THE CONVENI 2 (Playstation, 1996 Masterpiece, 1997 Human) FAQ v0.001 I. Introduction. II. Overview. III. To Do. IV. Version History, Credits & Miscellany ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I. Introduction Yes... you set up and run a convenience store. This is one of those bizarro Japanese sims that never made it across to North America, which is sort of a shame because management games like this have always fascinated me. It's very similar to Pizza Tycoon for the PC, in the way of you have to pick a location for your store, furnish it, hire staff, and choose merchandise, down to which shelf holds what. There's oodles of Japanese text which I can't read, so for now this is a very basic once-over of the game with minimal in-depth information. This will change as I attack it with a kanji dictionary and work things out. =P II. Overview Alright, so you actually are playing! Yay! =P OK. Once you start, you're hit with a menu which I don't know what is for. (This theme will come up a lot.) The first option brings you to another menu where you can enter your name; the menu items on the far left are for choosing hiragana, katakana, selected kanji, and Western letters. The last option is to confirm it. So, enter your name. The next thing that shows up is a map selector. Choose the area that catches your eye most. This may have something to do with the difficulty of the game, I don't know yet. After your map selection, you get to choose your location. You are presented with an isometric view of the map. Allowable locations are in blue; each location has a different 'rental price' attached to it. There are probably other factors listed in the box but I haven't translated them yet. Once your location is chosen, here we get into the meaty part. Choose your store size - small, medium or large. The only one I've been able to pick is small, so small it is. Then you can choose what type of merchandise your store carries. The first choice I don't know, the second is beer(!) and the third is a red cross, which I take to be bathroom stuff. You can choose as many as you like. Then THE MENU comes up. This is where all the important stuff happens, at least from what I've seen so far. First option: place furnishings. Here you have a variety of racks, counters and the like. There seem to be different sized cash counters (I assume for high volume stores you need a big counter), three or four different types of rack, a copier, what may be a fax machine, etc, etc. If you pick a rack, you get to choose what goes on it. Candy, pop, what I assume to be ramen (noodle cups?), toiletries, cereal... =) Once you pick a piece of furniture, you place it where you like in the store. The L and R keys rotate it to your preferred facing. The isometric view of the store is not that great (graphics are not this game's strong suit), so the developers have conveniently provided an overhead mini-map of the store that greatly aids in positioning things. Second option: move an item. This works exactly as if you'd just selected it and are placing it for the first time. Very simple. Third option: select a pre-furnished store. Study these stores. They have something to them that I don't; I can't get anyone to come in the stores I make myself! Fourth option: trash a piece of furniture. Self-explanatory. Fifth and Sixth options: presents you with two very similar options that I don't know what do yet. Seventh option: done. Once you're done, you're presented with menus to pick your hours of operation, and then your staff (who all have indecipherable stats so far). And then away you go. You get to watch people scurry in and out of your store, your staff restock the shelves and do maintenance, and that's about it so far. You can pause the game and inspect individual customers (how much money they have, and other stuff I don't know). As it stands, the game isn't terribly exciting, except for the warm feeling of building a store and making lots of money. As I translate stuff and figure out what the hell everything is, I'm sure it will get more involving, but this will take time. III. To Do For the next version I plan to have the first few menus translated, and firm translations on the rack merchandise and furniture. And maybe an explanation as to what the prefab stores have going for them. IV. Leftovers History June 2/01: v.001 I bought the game today (at long last!) and tinkered with it to get a feel for it. Very preliminary guide groundwork laid. This is going to be a long-term project. =) Credits: Tim Pang at Momoyama (http://www.regicorp.com/index.html) for managing to hold onto this game for two years after I first saw it at his shop before I came back home and bought it. =P Good luck with the new store, dude. Sony, Human and Mastermind, for creating and distributing such a cute and lovable game. =P Contact: You can get a hold of me for complaints, compliments or new information at either keiichido@hotmail.com or gouf@sympatico.ca. That's all (for now), folks. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This document is (c)2001 Dom Tetreault. If you feel the need to use this FAQ somewhere, that's fine as long as you credit me. This is going to take a shitload of effort and I'd really hate to think someone is riding on my work.