Dancing Stage Party Edition PS1 - PAL re-release?? (56k bad)

[Defconsoft]

Well I managed to pick up another copy of Konami's Dancing Stage Party Edition the other day, didn't really need it but it came along with Dancing Stage Euro that I did need as my copy was scruffy.

Anyway I got my existing copy off the shelf to compare them and see which one was going to get kept and which one was going into the ebay pile when this jumped out at me....

http://www.defconsoft.co.uk/Images/party.jpg

Now if I remember correctly one of the Dancing Stage games was plagued with bugs when it was played on a PS1, something about the test department only testing it on PS2's and missing it, along with Sony's QA department it would seem.

So my questions are....

Was this bugged game Dancing Stage Party Edition?
Did they re-release the game with bug fixes in it?
Why did they change the CD artwork?

FYI the SLES numbers printed on the game are the same however the one on the left has #2 printed after it. They cases are exactly the same.

So any DP knowledge buffs got any ideas?

[AtariBuff]

hmmm, that's a good one - investigation begins now :)

[AtariBuff]

got my copy today. will rip both of them and compare the iso images.

[AtariBuff]

ok, the deal is that both of my color variations have #2 printed after the SLES. So, on to looking for a clean copy :D

PS: both #2s are COMPLETELY identical when opened with Isobuster

[PapaStu]

Not being a PAL guy the only thing I can see (and this is just by looking at the pic posted above) is that there what looks to be a 'Made In xxxxxx' on the orange disc, just under the Konami Logo.

[AtariBuff]

Not being a PAL guy the only thing I can see (and this is just by looking at the pic posted above) is that there what looks to be a 'Made In xxxxxx' on the orange disc, just under the Konami Logo.
you have eyes like an eagle - both different colored #2s don't have a copyright notice.

[Defconsoft]

I will rip both mine to ISO as well as see if there is any difference between them.

[Defconsoft]

Ok took a look at the ISO's and there is a difference. The exe's are dated 3 months apart which is obviously a major difference however they are not any difference in size so it doesn't look as if there is any code changes.

So this is SLES03882

http://www.defconsoft.co.uk/Images/partyiso1.jpg

and this is SLES03882 #2

http://www.defconsoft.co.uk/Images/partyiso2.jpg

So make of that what you will however to add a little more fuel to the fire and from seeing PapaStu's eagle like eyes I decided to take a closer look at the disc's and their cases. So like PapaStu noticed the Orange disc has Made In Austria underneath the Konami logo which the Blue disc does not. I also found a difference on the cases of the games, the bar codes are different.

SLES03882 rear case.

http://www.defconsoft.co.uk/Images/partycase1.jpg

SLES03882 #2 rear case.

http://www.defconsoft.co.uk/Images/partycase2.jpg

So we have some noticable differences behind the discs now. So my theories at the moment are these.

1/ The orange disc is the original press run of the CD and the blue disc is the second press run of the CD, now usually they do not change the disc's for a second press but perhaps they did for this game.

or

2/ They released this game in a couple of flavours for no obvious reason or just to add a couple of sales to the game perhaps.

or

3/ The orange version is the original released bugged version and the blue release is a newer cleaner less buggy version of the game. And to add a little evidence for this theory we have the following news article http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=965


Konami's Dancing Stage Party Edition makes an impressive debut at number nine, although problems with the game have caused a recall, which casts something of a cloud over the unexpected success of the title.

Now with the evidence above of the dates on the files this does make for a strong arguement for a recalled product with the original disc going to master in August for a christmas release (what with Sony's QA proceedure which can take a few weeks as I know only too well), and the re-release being dated in November a few days before this news article was written meaning if a recall had been put in then the new version would of had to have been in Sony submission quick sharp to get the re-release out in time for Christmas.

However the only spanner in the works here is that Ataribuff has #2 on both coloured discs which adds in another problem that if I think about too hard at the moment makes goo ooze out of my ears. So I am going to sleep on it for now. Maybe someone else can jiggle thi sevidence around to make a conclusion.

[AtariBuff]

**brillant** detective work, Defcon - I thought so that there is a difference.

have you tried getting CRC32 checksums for the differently dated files?


...that Ataribuff has #2 on both coloured discs which adds in another problem ...yeah, I know. I just can't make it easy :D :D :D

As I have no "first release" the task is up to you :D

[PapaStu]

Not being a PAL guy the only thing I can see (and this is just by looking at the pic posted above) is that there what looks to be a 'Made In xxxxxx' on the orange disc, just under the Konami Logo.
you have eyes like an eagle - both different colored #2s don't have a copyright notice.

And thus you've discovered why Dangerboy hates me sometimes when it comes to variants. ;)