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Long-lost Japanese PC games are discovered, uploaded, ...and became a part of the vast network

LESS T_T

Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014
Things hidden away by a private collector and you couldn't find on the internet: https://obscuritory.com/blog/lost-japanese-game-labyrinthe-released/

Lost Japanese game Labyrinthe released – and more are coming

Yesterday, a YouTube user posted a video and a download of Labyrinthe: Horror Tour 3, a Japanese adventure game that was previously assumed to be lost or unreleased. A write-up on Hardcore Gamer 101 from 2014said that “Labyrinthe is completely lost, and begs the question as to whether it was released at all.” So the sudden appearance of this game is startling to say the least!

But there’s more to the story. This copy of Labyrinthe came from a collector with a huge library of rare Japanese computer games, many of which have never been documented or available online. They had hosted their collection through a file-sharing directory, and eventually, the collection leaked outside the private circle where it was originally shared.

A reader sent me the collection earlier this year, and we agreed to wait a long period of time to share anything to avoid causing any interpersonal harm. But then that YouTube user posted the video, revealed about the game collection, and torched their connections, which was bad.

With that bridge unfortunately very publicly burned, we can share some things.

This is an incredible collection with some amazing games, like Harapeko Tsuki To Hoshi Atsume, the third title in Synergy Inc.’s Yellow Brick Road comedy RPG series based on The Wizard of Oz. And Cookie’s Bustle, a cutesy Olympics-style sports game set on an island in the midst of alien-related political turmoil. The collection contains, to my best guess, around 70 titles not yet available, including some soundtracks.

In the interest of preservation, I will be gradually uploading games from this collection to the Internet Archive. Other people had access to this collection, so more games might come out from other sources as well.

Although I’m glad these games will be available, this isn’t a sustainable way to preserve games. Leaks play a role in getting things out, but they’re not a healthy foundation for a gaming culture that values preservation. There’s often a tense relationship between private collectors who value rare games and folks who want to release things online. We’re all in this together, and to preserve our shared cultural history, we need to build trust. Private collectors have saved historical objects that otherwise might’ve been lost, and rather than demonizing people who are reluctant to make their collections available, we have to collaborate with them on the importance of preservation. Folks like Joseph Redon are doing incredible work bridging the cultural differences between Japanese collectors and game preservationists. By the same token, we also need to show patience and understanding when things aren’t immediately available. Sometimes there are good reasons; many prototype or development materials have only been preserved because they were provided to a person or museum that restricted their access. Trust is difficult to built, and it takes time.

But sometimes this is how it happens. Game preservation is messy.

You can check out his upload history on the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/@philsalv

Some interesting looking things:

Samurai Mech RPG series for Macintosh:
https://archive.org/details/SamuraiMech_1992_HuLinks
https://archive.org/details/SamuraiMech2_1994_HuLinks

samuraimech.1.jpg
samuraimech_0002.jpg



Rema the Truth (1996), sci-fi anime adventure: https://archive.org/details/RemaTheTruth_1996_KSSMediaEntertainmentCompany



zwanzig_zwoelf


Link Devicer 2074 (1997), mech strategy game: https://archive.org/details/LinkDevicer2074_1997_GAMCorporation

ld2074.01.jpg
 
Self-Ejected

aweigh

Self-Ejected
Joined
Aug 23, 2005
Messages
17,978
Location
Florida
Nah fam, fuck collectors who refuse to digitize and release. I can understand the point hoarding material objects that need care to preserve, like a ching-chang-chong vase or some shit, but intentionally refusing to archive and upload video games is the absolute PEAK height of faggottry.
 

zwanzig_zwoelf

Graverobber Foundation
Developer
Joined
Nov 21, 2015
Messages
3,085
Location
デゼニランド
There are Windows and hybrid games too. Dude deleted everything, btw.

Good news? A friend of a friend of a friend of my mother's sister's girl's brother may be onto something.
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014
Well, at least the sites for abandoned things, you know, were quick to grab them.

Also looks like the Twitter guy or someone uploaded soundtrack on Youtube:

 

zwanzig_zwoelf

Graverobber Foundation
Developer
Joined
Nov 21, 2015
Messages
3,085
Location
デゼニランド
Well, at least the sites for abandoned things, you know, were quick to grab them.
Not all of them as far as I know -- today I found out there are leaks of backups of the entire folder w/ all these 60+ games or so.
Some of them have been available for a while but w/o the docs/scans, while other stuff... let's just say I had no idea some of this stuff exists.
 

Grauken

Gourd vibes only
Patron
Joined
Mar 22, 2013
Messages
12,787
I feel like when these type of people talk about game preservation it means something completely different to what I think when I use the term preservation. If something isn't played by anyone, not available to the public at large, even if there's only a minuscule circle of people interested in playing it (admittedly true for old games), then what's the point. That's not preserving anything, that's just hording shit to feel elite
 
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