FAMILY COMPUTER - GOLF JAPAN COURSE
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ゴルフ JAPAN コース
©1987 Nintendo
Release: 1987-02-21 (¥3500)
DiskCard FSC-GFJE
Golf Game
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Golf Japan Course is a golf game released by Nintendo and
featuring everyone's favorites plumber Mario. The game shares some
similarities with Golf, another Nintendo game released for the
Famicom system in 1984. The screen is divided into two vertical sections -
On the left, Mario stands in his traditional, and to the
last detail, red and blue outfit, ready to play. Data about the course
are displayed right above him. The list includes hole technical information,
current club, wind direction and how many times the player has played
so far. The screen on the right shows a detailed overhead view of the
course and the ball's current position. This view scrolls around and zooms-in
when the player gets close enough to the hole. Controls are straight forward
- the player just holds down the action button and moves left and right to change
the swing's speed and strength (from a 1 to 3 scale), and up and down to pick
a different club (from a list of 13). The game counts eighteen courses designed
from real Japanese gold courses. The title screen also gives
access to the Service Data, which was a way to access Nintendo's
official Tournament (see the info section for more information).
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Golf Japan Course was part of a special contest in Japan organized by
Nintendo. The extra options on the game's menu allowed players to
save not only their best scores, but also their names and addresses. Golf Japan Course
is one of the blue disk game that could be loaded onto a Disk Fax
(see F1 Race for more
information about Blue DiskCards). The Disk Fax machines, installed in
stores and special locations in Japan, were directly connected to
Nintendo's head offices and would send the information contained
on the disks. Consequently, players could send their best scores and
personal info to Nintendo and be part of the contest.
The deadline for Golf Course Japan was, it seems, April 30th, 1987. The prize was
a Golden Disk version of Golf Japan Course featuring an extra
unreleased course.
Apparently, a total of 5,100 gold disks were given away - the first 100 in a luxurious
'Kenji Miki' (designer of the game) box and the last 5,000 in
a Diskun yellow plastic case (Picture on the left).
Obviously, these disks are extremely rare today
and are sought after by Famicom collectors all around the world.
See the flyer in the Omake section on this page for more information.
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G
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Japanese GuideBook
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Japanese GuideBook
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Japanese GuideBook
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Click on picture to enlarge |
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Add your Pov here !
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P
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Golf Japan Course bears an obvious family resemblance with
Golf, released for the Famicom Disk in 1984 - the main
difference is the adjustable speed of the swings which greatly add to
the challenge of the game. While many parts of the graphics haven't
aged well they were more than adequate for the time - but I doubt you'll
play this more than once or twice. I also find Golf Japan Course
really hard - controls are immediately simple but careful management
of the strength meter is required to avoid sending the ball in orbit.
This part of the game can be really frustrating - Nintendo didn't
want to give these Golden Disks that easily it seems. Nonetheless,
Golf Japan Course is a fun game and will certainly bring tears of
nostalgia to anyone who happens to have enjoyed them back in the 80's.
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