Total Distortion: The Official Strategy Guide (lost strategy guide for PC game; 1995)

An advertisement included with the game.

Status: Lost

Total Distortion is a 1995 CD-ROM game created by Joe Sparks. Playing the role of a video producer out in an alternate dimension known as the Distortion Dimension, you fight Guitar Warriors and tape footage of the world to use in your music videos and sell to clients.

Winning multiple awards and becoming a minor success, Total Distortion has earned its place in both the library of early Windows games. By the time the game over song was recorded and uploaded to YouTube in 2014, interest in Total Distortion was reignited and has been played by streamers such as Vinesauce Joel and Jerma.

The Strategy Guide

With the release of the game in 1995, a strategy guide written by Rusel Demarla was released with it. With the guide being published by Prima's Secrets of the Games supposedly not only was the book available through mail order but also within various bookstores. This strategy guide would include various tips in defeating Guitar warriors, how to sell your videos specifically tailored to clients, and various other tips.

Unfortunately, no English copy of the strategy guide has been spotted or even mentioned since the game's release. While the Japanese version is relatively available, it is in Japanese, and the only copy currently available as of this writing is included with Japanese copies of both Total Distortion and its predecessor Spaceship Warlock for $800. Both of these versions are out of print and nearly impossible to find online, though the English copy is hard to tell if it ever truly reached the shelves. The only known picture is on the mailing pamphlet included with the game.

There is also a second book included with the Japanese version of the game, though it is unknown what it is.

Small note, the Japanese and Portuguese versions of this game are completely undumped, not to mention versions 1.1 and 1.5 of the game.

Gallery

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  Scan of order pamphlet included with the game.

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  Image from an expired Japanese auction

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  Joe Sparks' various merchandise from the game

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  eBay listing of the Japanese version of Total Destruction alongside Spaceship Warlock

External Link

• Total Distortion's main page in 1997. Retrieved 17 June '21

References

• The strategy guide's ISBN and author listed in AbeBooks. Retrieved 17 June '21
• Joe Sparks' Total Destruction merchandise. The Japanese guide can be seen near the center. Retrieved 17 June '21
• Currently available Japanese guide. Retrieved 17 June 21'