Proto:Popful Mail (PC-88)

This page details one or more prototype versions of Popful Mail (PC-88).

A demo for the PC-88 version of Popful Mail was (likely) released in 1991. It advertised a release date of 1991/12/20 for the PC-8800 series and the PC-9801DO/DO+.

Character Changes

TATTO

• Fire Staff's basic damage was greatly increased, making every enemy he encounters a one-shot victory.

Location Changes

ELF WOODS

• Blacky was not scripted to appear in the 2nd area. This also removes his dialogue scene from the game.
• The 3rd areas jumps right to the Golem battle. Mail also gains Leather Armor and Wood Shield in the process, boosting her defense.

WIND CAVE

• Material and his entourage of enemies do not appear for their scripted session, skipping the entire dialogue scene.
• The 3rd area was taken from the DEVIANT DEN.

Additional Changes

With memory editing (damage, equipment, etc.) it is possible to notice what was and was not included with the demo release:

• The ability for the player to speak with NPC was left intact. The elf town was left completely intact, including the ability to speak to all the NPCs there, even entering the stores. Why Blacky was removed is unknown.
• Accessing the menu does not pause the game (which happens when pressing Down and the 2nd attack button at the same time). They did include menu features like the inventory page.
• Tatt's 3rd, 4th and 5th staff attacks were not included in the demo. Attempting to use them would freeze the game.
• Mail's Boomerang works fine, but trying to use a Dagger freezes the game.
• Mail and Tatt cannot die. The demo continues on even if either of them reach 0 HP.
• Defeating the Golem boss causes the game to be stuck in a loading cycle as it searches for non-existent data.
• Gaw does not appear to be coded into the demo.