Megaman PC & PC3

Break the death-grip of the ultimate computer! As Megaman, the robot wunderkid created to save the world, match your mettle against the mind of Dr. Wily, a megalomaniac with the hardware to match his ego!

Search Wily's mechano-botic complex, from it's mind-bending maze of electrified corridors, through giant whirling turbines and into paralyzing force fields. You must find the three keys into the core room! Leap pools of supercharged gunk. Pulverize ion-sucking Batimms and other insidious insectobots. Face a phalanx of slithering, seething cyborgs, all programmed to turn you into radioactive waste!

At last, confront Crorq, a megacomputer revived by the psychotic calculations of Wily's mad brian. Survive and challenge the mastermind behind the superbrain, Dr. Wily himself!

Start with your own powerful Plasma Cannon. Then snatch the ultimate weapons of the master robots you defeat:

• Blow Sonic Man to splinters and grab his steel-smashing Sonic Wave!

• Sizzle Volt Man into a whining mass of wires and acquire his Force Field!

• Demolish Dyna Man and gain his explosive Nuclear Detonator!

Holy Robot Rebellion! It's three times the thrills...three times the action...three times the fun! It's Megan Man 3.

Legions of once peaceful robots have been mysteriously transformed into a horde of humanity-hating berserk droids. Nobody is safe - least of all Mega Man. Armed with every android - annihilator ever invented, they're determined to reduce the super-powered cyborg into a heap of radioactive waste.

Can our hero outfight, outwit and out-robot the robots? Will Mega Man pulverize powerful robot-maniacs? Or will he meltdown? It's all up to you, as you join the battle in MEGA MAN 3: THE ROBOTS ARE REVOLTING!

Features:

• 7 rapid-fire levels of action and excitement.

• Demolish the master robots and gain their powers for the final cataclysmic clash.

• Call on all your trusty Mega Mind to outwit the enemies.

• Blast through a galaxy of mining stations in search of precious energy crystals.

MEGA MAN AND MEGA MAN 3 – He’s the world’s greatest cyborg superhero.  He’s Mega Man!  And now you can join him as he takes on the forces of evil in two of his wildest, most way out adventures!  In Mega Man, you must match your “metal” against the mind of Dr. Wily and his robotic creations, including Sonic Man, Volt Man, and Dyna Man!  Then, in Mega Man 3, you must crush a mysterious rebellion, as once peaceful robots are transformed into a horde of humanity-hating droids – and you’re first on their list!  Holy meltdown, Mega Man!

To be honest this is less of an actual article on the game than it is a comprehensive listing of all the other crap I have done on them before.

And it has been extensive!

I suppose I ought to explain where my love of MM PC started. It actually started on Mandi's Megaman Homepage. You see, back in the day it was the absolute best MM site out there. In fact it was the only MM site with much info on Megaman. It was so long ago, however, that all she had to say on the PC games was that she knew they existed, they sucked, and that she would not cover them.

Immediately I was intrigued! What were these mysterious PC games? Why had nobody done anything to find them? And did they indeed suck?

II searched high and I searched low. And I found nothing on the PC guys. Until I finally found someone who was willing to give me these very rare (at the time) games. But, in a cruel twist of fate, the games were not compatible with my graphics card! Nor with anyone else's apparently! And, for a long time, these were the only kind of sprites anyone could get from either game.

The game ran much too fast and I couldn't get to any boss from any game. These sprites came from the title and the intro found in MM1.

Soon after I found a place where a kid posted some bad drawings of the PC guys. I drew some crappy R&F styles "CDs" of them and gave them to Iceman to put in his Robot Masters database. I also posted pictures of them for Lysekoid's site. Still, I would not rest until I had the actual sprites from the game!

Eventually I got a new computer and that was able to take print screens of the fabled PC games. A community member named Stoneman also gave me MoSlow, so I was finally able to play the games.

They were horrible! But I finally was able to take screenshots. And they too ... were horrible! They were completely garbled up! Line by line I spent hours painstakingly remaking the sprites and when I was done ... I discovered someone else had already done it.

Well, I posted my sprites anyway.

Years later, I discovered the DOS Box and took full motion captures of all the enemies from the game. The dream was fulfilled! The crappy game was, at last, fully unleashed! Go me!

The story behind the PC games were that they were a 3rd party's attempt to make a Megaman game with approval form Capcom. Those days were pretty fast and loose with giving away licenses and Capcom didn't give a crap about what was done with the license (unlike today), so we got MMPC. There was no MM2 PC. The PC games were made to leech off the success of Megaman 3. One was made in 1990 (same year as MM3 NES was released) and the other 1992. And if you think they're the only ones with this mentality, you are mistaken. There were Tiger ports of Megaman 2 and Megaman 3, but not Megaman 1.

The Robot Masters from MMPC1 are unique, but by MM3 PC they seemed to have discovered the fine art of extracting graphics from the NES games. As a result the Robot Masters from MM3 PC are less unique than MM1 PC. They also seemed to have decided to more directly base their designs off Capcom's Robot Masters as the RMs look ... well, like other Robot Masters. Let's meet them, shall we? And Megaman too!

This is Megaman. The robot "wunderkid". In Megaman PC1 you have to run away from a large dog before you can set out to fight the three robot masters. It's a nice little intro stage until you realize that you can't beat the damned dog. After that it becomes a waste of time.

Megaman PC has the distinction of being the first game in the entire Megaman series to have an intro stage. Long before MM8 and certainly before MMX, MMPC beat them to it. Moreover, it's the first game to feature Megaman swimming. Of course this doesn't really make up for the fact that Megaman's drawn so very, very badly ... it looks like they based him off the American box art and not any premade Capcom sprites (which would've been oh so much better).

Sonicman. With the Sonic Wave. I've always felt he was sort of useless because it seems he really needs that gun of his to actually use his weapon. So what is he without it? He's also like Bubbleman since he had flippers and a scuba tank ... I wonder how he'd fare on land? It looks like his weapon is based on sonar just because he's an underwater type of boss and his sound waves bounce around the room.

Of course, somehow, Megaman can use the Sonic Wave without the stupid gun of Sonicman's.

Dynaman. Who has absolutely no relation to the later Dynamoman. Think of his full name as Dynamiteman. Because that's what his weapon is. Dynamite sticks. Oh, the game says it's a "Nuclear" Detonator, but come on. We can see what it really is. If it really was a nuclear weapon he, Megaman, Wily, and Wily's entire fortress would be a giant hole in the ground!

Or maybe it really is nuclear powered. Because Heatman, supposedly, is able to produce the heat of two suns and is still beaten over and over again without being able to melt Megaman into slag. Purists argue with me that official is official, but I ask you ... what is so Nuclear about Dynaman's Nuclear Detonator?

Voltman. Hi-Tech Expressions would use his sprite as a base for every other boss in the sequel. This guy creates Force Fields. An actually useful force field that doesn't fly off you like Leaf Shield, this one travels around with you like Skull Barrier. Except Voltman had it first. But, Voltman has to charge it on the power spikes in his boss room. Without that charge, I wonder how effective Voltman would be. He's one of those bosses that needs his room to fight. Outside of it, I imagine he's quite the wimp.

For the Megaman 3 bosses, it's best to consult the chart above to see who looks like who. I'll be referring to it as I go.

Waveman. Not to be confused with the Waveman who would later appear in Megaman 5. Nor should he be confused with Airman, with whom he is based on. Waveman really gets the short end of the stick on designs. While most of the PC designs can pass for original, Waveman's colors have not been changed to be at all original. Not that originality was really on the menu for Capcom for the robot master of MM2-3. Basically, the formula is "shirt" + belt + long gloves + large boots. It's there for Crashman, Quickman, Protoman, and yes, even Airman. Still they could have at least changed this Waveman's colors.

As for his weapon, it's the Water Shooter. One would think it'd come from those ... "holes?" ... on his chest. But they don't. He leaps in midair and stops (in midair, mind!) to shoot three droplets of water into the air. So I have no idea where the droplets come from. Maybe they come out of his chest and he, magically, shoots them upwards. Anyway, his weapon would later be used by Neptune who, God help us all, shoots Megaman with water. And he looks like the NES Waveman too.

Torchman. My personal favorite of the bunch. He's not much changed from his Magnetman base, but without that magnet on his head he can pass himself off as a decent robot master. I dunno why I like Torchman so much. His weapon, the Torch Arm, isn't anything special. Just a fireball. And his stage is set in a sewer. A sewer! Underneath some suburban neighborhood! What is Wily thinking? But there's just some hidden .... badassness about Torchman that make shim the clear winner for me.

Torchman himself would later appear in the EXE anime series through a twist of fate. The EXE anime came at a time close to 9-11. As such, the dubbing company didn't want to portray any firemen (who, FYI Capcom, puts out fires) in a bad light. They were the nation's heroes, after all. So they rechristened him Torchman. So not only is this Torchman US-only, but he's also a pretty shameless stand-in for Fireman, which is quite in the spirit of the original Torchman. Moreover, Fireman.EXE's weapon is the Fire Arm. In the anime that would make it the Torch Arm. Just like our boy Torch Man.

Complete coincidence? Maybe. Probably. Still, someone out there's looking out For Torchie. Maybe life in the sewer isn't so bad.

Sharkman. He's most people's favorite, but I just can't get into him. First off, his design, based somewhat shamelessly off Geminiman, has two giant chest plates sticking directly out of it. And, while that might work for Geminiman, I don't think it works quite so well for Sharkey. Because Sharkey, one would think, needs to swim. And those things? They look like they might interfere with that.

Still, Sharkman doesn't actually do any swimming. As a matter of fact, neither does Waveman. Which also bothers me. MMPC1 had a swimming Somicman. You'd think Sharkman would have some swimming action too. But no, he doesn't. His weapon isn't even really shark related. It's the Shark Boomerang. Upon doing research, I can say Sharkey uses either a Carlota or a Triller type of boomerang. The former is used to juggle and for trick catches (Sharkman shoot only one so it might be that he's using the latter type of boomerang) and the latter is used for fast catching and can go very, very fast even if the throwing motion is gentle and smooth. At first I thought it didn't even return back to you, but it actually does. If Megaman avoids it by jumping over it returns to him. If not it just keeps on going. Weird.

Sharkman was the very first PC Robot Master to get a modern revision in the form of Sharkman.EXE. Sharkman.EXE has absolutely nothing to do with the classic Sharkman. He doesn't even throw Boomerangs and is much more shark like in every single way.

Oilman. Not to be confused with the new Oilman. Apparently Keiji Inafune insisted two new robot masters be inserted into MM1 when they remade it. One was Timeman, who was pretty good. And the other was Oilman. Who, aside from being an ethnic slur, isn't quite so good. I mean ... his weapon gives off less damage than the buster! And it stays on the screen forever, so you have to wait forever to try again if you miss. And that Oil Slider of his ain' t all the great either. Now, Oilman from PC3 isn't too awesome either. He's just a red Flashman (color a pic of Flasher red and see what you get), and his weapon (Oil Shooter) is just Torchman's weapon, only black (and why would oil hurt Megaman anyhow?) but at least he's not an ethnic slur I don't blame Inafune too much. I read things about this type of art in Japan ... apparently, they just don't have too many examples on how to draw black people. And this is the best they can do. So it's without malice, but ... even so you'd think somebody would have told them about it in the development stage.

Still, to all those people who wanted a black robot master ... here he is. Be careful what you wish for.

Blademan. He shoots thee tiny shiruken-like blades from his launcher. But he's not a ninja. In fact I don't quite know what he is. What the Hell does he do? Oilman can refine oil. Torchman can weld things together. Bitman has electricity and strength, both handy. Waveman and Sharkman are water types, also handy. Just about all of these guys are useful. So what does Blademan do?

He guts fish. That's the best I got. He lives near what seems to be a water purification plant, but it could easily be the docks. Or something.

On a side note, I always wanted to draw a pic of Blade, Punk, and Metal all in a band together. All shard guys all in a band. That's the ticket.

Bitman. There's not much I can say about Bitman that hasn't already been said. His mugshot is Hardman's. His body is crashman's. His power are Sparkman's. And it's all really odd since Spark was on the back of PC1, and on the cover of 3 they tried to pass of that silver Sparkman as Bitman. Mighta been believable if Bitman was gray. But he's not. His weapon is the Bit Cannon, which is that electrical field thrown at you.

Wily's name is spelt right everywhere except the boss file. There it's Willy. I dunno, guys. Can you tell I've run out of clever things to say about these guys?

Crorq. The MAAAAAAAAAAAG-NIFICENT! In the first game Wily rides around in him. In the second nobody does, but there's someone's shadow. Protoman (from the MM TV show) maybe? Let's go with that. Crorq is a pretty unique boss. I like him.

Megaman PC remains a testament to oldschool gaming. Licenses aren't handed out like candy anymore and the classic series' heyday is over. Personally, I feel that the PCs add a flavor to the Classic series and should not be so easily disregarded. Even if the games do kinda suck.

By the way ... here are Japanese Katakana of the Megaman PC guy's names:

ソニックマン - Sonic man
ボルトマン - Volt man
ダイナマイトマン - Dynamite man / ダイナマン Dyna man
ビットマン - Bit man
シャークマン - Shark man
ウェーブマン - Wave man
オイルマン - Oilman
ブレードマン - Blade man
トーチマン - Torch man
クローク - Crorq

To play the PC games use the Dos Box. Be advised: you will have to open Dos Box's folder and manually drag the MM.exe file onto it to get the thing to work, but work it will and it will work well. Also get JoyToKey and use that to remap the keyboard keys to your joypad (if you have one). It helps IMMENSLY! I've included Cheat O Matic in the zip to allow you to cheat through the game. (Is there any other way of playing?)

Additional instructions and answered questions are in an instruction guide I included in the zips.

Download Mega Man PC (comes with an instruction guide)

Download Mega Man 3 PC (identical instruction guide included.)

Read the Megaman 3 PC Manual (Courtesy of the Megaman Network)

View Sprite Rips

Read about the games in Miscellaneous (Classic) Megaman Mysteries

PC Art Mini-Gallery

By members of the team