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Remember the first release????? Post your stories here.


cobrabase

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Just wanted to take a second to to describe what it was like to like to wait for the first release of SteelBeasts Pro. I had been into SB Gold edition after finding it at Barnes and Noble in the bargain bin. Simple graphics but so much fun and SOOOO educational. Taught me all about what it was like to be a modern tanker and a lot about what my dear old Dad had to learn when he was armored cavalry.

I remember that Pro was originally planned to be released before Christmas. I told my wife that it was all I wanted despite the cost and she agreed that we could spend the bucks.

So... picture a young high school teacher coming into class on a cold December morning... exams looming in a few weeks, electricity in the air. I woukd open my lap top as soon as I get to the office early just to see if there is any news from Esim about the release. I'm counting down the days... literally. I had made quite a few friends on the forums already and there was all kinds of speculation and talk about the possibility of cooler unexpected features being in the sim and how much fun beta testers were having seeing the results of the code.

And then it happened... a tester who was in the California National Guard had been posting a few early videos that could be found on the magnum site. (This was back when Esim's site didn't have all the cool bells and whistles it does now). A short 3-minute video was posted by this chap showing advancing T-80Us on a snowy plain with Hinds flying overhead blasting away at M1A1s in a prototype winter camouflage. The Anthem of the Soviet Union playing in the background. Oh... My... God... It was like someone gave me a shot of caffeine directly into my brain.

As my students in first period took their test I must have watched that simple video 30 times - trying to snag every possible bit of information about the gameplay. I remember watching and thinking "Is there gun recoil?! Yeah!! Are those road wheels actually turning?!! OH MY GOD YES!!! Are those dug-in positions?! WOW!!!"

While I was disappointed that the release was delayed, seeing movies like that just made me stay glued to the web waiting for more information. As I think back to it now, the wait wasn't that bad at all. I could go deep into my mind and fantasize gameplay as I waited for the mailman to come.

Later on another vid was released to Magnum and it showed M1A1s skidding across the desert floor. Awesome. Another was released demonstrating the interior of the Leopard 2A5.... I was drooling.

While waiting truly is the hardest part Esim always delivered. Even with the delay, heartfelt Christmas cards were sent out to all of us who had pre-ordered asking us to be patient about the delay telling us that the sim was only going to get BETTER. They were right. I still have that card on my desk. I reminds me to treat people right.

So... in closing, thanks Esim. I know that we all complain but I also know that this sim is more than just a profit-base for you - it's a labor of love. In this Christmas season approaching I just wanted to thank you all for the memories and let you know that while I've taken a break from this sim for about 8 months now your future updates have me all excited again like I was when this all starteda few years ago.

Thanks for the hard work. Electricity is it the air!

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Really? Because I had bought mine in Singapore years and years ago (yes an original) and it asked for the CD Key. Well I lost the CD key and... there you have it.

It's like every time I move I have to make sure that I'm actually packing the original manual or CD jewel box or whatever it is the guys who made the game decided to put the darn thing and if I do manage to lose one, well, that's about a good forty bucks down the drain.

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Well, what can I say. Apparently I don't know all the different versions that were ever released. If you still have it, and if you are willing to part with your disk, I'd be interested to add it to my collection. :) Maybe I can offer something in return. Send me an email, if you're interested. :)

Needless to say that we probably never received any royalties for that version. :o

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Well, maybe we did. It's just that our publishers never bothered to tell us details like, "oh, it's on sale now in X, and by the way, we added our own useless copy protection scheme, put the printed manual as a PDF on the CD, and embedded all this in a program loader of our own that complicates matters and may not work on all customers' machines".

Of course we were still expected to provide technical support.

While I may not disclose details of our experiences, let me just say that we didn't go to court over nothing, and we won. And well, the second publisher went the way of the Chapter Eleven. There is a reason why we were not so terribly enthused about the game industry as such, and started to look elsewhere for customers.

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I bought SB:gold edition in germany, that had to be installed with a serial number. Had to say though it was my first and it wont be the last SB ill be gettin, i lost SB:GE on the way here moving from germany to the UK, i loved that game wish removal men keep their bloody hands off things.

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I remember finding SB1 in a games shop in Pretoria, South Africa. I would think (I'm sorry to say) it was also one that Esim wouldn't have received any royalties from, but at the time I had no idea. I remember thinking 'What are the chances of this being a realistic armour sim, here in SA, where niche games NEVER get released?' Then, having installed it, being prepared for the expected disappointment, and then.....WTF?!??!!? This is AWESOME! Make more!

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I've picked up my SB1 at a Tesco store - I didn't have any further info on the game itself but for 5 $ I thought I would give it a try.

Well I must confess that... when I first loaded it up I was horrified how austere graphically it looked, I was about to rip the CD out right from the drive and toss it to the dustbin, when I suddenly noticed how good it sounded and realistic it felt despite the awful graphics and the lack of almost everything you want in a sim-game - but the "feel" of the simulation was better and more real than I ever experienced before with other titles.

Well what can I say I'm an SB junkie ever since :D

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Hi SSnake (I can't find your email address, no doubt for lack of a proper search on my part),

Here are some pics, I'd be happy to send it your way, it's just a CD case with the insert. I can only imagine you're pretty amused by the number of versions that ended up out there.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/ARM505/image002.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/ARM505/image003.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/ARM505/image001.jpg

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Well, I just happen to try and collect one specimen of all the different versions that were ever offered for sale on the streets of this planet; this is not a massive buy-back program of all retail copies, ever. But to me it's interesting to see (and to document) how little influence a software developer actually has, and how difficult it is to track publisher activity. And we were, at least theoretically, in a very good legal position to the extent that we managed to retain full rights to our intellectual property so far, with the option to perform audits of the publisher's records, etc.

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