FS: Auction for the Holy Grail of Dreamcast: Geist Force (Canceled game)

I'll sell it to you for $10 bucks if you pay all my moving expenses. I'm open to trades

 

http://forum.redump.org/viewtopic.php?id=2620

Dumping it with standard hardware is possible to test to see what files are dumpable. I have one of the supported drives listed in a box of mine now (SH-D162C) granted flashed with modified firmware but this method has worked in the past.

Verification before sale would make it far more valuable IMO for what it's worth.

 

It is my personal grail and I do want it (wanted it before the DC was even released in Japan) BUT I don't have the cash to buy it out right. I will say this though. If I do buy the game (a miracle would be needed cash wise) it would eventually be released to the public. Not right away mind you, I'd like a bit of lime light for my site but eventually a public release would be made.

So, for now I'm going along with the crowd on ASSEmblers community bid for a release. I'd really like to see this out in the open. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has dreamed of this release!

Yakumo

 

ok im game for that and if it doesnt have the game on the disc. ill own those knee caps. since you are going to run away after its sold there isnt confidence. what garentee do you offer its anything

feeling lucky?

 

$550

I know it's a bit cheeky to make this bid on my very first post, but hopefully my reputation precedes me.

My intent is to enlist someone trustworthy with the know-how and a devkit to hopefully extract and publicly release the game. If I am outbid, consider it donated to any group fund that may develop in an effort to see this released, on the proviso that the original disc ends up with me if I happen to be the largest contributor. It'll be pretty much worthless once the data is extracted anyway.

 

I would really like to buy this but, it has to much potential of being the worlds most expensive drinks coaster.

 

I'm sorry but as only having one post, I would need someone to vouch for you before I can accept this bid.

It has much potential of being the worlds only playable game of Geist as well. Could go either way. If nothing else, this is an awesome piece of Sega history if it boots or not.

 

I can vouch for the eggfag. He's a cool guy, bids on protos and aren't afraid of anything.

EDIT: Seriously though, he's cool. About the only thing I can say against him is that he's from Australia, and that's not his fault.

 

if it dosnt book have it mounted like a record with a plaqe and everything

 

It's true it is a nice item, but i'm going to hold on to my money and hope you've got something better to come. ;-)

 

I know how easy this is to fake but this is what I get when I look at the properties of the disc if it helps any.

 

Not really as you shouldn't be able to view it properly or even to that extent in your PC

There should be next to nothing other than an audio file telling you to eject the disc in the low density area which you can see and a crapload of stuff in the high density area making your drive spin like a madman trying to work out what it is!

As you are seeing something it only adds to the confusion I think If we assume it's readable, then it must man the DC lacks the means to read it. IIRC the high density area is supposed to be read at half speed but you're reading what should be low density NP> perhaps the DC needs to learn to read the low desnity area at full speed but to be honest it still sounds like a lemon I do still hope it isn't though but alas I'm often told I'm too negative!

EDIT: Also as Giest Force was not reported until 15th October, presumably from the date and time given there was at least a whole week to get a working burn prepared for a retail machine?

 

If it helps any: ebay profile

I bought a boxed Sega SF-7000 for over $1000 last September, so I'm not averse to big (and somewhat stupid) expenses.

Thanks.

 

The high density section isn't readable by standard drives first and foremost because the TOC on the low density section doesn't contain information pertaining to the high density section (and obviously there are other reasons why the high density section isn't readable but lets just work with this one point for the moment shall we?) In this case it is totally possible that the TOC has been hacked by someone to say that it is larger than it actually is. Why? I don't have a clue. Just a hypothesis as I've only owned one GD-R before and it was written out like a standard, everyday GD-ROM. Did have a smidge of trouble ripping it with my DC but it seemed to rip just fine in my Samsung DVD-ROM. I just never bothered making a self-booting disc from it.

Assuming it is a run of the mill GD-R there is 0 reason the high density section is actually readable by the drive in DonnyK's Mac. Zip, zilch, nadda. At least that I can think of. By some fluke if it is reading real data then it'd be a first to my knowledge. As I've stated earlier I'm within driving distance and would be happy to verify what is on the disc schedule permitting. Hell I'd dump it for the winner if they'd prefer before it gets forwarded onto their destination. I realize I'm not the poster child of big wigs around these parts but I'd like to think I'm trustable.

That said I'm 99% sure the low density section only officially allows for 35mb of storage space. According to this site:
http://filext.com/file-extension/MIFF

The file found on the disc is a bitmap format that might be viewable. Given the files on the disc only add up to 40.5mb but OSX reports 548.8mb does suggest the modified TOC hypothesis has some weight to it. To the best of my knowledge simply booting it in a devkit wouldn't be any different than using a System Disc 2 with it but there are exceptions to that rule I can think of. I'm far more interested in what a proper dump of it will contain.

EDIT:
http://xiaopang333.wordpress.com/2008/08/06/dreamcast-myth-gd-rom-storage-capacity/

Some fun information for those so inclined.

 

Meh from that quote I sound like a right tard, though don't I always! FYI it was a GD-Writer I sorta broke which cost me £220, but we learned of the secret switches, not to bother messing with them, not to sell me any hardware (though people still did, hence blown up Set 4!) and most importantly I had the pleasure of breaking it , not buying it pre-spoiled and having the fun taken from me I ended up binning it as the only offers I got barley covered shipping, fuck that. I could have easily reassmbled it and eBayed it 'as is' but I have too much integrity for a stunt like that.

I was thinking the files meant for the high density area could have ended up in low density, or worse for whatever the point would be, vice versa. The only way we will know if it has value if it's dumped and it won't be dumped until it's bought. I assume it will be bought though which is a good thing, the only question is will it work and will it have been worth DonnyK's time

IMO everyone would have been much better off with DonnyK dumping the disc himself, asked for donations, posted the release and donated the disc to the site museum or the bin, whichever would give DonnyK less headache. A more accurate valuation would have been possible then too.

 

This makes a lot of sense to me... I don't think anyone is doubting the discs provenance, but $500 is a lot of money for anyone and if it does work Donny's looking at getting a much higher amount and the rest of us (if we're lucky) get to see Geist Force up and running.

APE? Donny? What do you say? Can you guys meet up and work something out?

 

I'd like to see the bottom of this GD-R. I have not seen a GD-R that looks like this before. I have plenty of experience dumping GD-Rs (some here may remember that I dumped and released K-Project), and I'm confident that I could dump this disc easily with my retail DC as long as it's in good condition...

I have never used any Sega dev hardware or software, though, so it's difficult for me to say exactly how this disc works. But IIRC (it's been a long time since I've been near a GD-R), GD-Rs have a low density and high density section at the time of pressing, meaning that it wouldn't be possible to have a low density track that has that much data on it, as the low density track cannot exceed 10 minutes, or more specifically, about 88 megabytes.

What may be going on is that the disc has an actual legitimate ToC. Typical GDs match normal CDs in the low density region, and the ToC tops out at 10 minutes exactly. Maybe whatever software that was used to master this allowed a full ToC? Who knows... I'd have to see the disc to figure that out. With that amount of data there's got to be something else on there. The question I have is... is that data split across both density areas? or does the fs start in the high density? I'd love to get my hands on it and play with it...

 

This pic makes the light scratches intensify but it's not that bad.

 

Looks like both low and high density areas are distinct and both have been written to. Hmm. Interestingly enough, one may not even need to use DC equipment to dump it. It could be just enough to use IsoBuster and a good CD-ROM drive.

 

That'd be nice.

Those scratches do look terrible but they also don't look like they're anything but light scratches to the uppermost layer of plastic. At worst some sort of resurfacing (I've had luck using brasso to polish discs but they were ones that are easily replaced. I'd be extremely hesitant to even think about trying that here given there are more foolproof methods available) would be necessary. Though I sincerely doubt those scratches are that bad.