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Sony Playstation 6-CD Press Kit: Includes FFVII assets disc

Here is an item I only just now learned about. It was sold last year by retro*dream, the same person who sold me the FFVII CG Collection DVD.

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Item description from the eBay article:

Playstation 1 promotional 6cd box made for the ECTS,
European Computer Trade Show in 1997.
The exposition was only open to industry professionals and journalists
held at Grand Hall Olympia exhibition centre in London.

Loads and loads of unseen WIP illustrations, videos, presentations and pictures from the industry leaders. The second disc is dedicated entirely to Squaresoft and Final Fantasy VII and has high-quality making-of photos and direct-feed illustrations of the (then still unreleased) Final Fantasy VII.

This 6cd box of "electronic press kits" was made in a limited number as this was not meant for the public.
I doubt there are many surviving copies of this left after 20 years.

This set comes in a custom black clamshell case with the Playstation logo on the cover.

...

A small selection, mostly FFVII from the Squaresoft disc, just to give you an idea...:
#picture3. from the Squaresoft disc, FFVII-work environment
#picture4. from the Squaresoft disc, FFVII-work environment. Note that on the table, you can see a VERY early version of Vincent Valentine's character design by Tetsuya Nomura.
#picture5. from the Squaresoft disc, FFVII-Concept Art by Yoshitaka Amano
#picture6. from the Squaresoft disc, FFVII-illustration by Tetsuya Nomura
#picture7. from the Squaresoft disc, FFVII-illustration by Tetsuya Nomura
#picture8. from the Squaresoft disc, FFVII-Cloud ver.2 CG Model 01
#picture9. from the Squaresoft disc, FFVII-Sephiroth CG Model 02
#picture10. from the Squaresoft disc, FFVII-RED XIII
#picture11. from the Corporate disc, peripherals
#picture12. from the Corporate disc, Ken Kutaragi, "The Father Of PlayStation"


disc 1. NAMCO
Time Crisis
Namco Museum vol 5.
Xeviuos 3D/G+
Treasures of the deep
Ace Combat 2
Point Blank

--

disc 2. SQUARESOFT
Final Fantasy VII
Bushido Blade

--

disc 3. JAPAN
Kurushi
Gran Turismo
Parappa The Rapper
Depth

--

disc 4. USA
Captain Blasto
Steel Reign
Crash Bandicoot 2
X-Files
Nhl Face Off 98

--

disc 5. SONY
Rapid Racer
Rosco Mcqueen
Hercules
Nightmare Creatures
Medievil
Broken Sword II
Z

--

disc 6. SONY CORPORATE
Peripherals
Corporate

--

Note:
This is not playable demos, it's text info, pictures, videos etc for journalists. These are CD-ROM format, not Playstation discs.
Not every game title includes wip files
Browse each cd to access the files, image file formats: eps - psd, and gifs, txt/word and QuickTime.
you can also browse by html

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Needless to say, I'm devastated over the fact that I only just now heard about this item and that I don't own it. :monster:
 
My attempt at deciphering what little we can see of the almanac on the person's computer in the second photo. ...Assuming it even is a page from an almanac. :wacky:

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Assuming this is based on a typical western almanac, with Monday-Sunday written from left to right etc. We can clearly see four rows of seven days represented in these low-resolution smudges.

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What is more unclear, based solely on what we can make out, are the smudges on the top row and bottom row that I've encased in green lines.

The red squares count 28 days. Is it possible that the almanac is showing us February? No.

Knowing that only February has 28 days (the red squares count 7x4=28 days), and knowing that the photo was most likely taken in 1996, I conclude that the almanac is not showing February. Why?

In 1996, the month of February had 29 days. Additionally, the month began on a Thursday and ended on a Thursday. The almanac would look very different if it showed February of 1996.

Ergo, though we can at most make out the dates emphasized by the red squares I drew in, the month needs AT LEAST two more dates to make a full month of 30 days.


When analyzing the enlarged picture, I see hints what could be the starting date of the month: A Sunday, which would be the top right of the top row, encased in green lines.

In 1996, which months began on a Sunday? September and December.

The bottom "green" row only has tiny hints to the far left of what could be the final date of that month, in other words a Monday.

Which month matches perfectly with this notion of a 30-day month that began on a Sunday and ended on a Monday? September of 1996.

For now, that is my conclusion. Take into account of course that not everybody religiously updates their almanac so the photo could easily have been taken at a later date. I also don't know enough about Japanese culture to say if what my mind is interpreting as a one-page extract from an almanac is in fact something entirely different.


I do not know what the bottom four squares, marked in blue lines, would represent on the almanac. Phases of the moon?
 
retro*dream has been super kind and shared their backup of the 2nd press kit CD: The one that concerns Final Fantasy VII and Bushido!

- Download link (334.6MB)

The .EPS images can be opened in Adobe Photoshop, among other programs.

The disc contains game artwork, screenshots, press release documents and photos from the developer offices. For FFVII there are three "CORP" photos. Two of them I showed in the first post of this thread. Here is the third:

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To think that these are (most likely) the cubicles where FFVII was made! The photo is probably from 1996 (see my previous post) though 1997 is also a possibility. The CORP photos have their creation date as 1997, August 7.


FACTFILE.DOC has the following to say about the story of FFVII:
It has been said that everything in the universe is merely energy. For years, Cloud Strife has worked loyally for the massive Shinra Corporation. But when he discovers the true nature of Shinra - that they are draining the world's soul, its life energy - Cloud escapes and turns mercenary. He is approached by the ecological terrorist group Avalanche and a deal is struck - for the right price he will help them destroy one of Shinra's biggest power plants. But as Cloud discovers, no price can buy honour, no money can buy respect.

An epic fantasy that brings romance, adventure, magic and humour to PlayStation™ on a Global scale. Master the powers of magic and strategy in an immersive quest to save the world - Final Fantasy VII is here!
I can't quite recall if I've heard this version of the story where Cloud leaves Shinra BECAUSE of the truth behind Mako energy. Might be from an early draft of the story or just an erroneous paragraph written by stressed out press people. :wacky:

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Veterans of Final Fantasy VII will recognize the contents from elsewhere on the disc (including a 120x88 resolution commercial video that can be found in higher quality on YouTube). Even so, having the files from this CD that was never intended for the general public is an AWESOME privilege!




We are eternally grateful to retro*dream. Don't forget to check out his eBay store where he has hundreds of Final Fantasy goodies for sale!
 
A kind soul has uploaded all six discs to the Internet Archive!

There is also an interesting Twitter convo going on where people discuss the FFVII staff office images from the disc.

Chris Chapman said:
And to everyone identifying particular pieces of '90s hardware and drooling over high-end CRTs, know that I see you and approve of your fetish.

Alexander O. Smith said:
Oh man, I remember that office :o

...

That’s fairly standard, then and now. The booths were considered a bit of a luxury—many places (like Sega) had about half booths (for higher ranking/creative folks) and half shared table space with nothing between you and your neighbors but big old CRTs.
Beyond Alexander O. Smith not appearing in the FFVII ending credits, I have not looked him up. Edit: Okay here he is.


Kyoro-chan

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Last edited:

Lex

Administrator
Downloading now. That's one to backup and keep forever for sure <3

I'm looking forward to digging through these discs omg
 
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