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Geist Force general discussion

Yakumo

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From the beginning (whenever that was)
The are many unaccessible areas on the game disc that can be accessed by moving and renaming files. I wonder if anyone can link these to the in game menu? Also stage 4 has area graphics beyond the section where the camera forces you in to the ground.
Oh, did you know with the right Japanese keyboard you can also access many more options and switch on graphics that are off by default.
For exame the ice stage is barren but using commands via the keyboard you can place houses and other stuff there.
 

Leynos

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I have my copy but I got it later. It's still the only canceled game I am pissed off about. It's hard to put into words how enthralled I was with that game form the visuals to the UI being so sleek along with how sleek the system was. Never has a console impressed me and felt so next gen to me like DC. It may no tbe finished but getting that physical disc was my holy grail. I will forever thankful for all those who made it happen.
 

Yakumo

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From the beginning (whenever that was)
I have my copy but I got it later. It's still the only canceled game I am pissed off about. It's hard to put into words how enthralled I was with that game form the visuals to the UI being so sleek along with how sleek the system was. Never has a console impressed me and felt so next gen to me like DC. It may no tbe finished but getting that physical disc was my holy grail. I will forever thankful for all those who made it happen.
You can thank me for the covers and spine card. I made those. :)
 

Leynos

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You can thank me for the covers and spine card. I made those. :)
That is some mighty fine work sir.

I had been griping for years and years on SEGA fan forums how pissed I was about this game being canceled. When I heard Assembler was doing that project I was super estatic...then I got sick and broke. I mean deathly ill. I had no money and missed the boat. I was so heartbroken. Then in 2016, the gaming gods smiled and I was able to get ahold of a copy finally (someone generous). Everything about it was well done. Bravo to you all who helped make it happen!
 
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Yakumo

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That is some mighty fine work sir.

I had been griping for years and years on SEGA fan forums how pissed I was about this game being canceled. When I heard Assembler was doing that project I was super estatic...then I got sick and broke. I mean deathly ill. I had no money and missed the boat. I was so heartbroken. Then in 2016, the gaming gods smiled and I was able to get ahold of a copy finally (someone generous). Everything about it was well done. Bravo to you all who helped make it happen!
Glad you were finally able to get it. Giest Force was also one of my all time wanted games. It does look amazing for such an early title.
 
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darcagn

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It's a shame the .GDI/untouched files never made it out there. However I do have parts of the untouched data which was being posted (with as goal to collectively figure out how to get it to boot) before the pressed disc was released. Perhaps with that + the pressed data there can be a un-hacked frankenbuild realized....

Update:
Here you can find a download for a .RAR that has the complete disc however with a lot of files zero'ed out(!) and untouched IP.BIN and IP0000.BIN files. This also means if you were to put these files against the pressed versions you should be able to see what has been changed. Hopefully someone over here can put this to good use and/or create a un-patched/GDI version for posterity.

Can you repost? The link doesn't work
 

Kal

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I still am seeding the Geist Force selfboot torrent file that was put out on AG. Not sure if it'd be the same version you guys are talking about
 

ItsMeMario

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So this is what the seperate "Geistforce" sub-section on AG was for ?
 

Slayer2k8

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So this is what the seperate "Geistforce" sub-section on AG was for ?
Pretty much just people discussing what they've found in the game was it not open to everyone?

I think the gauging interest post might not have been public i'm not sure but that was about selling a packaged version of the re-sorted version i'm not sure what happened there it never came to pass.
 

FamilyGuy

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@Wombat @FamilyGuy
Bit of a bump so were you both involved in getting the game working on a standard Dreamcast?
On my side:

1. I sent files to a friend of mine who did the executable fixing.

2. Then I did the original ill-sorted selfboot version. I did it over VNC on a Kevin-ownwd machine, without being able to test the gameplay, only that it did boot. I kept the original file order from the GD-R IIRC, but it turned out that was very unoptimized.

Not trying to find excuses really, it's just how it is.
 
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Slayer2k8

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On my side:

1. I sent files to a friend of mine who did the executable fixing.

2. Then I did the original ill-sorted selfboot version. I did it over VNC on a Kevin-ownwd machine, without being able to test the gameplay, only that it did boot. I kept the original file order from the GD-R, but it turned out that was very unoptimized.

Not trying to find excuses really, it's just how it is.
I think everyone is very grateful for the work that people like yourself did to get the game to run and release it.

The project to get it to run was shrouded in mystery at the time if i recall Kevin said it was a 'Russian hacker group' who got the game to work under the condition of anonymity.

I'm not technically minded so forgive me for asking what might be a stupid question but did enabling the game to run effect the performance in anyway.
 

FamilyGuy

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I think everyone is very grateful for the work that people like yourself did to get the game to run and release it.

The project to get it to run was shrouded in mystery at the time if i recall Kevin said it was a 'Russian hacker group' who got the game to work under the condition of anonymity.

I'm not technically minded so forgive me for asking what might be a stupid question but did enabling the game to run effect the performance in anyway.
It was not so mysterious if you followed the main thread at the time I think. I'm sure there's a backup of it somewhere.

It was a single Russian person that's very skilled in Dreamcast hacking and SH4 assembly that did the fix. They did it under condition of anonymity and I was the middleman in this situation.

I can't tell for sure if the fix affected performance, but I don't think it did. As I stated earlier in this thread, it was mainly a matter of making the game read CDs properly, rather than GD-Rom.
 

dark

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I remember reading on AG that the files in the initial bad loading time CDI were supposedly the same order as on the gdrom. I think it was a response from Kevin to the people who were criticizing the file order and suggesting it could have been prepared better.


Someone was asking on the first page of this thread about who/what teams were developing the game. As you know from the menu there is an option called Nimai's Room. I discovered years ago that there was a software developer named Nimai Malle (not a Japanese person, I think he is American) who was part of the development team (I confirmed with him). I had tried looking him up in other video game credits and it turns out he had an interesting career where he worked for Hudson in Japan on PC Engine/Turbografx games (including Soldier Blade), and then as the 90s progressed, moved to Sega. I got the sense he was a highly skilled programmer, apparently he personally wrote the "arcade card" development libraries for the PC Engine - there's more info about him programming for the PC Engine/Turbografx here https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/tg16/916398-turbografx-16/faqs/5708 Definitely seems to be an interesting and skilled guy from 90s game development who no one talks about or interviews.

In any case, IGN reported at the time that Bernie Stolar was personally involved in canceling the game, so Nimai was probably working at SOA at the time. The IGN page is now dead but here's an archived version of that page: https://web.archive.org/web/20110310214620/http://uk.dreamcast.ign.com/articles/068/068219p1.html

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Geist Force Canceled​

DC shooter is no more thanks to Sega quality control

US, May 21, 1999​


by IGN Staff

It appears that Geist Force, whose's status has been more uncertain than Oprah's dietary habits, has taken a flying leap of the cliff of gaming oblivion. A spokesperson from Sega told IGNDC that despite earlier rumors that the project was being handed to other programmers inside Sega after a recent internal shake-up, Sega COO Bernie Stolar recently decided the project was better left unfinished.
Prior to E3, Sega claimed the title was still on target for a September release with the system, but apparently after further examination early last week, Stolar decided to cancel the project as it simply did not live up to Sega's AAA billing. While it is certainly a bit depressing to see Geist fall by the wayside, it is nonetheless a positive sign to see Sega upholding some standard of quality for their titles.
Sega did manage to say that certain element of the title, such as art direction and certain gameplay aspects are being saved in hopes that they could be incorporated into later titles, but as of yet were not prepared to comment on what, if anything, they had in mind. We'll be sure to keep poking around, and you can expect the full scoop when it surfaces.


And here's another interesting blurb about Geist Force and its status from Nimai from here: https://gamefabrique.com/games/geist-force/

As in June '99 we observed, "The project has an awful lot to live up to." The folks at Sega obviously felt the same way, and apparently they thought the game fell short of the enormous expectations. After numerous delays and lots of morbid speculation, Geist Force was put to rest and the production team was dissolved. Apparently the "geist" in Geist Force really did mean "ghost" after all. "The artwork was 90 percent done, and would've been very close to what was shown at E3," says lead programmer Nimai Malle. "The programming was 65-70 percent done."

He claims many factors were involved in the game's demise. "Political infighting, of course," he says. "Three separate times, we had to re-rally the team to focus on a deadline, which can really be a drain."

The stunning realism that had been the game's initial selling point also came back to haunt it. Ironically, the fact that Geist Force was less cartoony, less "StarFoxy," became a liability. "There was a lack of confidence about Japanese reception," explains Malle.
 
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FamilyGuy

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I remember reading on AG that the files in the initial bad loading time CDI were supposedly the same order as on the gdrom. I think it was a response from Kevin to the people who were criticizing the file order and suggesting it could have been prepared better.
I did the build, and can confirm this with relatively high confidence. IIRC (it was a long time ago) I worked on a dump of all tracks and used my own toolsets to extract files and create the selfboot. All of that remotely over VNC, as I said before.
 
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Slayer2k8

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@dark It was probably me who asked the name of the dev teams.
The game has RabbitPunch? which if that indeed was their name SEGA has never acknowledged them in any capacity. The other development team who i can imagine were given the project to try to sort out the issues are similarly unknown. Visual Concepts are the only named development studio SEGA lists in '99. I don't think they had anything to do with the game.
 

Yakumo

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B
I remember reading on AG that the files in the initial bad loading time CDI were supposedly the same order as on the gdrom. I think it was a response from Kevin to the people who were criticizing the file order and suggesting it could have been prepared better.


Someone was asking on the first page of this thread about who/what teams were developing the game. As you know from the menu there is an option called Nimai's Room. I discovered years ago that there was a software developer named Nimai Malle (not a Japanese person, I think he is American) who was part of the development team (I confirmed with him). I had tried looking him up in other video game credits and it turns out he had an interesting career where he worked for Hudson in Japan on PC Engine/Turbografx games (including Soldier Blade), and then as the 90s progressed, moved to Sega. I got the sense he was a highly skilled programmer, apparently he personally wrote the "arcade card" development libraries for the PC Engine - there's more info about him programming for the PC Engine/Turbografx here https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/tg16/916398-turbografx-16/faqs/5708 Definitely seems to be an interesting and skilled guy from 90s game development who no one talks about or interviews.

In any case, IGN reported at the time that Bernie Stolar was personally involved in canceling the game, so Nimai was probably working at SOA at the time. The IGN page is now dead but here's an archived version of that page: https://web.archive.org/web/20110310214620/http://uk.dreamcast.ign.com/articles/068/068219p1.html

Copied here for posterity:




And here's another interesting blurb about Geist Force and its status from Nimai from here: https://gamefabrique.com/games/geist-force/
Bloody Stolar. He is the reason many games I was so eagerly waiting for were cancelled. That guy was a clown. No idea what we actually wanted.
 

APE

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Oh shit I still have mine! I never expected Kevin to follow through on his idea but if we got a properly optimized version I'd look into getting it pressed for kicks
 

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