Dreamcast Propeller Arena

[GenkiVideoGames.com]

Just curious if anyone out there has actually played Propeller Arena on the DC? We thought the whole project had been canned, but have also heard rumours it sneaked out. Was it just cancelled for Western release? Sank You. :033:

[Paulo]

We/someone at ASSEMbler games paid for the copy and had it craked and leaked out to the public. Its available at many torrent/warez sites.

[Sally]

Assemblergames.com, the people who brought you Propeller Arena...

[Paulo]

Assemblergames.com, the people who brought you Propeller Arena...

In a way i guess. . . just tainted by the fact it was made such a warez group release and we seemed to get less attention then we deserved.

[Mark30001]

You guys should've hacked the 1ST_READ/IP (Can't remember which) file to have an ASSEMblergames logo if you all really wanted some attention.

Or you could have done your own intro, similar to Echelon's, but something that "actually" works! :banghead:

Wasn't the audio downsampled?

[Szczepaniak]

Ooh... I'd heard vague rumours about how it was leaked, but no full account. Anyone care to divulge the entire story? I'd love to hear it. :)

I managed to get myself a copy in the end, and it's rather good. But as said, I'm intrigued by how it happened. Was assemblergames also connected with half life on the DC being leaked?

Please excuse the ignorant questions, I'm not entirely sure of the facts.

[Saikoroji]

As far as I remember, someone who called himself ServiceGames (he's registered here, but no posts) had supposedly obtained a leaked copy of the game and was accepting "donations" needed to rip the game, but, long story short, after many people donated, he never did, vanished, and it was released by another source. He came back many months later and attempted to apologize/make an excuse for what had happened. I know that Yakumo was involved with him, so maybe he could explain the reason for his behavior...maybe he was just a douchebag. :shrug:

Then again, I don't know the ASSEMbler story, so I imagine it's more complicated than that.

[Szczepaniak]

The stories behind such games I find are often AS interesting as the stories about the game's development and cancellation.

Fascinating.

[Sally]

The story is weird, basicly ServiceGames bought the disc, but when he did, the seller gave it to other people as well. ServiceGames collected funds to stamp(burn?) copies of the game, and sell them for $30. The groups that got the disc from the original seller without paying leaked the game. ServiceGames hit some hard times, and was never able to ship out the copies he claimed to have made. Overall the whole thing sucked. ServiceGames came back to try to sell the GD-R but no one would buy. Does anyone know what happend to the original disc?

[_skitzo_]

Assemblergames.com, the people who brought you Propeller Arena...



hahaha that is sooo going on the signature

[Sally]

hahaha that is sooo going on the signature

I thought it was supposed to go on a T-shirt? And it didn't come from me, i think it was AntiPasta...

[Fabrizo]

The story is weird, basicly ServiceGames bought the disc, but when he did, the seller gave it to other people as well. ServiceGames collected funds to stamp(burn?) copies of the game, and sell them for $30. The groups that got the disc from the original seller without paying leaked the game. ServiceGames hit some hard times, and was never able to ship out the copies he claimed to have made. Overall the whole thing sucked. ServiceGames came back to try to sell the GD-R but no one would buy. Does anyone know what happend to the original disc?

Mostly correct, but the part about the original seller giving out multiple copies of the game is'nt. What actualy happened was that servicegames didn't have the ability to rip the game himself, and so it was handed off to another member of the community known as Belok (spelling might be wrong). Belok was part of a DC release group and had extensive experiance in ripping games for it. Once the protection was cracked he gave copies of the game to others in his release group prior to Servicegames getting his original back along with the rip for distribution. After that one of the groups members who had receaved a copy decided to leak it on the net himself, which ended up pissing off alot of Assembler members who had contributed to the release and had been promised the chance to play it before anyone else. Service Games was then more or less flamed out of the community as no one learned the truth of what happened for a some time (well, about a week).

As for the the original, as far as I know ServiceGames still has it. And yes, the music was downsampled in the release version.

[Blur2040]

That sound you hear is Fabrizo hitting the nail on the head.

Grumble...this whole episode steamed my prunes...

Oh...Genkivideogames...Propeller Arena wasn't released in Japan either. Totally cancelled.

[madhatter256]

I was around when it came out. I didn't pay much attention to the controversy, all I know is I asked nicely for a copy when some assembler members already had their hands on one and I think someone put up a torrent, before it was unleased to the rest of the world. The role this site played, I think, was to actually produce the game on stamped discs and as far as I know, it was successful and Yakumo played a big role in making that happen. A lot of this is very foggy in my memory.

[velcrostrapshoes]

man,.. I'll bet service games was pretty upest over this whole ordeal. I sure would be. didnt he pay like $15,000 for the origninal game?

[Sally]

One too many zeroes...

[madhatter256]

One too many zeroes...

He overpaid. Knowing that if you are going to release an unreleased game to a select few, the value sharply drops, so why buy it for insane amounts if its going to end up free on the web? but then with this logic all game developers should shut down their business in order to prevent their games from being pirated...

[hl718]

Of course it's also a perfect example of why many true collectors hate dumps.

That little chain of events cost me a copy of Geist Force. No matter how many times the "pro-dumpers" (heh, something amusing about that) parrot the old "the original disc will always have value" it simply isn't true. As soon as any relatively complete build of a game makes it out the other versions devalue IMMEDIATELY.

-hl718

[Sally]

Luckely i can just hide behind NDA's and not have to worry about the whole "Should i dump it or not" issue. I guess there's some stuff i would, and some i wouldn't. In the end, a lot of the protos i have were free...

[Greatsaintlouis]

Fabrizio hit the nail on the head. In exchange for donations, Service Games was going to send out professionally labelled (for CD-Rs, anyways) copies with color case art, but his big mistake was letting belokk (a known name in the DC warez scene) and his gang of clowns have access to the disc. And yeah, there was the big fiasco with Service Games landing on some hard times as well, as everyone's donations vanished into thin air. I've got no clue where the original disc went.

For a while, it was epic drama almost on the level of Neo-Geo.com!

As Paulo noted, the game can be found easily enough with your weapon of choice. Yakumo whipped up some very excellent quality Japanese case inserts (complete with spine card!) for the game, and I think a bit of Google Image searching could supply you with the proposed American cover of a suitable resolution for printing.

And I think the Dreamcast Half-Life release might have been courtesy of an Assembler member - that was a few years ago, and while I was a member at the time of its release, I didn't pay much attention to the specifics of who put it out.

[Szczepaniak]

Wow. Hearing these tales, it's not so surprising that people are reluctant to publicly release. All kinds of chaos ensues.

It's a pity that ended so badly, since if it had been a success with proper covers et al, and people not losing out, then it may encouraged future releases.

And I've got Yakumo's covers, they are indeed very nicely done. I hadn't realised what a prolific player he was in these circles.

[Yakumo]

hehehehe, I am the man of covers. Actually I refunded a few peoples donations that I hadn't passed on to Servicegames due to the whole operation going tits up.

now for the first time EVER!!! Yakumo will present you with the Japanese Propeller Arena covers that I made. Files size may be big so you may have to wait for them to load if you're on dial up. The original psd versions are something like 600dpi which of course are too big to post here but these 200 dpi jpg versions will be good enough for printing.

FRONT COVER
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/5695/proarenantscjyakumofront2np.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

BACK COVER
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/1554/proarenantscjyakumoback5mc.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

SPINE
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/5475/propellerspineminecopy6ya.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

CD - Looks crap I think but the GDROM logo is cool. Took ages to build that.
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/7493/proarenantscjyakumocd5sp.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Yakumo

[GenkiVideoGames.com]

Like I suspected, the man Yakumo san has revealed his true colours! ;-) Only kidding mate. Sh*t the bed, I had no idea what a can of worms I was opening there! If I had, I'd have kept quiet. I hope I haven't stirred up any bad feelings again for the elusive SErvice GAmes. :rambo: Just wanted to try and smoke our Yakumo san out over that scan on his site. I'll cross it off our buying list for our next trip to Japan then. Takes me long enough to read the titles as it is without having to look for Propellar Arena. And thats just the katakana... :icon_bigg

[Yakumo]

You know something really funny? I some times check what sites mine site is linked to from. I came across one the other day that stated that I own propeller arena because it was released in Japan in very small numbers and that I actually managed to buy one before it was taken of the shelves :lol: I never ever claimed that. Funny how some people just make crap up.

Yakumo

[Blur2040]

Like I suspected, the man Yakumo san has revealed his true colours! ;-) Only kidding mate. Sh*t the bed, I had no idea what a can of worms I was opening there! If I had, I'd have kept quiet. I hope I haven't stirred up any bad feelings again for the elusive SErvive GAmes. :rambo: Just wanted to try and smoke our Yakumo san out over that scan on his site. I'll cross it off our buying list for our next trip to Japan then. Takes me long enough to read the titles as it is without having to look for Propellar Arena. And thats just the katakana... :icon_bigg

I don't think anybody is too bitter about the whole fiasco. It sucks that a few bucks were lost, but the bottom line is that we got the game out there. On top of that, it was a really exciting time...and is just another reason why Assemblergames.com is the best site on the internet.

Short version: Yay us, Belokk is a buttplug.

[madhatter256]

Is that UPC code from another DC game or if you scan it, it actually comes up properly?

[Yakumo]

UPC code?? Do you mean the bar code? If so I think that code was originally from something else but I can't remember now. I do remember that I used the real Sega Code number though.

Yakumo

[Mark30001]

hehehehe, I am the man of covers. Actually I refunded a few peoples donations that I hadn't passed on to Servicegames due to the whole operation going tits up.

now for the first time EVER!!! Yakumo will present you with the Japanese Propeller Arena covers that I made. Files size may be big so you may have to wait for them to load if you're on dial up. The original psd versions are something like 600dpi which of course are too big to post here but these 200 dpi jpg versions will be good enough for printing.

Yakumo

Nice work on that :thumbsup:! Not to get a little off topic, but what program did you use to create the CD labels and covers, certainly at that resolution?

[Greatsaintlouis]

Speaking of that bar code, I know of a few websites that will encode your own information to a standard UPC code - it would be interesting to know how Japanese Dreamcast barcodes read so we could actually insert accurate Propeller Arena information onto the cover! :-D

Speaking of covers, I have a front NTSC/UC cover for Propeller Arena, as well as front and back covers for Half-Life on the Dreamcast if anyone is interested. I doubt they're the official ones, but they look pretty good anyways. I used to have a decent back cover for PA as well, but I guess I managed to delete it somewhere.

And Blur said it best - nobody's too terribly miffed at ServiceGames about this. Most of us are just happy the game was finally released. Belokk and the Warez Stooges, on the other hand, aren't very highly regarded at all due to their lack of respect for the owners' (ServiceGames and, by extension, all ASSEMbler members who donated money for the purchase) wishes concerning the game's release.

[samael64]

As far as UPCs go, the first 4-6 numbers are for the company that produced the item, the next 2-4 are for the series/line/pattern of the item, and the last four are for that specific item itself.
So, Company-Type-Specific Item.
It should be pretty easy to figure out what PA's UPC might have been, but there is a chance that it was used for a game that actually was released.

[Yakumo]

Nice work on that :thumbsup:! Not to get a little off topic, but what program did you use to create the CD labels and covers, certainly at that resolution?
Adobe Photoshop all the way. :thumbsup: The cover is based and does look almost 100% identical to the official Japanese cover. I had to build the entire front be hand. Getting the exact same font style was no easy job either. The aeroplane logo was also remade by hand since I couldn't find any decent quality images in high resolution The AM2 logo was ripped from a screen grab of Virtua Fighter 2 on the Saturn :lol: while the Sega logo was made using the Sega font. By the way there are 2 Sega fonts out there one having the wrong style "N" so make sure you get the right one if you're looking. The one named "NiseSega" is the wrong one. The back cover is a mix of the original plus my own work. Everything in the boarders was made by me. The spine and CD cover are 100% my own work.

Yakumo

[Topic Archive]

...The guy with the original was offering it for sale on here the other year wasn't he?

[Borman]

I believe so, but people were idiots and just talked about how they could pirate it anyway. I dont know if it ever sold

[Sally]

I dunno, the offers sounded reasonable to me, some going as high as $800. I would think that's more than reasonable for a leaked proto

[ServiceGames]

Fabrizo thanks for straightening things out. I'm glad that someone remembers what happened.
I could flesh things out a little later if anyone cares and if I feel up to it.

I still have the original, but honestly I have no interest in it. It just sits on its shelf with the rest of my collection.

I do still feel a bit slighted by the whole deal. Not because I lost money or anything like that(I was willing to pay the price in order for others to play it). I bought PA because I was moved by this community and I had developed a love and respect for the members.

-ServiceGames-

[WolverineDK]

ServiceGames: welcome back :)

[GigaDrive]

Just curious if anyone out there has actually played Propeller Arena on the DC? We thought the whole project had been canned, but have also heard rumours it sneaked out. Was it just cancelled for Western release? Sank You. :033:




I got Propeller Arena well over a year ago. yes it came out, unofficially.

[GenkiVideoGames.com]

Well thanks again for clearing that up. Hopefully all is once again rosey in the Assembler garden of obscure delights - especially now our ServiceGames has been welcomed back to the fold with opened arms. Okaeri nasai.
Alls well that ends well, right?

[Lostuse]

Hi guys, i was one of the guys involved with the propeller arena release ill explain exactly what happened with the release. service games bought the gdr and sent it to belokk, belokk ripped the game without problems but was not able to get it to boot. he sent the files of the game to about 6 people including myself to try cracking with complete knowledge that none of us were to give copies out to anyone. Megalexx after a little while managed to crack the game, and the 6 that had the game were given the working version of the crack. belokk was waiting on service games to figure out all the stuff with sending copies to people who paid money before any release was supposed to happen. one day i was sitting around and i get some msg from some guy claiming to have a working copy of propeller arena. i dont buy it at first but he proves that hes got it, so i start figuring out how he got it. i find out that we have a complete leak and the guy whos leaking it is leaking it with his own nfo giving credit to himself. i get ahold of belokk, me him and a few other guys discuss it, and sense belokk wanted the release to have proper credit given we decide we have to release it correctly before his release spreds. So we released it on a stro of mine and as a torrent which another member set up.

heres the nfo for you guys

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################ ############## ######## # ############ ## #########



B D m s - Presents:
|-------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Propeller Arena |
|-------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Origin: USA - Ntsc Format: CDI |
| Date: ??/??/2004 Platform: DreamCast |
|_________________________________________________ ______________|
| |
| Summary |
|--------------- |
| Finally it has seen the light of day :D :D :D |
| BDMS is pround to present Propeller Arena Final Build. this |
| is the game most dc hardcore fans have been waitng for, |
| and now all your dreams have come true. thanks to all for |
| being patient with this public release. |
| |
| also big thanks to service games for fronting up the money |
| to get the gd-r, this project could have not been done without|
| your help in this. also thanks to megalexx for solving the |
| problem with the booting, great job man :D | | |
| |
| also thanks to neoiv,PunkSk8er,DCP and a special thanks to |
| lostuse for staying up most of the night chating and wasteing |
| cd-rs ;) also thanks to members of the d-central, dcforum and |
| the assembler forums for their support as well, and to everyone
| else i forgot or donated to the cause, THANKS :) |
| |
| |
| -= Belokk =- |
| |
| NOTES |
|----------------- |
|nothing was downsampled or ripped out =) |
| |
| |
| GREETS |
|----------------- |
|Kalisto - Echelon - Orgasm - DCP - SGMX - R18 - WjR - TrEb |
|Service Games - Megalexx - Lostuse - NeoIV -Punks8er - USA |
|Orgasm - Alpax - Muds - Ind - Paradox - Paradiso - SoulDC |
|Utopia - Hoologans - OBL - Pulsar - The Friends - Isosphere |
|Wipice - Genius - Ecko - CC2k1 - K7 - DCISO -Krema -Eurasia |
| |
| -= And to anyone i forgot =- |
| JOINING |
|----------------- |
| I am looking for: |
| |
| -Suppliers : You live in the Usa, Canada, Uk or Japan, have |
| any gd-r betas you would like to see released |
| please contact me on the usual channels |
|---------------------------------------------------------------|




- Lostuse

[hl718]

In other words, "someone screwed us so we decided to screw over everyone else, promises be damned."

Guess it really is true, there is no honor among thieves.

-hl718

[Lostuse]

i wouldnt look at it like that it was either let the copy that was leaked that he had credited twords himself, or spread the release with the info out that gave proper arena credit to service games for buying it, and megalexx for cracking it and such...

[Phinn]

In other words, "someone screwed us so we decided to screw over everyone else, promises be damned."

Guess it really is true, there is no honor among thieves.

-hl718

Seems more like damage control to me.

[Mark30001]

Question is how this "other guy" manages to get a copy of this game.

Since I wasn't involved in the whole ordeal, I can't really have a say on if leaking the game before the other guy was the right thing or not.

[Yakumo]

Probably the same way I got a working copy before anyone else here did ! It's all about who you know and so on. Just for the record I did make a donation as well plus made the "official covers" for it.

The internet world is full of cheating sods that are out for one person only, themselves ! It's a great shame but if I was in the shoes of Lostuse I guess I would have done the same if only I couldn't have stopped the un-official release. Then again if I was in charge this would have never happened :nod: I'm quite well known for keeping a very close eye on things and being extremely tight about giving ANYTHING out unless I trust the person with my life.

Yakumo

[Sally]

Since this topic came up, there is an official UPC for Propeller Arena... I'll try to dig it up when i have a chance... There's a half life upc too....

[anagrama]

And I think the Dreamcast Half-Life release might have been courtesy of an Assembler member - that was a few years ago, and while I was a member at the time of its release, I didn't pay much attention to the specifics of who put it out.

I thought that came from an ex-Sega Europe employee who used to post on the old Edge forum. He certainly had a GDR copy of Half-Life that was sold shortly before it appeared all over the place.

[n8ht]

Back tracking slightly - was the NFO incorrect then in saying that nothing was downsampled?

And for ServiceGames, cheers :clap: - its been a while since I played it, but it was fun :)

[Lostuse]

nothing was downsampled