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Post by munsonroye on Jan 22, 2021 14:27:14 GMT
Hi Everyone! I posted this on videogamesage.com looking for info and they suggested I come here. I came across this J.B. Harold Murder Club disc in a lot of TurboGrafx-16 stuff I purchased off of eBay. It was not pictured or noted in the listing with the other games and when I received it I first thought that the seller had lost the original disc and just burned a copy of the game since it had the original manuals for it. Upon inspecting the disc closely I noticed a few things that lead me to believe that this might not be some junky CD-R copy of the game: The words "Not for sale" and "Sample" are stamped in red on the inside ring of the disc There is no printing whatsoever on the disc and the bottom data layer of the disc is clear like an actual production CD and not colored like some CD-Rs are The holographic square symbols and letters that are present on the inner ring of normal TG-CD games are also on this disc The game booted up and played without issue on my TG-CD system. I have never seen anything quite like this before and I was wondering if this might be an actual Sample / Demo disc of the game? Have other similar discs been found, or is this something unique?
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Post by munsonroye on Jan 22, 2021 14:28:34 GMT
Here are a couple more pictures:
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Post by SignOfZeta on Jan 22, 2021 17:56:17 GMT
CD-R barely existed when this game was made, and as far as I know it was not a significant part of PCE dev until homebrew in the late 90s so its not anything like a period prototype. I’d say the guy just burned a replacement disc.
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Post by munsonroye on Jan 22, 2021 18:08:51 GMT
CD-R barely existed when this game was made, and as far as I know it was not a significant part of PCE dev until homebrew in the late 90s so its not anything like a period prototype. I’d say the guy just burned a replacement disc. I appreciate your input, but after I posted on this site I was contacted on another forum by someone confirming that it is indeed an early build for the game that was most likely handed out to publishers and people in the industry before it was released. They included a picture of a J.B. Harold Murder Club that looked exactly like mine except it had #14 instead of #12 written on it, along with a picture of a different TG-CD game that was similar. Attachments:
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Post by SignOfZeta on Jan 22, 2021 18:26:42 GMT
Very interesting, but I think probably still not the whole story. What was the other game? We’d love to know anything else you know.
How do we know it’s an early build? Can you use TurboRip on it to confirm the image isn’t the same as the retail?I think “magazine/trade show review copy” makes more sense since they look like they were all made by the same guy on the same day. There were no publishers to court for this since, AFAIK, it’s NEC/Hudson and one doesn’t usually burn 14 CD-Rs in one day to test code, not back then anyway, not when you’re leasing the machine and the discs are $50 each. The majority of early (all?) CDROM dev on PCE was done with banks of HDs. I think “CES copy” makes the most sense but even then...why would they need 14 copies?
As it see it there are two interesting questions here:
1) did someone legit make this in-period?
2) Is there anything different about it at all?
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Post by munsonroye on Jan 22, 2021 18:48:40 GMT
Very interesting, but I think probably still not the whole story. What was the other game? We’d love to know anything else you know. How do we know it’s an early build? Can you use TurboRip on it to confirm the image isn’t the same as the retail?I think “magazine/trade show review copy” makes more sense since they look like they were all made by the same guy on the same day. There were no publishers to court for this since, AFAIK, it’s NEC/Hudson and one doesn’t usually burn 14 CD-Rs in one day to test code, not back then anyway, not when you’re leasing the machine and the discs are $50 each. The majority of early (all?) CDROM dev on PCE was done with banks of HDs. I think “CES copy” makes the most sense but even then...why would they need 14 copies? As it see it there are two interesting questions here: 1) did someone legit make this in-period? 2) Is there anything different about it at all? It might end up being a review copy or something similar. The person that contacted me said that him and a few other people collect TG-16 prototypes and what they have noticed is that since most of these games were first released in Japan, the game itself is probably the same, but some of the voices might not be done though, or when they did the english voices they might even sound different if they used different voice actors. The other game was Splash Lake. it had the same "Sample" "Not for sale" stamp on the inside ring as the J.B. Harold games, but the writing was different on the disc. I would post a picture, but it was from the person's personal collection and I don't know if they want me sharing their images.
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Post by SignOfZeta on Jan 22, 2021 19:47:18 GMT
TurboRip can tell you if it’s a known image or a new discovery.
Do you know the date on the other guy’s Splash Lake?
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Post by dshadoff on Jan 22, 2021 22:02:51 GMT
This is consistent with what I have seen for: - early pre-release review copies - in-store demos/pre-release
But I hadn't seen US-based versions until now; only Japanese.
The hand-written serialization (#12) is an interesting factor; I wonder which category of build this belonged to (it could also have been used by testers).
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Post by SignOfZeta on Jan 22, 2021 23:43:54 GMT
Oh yeah, testers. That’s probably the explanation.
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Post by paranoiadragon on Jan 27, 2021 4:19:36 GMT
It looks similar to the discs I used to own. I had discs of Might & Magic 3, Godzilla, Super Air Zonk & Bonk 3 that I got from an employee of TTI BITD. I sold them off. They looked just like what you're picturing.
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Gex
Gun-headed
Facebook Name: Ryley Rolls
Posts: 58
Currently Playing: Dragon Slayer 2
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Post by Gex on Nov 10, 2023 21:22:21 GMT
Think I might own this, or another test disc for this game
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punch
Deep Blooper
Posts: 23
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Post by punch on Nov 11, 2023 2:14:55 GMT
Think I might own this, or another test disc for this game Wanna sell it, gex?
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