Geist Force Interview - collecting YOUR questions

a friend of mine will conduct an interview for the magazine he writes for with someone involved in the production of the ill-fated "GEIST FORCE" for dreamcast, jointly developed by SEGA America and Netter Digital, the company that made the special effects for the TV series Babylon 5.

do you have any specific questions about the game? just post them here and he might include them, i will post the full interview here once it gets published (either march or april!)

for more infos on this game, here your favorite game-trailer of the millenium:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsJCXJCmcUg

News from IGN, 1998:

 

Was really Bernie who killed the development?

 

If it was Bernie then he ranks as an even higher prick in my eyes if that was ever possible. That man did nothing to make Sega better as far as I'm concerned.

All I want to know is will we EVER see Giest Force in it's Dreamcast carnation as a 360 download? I always wanted that game and still do. I'll never own a GD-R of it simply because those who have it won't sell.

Yakumo

 

Surely it doesn't exist on GDR? - The only video in circulation comes from the Sega Express discs...I forget which volume.

If 'somone' had a copy you'd think they'd post a video on youtube at least (same deal with Castlevania for DC) - I highly doubt a gdr exists of either game. At best it's some collector trying to claim they have it to make them sound good.

I've yet to see a scrap of evidence to suggest otherwise... not even a humble screenshot.

 

There's a chap called 'Mr_Jolly' who reputidly owns a GDR of it, If its true 'the build he has runs for a bit and then dies' (black screen or reboot?).

He had a set of photos somewhere (photobucket etc, one of those) where he showed his dev unit and had some text underneath saying he uses it to play Geist Force and the final version of MSR (unreleased Japanese ver).

Never seen a single pic or video unfortunately, He's stopped communicating with me now anyway when I offered him some of my unreleased items as a trade or some kind of situation where we both trial each others stuff but I heard nothing back.

He came accross as a nice genuine guy though!

 

There are a few out there who claim to own a copy of this game on GD-R.

I do own the covers mind you thanks to a very kind forum member.



Sorry for the watermark and low quality scan but I doubt the person who this originated from wants it all over the net ready for copying.

Yakumo

 

damn i hope we can play this and GunValkyrie someday...

among other things

 

1) Yes, a GD-R exists.
2) The only copies I know of to make it out of Sega were out of Sega Europe.
3) One of the collectors who has one won't sell it, only trade it for other unreleased/undumped Dreamcast titles.

I was working on a PA <-> GF trade when PA got dumped by the board here. That obviously killed the trade. heh.

While my swap didn't work out, rest assured there are discs out there. It's just that the people who have them know they are worth some cash.

-hl718

 

Good to know that copies exist and are in the hands of collectors!

 

From what I can remember, Geist Force was featured prominently at the 1998 Tokyo Game Show along with a 40% complete version of Sega Rally 2 still in video form (at this point I would like to emphasise the latter was due for release just a few weeks later). I seem to recall this early build of Rally being handled by the same team at CRI responsible for Virtual On and Sega Touring Car on the Saturn, but after generating such concern from those attending TGS it was decided by management the original AM division would instead take over. As a result, they were forced to employ a 12-hour rotational shift system over a two month period in order to port over the consecutively-developed PC code so it would be ready for such a short deadline - even then it was delayed a little, with the PC edition receiving further improvements later on due to its secondary status!

Under similar circumstances, Bernie Stolar gave the makers of Geist Force one last chance to get this high profile title up to standard. After previewing a massively reworked near-final build, management still didn't feel this game was up to scratch and quietly pulled the proverbial plug... though I'm not entirely sure the decision was entirely Stolar's alone. Either way, there were definitely a few copies of Geist Force circulating within Sega's European offices back in the day because it was described as being one of the better-looking titles many journalists got to see prior to the Dreamcast's launch, so I'm assuming they had access to the earlier work. According to various sources, this early period resulted in far superior results, and with production nearing the end it's clear a lot of corners were cut. Perhaps it was because of the programmers being more familiar with the incomplete development hardware or just a lack of time, but for whatever reason it's clear Geist Force became worse following its notorious TGS appearance.

As you can probably tell already, for historical reasons I'd not only love to get my hands on this early Geist Force but also the Sega Rally 2 prototype video, which supposedly more resembled a low-budget PC game than a high-end Model 3 conversion. Furthermore, the pre-release versions of Genki's Virtua Fighter 3tb look to be inferior compared with the end product, so again I'd kill for the opportunity to have a closer look at these. Let's not also forget the many great early tech demos used around the Dreamcast's announcement, as these would also be great to see from a technical perspective if not anything else. For example, it's well documented that US-designed animation, particle effects, texture mapping and polygon rendering tests were shown at E3, plus there's Future City that was proudly displayed by Sega in Europe. Finally, we have the New Challenge real time sequence featuring the head of Shoichiro Irimajiri, along with the AM2/Team Andromeda collaboration known as Tower Of Babel that later evolved into the Kowloon introduction portion of Shenmue. Does anyone know if any of these has ever reached public hands?

 

I'm not doubting you personally hl718 - but did he provide any proof that he had it? (a video/screenshots that don't come from mags/video/etc)

It's very easy for someone to say they have 'x' beta/etc... We've seen that kind of behaviour here at Assembler a few times over the years.

The only person who gains by posting a screenshot/video of a desired beta is the owner - it proves they have it and more people with equally rare material will seek them out for a trade or offer them vast quantities of cash (not me, sadly)

Regarding Anthaemia's post - the fact that some journalists got to see it does not mean gdr's were ever available. All it means is that, at some point, journalists might have been invited to a viewing of the game (as is normal practice) When a company invests huge amounts of cash into a project they don't give out gdr's to journalists until the review stage - Geist Force/Castlevania never got that far iirc.

 

Why does the game need to be in original GD-R form inorder for it to be available for trade?

I do not quite follow why you think it is so rare for a game to have a build burned to disc.

 

All I'm saying is that without any proof (whatsoever, in either case) - I remain sceptical. This is the basis for my reasoning, nothing more.

A company is duty bound to protect its IP's - not freely distribute the odd copy to a bunch journalists - Yes, betas do appear and unreleased games do eventually rear their head - but with both Geist and Castlevania we know production on both games was a) not finished and b) at best chaotic > in the case of Geist Force (a launch title for the dc) it's not like Sega wouldn't be keeping tabs on what was going on/etc - Capcom and Castlevania, ditto.

There are plenty of unreleased games that we know exist - why? because there are videos and screenshots that prove they exist.

Could I be wrong? Certainly.

Anyone wanna buy my spare res evil 1.5 beta?

(that's how easy it is to say I've got a beta)

Most proto collectors, it would appear, DO in fact want to tell the world they have 'x' rare game... How many of them collect protos and lock them in a box and forget about them after shelling out hundreds (thousands even) of dollars?

It's about the hunt and showing off your trophy...

Besides, I still await hl718's answer to my question or anyone who can show me one 'scrap' of evidence to prove me wrong? (which I'd love to happen!)

 

If hl718 is taking the time to mention it, Id imagine he had proof

 

I suppose this board is full of people that contradict your very reasons for collecting. I myself have plenty of things that I have never even mentioned before. I don't shell out real money for something just so I can brag about it. I track it down so I can enjoy it myself.

Trust me when I say that there are far more oddities and rare unreleased items just under the surface in members hands that are not talked about than there are visibly tangible and talked about discs.


hl718 doesn't need to provide proof as far as I'm concerned. His word is enough to me.

*edit - I'm not trying to be incendiary. Just replying to your opinions.

 

Hey guys!

Is pretty interesting know who theorically can have a prototype of this unreleased gem (at the moment I think only Kron has given a name), but remember the interview subject?

Can you give us more details regarding who is or at least which position has occuped in the development process? Maybe knowing this we can make better questions...

 

Point taken Servicegames - you are right, and re-reading my post I feel a little ashamed at some of my comments.

As Ryo Suzuki says tho' - the topic is about an upcoming interview and not about the existence of a proto...

However! At this point I have a question for the interview that's lined up:

"Was there ever a copy of Geist Force burnt to disc - or - a version that could potentially have been burnt via katana dev kit?"

 

No need to be ashamed of your view point arnold.

Good question though. I was thinking the same thing after reading ryo's post.

 

Yes proof was provided in sufficient form to satisfy my concerns and his. Remember at the time PA wasn't leaked so both of us were being ultra careful with what we had. There was verifican on both sides.

We had also traded prior items, so it wasn't just someone who came out of the blue.

And no, he wasn't a journalist nor was his disc meant for journalists. It was a GD-R, but it was only meant for internal use at Sega.

-hl718

 

Cheers hl718

...I have another question for this interview:

(after you ask about the disc - now confirmed by hl718)

"Can I have a copy?"