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SD Snatcher Buyers-Help

Posted: Wed Aug 07, 2013 3:17 am
by green_hell
Hi there,

I am planning to buy a copy of SD Snatcher anytime soon.
Is there anything I need to be aware of?

I know its a package which consists of 3 Disks, the Soundmodule and the Manual.
Ive seen 2 copies on japan yahoo recently, and one is around 160 Euros, which isnt that much, compared to the prices over 200 Euro or more.

There is another copy on ebay, from a japanese Seller who asks for a price.
I ordere Stuff from the Japanese seller before, he was very kind, and really fast. So I would rather make a good Price with him.

What be a good/fair Price for a copy of the Game?

I know from old Amiga Games that the 3.5" Floppy Disks are known to loses its data quite frequently. Is it a hassle to dump those original disks, to rewrite them, if that happens?

Re: SD Snatcher Buyers-Help

Posted: Wed Aug 07, 2013 6:43 pm
by Artemio
I don't know about current prices, but I can reply to some of your questions.

The original package also included a sticker, with Random Hajile, for the save game disc/user disc. I have it, but never got around to scan it. Sometimes the sticker is included with such a floppy.

So far all the MSX 2 games I have acquired work perfectly, not a single one has had an issue. You can always use a copy of the floppies though, there is no copy protection.

Re: SD Snatcher Buyers-Help

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 8:22 am
by LambertAdams
I recently got a copy, so hopefully this is the complete contents: http://imgur.com/nIejuHL. As Artemio points out, you need a 4th disk to save the game, it seems whoever originally owned this game applied the sticker to it and sold it with the rest of the game(it's not Konami branded as you can see). I paid $242.50 for it.

Artemio, do you know off the top of your head how to copy the floppies using a Windows PC? I have previously copied my copy of Snatcher for the MSX2 using a USB floppy drive. The process was to use two programs, Win-Image to read the disk into an image, and Disk-Manager(which I can't find a link to right now) to convert to a .dsk file that BlueMSX had no problem playing. But this didn't work for any of the scenario disks of SD Snatcher(the format is not recognised), so I'm thinking either the disks are damaged or I need a better tool. I was hoping to apply the Project Melancholia patch(if it ever comes out) to images of my own copy of SD Snatcher and play in an emulator.

Also, speaking of floppies, I had a great discovery the other day, underneath the cardboard insert(this thing) in my copy of Metal Gear 2 there was a floppy that I suspect the original owner was using to save the game, has handwritten katakana for "User Disk" on the label. When I made images of my copy of Snatcher, I also found that disk 1 had a bunch of save games on it from a previous owner, as far into the game as Queens Hospital.

Re: SD Snatcher Buyers-Help

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 9:25 am
by Artemio
I've only used the MSX to copy my floppies to an HDD/SD cart on the same MSX, and thus run them form the SD card in the real MSX.. so I have no experience in PC, but here is some information: http://www.msx.org/forum/msx-talk/gener ... ttes-my-pc

Re: SD Snatcher Buyers-Help

Posted: Fri Aug 09, 2013 4:21 am
by green_hell
Thanks for the Infos!
I definately would have missed the Random Hajile Sticker. New saw that Thing before.
For the Prices: there are 2 on yahoo auctions at the moment: one for areound 22,000 Yen and one for 29,000. The Euro seems pretty strong at the moment, so it might be a good time to buy a copy now. But none of them got the aforementioned Sticker.

Re: SD Snatcher Buyers-Help

Posted: Fri Aug 09, 2013 4:51 am
by LambertAdams
Well assuming you're not in Japan you'll have to use a proxy service to buy anything from Yahoo Auctions, and that will significantly increase the price. In my experience using Rinkya when you take into account shipping and commissioning, you end up paying about 140% of the auction end price, more often 150%. My most recent purchase there looked like this, excluding shipping to me:
Total Item Price: $20.62 (2000 yen) --price the auction ended at
JP Seller's Fees: $15.00
Commission Fee: $20.00
Total Due: $55.62

Re:copying the disks, tried a whole bunch of software both on my machine and in DosBox, nothing worked. Think I need to find a 32-bit XP machine, the jump to 64bit Windows has deprecated a whole bunch of 16it DOS utilities that can work with MSX disks.

Re: SD Snatcher Buyers-Help

Posted: Fri Aug 09, 2013 12:20 pm
by green_hell
I was looking over jauce.com.
I am aware of the Extra Costs. It seems that I have to look out for the Version with the Random Hajile Sticker included.
None of the Copies Ive found over the Net are including it.

Any good suggestions where to look for it, except ebay, yahoo japan?

And I am from Germany, so no Japanese available, but my Ex-Boss is japanese and I get along with him pretty well. So if everything fails, He could at least make a call for me, or translate a web page for ordering.

Re: SD Snatcher Buyers-Help

Posted: Fri Aug 09, 2013 4:57 pm
by Artemio
No, there are no other real options. You'll have to wait for one.

Re: SD Snatcher Buyers-Help

Posted: Sun Aug 11, 2013 3:07 pm
by green_hell
Seems that way, I can wait :mrgreen: