Version labelled SAMPLE Virtual On Dreamcast<<What is this game I have?

[y9784]

Feel free to move this thread if I placed it in the wrong sub-forum.

I have a sealed Virtual On Oratorio Tangram for the Japanese Dreamcast.

What is strange about it is that there is a label with the word Sample slapped onto the front of the case. There isn't a spine card as there are in most Japanese disc-based games I've seen. On the spine, I see the game SKU is HDR-0040. On the back, in the upper right corner, it has the same SKU with several numbers following; HDR-0040 673-00704.

Has anyone heard about this version? Is it a copy presented directly by the publisher but not sold in stores?

Pics

[Niku-Sama]

Some interesting info on the game:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyber_T...atorio_Tangram

apparently it was both an arcade game aswell as a home console game for a while and surprisingly there was a NA release which seems odd because this seems like one of those games that they wouldn't want to release here for what ever reason...ANYWAY....
as far as the "sample" part of it, my internet sleuthing didn't bring any thing up about your game but brought up some info on Japanese games in general that I have noticed personally.

some gems marked as sample like that may have been a pack in or a stand alone demo you might have been able to buy at a game shop. kinda think of it as like granturismo prologue, its a glorified demo of what is to come later on.
Japan being japan though, sample could also mean something along the lines of a press release sample.

judging how its sealed though I am going to lean more twards a demo type sample that was a bundle with something else or something you could get cheap to try it out as I've never seen press release or tech demo samples sealed like a retail release.
not to say sealed tech or press release demos weren't ever sealed like that, I know I've never seen them sealed like that.

not to say it isn't valuable though as I imagine with a game popular like it seemd to have been they probably went from the arcade to buying a full version and I don't imagine they would have sold many demo discs like that

[y9784]

Some interesting info on the game:
[url]...some words and bad grammar...

I know what VOOT is. I am only interested in the fact that this copy has a label of SAMPLE on it when clearly it looks like the Japanese retail release.

There were no official Sega Dreamcast bundles for this game. The SAMPLE sticker is under the seal, having been placed on the case directly before it had been sealed by the manufacturer.

To be clear, I am not looking for speculation or misinformation. I am trying to obtain facts about this particular release.

[y9784]

I did some more research on my own. I found this thread on Assembler Games which discusses both Sega Dreamcast and Saturn Japanese releases with the SAMPLE label. In short, they were copies handed out for evaluation. Here is a link to that thread:

http://assemblergames.com/l/threads/...e-games.21660/

Edit: updated link

[GKnight]

I did some more research on my own. I found this thread on Assembler Games which discusses both Sega Dreamcast and Saturn Japanese releases with the SAMPLE label. In short, they were copies handed out for evaluation. Here is a link to that thread:

http://www.assemblergames.com/forums...le-quot-Games/

Hey, that link is dead now, any chance you remember what was mentioned about the Sample games? I have a number of JP Dreamcast games which are sealed and have the "Sample" sticker and assumed that they are similar to Not For Resale label games. Please let me know if you happen to remember or have a more current link. Thanks!

[y9784]

Hey, that link is dead now, any chance you remember what was mentioned about the Sample games? I have a number of JP Dreamcast games which are sealed and have the "Sample" sticker and assumed that they are similar to Not For Resale label games. Please let me know if you happen to remember or have a more current link. Thanks!

I updated the link. They are indeed games identical to full retail release which are handed out by publishers to magazines and websites for review.