Talk:Total Eclipse (1994 video game)

Release Date

Uhhh... wasn't Total Eclipse released in 1993, not 1996? 66.188.247.62 (talk) 03:46, 5 November 2008 (UTC)

Not quite. I have Jan 8, 1994 for the 3DO release and Aug 30, 1995 for the PlayStation. Those dates are gleaned from various Internet sources, most notably the contemporary Usenet groups that are now archived in Google Groups. Brideck (talk) 20:24, 13 November 2009 (UTC)Brideck

Can you give us a reference for that Jan 8, 1994 release, Brideck? Both GameFAQs and Gamespot agree with 66.188.247.62 that the 3DO version came out in 1993, while IGN claims it June 24,1994. Let's straighten this out ASAP so we can fix the release date info and move this article away from "(1996 video game)".--Martin IIIa (talk) 21:10, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Okay, Brideck doesn't seem to be replying, so... We have three notable sources. Two of them say 1993, and the one which doesn't (IGN) seems unreliable as far as release dates go; I just noticed that their release date for the Playstation version is obviously wrong. So it stands to reason that the release date is probably 1993. I'll make the appropriate changes, and leave a note that there is some dispute over the release date. If anyone has further info, please share!--Martin IIIa (talk) 14:08, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Sorry, forgot I'd even commented here. The Jan 8, 1994 date comes from posts in rec.games.video.3do. If Google were at all cooperating right now, I could dig through the archive to find the specific post(s) that spell it out. For what it's worth, I've used this evidence to get MobyGames to use that date so you could use them as a source if you had to. http://www.mobygames.com/game/total-eclipse__ Brideck (talk) 01:54, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Here they are. http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.video.3do/browse_thread/thread/772186c45bd30e7c && http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.video.3do/browse_thread/thread/030332b80ad734ba (2nd post) && http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.video.3do/browse_thread/thread/dafd775b6527e5c0 all place it on Jan 8, 1994. Brideck (talk) 13:58, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Hmm. This is a mystery. In between your above posts, it occurred to me to search YouTube for people who actually own the game, and both the ones I found claim it was released in 1993: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efE18szAFXk (the title of the vid says "from 1994", but that refers to when the uploader recorded the footage; in the comments for the video he says "copyright 1993") and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzlBZVgkOOw I've posted comments asking for confirmation, so we'll see what that yields. In the meantime, I've got two questions: (1)Looking over the posts you linked to, it's clear that the game was released by Jan 8, 1994, but where do they rule out that it could have been released before? (2)Is it possible that the game was copyrighted in 1993 but didn't reach stores until Jan 8, 1994? If so, which is considered the release date in such cases?--Martin IIIa (talk) 12:56, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

(1) You'd have to look at the posts in the context of all of the other posts in that time frame. Up until that point, there's a lot of anticipation and people wondering when it's going to show up in stores. Release dates were a little more slippery back then as games often shipped later than planned. I think the 2nd post featuring the EB manager stating that the game just came in on 1/8 is pretty conclusive. (2) Very possible that the game was copyrighted in 1993 but didn't reach stores until the new year. The date displayed on title screens and such is typically the date of creation, not necessarily the date of publication. In situations like this, I think the date that it was first available to the public is the release date. Which reminds me, I should look for this in the US Copyright database -- always a handy resource, but not linkable because everything is a dynamic search.

Here's what I find:

Type of Work: Computer File

Registration Number / Date: PA0000629438 / 1994-05-23

Title: Total eclipse.

Description: CD-ROM package.

Copyright Claimant: Crystal Dynamics (Antilles) NV

Date of Creation: 1993

Date of Publication: 1994-01-07

Authorship on Application: audiovisual work & computer program: Crystal Dynamics, Inc., employer for hire.

Copyright Note: C.O. correspondence.

Names: Crystal Dynamics (Antilles) NV

Crystal Dynamics, Inc.

Theory looks pretty spot on. Brideck (talk) 01:19, 28 May 2010 (UTC)

Yep. And I heard back from both the YouTube guys; the most I got is that one of them thinks Total Eclipse was available at the 3DO's launch(Nov 1993), but couldn't remember for sure. So it looks like all the solid evidence we have points to the Jan 8, 1994 release date. Let me just throw out a proposal for how we should fix the article:

1.Replace "There is some dispute... sometime in 1993" with "The game was copyrighted in 1993 but not made available to the public until January 1994,<reference Mobygames entry and the US Copyright Database> leading some sources to mistakenly list its release date as 1993.<Gamespot and GameFAQs references>"

2.Correct the release date in the info box.

3.Leave the title of the article as "Total Eclipse (1993 video game)", since the year is only there to differentiate it from other games titled Total Eclipse, and in a sense it is a 1993 video game, even though it was released in '94.

4.Remove the "1993" references from both the info box and replace them with references to the Mobygames entry and US Copyright Database.

Any objections and/or suggestions for additions to that? I'm unsure about mentioning that the game is sometimes referenced as being released in 1993, as that may confuse readers. On the other hand, without it people may assume that the article's editors simply didn't know about the sources which say "1993".--Martin IIIa (talk) 12:36, 28 May 2010 (UTC)

I went ahead and made the edits. Any objections, naturally you can either bring 'em up here or just make the changes yourself! Incidentally, Brideck, thanks so much for all the helpful info. I never would have uncovered all that stuff myself, and it really is great to have the true story of the matter settled.--Martin IIIa (talk) 13:10, 11 June 2010 (UTC)

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