Current Events > 70 Long-Lost Japanese Video Games Have Been Discovered in a 67GB Folder of ROMs

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/a3anja/labyrinthe-japanese-game-discovered-on-private-forum

Until yesterday, rare Japanese PC game Labyrinthe, developed by Caravan Interactive, was long thought to be lost forever. That is until the almost mythical third game in the already obscure Horror Tour series was found on a 67GB folder of ROMs on a private forum. Other rare games from the folder are expected to become public soon. Since its release in 1998, retro gaming fanatics have scoured the web for this game but come up empty. The game has a listing on Amazon Japan where the cover appears, but where it has never been in stock. A May 2014 post on Hardcore Gamer 101 reads Labyrinthe is completely lost, and begs the question as to whether it was released at all.

Labyrithes prequels have also proven difficult to find. Horror Tour, also known as Zeddas: Servant of Sheol in the West, was playable on Sega Saturn and PC. In the game, you are trapped in the confines of a castle where you must solve puzzles in order to proceed and inevitably kill an evil demon named Zeddas. Horror Tour 2 was released solely in Japanese for PC and was rediscovered in 2014. The game ends on a cliffhanger, and gamers have been desperate to find out what happens next for two decades. Labyrinthe, alongside other rare titles including Cookie's Bustle, Yellow Brick Road and Link Devicer 2074 were in a folder called DO NOT UPLOAD. Members of the private forum hesitated to upload Labyrinthe in the fear that the private collector would take down the folder and leave the collection out of reach once again. This hesitation demonstrates the often tense relationship between game preservationists and private collectors. According to a screenshot uploaded by Saint, the private collector threatened to pull the entire folder of content from the directory and stop uploading games altogether if anyone leaked Labyrinthe.
---

IslamMD posted...

According to a screenshot uploaded by Saint, the private collector threatened to pull the entire folder of content from the directory and stop uploading games altogether if anyone leaked Labyrinthe.

What a dick
---

Damn, between the Pokemon Gold beta and this, seems like a good time for lost game media.
---

bump
---

I don't understand how threatening to pull down the folder is useful at all, anyone who reuploads that specific game could just download the whole folder themselves first??
---

SmidgeIsntBack posted...

IslamMD posted...

According to a screenshot uploaded by Saint, the private collector threatened to pull the entire folder of content from the directory and stop uploading games altogether if anyone leaked Labyrinthe.

What a dick

he's like martin skrehli (sp?) when he bought the only wu-tang album or whatever just so nobody else could have it
---

kirbymuncher posted...

I don't understand how threatening to pull down the folder is useful at all, anyone who reuploads that specific game could just download the whole folder themselves first??

He assumed everyone there was his friend and would keep it to themselves. If he wanted no one else to have it he would have been best off never putting it on the internet in the first place.
---

Hooray for ROMS
---

IslamMD posted...

kirbymuncher posted...

I don't understand how threatening to pull down the folder is useful at all, anyone who reuploads that specific game could just download the whole folder themselves first??

He assumed everyone there was his friend and would keep it to themselves. If he wanted no one else to have it he would have been best off never putting it on the internet in the first place.

yeah, that's what I mean, it's an ineffective threat. either you trust the people there not to do it when you tell them not to, or you just never upload it yourself in the first place. that sort of threat that he decided to go with seems both unecessary and useless.

glad it got leaked
---

if you have something that is thought to be lost like that, just become a legend and be the guy who gave it free to the world. Dont be a fucking dick and hoard it.
---

I hope that Killer Instinct 2 for the SNES leaks someday

I can't wait to play those, it's good times for those who can read Japanese.
---

Hop103 posted...

I can't wait to play those, it's good times for those who can read Japanese.

I'm sure there will be translation patches eventually. Especially for the game that continues the story of one that ended on a cliffhanger.
---

I like that early 90s/late 90s 3D art style like in that Labyrinthe game.

Tag
---

RE_expert44 posted...

if you have something that is thought to be lost like that, just become a legend and be the guy who gave it free to the world. Dont be a fucking dick and hoard it.

Indeed.

Would be nice if that one jerk would let Marble Madness 2 be released...
---

Collectors are absolute scum, all games should be available for consumption by everyone interested.
---

I honestly don't get why you wouldn't want to share with the world
---

EverDownward posted...

Collectors are absolute scum, all games should be available for consumption by everyone interested.

What's the pleasure on owning something nobody else even knows exists?

I can see the appeal of the "once upon a time in shaolin" ownership since people know it exists and crave it and know that somebody else has it.

But if there is a game called "the amazing aventure of pekfewrfw" that nobody knows exists and I have a copy and nobody knows I do... what's the fun in that?

Balrog0 posted...

I honestly don't get why you wouldn't want to share with the world

Because then hes not special.
---

Reminds me of when the Japanese version of the NES Monster Party finally was ROM'd online. Was waiting for that version forever.
---