I had the opportunity to buy a copy of the Famicom Shadowgate game with the manual for $12. You probably know that I am a big Shadowgate fan (I designed the Shadowgate Lands site). I bought the copy of Shadowgate and I waited. A week later I received my Famicom copy of Shadowgate.

I know that the original Shadowgate game was designed in the United States by Karl Roelofs and Dave Marsh. I figured my Famicom copy of Shadowgate would be the same as the US Version...except Japanese writing of course. Boy I was wrong.

I noticed three lousy differences between the two games. In Famicom Shadowgate, you have to have "move" selected to move. In the US version move is automatically used if no command is selected. In the room with Key 3 and the shark, the shark swims off the screen on the US version while he stays on the screen in the Famicom game. Third: the pointers are slightly different ;)

The Famicom Shadowgate manual has a few neat drawings in it, including a magna-style drawing of Lord Jair. For those of you who want to know, yes I did complete the Famicom version of Shadowgate. No, I don't read Japanese. Go figure.