I don't know if any of you remember Magnetic Scrolls known for graphic text adventures like The Pawn, but this source code save is epic. https://strandgames.com/blog/magnetic-scrolls-games-source-code-recovered
I'll see your Magnetic Scrolls and raise you a CRAY-1. Not a game, but still. http://www.chrisfenton.com/cray-1-digital-archeology/ (Also have a look at the FPGA-based cray model the recovered code would be running on. It's schweeet.)
Uhh, this is a gaming forum... how is it off topic? Very interesting - thanks for the share. I'm moving to rare gaming.
Wasn't quite sure which forum. I was thinking possibly preservation, but... The plus side to this source code save is the dev will now start releasing remastered versions with updated source code. The Pawn in particular holds a lot of Commodore Amiga nostalgia for me.
Based on more recent conversions partly resorting to emulation, it seems as if Sega has also "misplaced" at least some of the arcade source code for Daytona USA and Virtua Fighter 2. Similarly, I recall it once being suggested that the reason the original House Of The Dead wasn't included in that Wii compilation featuring 2 and 3 a few years back was because - all together now - Sega lost the source code for this as well! In fact, it's probably safe to say a lot of Saturn and Model 2 era titles are unaccounted for in the company's archives.
I can't imagine Sega having a problem with how well Daytona USA performed... I once read that it was the highest grossing arcade game of all time, prompting operators to remark "it's no Daytona" whenever they'd receive a new racing cabinet! I can't remember if this was from an interview with Yu Suzuki, Toshihiro Nagoshi or Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, but someone connected with the project said that they believe its secret was having a soundtrack played much louder than other coin-op machines, helping to draw greater crowds in. As for the other titles mentioned before, Virtua Fighter 2 and The House Of The Dead can't have done too badly, as they both enjoyed several sequels, leaving just Panzer Dragoon Saga - even that may have sold a lot more if only Sega hadn't given it such a limited print run (in Europe, at least, where far more copies exist of the first disc, since this was also pressed to serve as a cover mounted demo with issue 31 of the UK's Official Sega Saturn Magazine).
