Download: Viper M1E

[elfolampo]

Viper M1 European version. This is the international version, including Japanese, English, and Italian.

Description from SDM:
http://sognadigitalmuseum.com/products/games/m1.html


Download:
http://www.mediafire.com/?c33czobaakfqgde Part 1
http://www.mediafire.com/?3245rupm27dta3y Part 2
http://www.mediafire.com/?7i4sel2sh52fasb Part 3

This is a direct rip from my physical copy that dates back from 1999. I bought it from the swell guys of Hobibox Europe in person, at a convention in Italy. The reason the game is also in Italian, is that they were an italian-based company, by the way(specifically, in Via Frascati 302, Rocca di Papa, RM), and it's probably the reason games like Viper RSR have the options of Italian and English greyed out, as they probably expected to make an international version. They were pretty swell guys, if you ask me, and I still have their business card in my wallet.[/rant]

Anyhow, this is a .rar split archive of a .mds/.mdf rip. Despite the actual disc being 164 MB, the image is over 400MB for reasons I don't really understand. I am 99% sure this will only work if burned on an actual cd(not dvd), since even when mounted it still tried to load the game from my physical drive. I'm not really an expert at this, so try to be creative with it. The game worked on all my Win98, WinXP, and Win7 64bit PCs, so it shouldn't give any problem with compatibility, unless it freezes at very specific points.

[Moge]

Didn't know Viper M1 was available in English.

Now i can finally make some progress in The May Works. 

[elfolampo]

Didn't know Viper M1 was available in English.

It was actually the first one that was translated. While I think they planned for doing more, in the end they only did this, both V16 parts, and Paradice. The same company also sort of translated/uncensored Love Love Show from LoveGun, and they atleast had plans for Ace of Spades 2(there's advertising about it inside M1's case), and other LoveGun games.

[JG]

If there's information about price and/or a UPC or JAN code on the back, I'd much appreciate that info for Sogna Digital Museum.  A nice photo of everything included in the box set would be great, too, if you can manage it.

[elfolampo]

If there's information about price and/or a UPC or JAN code on the back, I'd much appreciate that info for Sogna Digital Museum.  A nice photo of everything included in the box set would be great, too, if you can manage it.

The original price is 59900 italian lire (which aren't used anymore). The casing has no code on itself, but it has the SIAE seal (which identifies it as an original copy by the copyright owner), that has its code on it. It doesn't seem to conform to the UPC/JAN format to, as the code is Z 65967218(for reference, my copy of V16 has the code Z 83109122). There is no extra material, but only a pretty standard dvd-style casing, with a double faced cover. I'll provide photos tomorrow(for Viper V16 and Paradice too, if that's useful. V16 also has a small poster).

On another note, did anyone actually manage to use this copy of M1?

[JG]

Odd to see an eight digit code.

Does it look something like this?  Might need a scan or photo to figure out what the coding is.

[elfolampo]

I did a bit of research on the SIAE seal. Basically, there are two numbers on the seal: one identifies all SIAE seals ever made(and everything with copyright published in Italy has one. Music, software, you name it, it has it. Even the CDs that come with magazines. Publishers have to pay about 3 eurocents per seal. SIAE is considered the biggest italian mafia.), the other one identifies the copies of that specific item(the one on my copy says it 916, so it's the 916th copy of M1).

Anyway, here's the photos I made of M1. I apologize for my shitty abilities. I tried to make some rendundant ones for the ones I was less proud of. By the way, the part under the seal says "640X480 with 256 colours." in the upper part, and "www.hobibox.com" in the lower part. The seal reads "NOLEGGIO, VIETATO, CD ROM, VIPER M 1, HOBIBOX EURO" noleggio vietato means renting forbidden.

http://www.mediafire.com/?rp8fn92g5xu76qu

As you can see, it still has the original pricetag, but there is no barcode to be found.

[JG]

Nice.  The Z 83109122 number might be Hobibox-specific, otherwise there should be some barcode to go with it (like a UPC, JAN, or EAN code has.)  I have a contact in France who recently found an M1 seller in Italy and he's promised me scans as soon as he recieves it. (Apparently stuck in Italian customs, which is one of the world's worst/slowest customs departments - based on personal experience, not opinion.)  Whenever I get the scans I'll see if his copy has such a sticker on the back, too, and if so whether the numbers match yours.

[elfolampo]

Well, according to Wikipedia(the italian entry on SIAE), it's the ID of the specific sticker itself. Also, while I agree on customs, it seems a bit odd, since there are no customs between Italy and France anymore, for free market regulations, so the problem is probably something else. Regarding the lack of barcode... possibly it's just because it's old and it wasn't necessary on every product back then, here. I remember there being no barcode on old manga and stuff, while they do have one now.

[JG]

My contact in France has given me some more info on the SAIE seal numbers.

They are indeed unique to each and every copy of the games and are consecutive (no checksum digit like a UPC or JAN)

The examples he provided:
M1: Z 65966686
Paradice: ZZ 27976120, ZZ 27976121, ZZ 27976122, ZZ 27976124


That's right folks, he's acquired some copies of the European Paradice for resale on Sogna Digital Museum.  One of them is for me, but there'll be three left - and all factory sealed.  I expect you all to be lining up to buy them once they arrive.

[elfolampo]

That's a... nice find. I'm actually pretty baffled that you could find sealed copies of Paradice now, all things considered. Then again, your contact is in France and France probably has the largest underground/alternative community in Europe.

On a partially unrelated note: since Hobibox Europe was working closely to some magazine publishers back then (and even in my wildest fantasies, I doubt information about 'hentai games' magazines, as they were defined, published in Italy and in Italian exclusively, travels the world that much), they released several times all their translated games(M1, V16 parts, even separately, Paradice), and even some untranslated ones (I.E. I remember CTR) or unrelated(Ace of Spades 1 and 2 from LoveGun) in the CDs that came with the magazines. They came with no case and with different cover images, and often the CDs had a 'bonus' folder with other stuff.

I talk of 'publishers' and 'magazines' because those projects were usually short-lived, in an age where even regular videogame magazines struggled to survive. This was still mostly pre-internet boom, where the connections where at best a 56k dialup, so it still had some sense. While the magazines were actually
pretty informative of H-games in general(and I can say, 'Hey, I knew Triangle Heart several years before Nanoha made it popular'), and usually had a pretty good mediatic cover from the publisher(I.E. on mangas and regular videogame magazines), and, as I said, they came with actual complete games, they just couldn't survive long.

I'll try to post more if I find the time to dig thru the CDs, however since I moved atleast twice inbetween, I'm not completely sure where the actual magazines are, if that could even interest someone.

[JG]

Yeah I've heard of GX Magazine.  I even had one of my buyers in Italy send me some photos of his a few months ago.  They're pretty cool - they don't just provide some cheap 3-4 page overview of a game, but give it the whole treatment, including translation (in Italian), foldout posters, and even instructions how to assemble and paint the vinyl figures, plus the full game on CD.

Unfortunately he wasn't willing to sell them to me, but if you are then I'd be willing to buy.

[elfolampo]

GX was the most recent project, and the last one linked to Hobibox Europe, as far as I know. It was the most 'modern' one, and it was meant to be a window on japanese underground culture more in general. I think they even published some Viper mangas. And sorry, I make a point of not selling things, I'm the kind of collector that keeps his collections forever.

An interesting aspect was the translation. I remember them doing the whole CTR(it's not that long after all), part of RSR and a very small part of Muv-Luv in that section. I guess it helped get a feel of what was happening onscreen. Other magazines (like PlayX, that was put under a new management after 5 issues) did complete walkthroughs(not translations, however) of other games, translated or not(I.E. Nocturnal Illusion).

[JG]

That's right folks, he's acquired some copies of the European Paradice for resale on Sogna Digital Museum.  One of them is for me, but there'll be three left - and all factory sealed.  I expect you all to be lining up to buy them once they arrive.

The Paradices have arrived from France!

If you want a genuine English (or French, or German, or Italian) language VIPER game, contact me.  I'll give you guys first crack at them before I post them on SDM's For Sale page.

[uphillbattle]

ah what an interesting thread this became