SD Gundam World: Gachapon Senshi Scramble Wars Disk Writer Version Release Date

Started by UglyJoe, March 18, 2022, 09:11:05 pm

Previous topic - Next topic

UglyJoe

Sorry for the super-long thread title :-[

I was cleaning up the game list and saw that we had two entries for SD Gundam World: Gachapon Senshi Scramble Wars.  The reason for this is that there are two distinct versions of the game:

BAN-SGW, released 11/20/1987, was a retail FDS release and the first version of the game.

Some time later, BAN-SG1 was released.  This was a disk-writer FDS release with the exact same game title, but with altered game content (5 out of 10 maps were changed, is what I've read).

(There is also a BAN-SG2, released 03/03/1989 via disk-writer as an add-on map-pack for the game, but is not relevant).

While I was able to clear up what the difference between the two game list entries were (retails FDS and later, modified disk-writer version), I was not able to nail down the release date of the disk-writer version.  Here is my research:

Books:

Family Computer 1983-1994
(This book is my usual goto reference for this stuff)
BAN-SGW  1987/11/20
BAN-SG1  1988/11/20

Famicom Complete Guide
BAN-SGW  1987/11/20
BAN-SG1  1988/01/20

HG101 Presents: The Complete Guide to the Famicom Disk System
BAN-SGW  1987/11/20
BAN-SG1  N/A
* This one contradicts itself a bit.  Reference in the side margin says 1987, but the body of text says 1988.  It does reference the disk-writer version in the body, but does not list a separate release date.

Websites:

https://web.archive.org/web/20180121185937/http://www.geocities.co.jp/Playtown-Darts/2966/fc_disk/softlist.htm
(This archived website is one of the ones that Wikipedia uses as its reference -- we're the other reference ;D).
BAN-SGW  1987/11/20
BAN-SG1  1988/01/19
* This one has Bandai's FDS releases going from retail-to-rewrite in two-month timeframes, which would make the January release date make sense.  I don't have anything to cross-reference their data with, though.


---

Our game list already had BAN-SG1 at 1988/11/20 so I left it there, but my references don't seem to agree with each other. 

It's extra annoying for me since the dates for the two releases look so similar. Is 01/20 a transcription error for 11/20?  Did someone write 11/20 by accident because they looked at the BAN-SGW release date rather than the BAN-SG1 release date?

Does anyone have any other information that could nail down the release date?

UglyJoe

I found another book in one of my over-crowded drawers.

Disk Writer: Rewrite Game Complete Catalog
ディスクライター 書き換えゲーム全カタログ
(This is an older reference book compared to the others)
BAN-SGW  N/A
BAN-SG1  1988/01/20

So, evidence is stacking up in favor of Jan 20 rather than Nov 20.