My copy of TOGTMM arrived today, and it's just as interesting as I hoped it'd be.
Megaman 1:
* Dr. Jerome Wily was apparently turned evil by a chemical explosion in his basement laboratory. (That, or it was the straw that broke the camel's back)
* Bombman's bombs are made out of "plastique". Plastic/plasticine?
* S. Smith, to General K. Watson, notes that Megaman is "superior" to humans in many aspects. Oh dear.
* Cutman is also known as "Clipper Head".
* "The Mega Man Project" is said to be quite promising.
* Megaman is said to have complete freedom of direction. Doesn't explain why he can't duck.
* Robot Masters are always referred to as "super robots", in MM1 and beyond. Another thing that carries over from the MM1 coverage is the maps; they look like they were drawn on a computer running ASCII (if it wasn't an OS, just bear with me).
* Their recommended order (and Capcom's) is Cut, Guts, Elec, Ice, Fire, and Bomb.
* Defeating the final boss is described as "destroy[ing] his spaceship and then Dr. Wily himself". So much for the Three Laws.
* Megaman's default weapon is called the "Plasma Cannon".
Megaman 2:
* Wily was banished from "his beloved Monsteropolis". Dr. Wright, after Wily grovelled a bit, sent him some robot parts out of sympathy. Derp derp, Dr. Wright, derp derp.
* The resulting robot apparently built from those parts and the remains of Wily's super robots. Its capabilities were "crude", but over time Wily refined it; during one winter, it constructed the MM2 RMs. (Could this be Protoman or Enker?)
* Wily returns to Monsteropolis and stations his castle in the middle of it.
* E-Tanks are "Energy Crystals".
* The Items are (in order) the Levitation Platform, the Jet Sled, and the Elevator.
* Metalman's weapon is the "Metal Gear". Heh heh.
* The Mechadragon scared the crap out of the author; Guts-Dozer is "one of the most amazing creatures you'll meet".
* Suggested order is Air, Metal, Bubble, Heat, Wood, Crash, Flash, and Quick. Sounds about right.
Megaman 3:
* Forgot to mention this, but pics from MM3 are used to preface all the chapters. In fact, apart from the enemy and boss thumbnails, MM3 is the only game whose illustrations the guide uses.
* Dr. Wily was sentenced to life imprisonment on the farm colony of Agri 4 after MM2. He underwent Neurotransmitter Therapy while there, which of course worked SO well.
* Resources such as oil and timber have fallen low, and Megaman's job is to destroy robots that hoard/steal them.
* Doc Robot vanishes from Dr. Wright's lab on 1/6/2043; it's presumed to be the leader of the MM3 RMs.
* Megaman's slide is described as a "Strider-style" move. Who knew that Megaman once trained under Strider Hiryu, eh?
* Rush was built so that Megaman could more easily traverse the various mining areas. The interview says that Rush's brain was modeled after that of a Malamute puppy (and that he caught a buried a mail truck once).
* Suggested order is Top, Shadow, Spark, Magnet, Hard, Gemini, Needle, and Snake.
* Breakman is training Megaman.
* The Yellow Devil MK. II is called the Cyclops (and it's the same as the one from MM1, apparently).
MMGB1:
* K. Watson is now the President of Earth. Buh? (Also, S. Schwartz seems to want to have Wily shot/lobotomized)
* The areas overtaken by the first set of RMs are a shopping center, an amusement park, "buildings", and a factory.
* Wily was once director of the Industrial Museum, and he had the foresight to build a base underneath it.
* Enker is simply "Mega Man Hunter" here. Poor bastard didn't even get a proper name.
* The stages aren't elaborated on; I guess they ran out of time, or the stages are similar enough to their NES counterparts that it doesn't matter (I haven't played MMGB1).
End of book interview:
* They got around Megaman's lack of vocal chords by hooking Megaman to a video terminal.
* When Dr. Wily stole the other MM1 RMs, Megaman was getting a tune-up and oil change. Lucky him. (He jokes about hiding in a broom closet instead)
* Megaman admits that Rush isn't as bright as he hoped.
* Megaman had the chance to see rough drafts of The Official Guide to Megaman.
* Mega asks readers to look out for future games. I guess that, at some point, they stopped being historical simulations.