A rare piece of gaming history has been preserved online thanks to preservationist “Ruka” who has taken the time to find the television drama based on the Famicom Disc System game Nazo no Murasamejou / The Mysterious Murasame Castle, and uploaded it to YouTube. This drama is one of, if not the first live action adaptations of a video game, so is historically significant. The drama was produced by Fuji Television as a part of its Monday night one-shot drama series Getsuyou Drama Land, and was broadcast in Japan only once back in 1986 as a one hour special, but did get re-released as part of a DVD box set based on the show 20 years ago. That said, this DVD release is long out of print and now very hard to find.
Ruka on their youtube channel stated
“The special features members of the all-girl pop idol group Onyanko Club, which was popular in Japan during the 1980s and spawned many big-name celebrities like Shizuka Kudo,” says “The special aired on Fuji Television a single time on December 08, 1986 and for many years, it was believed to be lost media. It was released on DVD in 2005 as part of the Onyanko Club in Getsuyou Drama Land DVD Box 2, which flew under the radar of the English-speaking Famicom community. As far as we are aware, this is the first-ever live-action adaptation based on a video game. Additionally, I’m in talks with a group who may be able to produce English subtitles for it.”
Ruka also went on to note that this adaptation may have led to Doki Doki Panic’s creation, which was produced in partnership with Fuji TV as part of their Dream Factory event in 1987.
“It seems that Nintendo’s relationship with Fuji TV began with the production of this special in 1986, but it’s possible that it goes back even earlier”
The original game was recently released on Nintendo Switch for NSO subscribers so those interested can check it out.
