This file is for the English/Italian/French/German (although still 
best played in Japanese) release from Hobibox titled "Viper Limited 
Edition" (Viper LE, if you like - although I'm inclined to call it 
VIPER STG going by the graphics in the shooter game). It contains some 
game operating advice, and a mini-review.

Before buying or playing "Viper LE", you should read the review found 
at Anime Densetsu: http://www.densetsu.com/
I'll let you find it in there, rather than give a link to a PHP page 
that could easily change. I agree with that review, except that there 
are only 6 screen savers which all install themselves to C:\WINDOWS, 
say they're installed with some Japanese text, and you have to uninstall 
by deleting the files. And the second copy of the game is a 'Time 
Attack' version, where you try to finish the first level in 3 or 5 
minutes.

Once you load the disc, (under Windows XP Pro at least) it will try 
to install Japanese language support. Pretty sad for a Hobibox 
release that claims it's only for European and American users!
And before you try to play the shooter game, explore the disc and 
read the documentation files (the .DOC one is the best for English 
readers) and browse the other directories. Due to the way they 
implemented (or tried to remove) Mac support, and because of the 
remaining apparently Japanese directory names, trying to navigate the 
disc can be very confusing.

The HOBIBOX folder on the CD contains some images and demos. 
Unfortunately, the demo program in the ALCHEMIC folder (which I assume 
is for the long-quiet "Alchemic Girl" release) still doesn't work, even 
though they added an empty directory with a bizzare name that wasn't on 
the "LoveLoveShow!" disc. The GOKUDEMO.AVI is a promo movie for Viper 
Paradice that has low sound volume under Windows ME but no sound under 
my Windows XP Pro. And the M1.EXE, which you'd assume is a demo of Viper 
M1, is just an animated non-interactive movie (you can click to skip 
voice samples but sometimes it hangs after doing that); the *.MID files 
aren't part of the demo and I guess are just there for you to listen to 
if you love game music.

Unfortunately, I'm really bad with shooter games, but I did get to the 
boss of the second level once. In the Options choice, levels 1 to 4 
apparently make the enemies move faster, but I couldn't figure out the 
other two "0 to 3" controls. Somebody who really knows this genre will 
probably get through it easily, but not me. I'd like to know if there is 
any CG reward for finishing, besides the GIF images that I found on the 
CD-ROM. Reduce your screen size to 800x600 or less, or you won't be able 
to see the game very well. Why they put such a huge and useless image 
around the game screen is beyond me.

Pete's mini-review:
With translation or documentation of the Japanese options in the 
shooter game, and in the screen-saver installers, I would have 
believed this was indeed a European/American-only product. 
Unfortunately, this is obviously a compilation of old Sogna material 
that got only a partial user manual in English. I feel sorry for the 
Italian, French and Germans who got no documentation at all, and 
differing text on the back of the box to guide them (e.g. mention of 
V16 in Italian and French, but not German or English). It's a good 
thing I got this for only about $15; some may think it's worth less 
than that.


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