Lost 2000's PC Game - Strain - Full Version Missing
Dec 3, 2020 16:50:01 GMT
dogpolygonrt66 and serpentnight like this
Post by treinator on Dec 3, 2020 16:50:01 GMT
Hello and Sorry to bother, just entered the forum and now I dropped this post lol, but I'm looking for a (probably) case of lost media (big text ahead)
-How it Started:
Basically the game I'm looking for is the Full Version of a Japanese Hack n' Slash game called "Strain" launched in 2000 and distributed in those CDs that came in magazines with a bunch of computer games back in the early 2000's.
The download mentioned previously is a "sample" (a.k.a Demo) with the first chapter, and there's links sending to a "buy" section, which sends you to a site called "Vector.co.jp", both links, to buy and download weren't saved/are now defunct, and searching "Strain" in Vector leads to nothing nowadays. I suspect that this buy section is about other things, since as stated before, you could only get this game with the CD-Rom.
-How it Started:
Basically the game I'm looking for is the Full Version of a Japanese Hack n' Slash game called "Strain" launched in 2000 and distributed in those CDs that came in magazines with a bunch of computer games back in the early 2000's.
This post will be majorly all the information I was able to gather about the game, as a method to make checking easier, of course, anything that I missed or did wrong can be criticized.
I just discovered this game through a post on r/tipofmyjoystick and users quickly managed to find the creators of the game (a company called Tomoshibi) as well as their page for the game (called Strain Library) but their page doesn't have a download link anymore. A lot of Information of the game is available there (Like screenshots of the game/character, tips, etc) but I'm not going to mention every single information here, I’m going to pinpoint the most important things, take a look at the site if you have interest.
-My Investigation:
One section from Tomoshibi’s official site is basically a “Menu” of all the things regarding Strain, like screenshots, other sites of the game and more.
A little below there is this history, turns out the game was serialized by TechWin and you could only get each chapter by buying their Magazines, which makes the full game very hard to get now.
-My Investigation:
One section from Tomoshibi’s official site is basically a “Menu” of all the things regarding Strain, like screenshots, other sites of the game and more.
A little below there is this history, turns out the game was serialized by TechWin and you could only get each chapter by buying their Magazines, which makes the full game very hard to get now.
And
Apparently it's Freeware and “Release undecided”, whatever that means (If I had to take a guess, maybe they were confused whether or not to launch on their site or keep it as a TechWin’s exclusive).
After that, there is a link to another site full of download links, but from what I understand, those downloads are from some sort of file (like a config file) that stored a sequence of buttons (combo), and you could share that sequence to others install in their game;
The only information regarding the true download are in “Strain Library” once again, reads the following:
· "STRAIN" is not published on the web.
· This work is serialized in TechWin magazine, which is released every month.
· If you wish to back numbers here Please apply from.
· This work is serialized in TechWin magazine, which is released every month.
· If you wish to back numbers here Please apply from.
Supposedly the only way to obtain the game was buying one of the CDs containing the game from TechWin, a link is provided but whatever the site was is now long dead.
I have no Idea what "back numbers" mean (probably a serial number?), this last line is in general very badly translated, if someone knows Japanese, it would help.
The interesting part is that the OP from Reddit discovered the game through a Brazilian game magazine called "Click Digerati" (that came with a CD) that mentioned Strain along with its controls, which indicates that you could obtain it outside from Japan and play it as well.
I have no Idea what "back numbers" mean (probably a serial number?), this last line is in general very badly translated, if someone knows Japanese, it would help.
The interesting part is that the OP from Reddit discovered the game through a Brazilian game magazine called "Click Digerati" (that came with a CD) that mentioned Strain along with its controls, which indicates that you could obtain it outside from Japan and play it as well.
This photo is from an Online selling site (the auction is still running but it's magazine only, no CD).In the 11th page you can see a screenshot of Strain and its controls/a brief resume. Strain also has a page on a Brazilian site similar to Wikipedia and is mentioned with some degree of detail (though, with a lot of humor too, so needs a grain of salt), which means that Brazilian audience indeed played it or at least got to know it widely.
Searching Tomoshibi Site in Wayback machine leads to a lot of captures, as late as 2001, when I managed to find a lot of things about Strain, even a home page with a download page with a lot of captures too
The download mentioned previously is a "sample" (a.k.a Demo) with the first chapter, and there's links sending to a "buy" section, which sends you to a site called "Vector.co.jp", both links, to buy and download weren't saved/are now defunct, and searching "Strain" in Vector leads to nothing nowadays. I suspect that this buy section is about other things, since as stated before, you could only get this game with the CD-Rom.
Translation of the text :
Searching in Yahoo, with Japanese tags, I was able to find a Japanese site talking about Strain, it is more like a synopsis than anything else, but there are never seen screenshots of the game.
Searching them in TinEye, I was able to find 2 sites that had them, one site is a Finnish download site called Jonneweb where I found the download of the Strain Trial version, referring it as “Strain of Death”. The other site only mentions it with a couple of screenshots, the site is totally broken now, the text makes no sense anymore, but it mentions Strain as “Strain : Episode 1” meaning that yes, only the first chapter was available.
Searching them in TinEye, I was able to find 2 sites that had them, one site is a Finnish download site called Jonneweb where I found the download of the Strain Trial version, referring it as “Strain of Death”. The other site only mentions it with a couple of screenshots, the site is totally broken now, the text makes no sense anymore, but it mentions Strain as “Strain : Episode 1” meaning that yes, only the first chapter was available.
-Other informations:
-Couldn't find much information about "TechWin JP" aside from what I already said and a listing of a old magazine in Amazon.co.jp, the company probably ended
-Checking Tomoshibi's Strain site "Last Modified" dates to 05/04/2008, while others are still being updated in 2020, which means that Strain’s site is probably abandoned or, if the game was up to download some day, isn't anymore since that date, which makes unlikely for Tomoshibi to update it.
-Couldn't find much information about "TechWin JP" aside from what I already said and a listing of a old magazine in Amazon.co.jp, the company probably ended
-Checking Tomoshibi's Strain site "Last Modified" dates to 05/04/2008, while others are still being updated in 2020, which means that Strain’s site is probably abandoned or, if the game was up to download some day, isn't anymore since that date, which makes unlikely for Tomoshibi to update it.
-According to the OP, he contacted Tomoshibi via Email 8 months ago, I contacted him now he says that no one responded.
-Digerati merely published the CD's containing games, the job to make the CD itself was from a lot of different companies that they asked for.
-The Magazine/CD from which OP got to know the game is probably from 2002, according to information regarding Digerati's calendar.
-Other Tomoshibi's games, like Award Winner "Knight of Knights" are much easier to come by, having a lot of download pages, Strain is the only "shadier", being only distributed in CD-Roms.
-Strain has no page in Wikipedia, not even the Japanese Wiki.
-Searching about Strain on Nicovideo (Japanese Youtube) leads to a lot of videos about other works from Tomoshibi but nothing about Strain
-Digerati merely published the CD's containing games, the job to make the CD itself was from a lot of different companies that they asked for.
-The Magazine/CD from which OP got to know the game is probably from 2002, according to information regarding Digerati's calendar.
-Other Tomoshibi's games, like Award Winner "Knight of Knights" are much easier to come by, having a lot of download pages, Strain is the only "shadier", being only distributed in CD-Roms.
-Strain has no page in Wikipedia, not even the Japanese Wiki.
-Searching about Strain on Nicovideo (Japanese Youtube) leads to a lot of videos about other works from Tomoshibi but nothing about Strain
I downloaded the trial and played a little bit, it is fully translated to English for some reason and it's indeed the real deal, but that's all I could gather and where the Search for the full version starts and I hope the users here find this interesting and we, somehow, are able to find the full game.
I have a lot of screenshots from the game archived, if given the interest (if helps in the search) I can release, I didn’t put them all here because it would pollute the thread.
I have a lot of screenshots from the game archived, if given the interest (if helps in the search) I can release, I didn’t put them all here because it would pollute the thread.
Credits given to r/Bigorados, the OP who posted to Tip of my Joystick, along with r/Terrarian_51 who first discovered Tomoshibi's Site.
Thanks in advance.
