| smbhax [sys=PS1; cat=Sports; reg=UC] |
| | | PS1 longbox--according to Wikipedia, came out first in US, near the end of '95. "World Soccer Winning Eleven" in Japan.
Shingo Takatsuka--often credited as SEABASS Takatsuka--was a programmer on the game. As of the next game--Goal Storm '97 in the States / World Soccer Winning Eleven '97 in Japan--he directed and served as main programmer of the series through Winning Eleven 6. He held non-main programmer as well as supervisory roles in many of the later games, and was often credited with "Original Conceptualisation."
This first "Goal Storm" is extemely arcade-like: you PLOW/EXPLODE through defenders, characters are weirdly cone-like, very zoomed-in action camera angles. The next game two years later ("'97"), SEABASS' directorial and main-programmer debut, was totally redone, very much set up like later games in the Winning Eleven series.
This game is oddly cheap on eBay. ; ) |
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| | | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro_Evolution_Soccer
^ Series list. |
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| | | | Even GameFAQs doesn't have a real scan of the longbox! Fortunately I found a longboxed version cheap on eBay somehow, and from a seller I've successfully bought from before (SOME sellers are charging pretty big bucks, even saw a slabbed one ; D). |
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| | | | It looks like SEABASS in the follow-up borrowed generously from what Konami's Osaka studio had been doing with Jikkyou World Soccer: Perfect Eleven--which would become the "International Superstar Soccer" series--on Super Famicom. So '97 becomes almost another ISS, and then the two series run in parallel for a while, but with ISS getting relegated mostly to N64 for a while, then PS2 mostly in Europe, and Winning Eleven eventually takes over. |
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| | | I wonder if it was an amicable takeover or even collaboration, or if Osaka felt kind of put-out, or what. There are a number of interviews with SEABASS on YouTube, I wonder if ever talks about it.
https://gamicus.fandom.com/wiki/International_Superstar_Soccer_(series) traces the series back to Konami Hyper Soccer for NES--but it only came out in EU/AU; quite slow-paced looking but firm links can drawn to the SFC ISS games in terms of the graphical layout, from the looks of it.
The fandom article refers to W11 as moving on to "improving considerably" over the Osaka studio's efforts and just kind of squeezing it out ("there wasn't much room" for their games continuing); but notably without citation. ; )
Google overview says ISS's trademark was more arcade style and humorous commentary. But I dunno, certainly by the end of ISS--International Superstar Soccer 3 in EU--it's hard to see that distinction, really just looks and sounds very W11-like. So someone at Konami who could actually affect things must've finally just said hey this is silly, we're competing with ourselves here and making two identical games, let's stop the smaller one and carry on with the bigger one. |
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| | | | ISS series not to be confused with titles called "International Superstar Soccer Pro" in US/EU, those were actually Winning Eleven (Japan) games, by SEABASS' Tokyo (KCET) studio. |
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| | | | "(As an aside, there's no great mystery behind the series chief's unique nickname. "It's just because he loves finishing seabass," explains long-time colleague Akiyoshi Chosokabe, who joined Takatsuka's team as a designer in the mid-'90s.)" -- https://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-story-of-how-pes-conquered-football-games/1100-6430269/ |
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| | | | In Western media articles SEABASS is often credited as revolutionizing the genre by bringing a simulation angle to the games, but while he was director & main programmer, the games retained an arcade-like feeling of direct control; the abstracted simulation feeling in the control--that you're suggesting to a simulation algorithm what you'd kind of like the highlighted character to do, rather than directly doing it yourself through that character--started coming in Winning Eleven 7, right when SEABASS went hands-off, and the controls and action got smoothed over. |
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| | | (Konami Hyper Soccer really DIDN'T come out in Japan, even under some other name, as far as I can tell. Hmr.
Buttons in that game are kind of baffling; https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/nes/567296-konami-hyper-soccer/faqs/79446/basics says A is short pass, B is long lob; both are slow, A is so slow you can nearly outrun it, and the defense certainly can. ("It may arrive, it may not, you could even be running after it and still reach it yourself. Usually the best method would be to pass and then press the opposite direction so the players at the front fall back to receive it.")
Then "As you get to the front of the goal the passing will switch to a kick move. Press to do a simple shoot if you are facing the goal, but it will do a pass/lob like the passing mode if you are not facing the goal.") |
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| | | | (Konami Hyper Soccer was '92, so quite a late NES game--except that SNES wasn't out in EU/AU until June/July '92 (Nov 1990 in JP, Aug 91 in NA).) |
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| | | | This is the sole credit for Goal Storm director and first-listed programmer on MobyGames--ahead of SEABASS--Sai Ikyou. |
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| | | Their 1993 "Premier Soccer" arcade game could be seen as in the Hyper Soccer to International Superstar Soccer lineage, it's another horizontal layout with non-super-deformed players, rather similar screen set-up really.
Their 1994(? Some sources and title screen say 95) arcade game "Soccer Superstars" on the other hand is a very different big sprites almost super-scalar 2D pseudo-3D affair; lush visuals really. (Similar presentation to their 1993 arcade basketball game "Run and Gun" ("Slam Dunk" in Japan).) |
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| | | | This isn't even the first game on which SEABASS was a programmer for Konami that had a "soccer" game in it... But that one's a cartoon nightmare. |
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| | | Taito's Hat Trick Hero 2 (1994) feels pretty much in the Hyper Soccer type of lineage--like an earlier, turbo International Superstars Soccer, really--plus super shots! But the speed makes it hard to tell if there IS more to it really, and the AI actually runs even faster than you, so they just chase you down, which is frustrating. (Didn't try SFC prequel Football Champ (ARC) / Hat Trick Hero (SFC) / Euro Football Champ (SNES EU) / Super Soccer Champ (SNES US), or arcade games Hat Trick Hero '93, on which HTH2 is supposedly based--except it's very super-scalar pseudo-3D-style, or the arcade follow-up, HTH '95 / Taito Power Goal (EU), which has pretty cool if overly repeated FMV-style sprites, punching and kicking-I think the first game in the series did too--and yep super shots.)
... Okay Super Soccer Champ is a thinner, simpler, not quite so turbo iteration which really isn't as compelling as HTH2, although I suppose the AI doesn't run way faster than you, at least. |
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| | | | I mean really it looks like for HTH95 Taito were able to photo capture a single rather distinctive Japanese male model in the round for the sprites, so every player in the game looks like a clone of him, sometimes with recolored blond or pink hair. ^ _^ |
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| | | | HTH '95: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmMjpqce_xQ |
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| | | | (Oh wait I HAD already looked at Super Soccer Champ--it's just THAT un-memorable. ; D) |
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| | | | Sega's Japan-only licensed J.League series on Mega Drive / Game Gear, or at least J.League Pro Striker Final Stage (J), the last one, are very much in the Hyper Soccer vein as well, fast but maybe not as fluid. |
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| | | The first copy I got off eBay came in a longbox, and when I received it, the disc was just shaking around inside, because there's about a CM or more of empty space above the disc holder, and it had shaken free of that.
I don't know if it got scratched due to that, but there are various small scratches on it, nothing too dire looking but it gets stuck analyzing track 2 in ImgBurn, and reports an error midway through in PowerISO. If I tell PowerISO to ignore errors I can get a bin/cue out of it; the cue has 11 tracks--but when converting to CHD the 213 MB BIN goes to a 16.3 MB CHD, which plays in okay in DuckStation except that there's no music on the main menu like there is when I play the disc in my PSOne--there's a sorta jungle beat during matches, which is also what happens on PSOne. (Same result if loading the bin/cue directly.) So I guess there's a scratch or anyway some read error that has stopped the music audio tracks on the disc from being ripped correctly.
I've ordered another disc, maybe I'll have better luck the second time. Meanwhile I guess I have a rip that plays okay for initial purposes, I dunno. ; )
The longbox looks kinda slick I guess--I can see why Marketing would have come up with such a thing but yeah the space inside for a disc to rattle around is not good. There's a thick foam pad but it seems designed lengthwise BELOW the disc, and kind of brace the manual, which has no clips or slip or anything else to hold it in place. Silly design really, especially given that the disc holder central thingy doesn't sorta snap in around the center of the disc, it's just more cylindrical or even very slightly tapered so the disc just sits on it and may decide to slide off if it gets restless--or tossed around in shipping. |
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| | | Looking at other longbox versions on eBay, two of 'em did have the piece of foam that braces the bottom of the manual against the front of the box--but none had some other piece of packing that would keep the disc from falling off the spindle and rattling around.
So I'm gonna try to stick to disc-only for longbox game auctions, 'cause if the shipper just trusts the longbox with no additional interior packing, the disc can easily pop off and rattle around during shipment. (Dunno if there were other longbox layouts that prevented this.) |
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| | | | https://github.com/putnam/binmerge seems able to convert multitrack bin files into separate bin files, as I think it was redump's CUE of the game had it (I can't get any of redump's rippers to rip; ImgBurn has always done just single bin files). Was hoping this might magically get the music tracks working--it didn't, of course; or at least not the game's menu music, the only redbook track I know how to get to. binmerge also seems able to merge separate bin files into a single bin file. But I haven't tried this stuff with a game that ripped without errors. ^ _^ |
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| | | Okay a program called "CloneCD" spent a while filling in "bad sectors" with "dummy" info or something, and created a .ccd and associated files apparently successfully. Running chdman on that (accidentally--I thought I had to convert it to bin/cue with PowerISO first--which didn't result in a working image) made it into a 93.2 MB CHD, close to the 93.1 CHD obtainable from the multi-bin "Redump" version--and all the music tracks play back correctly, with no glitches, in PowerISO--and the game seems to run fine, with menu music, in DuckStation! Gosh! So I wonder if it was copy protection on the disc.
CloneCD is a 21 day trial--but there's no longer a way to register it as the company went bust. I couldn't find anywhere online saying there was a way to keep it working after 21 days now. 'p' I ran it on my old laptop so in theory I have another 21 days on my new laptop if I ever need to rip some other resistant disc. |
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| | | Oh dang I'd gone ahead and ordered another disc of the game and forgot the seller had already bought the shipping label, so the ask to cancel option is out. Well, it'll be kind of interesting to see if the other disc has the same problem ripping--that'll pretty much clinch it that it's copy protection.
This is SLUS00055, printed on the disc. But when ripping it's ID'd as SLUS00069. ^ )^
I mean it seems unlikely it IS some kind of copy protection, but this was weird early days. I guess we'll see! Most likely though it is an actual read-blocking scratch on one of the audio tracks but the actual resulting audio glitch--with dummy data filled in I guess--just isn't noticeable, to my ears. |
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| | | | And yeah I guess I SHOULD find out if it's a glitched disc here, since I wouldn't want to resell it ever if that's the case; I'd destroy it and keep the non-glitched one (if this new one rips normally I mean). |
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| | | Download added: 00_piracy.jpg (80838 bytes)
""Information about pirate product""
Fueling this speculation of it possibly being copy protection was a) various low-data conspiratorial conversations about such things in online gossip, quite possibly confusing them with copy protection schemes in PC (ie non-console) games, coupled with the frequent recommendation of various ripping programs supposedly good at getting around copy protection schemes (including CloneCD, but mostly another one which is notorious and even somewhat up-front about including malware in its installation routine), and b) a bright-teal text on black background warning screen about software piracy ("likely to constitute a criminal offense"; "if you suspect" "pirate product" "call your local Customer Service number") early in the game's boot sequence. |
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| | | | That anti-piracy screen at least is running natively at 640x224. 'p' |
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| | | Googling, the only anti-piracy schemes I can find associated with PS1 games seem to have come along later (c. 1998), and involve some capacity for detecting that the game is being run on a chipped console, or that the game disc is a copy (due to not having a bit of code from a part of the disc most commercial burners can't or couldn't write)--Sony's LibCrypt did both: https://tcrf.net/The_Cutting_Room_Floor:Common_Things/LibCrypt_Explanation .
In other words, didn't find any mention of pre-'98 copy protection schemes, much less copy protection schemes that prevented the discs from being ripped. So yeah it's very probably just a scratched disc. |
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| | | | Hm! The cheap new USB 3.0 Rioddas DVD reader I got off eBay read the troublesome Goal Storm disc fine the first time--not in ImgBurn, that hung right away on analyzing track 2 still, but in PowerISO (see entry 1877), no errors reported, unlike from the internal drive on my old Win10 laptop. Well I'll be darned. Compressed to 93.1 MB CHD, runs fine. |
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| | | | Ooh right but I have to keep my masking tape label on this marking it as unsellable since it does hang in ImgBurn (see entry 1741), which is pretty much the standard. ... Unless the 2nd disc hangs in exactly the same way, in which case it's ImgBurn's problem. 'p' |
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| | | I *think* this might be the earliest US PS1 disc I've tried. It's certainly the first US PS1 longbox I've had, for whatever that's worth (Googling says 102-109 US PS1 longbox games, about the first year of releases*). GameFAQs has '96 dates for J (March) and U/C (just year) but releases but Wikipedia says the US release was actually first, December 22, 1995. Giantbomb says 1/15/96 https://giantbomb.com/users/4546/articles/all-ps1-games-in-order-part-015 (also https://fifthgengaming.blog/2023/02/13/all-ps1-games-in-order-part-015/ -- not sure if this is actually borgmaster themselves or just someone archiving their posts).
The three US PS1 longbox types: https://www.reddit.com/r/gamecollecting/comments/7nvhi3/a_closer_look_at_the_three_types_of_playstation/ ; my Goal Storm box is the flat cardboard type, with just a flat printing of the left side ridges that another type of longbox actually had in relief.
*GameFAQs shows an even earlier non-longbox US release for Tekken but no box shot and I can't find any no-reproduction image of such a case, so not sure what that is. |
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| | | | Oh okay actually the first game is the J-only "J.League Jikkyou Winning Eleven" (7/21/95), basically Goal Storm but just with the 14 licensed Japanese domestic J.League teams. It's got the cartoon mascots! And digitized headshots of the two active characters in the lower corners of the screen as you play. |
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| | | | Oh re: the Tekken Oct 95 non-longbox release, GameFAQs DOES have a scan of it: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps/366755-tekken/boxes/115426 (I'd missed the "see all box shots" link 'p'). |
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| | | The second disc from eBay ALSO hangs ImgBurn right after starting, at analyzing track 2--so I guess this really is a PS1 game that is incompatible with ImgBurn. I wonder if it happens with other early US PS1 games. (Just like the other disc, it ripped without errors in PowerISO on my new drive and reported an I/O error at the exact same spot on my old drive, hung in ImgBurn in the old drive as well as in the new one, and played fine on my PSOne.)
I'd said I wouldn't sell a disc that didn't read without errors in ImgBurn, but errors with this particular game have happened in exactly the same way with two discs, and it plays fine in a PSOne, so it must be something to do with the pressing of the disc, and not something indicative of damage to the disc. So I'm going to sell the nicer-looking disc (the first one) and keep the second one. |
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| | | | (Actually, I'm going to see about a refund on the second disc--seller said was "like new" and showed a photo of a disc with no scratches (quite a suspicious thing in itself, I say now in retrospect 'p'), but it's actually covered in scratches. ; D Auction says they don't accept returns--so did the auction for the 1st one, actually, but that seller asked me to file a return request since the disc had come loose in the longbox during shipping--but it's supposed to be covered by eBay's "Money back guarantee" so we'll see how this goes. Disc was $10 and it'd probably cost me a about $7 to send it back but hey.) |
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| | | | (I filled out the Return this item option for the second disc, choosing "doesn't match description" as the reason and attaching a photo of the scratched disc underside, and eBay immediately let me pick the refund method and said "You'll receive a free return shipping label to send the item back to the seller." I clicked the button to agree to that and then it said "We'll send you an email when the seller responds to your request. If the seller doesn't respond or you can't agree on a solution, you can ask us to step in and help starting Jul 2.") |
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| | | | (The seller accepted and then there was another step I guess and then they did something(?) and I was able to download a QR code for the shipping label--although earlier they'd only said you'll "print it." So all set to send the scam second disc back I guess, cool.) |
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In DuckStation, on Easy difficulty.
0:00 - header goal
0:50 - intro
2:38 - Options
4:25 - teams
6:07 - France v Italy exhibition
9:48 - "Centering" (Triangle)
16:44 - Mexico v Scotland (Hyper Cup group stage)
25:55 - soft ground, All Attack (Bulgaria / England exhibition)
27:28 - off crossbar, off goalie, into goal
Oh dang I forgot to bump up the internal resolution in DuckStation for nice sharp edges; oh well we get to see it here in its original, chunky 320x240 glory. ^ _^ Next time I'll have it sharper.
26 national teams.
Runs at ~20 fps. ; D |
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| | | GameFAQs has some interesting-sounding cheats I'll have to try:
~ ~ ~
- Different Camera Angles (perss Select in game):
When the title screen appears press Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, Triangle, Triangle
- Easter Island Heads:
At the title screen press Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, Square, Circle
- Super Team:
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, X, Circle
~ ~ ~
Also apparently my "All Attack" tactics selection wouldn't have been doing anything, because according to the manual, you have to hit R1 and L2 together to turn the tactics on 'p' (L1 plus L2 "immediately after" to cancel). |
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| | | | Runs at 365x224--or at least, that's what DuckStation kicks out if you take a screenshot at 1x. If you set DuckStation to 1:1 PAR, the title screen balls are round, but the match ball is stretched--so I guess it's meant to play at 4:3, except nobody told the title screen artist. |
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| | | There's an entry for Goal Storm on Sega Retro, https://segaretro.org/Goal_Storm , saying
"Goal Storm is a football game for the PlayStation. It is the first entry in Konami's Tokyo division Winning Eleven football series, which eventually became known outside Japan as the Pro Evolution Soccer series. A Sega Saturn version was planned, but was cancelled for unknown reasons."
It has a placeholder title screen thumbnail that says "NO IMAGE AVAILABLE ON SEGA RETRO" "If you have the requested image, please upload it!"--which I perhaps foolishly took to mean they wanted the PS1 title screen, so I added one https://segaretro.org/File:Goal_storm_ps1_us_title.png . It was swiftly deleted by their edit Black Squirrel, who commented "appreciate the sentiment, but this isn't a Saturn screenshot, so it'll just mislead."
I found the placeholder image text and the start of the description misleading, I guess (also, I looked around for other non-Sega-game stub pages, and found "A Bug's Life" which said somehow I read was on the Pico which I forgot was a Sega thing, and then I managed to overlook all the Sega console and dev references on the page itself https://segaretro.org/A_Bug%27s_Life and took it as an example that yeah non-Sega games/games on non-Sega consoles could get media uploads. OOps. So yeah I screwed up their wiki again.
So after fretting over it and almost posting a discussion comment asking for clarification, I finally worked out for myself that they're asking for a title screen of the cancelled Saturn version of Goal Storm.
I'm terrible at Sega Retro. |
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| | | | Submitted cover art to GameFAQs and MobyGames. Made a 600 dpi scan of the manual and put it on https://archive.org/details/goal-storm-ps1-manual-us/ |
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