[mrdomino]

this was the planned European release of Irem's "Gekisha Boy 2" (Photoboy 2) by JVC - by all accounts it was a pretty faithful translation of the original, with the exception of Dave Goldman being changed to Pete Goldman and a bit of Polaroid product placement.

JVC's European game publishing division disappeared up its own arse right about the time this game was supposed to be released - there were signs Virgin might pick it up, but then they were bought by Titus and the game vanished entirely.

But! There were reviews (even one on GameFAQs, no idea how that guy got hold of it), and a UK PS2 magazine even ran a contest giving away copies of the game (no idea if they were ever sent out).

so yeah, i don't have much to add to that, except that I want to play it.

[PopaSmear]

I have nothing helpful to add beyond "wow, thanks."

More importantly, every time you post, I think
"OH NO! MR. DOMINO!"

[ICEknight]

Wierd, I thought it had been released... In fact, looks like it's been sold over here.

[mrdomino]

yeah, all signs point to it having been released, but i've never actually seen a copy for sale, online or elsewhere. it looks like it was pulled at the last minute.

that site looks suspiciously like a site selling pirate games though, i'd imagine they just have the japanese version (since they call it "Polaroid Pete 2", and only the Japanese one was "2")

[merp]

This should clear things up.

Good luck obtaining it!

So, in fact, it seems that this game is technically still 'unreleased' in North America.

Perhaps this is something to bring up with that videogame reprinter company with the appropriate refresh rate hacking.

Edit: Actually, I'm still not certain of the evidence available on the internet. This still actually could be technically unreleased in the markets outside of Japan. There is no suggested price with the game; as seen here. Also, officially, Sony marks the game for release in February of 2002.

According to this--probably unreliable--forum post, the writer says Polaroid Pete saw the shelves briefly, then was yanked due to copyright violations.

The only copyright violations I would think could happen is the illegal usage of the word "Polaroid". I'm trying to dig through court cases to see Polaroid vs. JVC. However, I'm not digging up anything. Anybody have any resources for public disputes? Although, if this dispute was solved by arbitration--which I doubt, then there would be no public record of the court case.