Excerpts From Nonexistent Books

The hamlet of Kindling was founded as a logging camp in the Fyrewood during its clearcutting. When Prince-Bishop Leonard I made the area a nature preserve, it alone was not shut down, and along with the Old Forest Road that connects it to the rest of the world, it remains open and inhabited.

Officially, the people of Kindling are there only to support the forest’s regrowth and its study. A handful of small farms provide it with crops, a small mine with ores, and it also includes shops, an inn, and other amenities. Unofficially, the hamlet has two additional purposes: poaching, and the annual Flight Festival.

Poaching has been a problem for the Prince-Bishopric for decades, and the preserve’s rare and endangered animal life makes it a tempting target for the unscrupulous or the desperate. With wardens few and far between, it is all too often unpunished, although the official punishment can be as harsh as execution.

The Flight Festival is the hamlet’s other major draw, bringing scholars and amateurs alike to the area hoping for a glimpse of rare or unusual avian fauna. The majority arrive hoping for a glimpse of the extinct yellow-billed woodpecker, of course, but there are also lectures, guided tours, falconry, and other pursuits.

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One of the most enigmatic birds of the old Fyrewood was the yellow-billed woodpecker. As large as a hawk or eagle, according to the few stuffed skins that remain, it was only ever found in the deepest part of the Fyrewood. Despite being known to locals for centuries, no one had ever seen it nesting or breeding, and young animals were similarly totally unknown.

While never abundant, the yellow-billed woodpecker was driven to extinction as the result of the intensive logging of the Fyrewood before the personal union. Despite the pleas of ornithologists and other learned people of a scholarly bent, the logging concerns did not stay their axes even when they began recovering dozens of dead woodpeckers in the fallen trees.

In the years since then, with the regrowth of the Fyrewood, many scholars have continued to be fascinated by the yellow-billed woodpecker both for its large size and its sudden extinction–the first such bird to be wiped out in living memory. Funded by the Prince-Bishop himself, several expeditions per year have attempted to find surviving birds, to no avail.

Nevertheless, records of sightings persist, and not all of them can be explained away by the similarly-sized red-beaked woodpecker. Many hold out hope that this elusive species yet remains in the depths of the Fyrewood.

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Prince-Bishop Leonard I’d instructions, followed throughout his long reign and that of his successor, placed the Fyrewood off limits to hunting or development. With one exception, the area was patrolled by ducal game wardens empowered to seize, expel, or even execute trespassers.

The one exception was for scientific inquiry, which the Prince-Bishop supported wholeheartedly. As such, provision was made for a single small settlement in the interior of the Fyrewood, the town of Kindling, to serve as a base of support for forest and science. Tradesmen and merchants were permitted to settle there under strict rules, and a rotating group of scholars also took up residence at the Prince-Bishop’s pleasure.

Thanks to these protections, the Fyrewood soon began flourishing again and by the 100th anniversary of its protection it had largely regrown, and was a haven for many plants, animals, and other creatures that had been put under pressure by the intense settlement elsewhere nearby. Birds, especially, flourished, and the second Prince-Bishop, Leonard II, encouraged their study. An amateur ornithologist, he personally introduced several rare and endangered birds to the preserve and presided over the first Flight Festival.

With Leonard II’s recent death at age 86, his distant cousin Leonard III has inherited the Prince-Bishopric, and while he has not made his feelings known on the matter, many suspect that he would be more open than his predecessors to allowing the Fyrewood to be developed.

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The Fyrewood was so named both because of the frequent wildfires that used to sweep through the area and for its extensive exploitation for firewood and lumber a century ago.

As a result of a long-running land dispute between the Grand Duchy of Radiata and the Bishopric of Scalling, the Fyrewood was claimed by neither as both advanced their claims to the city of Oldport down the river. As a result, the Fyrewood was governed by the laws of neither, setting the stage for intensive and destructive exploitation. By the time the two entities were joined in personal union by the Prince-Bishop Leonard I, and the dispute settled, hardly any trees remained in the Fyrewood outside of its deepest reaches.

In response, the Prince-Bishop declared the area a nature preserve, and refused to allow any logging, hunting, or other exploitation for the remainder of his long reign. His great-nephew and successor, Leonard II, followed the same policy. Now that the throne has passed to a more distant cousin, who succeeded them as Leonard III, there is some hope among loggers and hunters that the area may be reopened.

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Title: Cowboy Guns: Rail Wars
Developer: Chuo Team
Publisher: Pilcom Corporation
System: Musjido 32
Release Date:
JP: N/A
NA: June 6, 1998
EU: February 12, 1999

With the localization of Kauboigan 4: Tetsudō sensō, a confusing situation arose. The first game in the series had been localized as Western Guns by Glowbe USA, but had released as Kauboigan, or Cowboy Guns, in Japan. When Chuo Team had localized their own game, it had been as Cowboy Guns. But when Glowbe was prohibited from using the Kauboigan name in Japan, they called their next game Seibu no jū or Western Guns.

The result was Glowbe’s games being Western Guns in Japan and Cowboy Guns in North America and Europe, while Chuo Team’s games were Cowboy Guns in Japan but Western Guns in North America and Europe. As game journalist Lance Oaks said in 2006 “it’s a naming scheme that seems deliberately designed to sow confusion among fans and scholars alike.”

The name confusion aside, Cowboy Guns: Rail Wars was a largely faithful port, though the evil Mr. Baron was changed to Mr. Barron, and Satan was recast as a demon named Asmodean. The Musjido 32 was more popular in North America than in Japan, and Cowboy Guns: Rail Wars saw healthy sales, but it was also outsold in every respect by the competing game on the Phonos FunSystem. High demand and low supply has made Cowboy Guns: Rail Wars one of the most sought-after games for the Musjido 32 in recent years; it is often cited as the third most-expensive game on the system after the Summer Championship 1999 multicart and the first-run grey Tale of Sayre that was pulled from distribution.

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Title: Kauboigan 4: Tetsudō sensō (カウボーイガン 4: 鉄道戦争)
Developer: Chuo Team
Publisher: Pilcom Corporation
System: Musjido 32
Release Date:
JP: September 13, 1997
NA: N/A
EU: N/A

Unlike Zykaya, which signed an exclusivity deal with Phonos, Pilcom published games for both the Musjido 32 and the Phonos FunSystem (as well as the Japan-exclusive JEC-PC). Under pressure from Musjido to release an RPG for their system, Pilcom commissioned Chuo Team to develop a new entry in their Kauboigan series immediately after the release of Kauboigan III. Development lagged due to Chuo’s unfamiliarity with 3D and the Musjido 32’s infamously poor developer kit, but the competed game was eventually released in fall 1997.

Kauboigan 4 is an all-3D game with a theme of grand strategy in addition to its RPG elements. It sees the player commanding a party of three, Ken, Viki, and Zeke, while attempting to wrest control of a complex railroad network from an evil robber baron named, fittingly enough, Baron. El Conejo returns from Kauboigan III as a neutral force who may be courted or fought as he seeks to sabotage rail lines, and other characters from the earlier game appear as NPCs as well. By capturing, holding, and defending their rail network from Mr. Baron, Ken and his companions can eventually build up the strength to challenge him and learn about his true backer: Satan, the Devil himself.

While regarded as a minor classic, Kauboigan 4 was only a modest seller in Japan. This is largely due to the Musjido 32’s lukewarm performance in that market, as Kauboigan 4 topped the Musjido sales charts for some time.

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Title: Western Guns 2: Sheriff’s Law
Developer: Zykaya Co. Ltd., Glowbe USA
Publisher: Glowbe USA
System: Phonos FunSystem
Release Date:
JP: N/A
NA: August 22, 1997
EU: March 29, 1998

The Phonos FunSystem proved to be nearly as popular in North America and Europe as in Japan, and as a result Glowbe USA localized the game for both markets in 1997-1998 as Western Guns 2: Sheriff’s Law. Other than a slightly dodgy translation, the game was largely identical to Seibu no jū aside from a few minor changes. The priest character, Pope, was altered to a “philosopher” to avoid offending religious sensibilities, and the “Whorehouse Missions” on Disc 2 were dummied out (though still present on disc and fully translated).

Western Guns 2: Sheriff’s Law sold more units in North America than all previous games in the series combined, and sales in Europe were strong as well. So many copies were printed, in fact, that it remains available for less than $10 in North America to this day.

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Title: Seibu no jū (西部の銃)
Developer: Zykaya Co. Ltd., Glowbe Co. Ltd.
Publisher: Zykaya Co. Ltd.
System: Phonos FunSystem
Release Date:
JP: September 2, 1996
NA: N/A
EU: N/A

Despite the failure of Urutora Kauboigan in Japan, the (relatively) strong sales numbers of its localization Ultra Western Guns in North America led to a sequel. Zykaya developed the title in-house under license from Glowbe, fronting both the development and marketing costs. Legally prohibited from using the name “Kauboigan” thanks to a settlement with Chuo Team, the game was instead titled Seibu no jū, a translation of the Western Guns title that had been used in North America.

The Musjido 32 console was, by 1996, proving to be a fantastic boondoggle for the formerly dominant console and game manufacturer. Its bizarre 4-lobed controller was off-putting to many, and its use of ROM cartridges was at odds with the industry move toward optical media. Zykaya, in particular, had been courted by digital audio maker Phonos to sign an exclusive license for their games to appear on the upcoming FunSystem console, and Seibu no jū wound up being their first RPG for the console.

Using improved 2D sprites for the overworld that moved around 3d environments, Seibu no jū was in many ways less graphically advanced than Chuo Team’s Kauboigan III, but it also featured fully-animated cutscenes and a full orchestral soundtrack streamed off the disc, and was packaged as a deluxe 4-CD set with 2 play discs, a soundtrack, and a ‘making of’ VCD.

Positioned as a sequel to Urutora Kauboigan, it features a roster of 12 possible recruitable characters plus two secret characters for a total of 14. Sharps, Jane, and Mouse from Urutora Kauboigan return, with the undead Yule as one of the secret characters. The others include a Native American healer, an eccentric inventor, and a hyper-intelligent prairie dog. The game introduces a distinct steampunk element, with elaborate machines and technology that far exceeds the stated setting of 1885. The heroes find themselves caught in between the steampunk machinations of a new and corrupt territorial governor and a group of brutal renegade natives dedicated to his overthrow, with both eventually being swept aside by a new, supernatural threat in the form of the Anasajikira.

Thanks in part to the move to the popular FunSystem, Seibu no jū was a hit in Japan, and was one of the first games inducted into the Phonos FunSystem’s “Hall of Phame” budget rerelease series.

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Title: Kauboigan III: Aratana teki! (カウボーイガン III: 新たな敵)
Developer: Chuo Team
Publisher: Pilcom Corporation
System: Ultra PlayCom
Release Date:
JP: May 17, 1995
NA: N/A
EU: N/A

Fresh off the success of Kauboigan 2, Chuo Team began work on a follow-up for the Ultra Musjido. Utilizing the new Ultra XF chip, Kauboigan III: Aratana teki! featured cutting-edge pre-rendered graphics, an isometric viewpoint, elaborate animations, and a few elements that used rudimentary 3D graphics (the mine cart escape, the secret Saucer bosses, the final boss). Chuo licensed a graphics compression technology from Fenix Co. to fit the game on a cartridge, the same one used on Sea of Stars and Polaris Blow in 1995 and 1996.

Kauboigan III allowed players to select three playable characters from a roster of nine. Ken, Viki, and Zeke returned from Kauboigan 2, with the addition of six other characters: Chuo (a Chinese immigrant laborer), Mimi (a crusading reporter from back east), Butt (a black-hatted villain), El Conejo (a masked superhero), E (an amnesiac girl), and Ken (the hero of Samurai no Densetsu, reimagined as a veteran of the Boshin War). Each character had a different prologue chapter, character class and skills, leading to a large variety of replay value.

The story had a mysterious plague of undead rising to bedevil the Neeshy Territory, leading the chosen heroes to race against time to uncover the identity and motives of their leader, the mysterious Peruraida. Depending on player choices and characters chosen, there were 25 possible endings along with a “bad ending” for certain game overs and a “joke ending” that was only possible to achieve when using a New Game +.

The game saw strong if not exceptional sales on release in Japan. Despite being previewed in Musjido Might magazine as Cowboy Guns 2, Kauboigan III was never localized and released outside of Japan. There were several reasons given for this oversight–in a 2000 interview, former Chuo Team members claimed that the use of graphics compression presented insurmountable technical challenges for translation, while a letter published in Musjido Might in 1996 claimed that all localization efforts were being devoted to the new Musjido 32 console. In any case, it was not available in English until a fan translation group managed to reverse-engineer the compression code and insert an English script in 2002, an effort that Chuo Team gave its unofficial blessing.

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Title: Cowboy Guns
Developer: Chuo Team
Publisher: Xtreem Games
System: Ultra Musjido Multimedia System (UMMS)
Release Date:
JP: N/A
NA: October 3, 1994
EU: January 17, 1995

Fresh off the success of Kauboigan 2, Chuo Team hired Xtreem Games to localize the title for the North American and European markets. Xtreem was somewhat notorious for taking liberties with its translations but producing a result that was entertaining if not wholly faithful to the original. Xtreem removed all light gun support, and its translation renamed the four main characters as Klint, Steve, Bikki, and Wayne. They also produced a new manual in-house which emphasized the game’s humor and cartoonishness, and replaced the original soundtrack with one from their in-house composer.

Despite the changes, which made the narrative link between the game and Western Guns! difficult to parse, the game was a decent seller in North America but a major hit in Europe, where it was #1 for three months straight. Its North American version has since become a highly sought-after collectible, while conversely its European version is an extremely common find in PAL territories.

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