Magical Chase Waiting List

[SignOfZeta]

I think the guy still custom makes the SFZ. SOmething on his website about "sold out, but please inquire" I don't think he'd take a reasonable price though. I'd just want it for all the pretty paper packaging bits anyway.

Just make one yourself. A quality laser printer and CD burner can do whatever this guy does. Seriously, it isn't worth jack.

The Sapphires are a lot more valuable, at least to me. They are pressed CDs, offset print, quality all the way.

[jayamine]

 Oh I had one, but never opened it and traded it. No ACD plus I nabbed it on PSP (traitorous I know)

[jayamine]

The problem with SFZ is that I'd need printable images of the fold out instruction bookletN back insertN and spine. Plus he did a nice job on the cd cover itself. I don't have a cd labeling kit

[Mathius]

So many MCs destroyed. I know it's over-hyped but that is really sad.

[jayamine]

Yeah it was incredibly nice of Steve to provide me with so many exact figures. Who knows how many MCs hit retail? (Prolly more than 500. Pity those outer boxes never survive) also interesting that a game like godzilla is just as rare as dynastic, but not worth nearly as much

[Arkhan]

Oh I had one, but never opened it and traded it. No ACD plus I nabbed it on PSP (traitorous I know)

why?  That PSP version is tits!

[SignOfZeta]

The problem with SFZ is that I'd need printable images of the fold out instruction bookletN back insertN and spine. Plus he did a nice job on the cd cover itself. I don't have a cd labeling kit

You can just make the book yourself. His isn't "official" or anything. The game never even came out. Whatever he put in there (I actually don't know) is just random SFZ related crap he found on the internet.

BTW, there was recently some talk here of making some better bootlegs. This may or may not come about.

[jayamine]

Hmmmm. SFZ with english language packaging? That could be awesome-ness! Never had an ACD or Kisado. Could never bring myseld to unshrink my 2nd run sapphire anyway. I only have about 40 pce/duo games, but proud to say I've had several of the rare ones since day 1.

[Mathius]

Here ya go

https://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=10156.0

[jayamine]

Considering there are only 500 each of most of those games in existence minus however many have been lost over the decades (in English), I think an unofficial second print would be great. Run them on a press. Make them indistinguishable except for a clear and unmoveable "SECOND PRINT" notation  on the disc and in the instructions.

According to Steve Garwood, the rarest ones (500 or less) are Might & Magic 3, Godzilla, Super Air Zonk, Bonk 3 CD, Dynastic Hero, Cotton, and Beyond Shadowgate. (I imagine Exile II and Dungeon Explorer II follow close behind ... but then Ex2 might be tricky because of the sleeve)

Pick one title. Do between 300-500 copies. Sell them at a slight profit to cover other expenses that might occur. (Also the excess cash could be used to fund the second game while the first one is still selling.) No one gets paid except for people who provide graphic design, programming, and other services (English translation and manual perhaps for SFZ). All the excess money stays in an account for the next project, etc.

My credit decent and available. If you guys are serious about that sort of thing, I'd be willing to bank roll a decent sum up front.

I like the idea of starting with an English project version of Space Fantasy Zone or a reprint of Dynastic. Might and Magic 3 and Shadowgate might be a tad more expensive because of the enclosed map/posters and larger jewel cases.

[Mathius]

Go into the thread above and state your case. That'll help to keep this nice and tidy.

[jayamine]

They'll probably just laugh at me, but I'll do it just as soon as put this load of laundry in :-)

[vestcoat]

Yeah, but none of that is unique to Magical Chase.

Ahhh....Yes it is.  Fact: MC was the penultimate Turbochip.  Fact: it didn't have the name recognition of Bonk 3 or Bomberman.  Fact: it wasn't licensed from giants like Disney, Capcom, or Hudson.  Gee, now let's see, could ANY of these points factor into how many were destroyed?  

I believe that there may be as few copies of Magical Chase in existence as any TurboChip, but I've still seen it around as often as other games and for a long time, much more than games like Darkwing Duck. Plus I've yet to find games like Darkwing Duck, Ghost Manor and Hero Tonma, in the wild, but I did find Magical Chase bitd. There may even be fewer copies of MC than any other TurboChip game, but it can't be a big difference, unless only a few hundred were made and for some reason they're always for sale.

...aside from personal accounts of how many times each of us have happened to see individual games.  If anyone can present a plausible theory for why Darkwing Duck or Hero Tonma are rarer, I'm all ears.

Does it seem likely that once they gave up on trying to sell the stock at the prices the few takers could only afford to buy so much of, that instead of calling them up and saying "just take the rest", they instead spent money on destroying everything? If they were looking to lose money, why not just destroy everything in the first place?

Bankruptcy 101:

destruction of unsold merchandise is extremely common- especially when a business is going under.  in order to have debts forgiven and be liquidated, all assets must be sold.  whatever is not sold may NOT be kept in most cases because that company has to be zeroed out without and value on the books.  you can't just keep your products lying around and make profit in the future when you owe money now.

Anyway, thanks to jayamine, we've now confirmed the bulldozer story from the horse's mouth.  I never want to hear someone compare MC to OotG again.
  

Radio Shack in both Canada and the U.S. was definitely one of the longest running NEC and TTi retailers. I doubt that Radio Shacks in the U.S. kept selling Turbo games for TZD through the 32-bit generation. They definitely stopped in Canada when TTi went under.

I ordered games through Radio Shack in the U.S. until 1998 or so.  I got Soldier Blade, Bomberman 93, Dragon Slayer, Ys 3, and Shockman.

[nectarsis]

Yeah, but none of that is unique to Magical Chase.

Ahhh....Yes it is.  Fact: MC was the penultimate Turbochip.  Fact: it didn't have the name recognition of Bonk 3 or Bomberman.  Fact: it wasn't licensed from giants like Disney, Capcom, or Hudson.  Gee, now let's see, could ANY of these points factor into how many were destroyed?  

I believe that there may be as few copies of Magical Chase in existence as any TurboChip, but I've still seen it around as often as other games and for a long time, much more than games like Darkwing Duck. Plus I've yet to find games like Darkwing Duck, Ghost Manor and Hero Tonma, in the wild, but I did find Magical Chase bitd. There may even be fewer copies of MC than any other TurboChip game, but it can't be a big difference, unless only a few hundred were made and for some reason they're always for sale.

...aside from personal accounts of how many times each of us have happened to see individual games.  If anyone can present a plausible theory for why Darkwing Duck or Hero Tonma are rarer, I'm all ears.

Does it seem likely that once they gave up on trying to sell the stock at the prices the few takers could only afford to buy so much of, that instead of calling them up and saying "just take the rest", they instead spent money on destroying everything? If they were looking to lose money, why not just destroy everything in the first place?

Bankruptcy 101:

destruction of unsold merchandise is extremely common- especially when a business is going under.  in order to have debts forgiven and be liquidated, all assets must be sold.  whatever is not sold may NOT be kept in most cases because that company has to be zeroed out without and value on the books.  you can't just keep your products lying around and make profit in the future when you owe money now.

Anyway, thanks to jayamine, we've now confirmed the bulldozer story from the horse's mouth.  I never want to hear someone compare MC to OotG again.
  

Radio Shack in both Canada and the U.S. was definitely one of the longest running NEC and TTi retailers. I doubt that Radio Shacks in the U.S. kept selling Turbo games for TZD through the 32-bit generation. They definitely stopped in Canada when TTi went under.

I ordered games through Radio Shack in the U.S. until 1998 or so.  I got Soldier Blade, Bomberman 93, Dragon Slayer, Ys 3, and Shockman.

In this case though we're talking what, between 10-20 YEARS, and a lot of is prob based off of memories.  Not saying that anyone would lie, but seriously you can remember exact totals, or have documentation from that long ago?  Besides basing everything off of ONE person (possibly fallible/doesn't remember correctly, etc)...no matter who it is, is dubious as it is.    Who's to say that just as many copies of  OoTG weren't lost destroyed (which in all honestly prob sold worse than MC, or DD, etc.)?

[jayamine]

The numbers were pulled last night from actual physical records. literally pieces of official physical documentation that have been in a filing cabinet for twenty years. You don't have to believe me, but I'm not making this up. The Polaroids do in fact exist ... but they're most likely in the office of some NEC Corporate Lawyer's cold storage cabinet somewhere in japan. (Now to play devil's advocate ... aside from the numbers which have all been pulled from physical record ... a lot of it does rely on Steve's memory)

I'm working on getting paper records of how many of each game were actually produced and specific release dates down to the day. The only thing that will be in question after that is how many have been lost to history over the past two decades. And who knows. 1600 MCs were destroyed that day. Maybe 2000 Griffon's were destroyed on the same day.

TZD purchased close to a half million $$ in stock that day and there was still TONS destroyed. Factoring backwards from inflation ... imagine how much a half mil in games was twenty years ago.

If you guys are still in doubt, Steve said I could post his words after I black a few "proper nouns" out. Certain names and titles still need to remain anonymous.

Oh, P.S. My name is Joe. jayamine stands for J. A. Yamine. No prob t all, but it feels weird when epople call me jay (since I have a close friend named Jay)

Also, I'm not new here. I just haven't been around for a few years. I'll go dig up my posts from years back - Nanto keeps great records - just to show you how long I've been in this community. I was on BT's mailing list as far back as 1998.