The FFVII Mobile Game Initiative (2004-2008 Era)

[Shademp]

Hey, is this still a thing? Found your posts by accident when looking for something else FF related... So, I actually bought the Dirge of Cerberus Amp'd Mobile bundle. It came with a phone (the RAZR is the one I had), the game pre-installed (or maybe it was a code or something - I don't recall exactly on that), and a stock figure of Vincent (the PlayArts one like this: http://images.comiccollectorlive.com/covers/0bc/0bca16af-b3d5-4f6e-9082-6899a605f9c3.jpg).

The game was tricky though because it came in episodes, and you could only have one episode at a time downloaded to the phone. I remember it being so weird to play a high-quality game on a flip phone. Like, those graphics were insane at the time. Blew the NGage (which is actually the phone I had previous to this one) out of the water. When you completed an episode, it'd require you to wait until the next one was downloaded before you could continue, and it'd erase the current one in the process. But when Amp'd shut down, I still had one of the episodes downloaded to the phone and could replay that one level over and over. I do not remember which level though.

As for what happened to the phone, there is a very slim chance I may still have it. Unfortunately, the vast majority of my possessions were stolen in 2008, but I recall seeing some old cell phones in some stuff as recently as 2016 when a lot of my things were put in storage. If ya'll are still looking for DoC: LE stuff let me know and I'll try to find some time to go dig through storage and see what I can find. I can't promise anything, but honestly, I need to go through storage and clean it up anyway.

Questions/Concerns:
Would the battery still work if charged?
Would the phone even still work? Is there anything in it that could degrade overtime even if not being used?
Have you found any on auction sites and are they actually worth anything?

Thank you for sharing!

I've always been curious about the Vincent action figure you could apparently get with Lost Episode. Happy to see you mention it.



Do you know if the action figure was identical to that PlayArts one you linked or was it a different design?


Like Naoya said, the Kahvibreak Discord is a great place for technical help with old cell phones.
The English version of Lost Episode (which actually released before the Japanese one) has so far not been extracted. Having even a single episode extracted, archived and datamined would be a huge victory. It is reassuring to hear that you could play the same level over and over again without issue, at least back then.

 

[NaoyaShinota]

UPDATE on FFVII Mobile preservation: A small step towards something bigger?

In 2007, AU distributed Before Crisis Final Fantasy VII for their BREW cell phones. AU phones run BREW games. And according to a TGS booklet I received a while ago and scanned, it is confirmed that BCFFVII is playable on devices that run on BREW 3.1 and up. For now, until someone comes to us and provides proof that it does not, this is what we are going with for now.

Recently three phones that could be compatible with BCFFVII and many other Japanese cell phone games can be dumped and fully extracted. These phones are:
CA005
W52SH
W64S

If we find BC FFVII on these phones or any other Japanese games on these phones, we can save them as these games are no longer accessible to download anymore. This goal is to save these games from extinction and to give everyone a chance to experience games that they missed out on.

If you have the phones I mentioned above and want to help, you can always DM me about this and we can help you. There are more phones being looked into. This is just difficult.
Yes, I am aware of Ever Crisis on the horizon and to include BC.... However, make no mistake about it. EC is not a replacement for any of the FFVII titles at all. If you want to play it that is fine, but EC is not an excuse to stop searching for BC or to stop asking SE for a BC port or remake of any kind.

W51H Update?
This phone is still being looked into. Many complications.

What about Softbank and Docomo Phones?
We still need help finding more documentation on the chips that are on the boards of these phones. Please DM if you have any info that might help us save games.

 

[Kuraudo.]

A scene in Episode Legend from Before Crisis Final Fantasy VII. Credit to sousi.

 

[Radigar]

Amazing video, is stuning that so many years later someone still has this, i'm still impressed, sousi's recording quality is great. Thanks to all of you for not giving up in the search for these and others little treasures.

 

[NaoyaShinota]

I will give an update soon on what has been going on with iMode preservation.
But for now please enjoy the first time footage of the Dirge of Cerberus Lost Episode(DEMO) that was dumped from a P903i.

 

[NaoyaShinota]

Dirge of Cerberus Lost Episode (DEMO) PRESERVED

What has happened so far?
The servers to play these games have been shut down, but not our efforts to preserve games. Recently, the P903i phone that has the Dirge of Cerberus Lost Episode Demo has been preserved and is now playable on pc. Good news is that it is playable on PC. If anybody is looking for a way to emulate on android or side load on Docomo phone, it is as of now, not possible(yet). More and more iMode games are getting preserved. Little by little. And not just FF7 related, but Dragon Quest, Bomberman and just about anything that can be found on iMode phones. And without having to take chips off a phone…..yet. The following Docomo phones that we can extract the firmware from and preserve iMode games Devices that can have its contents extracted.
P900iV
P901iS
N900i
N900iS
N901iS
P902i
N-02A
P702i
P903i
This list is being updated constantly.

This is the script that helps us make progress.

GitHub - ktdumper/ktdumper

Contribute to ktdumper/ktdumper development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

It has been discovered that these phones have a test mode. By shorting specific area of pins you can put your DoCoMo phone in test mode.
For this to be possible, your Docomo USB adapter/cable needs to be modified.

Method and instructions on preparing USB for Test Mode.

DoCoMo Game Preservation Techniques

List of preserved i-mode games List of phones that have been dumped with this method Further game information is on the Kahvibreak Discord server Custom debug cable: this dumps firmware from compatible phones You need: standard FOMA to micro USB cable, soldering iron OR a FOMA USB Connection Ca...

docs.google.com

Amazon: Link on the adapter that I used to perform this method.

Amazon.com

Insert modified cable into phone, makes sure battery is not inserted and your phone's screen will be not turn on, but it will show up as something else in device manager such as FOMA N2003, Panasonic IPL Mode. It is different for each manufacture and the time that the phone was made. Now we have found people with lost FFVII games such as BC, DC and Snowboarding on Docomo phones. But we are still pondering on how to approach the next step to preserve these games. Once these games are dumped, we can play them on the DoJa/Star SDK on PC. As for side loading/playing the game on an android emulator, nobody has support for it.

In the meantime, what this is means is as of now the chances of preserving BEFORE CRISIS, Dirge of Cerberus Lost Episode and FFVII Snowboarding is much higher than it was back when this all started. And a major aspect of this is that you do not need to break your phone, take chips off the phone.

If the game does require connection to play, network connections can be turned off.

If you do know anyone who has the remaining game data of Dirge of Cerberus Lost Episode, Before Crisis FFVII or FFVII Snowboarding on DoCoMo phones and is willing to help out, you might be able to help preserve a lost history of FFVII. These three mobile games and many others, too many to count, have had their websites shut down, the method to access and pay for them is no longer possible at all. Meaning this is the only way so far to play these games.

Thanks to the Kahvibreak Discord Community for making this possible