M.I.N was a doujin group founded by Nakamura Kenichiro, a former animator on Maison Ikkoku and Urusei Yatsura. This can be seen in the group's artstyle, which has a specific "Rumic" quality to it. The group produced at least 8 games and would later become the company Sogna, known for VIPER and Animahjong.
The software in M.I.N's product line includes:
The Réserve series has an English patch for each of them, and the Lemon Angel card game for Tomo is easy to understand without one. I'll go over the plot and gameplay of these games in specific, and will hope to touch on the others in the future :)
*The only evidence I have for these games' existence is screenshots from a Seesaawiki for PC-98 doujin games. If you have a copy or know how to source one, please create a HDI/FDI and send it to me! I'm dying to play these!!!
Lemon Angel: Sakurai Tomo's Speed Game is very likely the first game ever produced by M.I.N, releasing in 1990 and likely predating Réserve. Two other games were released for the idol group's other two members (Shima Erika, Emoto Miki,) but the only one accessible through collections like Neo Kobe is this one. M.I.N would go on to produce another Lemon Angel game simply called Lemon Angel in 1995 under the name Fairy Dust. In this 1990 game, you play a game of Speed against Tomo Sakurai, who takes off an article of clothing every round you beat her.
The game lacks a CPU cap, so I would recommend playing on about 4MHz to have a challenging but realistic experience. There's no sound other than the occasional beep, and the game is contained on a single floppy disk. I wanted to learn more about the game, but it appears to be in an unrecognizable format for editdisk to see.
The game's controls mirror controls often found on earlier PC-98 games. In keyboard mode, the numpad is your arrow keys, and ZX control which stack you put the selected card into (Z for left, X for right.) In mouse mode, left and right click function the same. For those who don't have a numpad on their computer's keyboard, I would recommend either mouse mode or a numpad emulator. If you plan on playing a lot of PC-98 games from this time, I would recommend simply buying a cheap numpad to connect to your computer, as it's much more convenient than the emulator.
The whole game lasts five rounds. There are two stacks of cards on the table, and the game is played in a way that almost feels like competitive Tripeaks (at least, according to the last time I wrote about this game.) You may only place a card down if the selected card is one value above or below the card on the stack; to make it easier, the game accepts Kings and Aces as being above/below each other. When no more moves are available, you're prompted to put a new card down to continue the round (the CPU does the same.)
If you lose a round, you go back to the previous stage. If you lose the first stage, you'll get a game-over. The game resets itself back to the title screen, making trying again not super annoying to do. There's not a single bit of Japanese text necessary to play the game, unless you want to read the credits.
Despite being a strip game, Tomo is practically naked by the end of the second round. The game also never gets harder, which can be boring for some. If you want to challenge yourself, simply make your emulator faster, and watch the CPU fly by.
When the game ends, you see Tomo with nothing on (including removing her hairtie.) Pressing a key will bring you to the credits screen that shows all three of the Lemon Angel girls, with a few details about who made the game and when. The game must be reset to replay at this point.
The game appears to have some reviews on various websites like GameFAQs. I've gone through the trouble of uploading a playthrough to YouTube (with censored graphics.) You can watch that here:
Réserve is a cute game about a girl who suddenly gets transported into a world full of monsters. It appears to be the first original work from M.I.N, released in 1990 with an extremely Ranma-esque artstyle.
Its sequel, Réserve 1/2, was released a year later. This time you play as one of the enemies from the first game. The gameplay is largely the same, although there are certain encounters the game actively punishes you for. The game is also more polished than the previous entry, which is to be expected.
The game also received another sequel called Réserve 2, but I can't seem to find much information on it other than it was published in 1992.
Our heroine, Mio, is preparing for a date with her boyfriend. On the way to her date, she ends up in a vortex and finds herself transported to a different world! You would think she'd be scared, but she's only bothered because it's going to make her late...
A small elf appears and warns her about the monsters of this world. It turns out that they have a taste for humans... particularly human girls! Instead of eating them, though, they have sex with them. Mio has to navigate the world and fight monsters in order to go home, and make it to her date on time!
In the sequel, Batgal finds the other monsters gathering around. When she asks what's going on, she learns that humans have been popping up all over the place. She's excited to have fun with them, but Lord Satan has decided to give a reward to whoever will find three humans for him. To no one's surprise, he also has a preference for girls...
Gameplay for both games is simple. Mio (represented by a star) or Batgal (represented by herself) travel through the map and encounter monsters at specific spots. When in battle, you must select the monster (or human's) two weak points to proceed. Réserve gives you a game over if you fail, showing you a porn graphic that's unique to the monster who defeated you. In Réserve 1/2, you're simply knocked out and will have to recollect three humans. Certain male characters also produce porn graphics for game overs, but otherwise they're reserved for victories. You also are given graphics if you fail to produce three women for the king.
The game is only a few minutes long, with any added time due to human errors. There are 20 enemies in total in the first game, and you're rewarded with a code to input in kana mode if you defeat all of them. In the sequel, the code is instead given if you take a specific pill at the end of the game. Both of these codes allow you to view all the CG for game over/victory/etc.
I've created a list of every enemy in the game and their weak points, alongside a map to help show where each of them are. In the old iteration of the site this was hidden behind a button, but this time I'm simply making it downloadable. Check back here later!
I've also uploaded playthroughs of both games, albeit heavily censored. you can find each of them here: