> albolo got a Planet Probe pcb. It should be dumped soon. Hopefully it is still
> complete.

Found thanks to neither CRV or myself - albolo wins the $0.00 reward!
http://gdri.smspower.org/wiki/index.php/Blog:Planet_Probe_%28AC%29

Things we knew (besides the stuff in the above link):
- Kyuukyoku Video Game List (the Japanese book) has an entry for this game in "not officially released / location test or exhibition only" category. (thx Yasu)

- The KLOV and Unmamed info on the game supposedly all come from one super-fan posting as "Bisboch" at MAMEItalia. He remembered playing it in Trieste for all of summer 1985 or 1986. He still remembered the high-score theme music.

- Also, the only published high-score comes from some Italian games magazines of the time, with a high score set in 1985. This other guy's hometown is supposedly Legnano, near Milan, 4 hours away from Trieste. He may not have played it there, however.

- Planet Probe was registered as a trademark. This proves it was a coin-operated game. http://www.trademarkia.com/planet-probe-73509055.html

- Found full address of TRY Corporation in Shinagawa-ku
http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=73509055
Note that it includes their attorney's name, a possible point of contact (until he died in 2000)

- CRV asked a Japanese arcade developer a while back if he remembered where TRY was located, and the response was that they heard it was in Gotanda. Seemed close enough.

But now we know more...



Smitt: ask him to record the theme music so we can see if Bisboch remembered it right

(For onlookers like gregf: my interest in this game is only based upon R. Belmont's challenge to me to find more information on the game when the GDRI article went up :P )

[EDIT] Haze offered up this theory in the forums.bannister.org shoutbox today:

Quote:

---

IMHO Planet Probe is Kyugo, as are the rest of the games in that driver, they all have a very distinct style to their high score screens. Maybe TRY were one of their potential licensees and they never secured a deal, but IMHO all the games in that driver, of which this will be one, were done by the same company. Skywolf and that have a Yoshi on the high scores at the top.. look at the styling, the fixed brackets around extended names, it's very unique to kyugo.c stuff, they made games for other people... we've already had it confirmed as a gyrodine pinout in the mame italia thread, so I'd be *very* surprised if it's not that driver.