lucky day though, the thirteen year old manual still has a faint smell that was heaven as it wafted up my nostrils.

As for the manual itself, understandably, there's lots of Japanese involved, meaning I can't read it. Here's some pictures of it anyways.

Table of Contents


Controls(Yes, the game thankfully has mouse support, making this point and click affair much simpler in an emulator)


The storyline I presume?


The characters, listed are Jonathan Ingram, Ed Brown, Karen Hojyo and Tony Redwood.


More characters, Meryl Silverburgh, Gatse Becker, Joseph Sadaoki Tokugawa.


Lastly, we have some Japanese emblems, I'm not sure how important they'll be to the story, but I can't imagine they'll be too prominent.

That's all then, I still have other things I need to play, but I thought I might as well crack this sucker open. Sorry again for the poor quality photos, hopefully they're better than nothing.