This is a hint/review file for a group of Japanese adult anime "games" 
that were released in English by Software Sculptors as "Anime Pin-Up 
Beauties", "More Anime Pin-Up Beauties", "Anime Pin-Up Beauties '99" 
and "More Anime Pin-Up Beauties '99". The original Japanese releases 
were respectively, "Grand Prix '96, Volumes 1 & 2", "Grand Prix '96, 
Volumes 3-5", <don't want to assume> and "Seigura '97, Volumes 3&4". At 
least the first one was from Lyceen - AIC, the others from just Lyceen.
I currently don't have "Anime Pin-Up Beauties '99", but it belongs with 
the other 3, and I assume that much of what I say about the others will 
apply to this missing one as well.
This file should apply to all 4 titles in the "Anime Pin-Up Beauties" 
series. But probably not to "Fashion Town", which is something quite 
different, and I don't have that one either.

To avoid having to write out the whole name each time, for the rest of 
this file I'll use these abbreviations:
APUB = Anime Pin-Up Beauties = Grand Prix '96, Volumes 1 & 2
MAPB = More Anime Pin-Up Beauties = Grand Prix '96, Volumes 3-5
APB9 = Anime Pin-Up Beauties '99 = <unknown, don't have yet>
MAPB9 = More Anime Pin-Up Beauties '99 = Seigura '97, Volumes 3&4

The licensed English releases come on one CD-ROM each; in September 
2001, I got 2 of them (MAPB & MAPB9) for only $2.00 each from "The 
Right Stuf" www.rightstuf.com! The only complaint that I have is that 
the packages smelled funny, like they'd gotten wet and then a little 
moldy; after I threw away the shrink-wrap, things were OK. RightStuf 
responded right away when I mentioned this, and said that some of 
their shrink wrap normally smells like that. Strange, but at least 
they didn't tell me off.
There was also an packaging error in one case that I received, as the 
CD for APUB (SSBM-4006) was inside the shrink-wrapped SSBM-4010 MAPB9 
case. But this gives me the additional information that "Anime Pin-Up 
Beauties" was originally "Grand Prix '96, Volumes 1 & 2" from 
Lyceen - AIC when it was released in Japan. Also, that while the first 
disc (APUB) had only 2 areas of 7 girls each on it, there was an extra 
"find this girl in the image" game that wasn't in the next (MAPB) 
release. Again, RightStuf was nice enough to suggest that I ask them to 
double-check the contents when I ordered another copy of MAPB9, since 
APUB wasn't one of the items on sale.

The very first part of this series (Grand Prix '96 Volume 1, South Area 
Final) was released by the BAO group of Filipino hackers as "Girla", 
and described by them as "rare hentai, 50 Mb, needs some QuickTime 
related files, incomplete".

A website that mentioned APUB said that the character design was 
by Masaki Yamada.

The only information I have on APB9 is that the case shows 7 girls, 
and mentions that it is a hybrid CD-ROM for Mac and Windows, SSBM-4009. 
I would assume that it is much like the other 3 titles.

These 4 titles really aren't games, more like interactive picture 
viewers with a "quiz" mode, and a "find this girl in the picture of 50 
girls" mode on the first of the series. All you get for 100% on the 
quiz is a "100% done" image. The other game is actually more 
interesting, because if you get it wrong too many times, you get a 
special picture for that girl reminding you what she looks like.

If you have the QuickTime Picture Viewer that comes with QuickTime for 
Windows 2.x (2.1.0.42 works for me), you can skip all the music and 
browse through the pictures on the CD yourself. About half the images 
of the girls are actually line art, in most cases practically 
identical to the filled-in-with-color versions.

The cases for MAPB, MAPB9 and APB9 say they will work on a Mac, as 
well as Windows. Not sure about APUB.
System requirements under Windows are Windows 3.x or higher (I tested 
with ME), at least a 486DX2-66 or Pentium 120, 2x or better CD-ROM, at 
least 256 colors video (16-bit recommended), at least 16 MB RAM. Hard 
drive space is used only to store shortcuts or screen saver modules 
that you install. Nothing terribly difficult or expensive nowadays. 

Documentation is sparse. To uninstall screen save modules, delete the 
"* Area Beauties" files out of the C:\WINDOWS directory. Except in 
MAPB9, these are called "Shining Shy" and "Cherry Breeze." If you 
install the screen savers, you don't need the CD-ROM in the drive. But 
there are no settings to change, and the loud music can get annoying. 
Personally, I think you're better off looking at the pictures some 
other way.

You will soon learn to hate the Westminster Chimes, and the slow 
fade-in at the beginning of each area's program (SKIP!).


Not bad at all for the price that I paid! You may have a lot of 
difficulty finding these now though, as Software Sculptors now no 
longer lists them as a product, and many other vendors have run out of 
stock. Very nice for fans of Japanese schoolgirls in all kinds of 
solitary poses, with no guys or actual sexual activity. Not 
explicitly censored, but all you'll get to see is drawn-in pubic 
hair. I like that they attempted to make each girl an individual, 
and give you a series of images as if she was modeling or being 
followed around. The music can be annoying, though.


If you have anything to add to this file, let me know.

Peter Karsanow - bishoujo.helper[AT}sbcglobal{DOT)net
http://www.geocities.com/hentaihelper/p_hgames.htm