Was Propeller Arena ever actually produced in US?

[diskoboy]

Another post got me thinking...

In the US, Propeller Arena was cancelled because of 9/11/01. But wasn't this game supposed to be released a week later? Because I remember reading the hype of this game on IGN a few weeks prior, and then Sept. 11th happened, and Sega cancelled it that very day. Gamespot still even has it's release date listed as 9/25/01 on it's 'last days of dreamcast' page.

This being the case, obviously, the game went gold since it's always in the newsgroups, and I have a CDR copy, myself. Was this game actually published and just not sent to stores? Are there any copies, anywhere, that have an actual CD jewel case, a professionaly printed manual, a real GD-rom (not a CDR backup..)?

I find it hard to believe there are no legitimate copies of this game floating around out there.

[Iron Draggon]

Good point! You would think that a game that close to release would be sitting around in a warehouse somewhere. So how do you get one of those CDR's and get it to work on your Dreamcast? I've always wanted to play that game.

[anagrama]

Was this game actually published and just not sent to stores? Are there any copies, anywhere, that have an actual CD jewel case, a professionaly printed manual, a real GD-rom?


No.

[Zadoc]

Propeller Arena was cancelled, though it was complete, for two reasons:

1. There were levels in the game where dog fights took place amist towering skyscrapers. 9-11 happened right before the gane was set to be released.

2. The Dreamcast was already that the end of its life cycle.

[Ed Oscuro]

Good question, that's really up against the edge. Thanks to regional disc and media creation centers/factories, I think many games are now produced around that last week or two before it ships to stores (I think Half-Life 2 was an example of one whose production got crammed in), so they may or may not have completed a manufacturing run. It might also be the case that production started on inserts or manuals but they never got any discs made.

[diskoboy]

Good point! You would think that a game that close to release would be sitting around in a warehouse somewhere. So how do you get one of those CDR's and get it to work on your Dreamcast? I've always wanted to play that game.

Do a google search for "Utopia boot disc dreamcast". Just pop it in your DC, let it load up past the bios screen until you see the reindeer, then without turning the DC's power off, take out the boot disc and put in your backup game.

But if your patient, someone will post the self-booting version.

It's a shame this was never released. It's just as fun as Crimson Skies, IMO. The online play sounded fun, too.

[Saabmeister]

Sligtly off-topic, but this game and Shenmue II was why I bought a Dreamcast.

I was unbelievably pissed when they were cancelled.

One of these days I need to put my eye-patch and get myself a copy of Propellor Arena off th 'net.

[diskoboy]

Good question, that's really up against the edge. Thanks to regional disc and media creation centers/factories, I think many games are now produced around that last week or two before it ships to stores (I think Half-Life 2 was an example of one whose production got crammed in), so they may or may not have completed a manufacturing run. It might also be the case that production started on inserts or manuals but they never got any discs made.

Ah! That's my point! When I worked at babbages (around the time of the DC's end), sometimes we got high production games weeks in advance and just kept them in back until the street date. Then alot of the budget games or so-so games that no one cared about, we got shipped to us the day before the street date. Unless we actually worked at a distributor, how would any of us know for sure? The game I'm playing seems 100% finished. And the people that leaked the game on the web had to get it somewhere!

I'll bet dollars to doughnuts there's a new Dreamcast holy-grail out there somewhere! :)

[Ed Oscuro]

Ah! That's my point! When I worked at babbages (around the time of the DC's end), sometimes we got high production games weeks in advance and just kept them in back until the street date. Then alot of the budget games or so-so games that no one cared about, we got shipped to us the day before the street date.
That's interesting. When did you work at Babbage's (had to have been more than a few years ago, given the name change)? It seems a lot of games are in the news now for really pushing development right up until the last week or two...but I wonder if most of those still allott enough time for a half-month shipping schedule.

[keiblerfan69]

Good point! You would think that a game that close to release would be sitting around in a warehouse somewhere. So how do you get one of those CDR's and get it to work on your Dreamcast? I've always wanted to play that game.

Do a google search for "Utopia boot disc dreamcast". Just pop it in your DC, let it load up past the bios screen until you see the reindeer, then without turning the DC's power off, take out the boot disc and put in your backup game.

But if your patient, someone will post the self-booting version.

It's a shame this was never released. It's just as fun as Crimson Skies, IMO. The online play sounded fun, too.

Mine boots without it. I just have to turn the system on and off 2 times. Same thing with Half-Life and PBA Bowling.

[ProgrammingAce]

I think this link covers the propeller arena can of worms pretty well...


http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8332&

[diskoboy]

Ed, I worked at Babbages between November 2000 and I quit the week before the attacks. I remember because I was supposed to start my new job on 9/11. I was about to turn off the TV and walk out the door when the second plane hit the WTC. After that, I just couldn't peel myslef from the TV. Fortunately, I didn't get fired.

So unfortunately, I was gone right before PA was supposed to be released. I even had it reserved, but I ended up getting the ten bucks back. The store I worked at closed down about a year later. They talked about changing over to GameStop when I was there, but it obviously never came to be.

[diskoboy]

I think this link covers the propeller arena can of worms pretty well...


http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8332&

So did they steal a sealed copy of the game or buy the GD-R gold pressing from Sega? I'm still confused...

[JPeeples]

I've got a self-booting version of PA, and I love it. I think it's a bit better than Crimson Skies in some ways. I certainly think the music is better. Aiming is also easier in PA. CS has the edge in terms of visual beauty, but PA doesn't look terrible by any means. I would have loved to play it online. Maybe Sega will throw it into a game collection down the line with web play. Better late than never and all that.

[roushimsx]

shame a disc image of the original GD ROM isn't available. :(

It'd be a great thing to have instead of the resampled rip when Dreamcast emulation matures.

[ProgrammingAce]

The original GD-R that the publicly availible rip was taken from is still around. Untouched and uncompressed.... just waiting there....

[InsaneDavid]

Good point! You would think that a game that close to release would be sitting around in a warehouse somewhere. So how do you get one of those CDR's and get it to work on your Dreamcast? I've always wanted to play that game.

Do a google search for "Utopia boot disc dreamcast". Just pop it in your DC, let it load up past the bios screen until you see the reindeer, then without turning the DC's power off, take out the boot disc and put in your backup game.

But if your patient, someone will post the self-booting version.

It's a shame this was never released. It's just as fun as Crimson Skies, IMO. The online play sounded fun, too.

What the heck are you talking about? It's a selfbooting image to begin with. The copy I have boots first time everytime no problem. Don't tell me I'm going to have to start distributing them preburned again. O_O The duplicates were of a review copy if I remember correctly. It's 100% complete and plays on the DC no problem because - okay everyone - ALL DC's have MIL-CD compatibility except for those few rumored Asia only models made later on.

The game was canned becase of the original concept cover art (planes against skyscrapers) and because of the Tower City level.

[Flack]

I wrote a review of the game for the DP print zine. It made it there, but not to the site. It's archived on mine, though: http://www.robohara.com/?p=67

[kainemaxwell]

I think this link covers the propeller arena can of worms pretty well...


http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8332&
Figures. @_@

Self-booting image is what I have. Plays great, still fun to play. Game had some real quality to it, shame never released.

[roushimsx]

The original GD-R that the publicly availible rip was taken from is still around. Untouched and uncompressed.... just waiting there....

Great news! I'll have to scour the interweb and see if I can turn up a copy of it. Is there a cache of raw DC rips out there (mainly for prototypes, like Half Life and such) or is Propeller Arena a rare exception to the norm?

If not, it's going to suck having to redump all of this crap all over again.

edit VVVVV


Found a place to buy it, but hate the idea of paying someone who is making it sound like its an original legitimate copy and profiting off it.


I agree... people that charge money for what isn't theirs make my stomach turn. It's even funnier when they try to say it's to pay them back for their services, not for the pirated warez. IMO there's two types of pirates...people that like to swap software and cocksuckers.

People that charge for warez are cocksuckers.

[Leo_A]

I wish I could find a copy of Half-Life. The old information in the old threads like ftp sites are long dead. Its surprisingly hard to find. Not sure what I'll even do with it without a cd burner.

Found a place to buy it, but hate the idea of paying someone who is making it sound like its an original legitimate copy and profiting off it.

The couple bittorrents I've found aren't doing anything.

[ProgrammingAce]

The original GD-R that the publicly availible rip was taken from is still around. Untouched and uncompressed.... just waiting there....

Great news! I'll have to scour the interweb and see if I can turn up a copy of it. Is there a cache of raw DC rips out there (mainly for prototypes, like Half Life and such) or is Propeller Arena a rare exception to the norm?

If not, it's going to suck having to redump all of this crap all over again.

I think you misunderstand me, I'm just saying that an uncompressed copy exsists. As a matter of fact, i am aware of 4 copies of the uncompressed GD-R that came directly from the developer. They have not, however, been leaked to the internet. At least, not as far as i'm aware.

Just an FYI, half life also exsists in the uncompressed form, as a stamped GD-Rom. It's just that very few copies survived, i'm aware of less than 10.

[WasherDryerCombo]

I have a burn of Half-Life and Propeller Arena, I could atempt to make a copy if you guys want one.

[T]

I have a burn of Half-Life and Propeller Arena, I could atempt to make a copy if you guys want one.

That would be awesome!

What do I have to do to get a copy of PA?

[Ed Oscuro]

Thanks for the info diskoboy! Dark times indeed...9/11, and the cancellation of Propeller Arena too.

[Push Upstairs]

I have a burn of Half-Life and Propeller Arena, I could atempt to make a copy if you guys want one.

Yeah, what do i do to get a copy of PA as well?

I cannot find a decent place to get it online (non-torrent)

[diskoboy]

check your isp's newsgroups. Get a newsreader that decrypts YENC files (like Forte Agent - don't use Outlook or Outlook Express.) Look for the group : alt.binaries.cd.image.dreamcast

Someone posted Rez a few weeks back. Half Life shows up every now and then, as well.

people in the US, using Comcast only have a 2 gig a month file download cap from newsgroups... Be forewarned and a picky downloader.

[Sosage]

I don't know how Sega handles their disc replication (and my experience is pre-99), but when I worked for a software publisher we often had to allow for a 5-7 day turn around time per print run (IIRC, we did have a couple extremely fast, 1-2 day turn arounds...but 5-7 days was the norm). We'd receive the product and then turn around and ship units out (which could take 1-3 more days to reach stores).

We also had to schedule replication in advance (sometimes months in advance), during the busiest times (end of summer, into holidays).

Even with the Assembler story in consideration, I still think it is *possible* that a flat of PA DC product could have existed in a misc. warehouse. It is also just as possible that this imaginary flat hit the dumpster when 9/11 happened. But now we're diving into some highly subjective scenarios.

*shrug*

[ProgrammingAce]

Even with the Assembler story in consideration, I still think it is *possible* that a flat of PA DC product could have existed in a misc. warehouse. It is also just as possible that this imaginary flat hit the dumpster when 9/11 happened. But now we're diving into some highly subjective scenarios.

*shrug*

I can say for sure that Propeller Arena was never stamped, although it came very close. I'm not convinced that the copy floating around on the internet isn't a gold master (i'm not sure as i've never played the copy on the internet).

[tholly]

I hate to bring up very dead topics, but is there any known sites still around that have downloadable files for Propeller Arena and Half-Life? I never got them back in the day, and I'd love to have a copy of each around, just to have.

[Leo_A]

Try to find a torrent of them, took me the better part of a afternoon searching online before I found them, and probably another day to download them. But they're out there if you look.

[PallarAndersVisa]

i have a copy of the game on CD-R for the dreamcast. It is self-booting. Works perfectly.

[jpark203]

Interesting discussion but even if a complete legitimate copy of propellar arena popped up on e-bay you'd have a hard time distinguishing as such with all the pirated copies out there.

If you want these games torrents would be the best option, as already suggested. Use a program like bitlord and go to torrentspy.com, look up "dreamcast" and look for half-life. Propellar arena is going to be harder to find though. There's also an unreleased Flintstones game that was leaked, so watch out for that too.

[tholly]

well, i got propeller arena thanks to someone's help....

now i just need to find half-life.....and i guess flintstones....

[Kitsune Sniper]

Whenever I see someone selling Half-Life for the Dreamcast on eBay, I report them. They're all bootlegs, and seeing the game get sold for over $60 is sickening.

[ProgrammingAce]

Interesting discussion but even if a complete legitimate copy of propellar arena popped up on e-bay you'd have a hard time distinguishing as such with all the pirated copies out there.


No, not really... a "real" Propeller Arena would be on a GDR. Even then, you could tell by file size.

[kainemaxwell]

Interesting discussion but even if a complete legitimate copy of propellar arena popped up on e-bay you'd have a hard time distinguishing as such with all the pirated copies out there.

If you want these games torrents would be the best option, as already suggested. Use a program like bitlord and go to torrentspy.com, look up "dreamcast" and look for half-life. Propellar arena is going to be harder to find though. There's also an unreleased Flintstones game that was leaked, so watch out for that too.
A Flintstones game really? Hmm, far as I knew there were only the 3: Half-Life Propeller Arena and that bowling game.

[tholly]

A Flintstones game really? Hmm, far as I knew there were only the 3: Half-Life Propeller Arena and that bowling game.


Hmmm....well, I now have working copies of HL & PA. I can't find the Flintstones game yet. What was this bowling game called?

[jpark203]

Hmmm....well, I now have working copies of HL & PA. I can't find the Flintstones game yet. What was this bowling game called?
It was Viva Rock Vegas. Dreamcast-Scene has some info on the game:
http://www.dreamcast-scene.com/index.php/Main/FlintstonesVivaRockVegas

Looks like a cell shaded racing game. I haven't downloaded it yet but I've seen it listed on torrentspy. There just aren't enough seeders for it though.

[kainemaxwell]

Hmmm....well, I now have working copies of HL & PA. I can't find the Flintstones game yet. What was this bowling game called?

PBA Tour Bowling 2001.
http://dreamcast.ign.com/objects/014/014757.html

[tom]

I have both Half Life and PA Gold downloaded in working order, if anyone wants a copy, pm me, maybe we can work out just CD-R and postage to USA (from Germany), dunno maybe $3.00 via PP? (gotta check with PO how much it is to send a 2 CDs to USA via Airmail.

[Cryomancer]

All of these games should be on underground gamer (it's a torrent site).

Just burn them with your normal software at a slow burn speed and they should probably work fine in your dreamcast.

There's also the beta bleemcast stuff out there, and nowadays people are even making ready-to-burn bleemcast discs for certain games (like...PEPSIMAN!). Personally I'd say Prop Arena is the best of the unreleased DC games to hit the internet. Half Life's loadtimes are crazy and the other two just aren't that great of games.

[kainemaxwell]

Just burn them with your normal software at a slow burn speed and they should probably work fine in your dreamcast.
Best program to use to burn DC discs is alcohol 120%.

[Nintendo Gamer]

.....

[Pilotwings]

Hi i just bought a jap propeller arena for 12 pounds of ebay. It looks like a real Dc game from the picture with the manual spinecard etc. I no its probably not real but i dont care cause it looks great being complete and all and £12 pounds is nothing for me really. So i was just wondering do you guys think this is a reasonable price and most ov all do you think it could be real?.

[diskoboy]

Hi i just bought a jap propeller arena for 12 pounds of ebay. It looks like a real Dc game from the picture with the manual spinecard etc. I no its probably not real but i dont care cause it looks great being complete and all and £12 pounds is nothing for me really. So i was just wondering do you guys think this is a reasonable price and most ov all do you think it could be real?.

No. It's not.

You just got ripped off. Basically you paid for abandonware. PA is freely avalible over the web. Same with the DC version of Half-Life 1. PA was never actually released in any region. It was nixed about a week before it's release, thanks to 9/11/01. A few people managed to get thier hands on the gold version (the finished version ready to be pressed onto a GD-Rom) from Sega. If you did manage to find a production copy of PA, it'd be worth a helluva lot more than 12 pounds, I can guarantee you that...

I'd give whoever sold it to you a negative review.

EDIT - but on the good side, you have a great DC game. And you don't have to go through the trouble of downloading it, burning it, etc. And you have a decent case to store it in. But if you feel the game is worth the 12pounds you paid for it, you shouldn't feel too bad. There are alot of games I've bought for too much, to only find out later it was totally worth the money.

Alot of the people in these forums have all done it, at least once.

[Borman]

And I doubt it will have a manual, just the cover that Yakumo made.

Do you have the link? I had a problem with ebay-ers stealing my pictures and media from both Propeller Arena and Half-life DC from my website (http://ptoponline.com hah, the media and videos are still there), so Id just like to confirm they arent doing that shit again.

[Pilotwings]

Hello here is the picture of the item. I no i have been ripped off if you can do this stuff for free but really i am a noob and all i do is buy games for my collection so i dont really no much about burning games and stuff so i just bought it and £12 pounds is like pocket money for me. - thanks for the info guys.

[MrRoboto19XX]

Say what you will, that is a beautifully done bootleg.

[tholly]

for a boot, that is very nicely done...i dont know what 12 pounds converts to, but im sure its not that much, so, its probably worth having something like that, rather than some CD-R copy with sharpie marker label like mine is.....

[Pilotwings]

I only showed you the actual ebay picture as i didnt want to show any 1 his ebay name or mine really. But he says in the description that it is a manual with the back cover, disk art, spine card. He has 100% feedback on about 480 items and it seems like hes just a normal seller who sells games ov all sorts and other things so he probably just bought it himself at some stage. When i get it i will tell you guys how good it really is and if it really is a manual.

[Pilotwings]

:? Yeah just got by bootleg propeller arena and wow who ever done this done a hell of a job. It has a full manual packed with information just like a normal manual and even has a little notes section at the back. The disk and spine card look awesome also. You can tell its a fake as it looks slightly to new and glossy on the cover art and spine card compared to my other Dc games but if you showed it to someone who doesnt no much about games they wouldn't no.

[drewskione]

:? Yeah just got by bootleg propeller arena and wow who ever done this done a hell of a job. It has a full manual packed with information just like a normal manual and even has a little notes section at the back. The disk and spine card look awesome also. You can tell its a fake as it looks slightly to new and glossy on the cover art and spine card compared to my other Dc games but if you showed it to someone who doesnt no much about games they wouldn't no.
How can I obtain a copy like that?

[weirdguy]

Travel 3 years back in time.

[drewskione]

yes, I reads discuss

[exit]

One word, GOOGLE. (www.google.com[url) The true Hot Tub Time Machine.

[drewskione]

sadfasdfsadfa fuc

[weirdguy]

Well nobody here will explain to you how torrents work and how to burn a ISO image on a CD.

[kupomogli]

Yeah, that is a film. I really need help with this man. Seriously, there is nothing I want more right this minute than a copy of Propeller Arena on a CD-R.

Send me a million dollars and Santa will bring it to you for Christmas.

[drewskione]

dsafdsfsadf

[drewskione]

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