Unreleased : Ring : The Legend of the Nibelungen

[fafadou]

Thanks to @Laurent C., @Darc, @Japanese_cake, @Sizious and the generous donator :

Yet another unreleased Sega Dreamcast prototype. This is Ring (not to be
confused with the Japanese film Ring), developed by Arxel Tribe and released
for PC in 1998.

This prototype Ring DC is dated 1999-09-09. Unfortunately, only the disc 2 (of
3) is available. The prototype was initially locked on the 'Insert Disc 1'
screen and was not usable as is.

Along with the original image, you will find 2 additional images, which were
fixed in order to bypass the lock screen:
- RingDemo: RingDemo is the most accurate image as it's exactly the same as the
original image but with the lock screen removed. When the game boots, in order
to have the controller working, you need to unplug/plug a controller from the
Dreamcast, at least on the Demul emulator. This strange behaviour is certainly
a bug on the original prototype.
- Ring2: Ring2 is an alternate version of the same files which boots directly
on the RING2.EXE executable file. The 'Loading' splash screen will not appear
on it but the controller bug is not present, allowing you to move the mouse
cursor directly after booting.

You may start a new game on both prototypes, even if it's the Disc 2. The game
start point seems to be different from the original game but at least, it will
give you a preview of the prototype.

Of course this is a beta prototype which is unfinished.

Last point, it's a Windows CE game. That means it will work only on Demul or on
real hardware (untested...).

As always, thanks to Laurent C. for that rare find/release.
https://www.dreamcastsegainfo.org/

https://www.dreamcastsegainfo.org/ring- ... emz2SOpYto

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In general the 1ST_READ.BIN (here the 0WINCEOS.BIN) are the same in both disc, import pc datas 1st disc maybe possible to enjoy first disc ?

[EDIT] I'm just learning @japanese_cake and @Sizious worked on it last week.

[mistamontiel]

Can't test says hard part done now I make CDI ={

[pcwzrd13]

Here's a video.

[Anthony817]

I think this needs a disclaimer in red text!

When the game boots, in order to have the controller working, you need to unplug/plug a controller from the Dreamcast, at least on the Demul emulator. This strange behaviour is certainly a bug on the original prototype.

Ok, so 2 weeks ago I literally just killed my modded controller port PCB because one of the controllers was having issues. Now, it is never recommended to plug in and unplug a controller with the power on, lest you blow out the fuse on the board making it dead. Luckily I had a parts Dreamcast here and I was able to repair my main console by swapping it out.

Now, I had a resettable controller port fuse mod on mine, and did this, and it still took out my controller board. So please, do not recommend people to do this on real hardware. You are going to have a lot of surprised people who do not know what happened to their Dreamcast and why it will not work with controllers anymore.

I highly recommend only running this from emulators. I can't believe I am the only person who is saying anything about this. It is one of the most widely known faults with the console hardware yet people are just going with it.

[pcwzrd13]

@Anthony There are several builds of the game in the archive. The one called "Ring2" has the controller issue fixed.

[Anthony817]

Ah thank you, I was really concerned about it becasue that wasn't actually mentioned at all in the original post. So I just didn't want folks to wreck their systems.

[beanboy]

Wow! Another unknown dreamcast goodie. Cool!

[dubcity]

Good job Sizious hacking this to run off middle disc. Interesting game.

[pcwzrd13]

Some fun facts: The voice actor for Alberich (3:41 in my video above) is David Gasman who also voiced Rayman in Rayman 2, 3, and Arena. Also, the CEO of Arxel Tribe (the dev), is now the Co-CEO of Quantic Dream who David has also done voice acting for in quite a few of their newest games.

[cloofoofoo]

If the file formats are similar to pc can it tricked to run off disc 1?