Gaming Events in Japan in the 90s

[Enetirnel]

I'm trying to find some information regarding older events such as the PlayStation Expo, Tokyo Game Show and the E3 event held in Tokyo at a point

Specifically in regards to Human Entertainment or as to which event would have a much higher chance of having a demo disc given out within the span of 1995 to the end of 1996, start of 1997.

Would anyone know of any other events or which one would be most likely to have either demo discs given away at the booth of a company OR press discs?

I'm trying to date a Human Entertainment disc that surfaced earlier this year that contained a ten minute timed trial of Clock Tower 2 (Clock Tower US), Twilight Syndrome and a couple of other games that I'm currently unsure of and I could really only think of the Hyper Tennis, Hyper Soccer or the Firemen game they had around the same time period as there's around about four to five demos on the disc but the person who found one kind of vanished after providing some scrapped versions of music.

Any information would be great.

[Rombie]

E3 in Tokyo? Nope. Never happened. E3 used to split between LA and Atlanta for a few years during the 90's.

First E3 was 95, first TGS was in 1996. The TGS used to be twice a year until 2002, happening about 2 to 3 months prior to the E3 and then again around the current slot it is now (Sept/Oct). When the E3 started getting too massive, the decision was made to axe the one in the earlier part of the year and focus on making the other one bigger.

Given when the Japanese release of Clock Tower Ghosthead in Japan was in March 1998, so you're probably looking at a disc that either came from the TGS in late 97 or most likely to me the one in early 1998. As for more info than that, I'm sadly not the person.

[Alzaire]

E3 in Tokyo? Nope. Never happened. E3 used to split between LA and Atlanta for a few years during the 90's.

Wrong!

November 1-4 Tokyo

It wasn't a very good E3, because Sony pulled their support in favor of their Playstation Expo (which was held at the same time in the same facility) as well as Sega pulled their support. So it did poorly and hence E3 was never held in Japan again.

[Enetirnel]

E3 in Tokyo? Nope. Never happened. E3 used to split between LA and Atlanta for a few years during the 90's.

First E3 was 95, first TGS was in 1996. The TGS used to be twice a year until 2002, happening about 2 to 3 months prior to the E3 and then again around the current slot it is now (Sept/Oct). When the E3 started getting too massive, the decision was made to axe the one in the earlier part of the year and focus on making the other one bigger.

Given when the Japanese release of Clock Tower Ghosthead in Japan was in March 1998, so you're probably looking at a disc that either came from the TGS in late 97 or most likely to me the one in early 1998. As for more info than that, I'm sadly not the person.

At PlayStation Expo in 1995 they had - Human Entertainment, Namco, Xing, Capcom, Electronic Arts Victor, Zoom, Asmik, Acclaim Japan, Techno Soft, Tohoku Shinsha, Takara, General Entertainment, and Sony Computer Entertainment. All of which were holding events on the main stage, of which around about 250 people could fit around in the fenced off area.

Human had an event which was a talk and song show hosted by a voice actress in Twilight Syndrome, Inoue Kikuko (she has been in a LOT of things, however she isn't actually credited online for being involved in Twilight Syndrome sadly).

It was held at 12:00 on October 7, 1995 during the Expo.

I found a transcript of the event of both the radio and song show at the following links -

Twilight Syndrome Radio Show - PlayStation Expo 1995
Twilight Syndrome Song Show - PlayStation Expo 1995

And you can read a bit more on this particular site a little about some of the events they had in regards to voice actors present with the Tokyo E3 and the PlayStation Expo 1996-1997 which were held at the same time as Alzaire mentioned.


So I'm just trying to narrow down any other events or promotional events that Human may have been involved in where the disc may have come from.

Currently with the events and the ones I know where the discs came from it looks like this -

95 - PlayStation Expo event, Human hold a show which features Twilight Syndrome. Clock Tower was mentioned for having been released for SNES the previous month (14/Sept/1995).

96 - PlayStation Expo early in the year, PlayStation Expo 96/97 later in the year at the same time as E3. Couldn't find information on Human attending.

97 - TGS 97. Couldn't find information on Human attending.
Ascii Demo Disc goes out to people on their mailing list in America, Canada.

98 - Leading up to TGS 98 - There were also two issues of Enix's Monthly G Fantasy Magazine in October, September with a Clock Tower Ghost Head manga in it that tied into the timing of the Tokyo Game Show and the trial version that was given to people that went to the Human Entertainment Booth.

TGS 98, Human had an event around 1p.m. and a small booth for around about 50 or so people to sit on the floor, press were seated.
Clock Tower Ghost Head Dual Horror Personal Experience Edition was given out.

That's as far as I know, which is why I think it would have to be 1996 as Clock Tower 2 and Twilight Syndrome both came out in 1996 so it seems a bit silly to give out a demo for games from the previous year in 1997.
I just haven't found anything saying that Human had a booth or anything at any event in 1996 or 1997 which is what I'm trying to find out at the moment.

I don't know the exact origin of the Clock Tower 2 Personal Experience Edition - The Door of the Fear - trial other than it's from some time in 1996 and contains footage that goes along with a Clock Tower 2 VHS that I also don't have an exact date on.

Possibly Tokyo Game Show 1996 or the 96/97 PlayStation Expo later on in the year?



The discs so far are as the following -

Clock Tower Ghost Head Dual Horror Personal Experience Edition - SLPM-80219, also known as the Clock Tower Ghost Head Trial Version.

It has demos for the following - Clock Tower Ghost Head, The Convenience Store 2 ~Nationwide Chain Expansion!, Blue Breaker ~ Promised Smile and S.Q ~Sound Qube.

Clock Tower 2 Personal Experience Edition - The Door of the Fear - SLPM-80062, also known as the Clock Tower 2 Trial Version.

Contained promotional footage also used on a VHS from 1996, I haven't gotten around to looking at it admittedly but it doesn't have Twilight Syndrome on it as far as I'm aware.

Ascii Demo Disc - SLUS-90010, contains the US/Canada version of Clock Tower 2 "Clock Tower (US)" as it's called and a video for Felony 11-79.

Other than those, I can really only think of there being a Twilight Syndrome Trial Version SLPM-80042 but as it is, there's already little to no information really available online regarding Twilight Syndrome (in what I've also been told that the games can be a bit hard to find too, so I couldn't find a complete list of games, trial versions and other merchandise outside of a couple of guide books and things in regards to the films). So I don't know if this would be the disc to contain the Clock Tower 2 trial on it or not.

[Carnivol]

If I stop being lazy, I could dig around the stuff I've got. I have a lot of mid-90s PS1 stuff (should be plenty o' demo/promo Human Entertainment stuff in there)

Know for a fact that I have some of the stuff you've already mentioned in this thread.

[Carnivol]

Holy double-post, Batman!
(all I could find during a quick browsing of the shelves)

[Enetirnel]

So from the looks of that photo that's...

Twilight Syndrome: Investigation Promo/Trial Edition
A mint copy of Moonlight Syndrome
Twilight Syndrome: Reunion Introduction DVD
Moonlight Syndrome Promo/Trial Edition
Clock Tower 2 Personal Experience Edition - Door of the Fear - / Clock Tower 2 Trial Version
Clock Tower Ghost Head Dual Horror Personal Experience Edition / Clock Tower Ghost Head Trial/Demo version.

Could you tell me a little bit about the Syndrome promo stuff? I've been looking for them but hadn't been able to find them.

I have already gotten the following Human Entertainment stuff (this isn't including books and other stuff, just games, promo stuff or related disc materials) -

Clock Tower SNES
Clock Tower WonderSwan
Clock Tower - The First Fear - (Limited Edition with the slip cover)
Clock Tower Win95 - Ultra-2000 reissue
Clock Tower 2 Personal Experience Edition - Door of the Fear -
Clock Tower 2
Ascii Demo Disc
Clock Tower Ghost Head Dual Horror Personal Experience Edition
Clock Tower Ghost Head
Clock Tower Ghost Head Drama Album
Twilight Syndrome
Twilight Syndrome: Investigations
Moonlight Syndrome
Twilight Syndrome DVD
Twilight Syndrome Resume or whatever it is.

And I'm in the process of picking up the Clock Tower 2 Drama Album, Twilight Syndrome Special, Mizzurna Falls and the regional releases of the Clock Tower games. Also trying to find the Twilight Syndrome Drama Album too aside from looking for promo materials of Human Entertainment's stuff.

I found some of their sports games as well as the Firemen ones but I'm more interested in their other games as they seem harder to find than the sports ones.

[Carnivol]

So from the looks of that photo that's...

Twilight Syndrome: Investigation Promo/Trial Edition
A mint copy of Moonlight Syndrome
Twilight Syndrome: Reunion Introduction DVD
Moonlight Syndrome Promo/Trial Edition
Clock Tower 2 Personal Experience Edition - Door of the Fear - / Clock Tower 2 Trial Version
Clock Tower Ghost Head Dual Horror Personal Experience Edition / Clock Tower Ghost Head Trial/Demo version.

As long as none of the * Syndrome stuff you've listed is that insanely expensive PS1 promo disc I've seen listed on YJ! a few times, I believe you're spot on.

Also, my copy of Moonlight Syndrome is some sort of promo copy or something (still sealed, but with a tear in one of the plastic's corners, and very clearly labeled that it's not intended for sale)

Got a couple of extra of the Clock Tower discs somewhere in the piles too.
Haven't really checked things out much.

As for other Human Entertainment stuff....
Know I've got Clock Tower (SFC) on my shelf (boxed and all). Know I had a copy of First Fear too, but I think I might've misplaced half-a-decade or so ago... I've at least got The Firemen 2 on PS1 on my shelf (original was on SNES and available in English, know there even was a proto for the EU or US version floating around between the hands of SNES collectors at some point). Probably have some other stuff too, just need to dig a little deeper, but I guess I'll have to save that for some other day. (I also seem to recall one of the local gaming mags from the mid-90s did an article on Human Entertainment's school/internship/whatever deal too... almost certain I did a translation for that on the LostLevels forums, SNES Central or something at some point... although though I'm almost certain that article might've originally been borrowed from Nintendo Power or something)

[Enetirnel]

As long as none of the * Syndrome stuff you've listed is that insanely expensive PS1 promo disc I've seen listed on YJ! a few times, I believe you're spot on.

Also, my copy of Moonlight Syndrome is some sort of promo copy or something (still sealed, but with a tear in one of the plastic's corners, and very clearly labeled that it's not intended for sale)

Got a couple of extra of the Clock Tower discs somewhere in the piles too.
Haven't really checked things out much.

As for other Human Entertainment stuff....
Know I've got Clock Tower (SFC) on my shelf (boxed and all). Know I had a copy of First Fear too, but I think I might've misplaced half-a-decade or so ago... I've at least got The Firemen 2 on PS1 on my shelf (original was on SNES and available in English, know there even was a proto for the EU or US version floating around between the hands of SNES collectors at some point). Probably have some other stuff too, just need to dig a little deeper, but I guess I'll have to save that for some other day. (I also seem to recall one of the local gaming mags from the mid-90s did an article on Human Entertainment's school/internship/whatever deal too... almost certain I did a translation for that on the LostLevels forums, SNES Central or something at some point... although though I'm almost certain that article might've originally been borrowed from Nintendo Power or something)

I'm not exactly sure, as I haven't seen any PS1 promo discs aside from the ones I've gotten so far which is why I've been on the hunt.

Anything on the back of the Syndrome promo cases? Like how the Ghost Head one has extra demos with it?

And as for that, possible bundled copy or perhaps a magazine prize? Just a bit hard to tell from the photo.

I know back in the 90s some gaming magazines were giving away copies of games that were being advertised as sponsors for magazines, the thing being is that they were marked as "Not For Sale". I know as I actually won a couple of them and they also accidentally sent one prize out twice to me, I sent it back and they rewarded me with another brand new game.

Yeah, The Firemen SNES one was a US prototype off the top of my head.

It's just that I'm putting together a website and I'm including Clock Tower and the Syndrome games as out of the fan-sites of them currently online - there's really only slight product lists and little to no actual translations, media or anything properly available which has gotten to the point that it just really annoys me.

So that's why I'm trying to find out what exact discs there are so I can try and find them, or find the right people as I'd like physical copies so I can scan, catalog everything and rip materials from the discs myself so the quality is to a suitable degree to me.

[Rombie]

Wrong!

November 1-4 Tokyo

It wasn't a very good E3, because Sony pulled their support in favor of their Playstation Expo (which was held at the same time in the same facility) as well as Sega pulled their support. So it did poorly and hence E3 was never held in Japan again.

What year? I don't ever recall it and I can find any evidence of it online.

The links posted up deal only with the PS expo and not any mention of an E3 as I could see.

[Enetirnel]

What year? I don't ever recall it and I can find any evidence of it online.

The links posted up deal only with the PS expo and not any mention of an E3 as I could see.

Year and date to be exact, 02/11/1996 - 04/11/1996.

http://www.usagi.org/doi/seiyuu/events/1996.html

^ Scroll down, you'll see "E3" and between it "PlayStation Expo 96-97"

Or, Here is one of the exact pages for it with a little bit of information on it.

But clearly both events were held in the same place, at the same time but the PlayStation Expo seemed to have more to offer than the E3 event to them considering some of the seiyuu attending it.

It's also mentioned on some Japanese blogs too, but got a lot less attention as the PS Expo was marketed more with magazines and the like.

[Rombie]

Wow, you learn something new every day.

[Enetirnel]

Rombie, you wouldn't know anything of the other events?
Would you know anything about the events around that time-frame Rombie?

I can't really find much else aside from that Human attended TGS 98 and the Ghost Head promo was given out there.

I don't know where the Clock Tower 2 one came from specifically, though I suspect considering the amount of copies I've seen of it - TGS 1996 but I haven't found a list of all attending companies and on that website that had the Tokyo E3 bit on it there's not really much else regarding Human Entertainment.

TGS 96 seems to be the only other one I could think of for the Clock Tower 2 promo as it was later released in December 1996.

The person that brought up the Human Entertainment demo disc couldn't tell me anything other than the disc and it's case were apparently unremarkable (I'm waiting to find out if it has a hard-case or a cardboard slip, if there was a printed image or if it was a plain disc with a printed label).

I'm looking through some old issues of Maximum that have some stuff on the PS Expo, Tokyo Toy Show and stuff from 1996 if I recall correctly. These also have some RE1 stuff in them too.

[Rombie]

The problem for me is the disconnect between the Japanese and the US releases of things. The mere fact I was completely unaware of this E3 in Japan is probably due to the fact that until say, 1997, I'd focused on the issue of games that had/hadn't come to PAL areas from the US and hadn't even really looked at the Japan side as much.

Sadly aside from taking stabs at when it was possibly given out, and what little I can recall about the game in the media beforehand I personally don't know much else.

Several years ago there used to be quite a few Clock Tower fansites out there, and Agetec used to be fairly vocal as well in regards to answering questions, even finding out the specific information from Japan as needed. Because they still released the game in the states, if you haven't tried them it's a possibility. Who knows if they still answer e-mails, I don't even know if the US branch really still operates either because I don't think they've released a game for maybe 4 years. But my concern there also is that obviously Human no longer exists, and what Agetec used to be, ASCII as Japanese publishers was folded into a media company as well, and so an official line is probably not possible either.

[Enetirnel]

The problem for me is the disconnect between the Japanese and the US releases of things. The mere fact I was completely unaware of this E3 in Japan is probably due to the fact that until say, 1997, I'd focused on the issue of games that had/hadn't come to PAL areas from the US and hadn't even really looked at the Japan side as much.

Sadly aside from taking stabs at when it was possibly given out, and what little I can recall about the game in the media beforehand I personally don't know much else.

Several years ago there used to be quite a few Clock Tower fansites out there, and Agetec used to be fairly vocal as well in regards to answering questions, even finding out the specific information from Japan as needed. Because they still released the game in the states, if you haven't tried them it's a possibility. Who knows if they still answer e-mails, I don't even know if the US branch really still operates either because I don't think they've released a game for maybe 4 years. But my concern there also is that obviously Human no longer exists, and what Agetec used to be, ASCII as Japanese publishers was folded into a media company as well, and so an official line is probably not possible either.

Fair enough.

As for that, the only remaining Clock Tower sites are mainly filled with theories or speculation and an overall lack of information (such as people also sending e-mails to Hifume Kohno in English and expecting him to respond in it when he's said before he doesn't know it and he's had translation staff issues lately) among other things which is why I'm just trying to get as much information covered and items cataloged with the correct details to them.

And from the e-mails I tried to send, mainly dead addresses and/or no response so I doubt there would be much to try and contact Agetec over it.

So I'm mainly focusing on contacting other ones such as the staff at either Nude Maker, Spike or Grasshopper Manufacture as I know that's where a lot of the staff are between those three (with Hifume Kohno as the CEO of Nude Maker), other staff that worked with Suda51 on the Syndrome games ended up forming Spike and got the rights to the Twilight Syndrome games, Suda51 left and other staff went with him as he formed Grasshopper Manufacture.

But in the meantime I'm just wrapping up what items left to collect (aside from promotional posters, event VHS or DVDs for trailers that were released on demo discs) I really only need to get a couple more guide books and the two Monthly GFantasy issues with the Ghost Head manga in it but I've got someone from a store in Japan that specializes in older games, merchandise having a look for me since they found a couple of other things for me before.

With all of the general information, it just seems like it may be from one of the events early in 1996 or later in 1995 but Human may not have been listed in some places due to having a smaller booth than say Konami and the like at the time.

And I've spoken with the person with the demo disc that started this whole topic, just trying to find out if they were mistaken and had been talking about one of the more well-known demo discs. I'm just waiting on a response to confirm as to what it looks like.