Shademp
420
This thread concerns the hunt for- and hopefully the acquisition of these mobile games and apps from the years 2004-2008, which was before touch screens and smart phones had become mainstream.
By having a list of known compatible mobile phones, we will know what to search for on auction sites. I have already done some searches and asked sellers what games are on said phones. Naturally, I am yet to strike gold.
There are a number of factors making this hunt one unlikely to yield positive results, but it's a fact that if we don't search AT ALL then the game files will remain lost.
------------------------------------
(JP) BEFORE CRISIS
- NTT DoCoMo FOMA 900i Series
-- D901i
-- D902i
-- F901iC
-- F901iS
-- F902i
-- N900i
-- N900iS
-- N901iC
-- N901iS
-- N902i
-- P900i
-- P900iV
-- P901i
-- P901iS
-- P902i
-- SH900i
-- SH901iC
-- SH901iS
-- SH902i
-- SH902iS
-- P-01A
-- N-02A
-- P-03A
- Softbank Yahoo! Mobile phones
-- 920SH
-- 921SH
-- 922SH
-- 923SH
- AU EZweb phones
-- SH008
Among the FOMA 900i series is the P900iV aka "Cloud's Phone". A latter phone in the series, P903i, came with Dirge of Cerberus: Lost Episode pre-installed.
Going by this post written by Lex in 2015, we are unlikely to find anything more than incomplete data for Before Crisis and its parts.
------------------------------------
(JP) DIRGE OF CERBERUS: LOST EPISODE
- NTT DoCoMo FOMA P903i (Game pre-installed, incomplete version)
- NTT DoCoMo FOMA P903iX HIGH-SPEED (Game pre-installed, incomplete version)
- NTT DoCoMo FOMA P904i
- NTT DoCoMo FOMA N904i
The trailer for Lost Episode reads at the end that the game came pre-installed on the P903i and P903iX HIGH-SPEED. This is consistent with online sources, and makes the prospect of finding a Japanese copy of Lost Episode a bit more likely.
Source 1
Source 2
Source 3
**November 2017 update: A P903i phone with the Japanese demo of Lost Episode has been acquired. Methods to extract the game files are still being investigated. The demo is easily played on the phone. See also Page 4 in this thread.**
------------------------------------
(US) DIRGE OF CERBERUS: LOST EPISODE
- Amp'd Mobile
*Disclaimer: Lost Episode's compatibility across Amp'd mobile phones are not 100% confirmed but all listed phones are deemed "likely compatible".
-- Kyocera KX18 "Jet"
-- Kyocera KX18 "Angel"
-- Motorola E816 "Hollywood"
-- Motorola Razr Amp'd Edition "MOTORAZR"
-- Motorola Q Amp'd Edition "MOTO Q"
- Verizon Wireless phone series:
-- Audiovox 8940
-- Audiovox 8945
-- LG VX8000
-- LG VX8100
-- LG VX8300
-- LG VX8500 Chocolate
-- LG VX9800 The V
-- Motorola E815
-- Motorola K1M KRZR
-- Motorola L7 SLVR
-- Motorola V3C RAZR
-- Motorola V3M RAZR
-- Samsung A890
-- Samsung A930
-- Samsung A950
-- Samsung A970
∙ Source 1
∙ Source 2*
*The list of compatible Verizon phones represent the phones that were officially compatible from June 2007. Some cell phones released later might also have been compatible.
This recording of the English Lost Episode being played at San Diego Comic-Con (July 20-23, 2006) shows the game being played on a Verizon phone. However, when the game was released in August it existed exclusively on Amp'd Mobile for the first three months.
------------------------------------
(US) FFVII SNOWBOARDING - 2005
These four mobiles are confirmed compatible according to Marcelo X.
Verizon Wireless phone series:
- Audiovox 8940
- LG VX8000
- LG VX8100
- Samsung A890
*The list of compatible Verizon phones represents the phones that were compatible at the time of FFVII Snowboarding's release. Cell phones released later might also have been compatible.
------------------------------------
(JP) FFVII SNOWBOARDING - 2008
The official Before Crisis website has a section about FFVII Snowboarding and confirms the compatible phones:
- NTT Docomo FOMA 902i, 703i series or later
------------------------------------
- Animated Cloud, Tifa & Aerith Avatars
- NTT DoCoMo FOMA P900iV
These animated avatars came pre-installed with the P900iV, aka Cloud's phone, along with other FFVII media.
- NicoNico video showing Aerith avatar
*Update: Radigar discovered downloadable videos showing all the avatars (aka "chara-den") and their animations!
Dowload Video .3GP Aerith Greeting
Dowload Video .3GP Aerith Expression
Dowload Video .3GP Aerith Clapping
Dowload Video .3GP Cloud Greeting
Dowload Video .3GP Cloud Expression
Dowload Video .3GP Cloud Clapping
Dowload Video .3GP Tifa Greeting
Dowload Video .3GP Tifa Expression
Dowload Video .3GP Tifa Clapping
Source: Old Spanish Website called "Square-RPG"
**Update #2, February 2018: I now own two P900iV phones, both of which contain all three chara-den animated avatars. The next step is to find a way to extract the chara-den.
------------------------------------
HONORABLE MENTION
- mova SH505i demonstration app:
Cloud 3D Model
To demonstrate the 3D capabilities of the NTT DoCoMo SH505i, showcase events had the phone with a 3D Cloud Strife model in them. This app from 2003 has never been observed outside of showcasing events and it seems pretty safe to assume at this point that it was never distributed publically. Because it was never made commercially available it is highly unlikely that a phone with this app on it still exists, but nevertheless it gets an honorable mention here.
Source 1
Source 2
//
Going by first impressions, Howard Forums appears to be a good community to ask and learn about mobile phones of all brands, nations and eras. I'll probably use it to fill in my many blanks regarding cell phone technology.
So what can you do? Ask people who you think might own or used to own phones with FFVII content in them. eBay and JP Yahoo Auctions seem to regularly have some of the listed phone types on sale, so it's worth the trouble of asking a seller if the phone holds any games and if so what these games are.
By having a list of known compatible mobile phones, we will know what to search for on auction sites. I have already done some searches and asked sellers what games are on said phones. Naturally, I am yet to strike gold.
There are a number of factors making this hunt one unlikely to yield positive results, but it's a fact that if we don't search AT ALL then the game files will remain lost.
- The hunt for these games rely on them having been downloaded onto the mobile phone's internal memory and we can't know how common or uncommon this was. Typically I've found that auctions on these old-type phones don't also include their memory cards. But searching for mobile phones still narrows down the search far more than searching for memory cards would.
- Some games may not be playable at all due to network connectivity demands or game servers containing much of the game data, but even then it will still be considered a victory if we can find and rip game files from a cell phone. Even partial files are better than nothing!
- The ultimate goal is to find these games and create ROMs so that we may ensure their survival.
- I am still at an early stage of reading up on this mobile tech so please correct any of my errors and misconceptions.
------------------------------------
(JP) BEFORE CRISIS
![XEFiKa4.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/XEFiKa4.jpg)
![p62MTQi.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/p62MTQi.jpg)
- NTT DoCoMo FOMA 900i Series
-- D901i
-- D902i
-- F901iC
-- F901iS
-- F902i
-- N900i
-- N900iS
-- N901iC
-- N901iS
-- N902i
-- P900i
-- P900iV
-- P901i
-- P901iS
-- P902i
-- SH900i
-- SH901iC
-- SH901iS
-- SH902i
-- SH902iS
-- P-01A
-- N-02A
-- P-03A
- Softbank Yahoo! Mobile phones
-- 920SH
-- 921SH
-- 922SH
-- 923SH
- AU EZweb phones
-- SH008
Among the FOMA 900i series is the P900iV aka "Cloud's Phone". A latter phone in the series, P903i, came with Dirge of Cerberus: Lost Episode pre-installed.
Going by this post written by Lex in 2015, we are unlikely to find anything more than incomplete data for Before Crisis and its parts.
Even so, I'd like to get my hands on a phone with Before Crisis data no matter how incomplete it is.Lex said:The actual BC package is available to download too, but it's just a shell because each episode of the game was temporarily downloaded to the phone to be played (and the game therefore required a network connection). So no, it's not possible to emulate the game on PC. I mean it's theoretically possible, but as far as I know nobody ever collected all of the data.
------------------------------------
(JP) DIRGE OF CERBERUS: LOST EPISODE
![HXWAvck.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/HXWAvck.jpg)
![Vm5sZpJ.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/Vm5sZpJ.jpg)
![VM0ZBpi.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/VM0ZBpi.jpg)
- NTT DoCoMo FOMA P903i (Game pre-installed, incomplete version)
- NTT DoCoMo FOMA P903iX HIGH-SPEED (Game pre-installed, incomplete version)
- NTT DoCoMo FOMA P904i
- NTT DoCoMo FOMA N904i
The trailer for Lost Episode reads at the end that the game came pre-installed on the P903i and P903iX HIGH-SPEED. This is consistent with online sources, and makes the prospect of finding a Japanese copy of Lost Episode a bit more likely.
Source 1
Source 2
Source 3
**November 2017 update: A P903i phone with the Japanese demo of Lost Episode has been acquired. Methods to extract the game files are still being investigated. The demo is easily played on the phone. See also Page 4 in this thread.**
------------------------------------
(US) DIRGE OF CERBERUS: LOST EPISODE
![JvCq1lf.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/JvCq1lf.jpg)
![lKKyZzP.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/lKKyZzP.jpg)
![2o4gbhc.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/2o4gbhc.jpg)
- Amp'd Mobile
*Disclaimer: Lost Episode's compatibility across Amp'd mobile phones are not 100% confirmed but all listed phones are deemed "likely compatible".
-- Kyocera KX18 "Jet"
-- Kyocera KX18 "Angel"
-- Motorola E816 "Hollywood"
-- Motorola Razr Amp'd Edition "MOTORAZR"
-- Motorola Q Amp'd Edition "MOTO Q"
- Verizon Wireless phone series:
-- Audiovox 8940
-- Audiovox 8945
-- LG VX8000
-- LG VX8100
-- LG VX8300
-- LG VX8500 Chocolate
-- LG VX9800 The V
-- Motorola E815
-- Motorola K1M KRZR
-- Motorola L7 SLVR
-- Motorola V3C RAZR
-- Motorola V3M RAZR
-- Samsung A890
-- Samsung A930
-- Samsung A950
-- Samsung A970
∙ Source 1
∙ Source 2*
*The list of compatible Verizon phones represent the phones that were officially compatible from June 2007. Some cell phones released later might also have been compatible.
This recording of the English Lost Episode being played at San Diego Comic-Con (July 20-23, 2006) shows the game being played on a Verizon phone. However, when the game was released in August it existed exclusively on Amp'd Mobile for the first three months.
------------------------------------
(US) FFVII SNOWBOARDING - 2005
![lqKRzno.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/lqKRzno.jpg)
![ESwcoAU.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/ESwcoAU.jpg)
These four mobiles are confirmed compatible according to Marcelo X.
Verizon Wireless phone series:
- Audiovox 8940
- LG VX8000
- LG VX8100
- Samsung A890
*The list of compatible Verizon phones represents the phones that were compatible at the time of FFVII Snowboarding's release. Cell phones released later might also have been compatible.
------------------------------------
(JP) FFVII SNOWBOARDING - 2008
![R37RLpo.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/R37RLpo.jpg)
![CvwjfU3.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/CvwjfU3.jpg)
The official Before Crisis website has a section about FFVII Snowboarding and confirms the compatible phones:
- NTT Docomo FOMA 902i, 703i series or later
------------------------------------
- Animated Cloud, Tifa & Aerith Avatars
![55GqzI7.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/55GqzI7.jpg)
- NTT DoCoMo FOMA P900iV
These animated avatars came pre-installed with the P900iV, aka Cloud's phone, along with other FFVII media.
- NicoNico video showing Aerith avatar
![XQk7FBL.png](https://i.imgur.com/XQk7FBL.png)
*Update: Radigar discovered downloadable videos showing all the avatars (aka "chara-den") and their animations!
Dowload Video .3GP Aerith Greeting
Dowload Video .3GP Aerith Expression
Dowload Video .3GP Aerith Clapping
Dowload Video .3GP Cloud Greeting
Dowload Video .3GP Cloud Expression
Dowload Video .3GP Cloud Clapping
Dowload Video .3GP Tifa Greeting
Dowload Video .3GP Tifa Expression
Dowload Video .3GP Tifa Clapping
Source: Old Spanish Website called "Square-RPG"
**Update #2, February 2018: I now own two P900iV phones, both of which contain all three chara-den animated avatars. The next step is to find a way to extract the chara-den.
------------------------------------
HONORABLE MENTION
- mova SH505i demonstration app:
Cloud 3D Model
![dykHzCK.png](https://i.imgur.com/dykHzCK.png)
![rcBtdQD.png](https://i.imgur.com/rcBtdQD.png)
![DSsw5Fx.png](https://i.imgur.com/DSsw5Fx.png)
To demonstrate the 3D capabilities of the NTT DoCoMo SH505i, showcase events had the phone with a 3D Cloud Strife model in them. This app from 2003 has never been observed outside of showcasing events and it seems pretty safe to assume at this point that it was never distributed publically. Because it was never made commercially available it is highly unlikely that a phone with this app on it still exists, but nevertheless it gets an honorable mention here.
Source 1
Source 2
//
Going by first impressions, Howard Forums appears to be a good community to ask and learn about mobile phones of all brands, nations and eras. I'll probably use it to fill in my many blanks regarding cell phone technology.
So what can you do? Ask people who you think might own or used to own phones with FFVII content in them. eBay and JP Yahoo Auctions seem to regularly have some of the listed phone types on sale, so it's worth the trouble of asking a seller if the phone holds any games and if so what these games are.
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