Hammer Away PROTO found!

[Shou]

A big thanks to the original group who unearthed this.

We have put it up for play at Mikado in Takadanobaba for all to enjoy and are tracking down the original staff to get some answers.

[ZacharyB]

What a trip it might be for them. I've always worried about developers who put a good year into a game to never see it released for one reason or another.

[_rm_]

A big thanks to the original group who unearthed this.

We have put it up for play at Mikado in Takadanobaba for all to enjoy and are tracking down the original staff to get some answers.

WOW, i've been to Mikado twice
It would be an honor if the game was still there next year when i visit again, i would take a picture and frame it to hang above my bed, llool.

Hope to hear news from the staff.

[parodius]

http://page9.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/k178440944


Not my auction obviously

[Xyga]

[_rm_]

http://page9.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/k178440944


Not my auction obviously

That was already Brought to our attention , seems like the ROMs ended up in wrong hands..

Hope MAME publish the ROMs quick to avoid these things.

[SuperDeadite]

http://page9.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/k178440944


Not my auction obviously

That was already Brought to our attention , seems like the ROMs ended up in wrong hands..

Hope MAME publish the ROMs quick to avoid these things.

To the seller's credit, the description flat out says it's a bootleg.

[IseeThings]

http://page9.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/k178440944


Not my auction obviously

That was already Brought to our attention , seems like the ROMs ended up in wrong hands..

Hope MAME publish the ROMs quick to avoid these things.

It's always going to happen, there is nothing we can do about it, it's just one of those unfortunate things we have to tolerate.

The roms are already 'published', as in MAME rom sites have them in their 'sooner' section in preparation for 0.156. People can compile from SVN (now GIT) and run it right now, which is what the binary posted on this forum is, a compile from our working tree. MAME is a very open project these days, it allows people to help fix bugs etc. before they end up in release versions.

MAME 0.156 is unofficially due on the 26th of this month (assuming nothing causes it to be delayed)

If you're worried about credit then the official whatsnew file will contain all the credits we were given, as it will be directly copied from the GIT log. Likewise when a new Final Burn Alpha is released with support you can rest assured full and proper credit will be given there too.

Sadly it does ruin some deals, apparently Gaelco weren't interested in helping with their other games after the World Rally MCU dump they provided ended up being used by people selling 'repair kits' for silly money rather than it simply being used for free. The secret is to rise above it all, and just do what is best for the majority, scumbags are always going to be scumbags, they don't *care* if everybody else loses out, because they'll always find some other way to con people out of their money and take advantage of situations.

I can assure you 99.9% of people who have followed this news are grateful you handled things the way you did.

[Pretas]

What are the chances that this game directly inspired the "rotating helicopter aiming" that was later exhibited in Sonic Wings Special and eventually perfected in Under Defeat? It was placed on location test, so it's fully possible that certain developers were aware of and had remembered it.

[Skykid]

What are the chances that this game directly inspired the "rotating helicopter aiming" that was later exhibited in Sonic Wings Special and eventually perfected in Under Defeat? It was placed on location test, so it's fully possible that certain developers were aware of and had remembered it.

Hugely unlikely, but what are the chances you'll be citing the possibility as fact the next time a Sonic Wings Special/Under Defeat discussion emerges?

[Muchi Muchi Spork]

The conversion will sell for 15000 yen+ well after the next mame is out. The hardware and roms and work to make it are worth more than that. Lots of people want to play it in its natural state and this is the only way.

[Xyga]

One maybe extremely stupid question I've been asking myself; could the board have been shipped from Japan to Portugal by mistake ?
I can picture the unique proto board being sent to the factory for testing/production and ending up in a shipment/cargo to some person/place/company named 'Santos' in Portugal.
This could explain why it was never published/produced.
(I mean, I can very well picture the poor guys at Santos and Japan Post wondering where the fuck that damned package ended up delivered.)

[BIL]

What are the chances that this game directly inspired the "rotating helicopter aiming" that was later exhibited in Sonic Wings Special and eventually perfected in Under Defeat? It was placed on location test, so it's fully possible that certain developers were aware of and had remembered it.

Gyrodine (1984) has heli tilt.

[soprano1]

One maybe extremely stupid question I've been asking myself; could the board have been shipped from Japan to Portugal by mistake ?
I can picture the unique proto board being sent to the factory for testing/production and ending up in a shipment/cargo to some person/place/company named 'Santos' in Portugal.
This could explain why it was never published/produced.
(I mean, I can very well picture the poor guys at Santos and Japan Post wondering where the fuck that damned package ended up delivered.)

It's a pretty common last name, but at this point it's a wild guess how it ended here.

[Imhotep]

Gyrodine (1984) has heli tilt.

as does Air Duel (1990).

[trap15]

Santos is a Japanese company.

[Ed Oscuro]

Yes, the idea was that somehow it got shipped to the wrong address.

Doesn't sound feasible to me because the warehouse was full of arcade stuff for a distributor, not just some random company - I don't think anybody got wires crossed, except maybe on the point of what to do with the game once it was done with worldwide location testing.

Furthermore I don't think losing "the" proto board would make any difference for all the development files kept in Japan at least long enough for them to roll out production.

The "Santos" thing sounding vaguely Portuguese is almost certainly just a pure coincidence...and probably would still be so even if somebody told me that the distributor was called Santos SEGA Distribution or something.

[Xyga]

'Santos' isn't vaguely but 100% Portuguese.
I think that's possible, if at some point the board was being sent back to Santos company in Japan, and some idiot wrote the address really wrong with a big "to SANTOS-san" on the package, a machine at JP Post wasn't able to decipher it, some stupid employee opened a dictionary and thought "Mmh...this obviously belongs to the PT basket" and there it went, on a boat to Portugal, where it was placed in quarantine maybe several times after being presented to various possible 'Santos'.
If the package lacked readable international references and tracking numbers, with the language barrier it's very well possible that nobody was able to identify the sender, nor anybody back in Japan able to contact the proper office in Portugal.

That's my fantasy here, sure, but I've worked in international commerce and have seen the craziest stuff happen. Some lost packages resurfacing after over a year with stickers from the most improbable countries on it, yeah even now with the internet and advanced tracking features (funniest I can remember was a 60" TV that toured Spain for over 8 months, came back to us with a destroyed package... but not a scratch on the set itself ^^)

Or it could have just ended up in the wrong batch of pcbs sold to an arcade center. Of course that's a more realistic scenario.

[Vetus]

Nice finding. Thanks a lot to the people who found it out. Looking forward the MAME rom.

[system11]

More likely to just be a location test board which was being sent to various operators across the globe. It wasn't uncommon for distributors to close down and sell off their entire stock to surviving operators/competitors within continental Europe. Spain had a pretty big arcade scene, it was probably from there originally.

[antron]

Incredible sleuthing. This is legitimate archeology.

What gave it away _rm_? A non-encrypted cpu being on this particular boardset?

[Ed Oscuro]

'Santos' isn't vaguely but 100% Portuguese.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santos and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santos_(surname)

Still don't have an explanation for how it goes from quarantine to suddenly being in a warehouse full of presumably all arcade stuff. The secret stash of CTT, I guess?

System11 has nicely stated what I was trying to say in earlier posts. It's just the simplest explanation.

Next thing, though probably not possible at this point, is to shake the branches to see if anybody remembers this in action, or (less likely) to find any documented evidence in fanzines etc.

[Xyga]

Still don't have an explanation for how it goes from quarantine to suddenly being in a warehouse full of presumably all arcade stuff. The secret stash of CTT, I guess?

Postal services and private carriers usually sell the lost/unclaimed merchandise after a while.
Anyway I was just pushing the semi-fantasy scenario here but of course what really happened is most certainly much more like you and system11 said.

[Ed Oscuro]

There is a place in the US where you can go and buy the contents of "lost" luggage...shocking, but legal last I checked, and they ditch that stuff pretty fast - won't let you reclaim it if you got a payout, either. Even one of our Presidential candidates (Jackson? Sharpton? Forget the name) had his misplaced suits end up there.

[rancor]

There is a place in the US where you can go and buy the contents of "lost" luggage...

Here as well, but it's for stuff that's left on trains. Not so useful unless you're looking to buy umbrellas by the ton..

[system11]

Another victory for complete assholes - that conversion PCB sold for 65k yen.

[_rm_]

Another victory for complete assholes - that conversion PCB sold for 65k yen.

[system11]

Another victory for complete assholes - that conversion PCB sold for 65k yen.

Yeah, it's called "keeping an eye on new ROM releases and exploiting people who don't". Disgusting really.

I remember when I submitted desuicide ROMs for Warriors Of Fate JP, about 20 of them suddenly appeared on YJP. That didn't bother me but it was surprising just how fast they jumped on it.

[Shou]

Unfortunately, no matter where you go, there are people like that. I think the price will just fall though, just like with Desert Breaker. After Runik and I tested it out, then put it on Porchy's site, a bunch showed up on YJ then it died down where it wouldn't sell at cost for parts.

[JBC]

Can't wait to try this out. First we get Raiden II working & now a lost Sega shmup. It's a good month for MAME.