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An Obscure Spanish Localization of Waku Waku Sonic Patrol Car exists! but...

Discussion in 'General Sonic Discussion' started by kokocho, May 20, 2022.

  1. kokocho

    kokocho

    The Great Detective Member
    A few days ago talking with a Colombian friend about obscure and lost games, he mentioned that as a kid he had played Waku Waku Sonic Patrol Car in a shopping mall around 2002-2003 and that in fact it was completely dubbed and translated into Spanish but that since then he had never encountered this game again.
    This struck me as something quite strange and even seemed to be a lie, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt and did some research.

    I discovered several testimonials about more Colombians claiming to have played this game as kids with its respective dubbing.

    https://www.destructoid.com/rare-sonic-arcade-game-coming-to-a-pc-near-you/

    And in the spanish wikipedia page of the game you can find this:
    https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waku_Waku_Sonic_Patrol_Car
    "It appeared exclusively in Japan in 1991, but there are records of a Spanish copy in Colombia, but it was discontinued in 2019."
    But, that's not all. If you check the edit history of the article you can see that the person who edited it attached the location of where the machine was located, "Unicentro de San Juan de Pasto", so I quickly started looking for images of this mall and found in a Facebook album several pictures, I can corroborate that it is indeed Waku Waku Sonic Patrol Car.

    https://scontent.fnqn5-1.fna.fbcdn....zWfAIwAdkjjgBmgGAW9wZEYWNVt_5uO6Q&oe=62AC6C03
    https://scontent.fnqn5-1.fna.fbcdn....Fuupd6j5Ib7Q0_5pOMqRSNi05ZrLThpnA&oe=62ACCD31
    https://scontent.fnqn5-1.fna.fbcdn....IDNUYs11lFI6xLnLdNKnLwGHJKVc9WevQ&oe=62ABBB2C

    In the last picture you can see in a blurry way what seems to be the title screen, I made a comparison with a frame of the dumped game and the localization.
    https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/699685195384881161/977057069565898773/23123_2.png

    As we can notice, the cabinet has several differences with the original version, but they have to do mostly only with the paint and stickers, Maybe that's why nobody has noticed what this game really was, because at first glance you don't realize that it's a Sonic game.
    But unfortunately as the wikipedia article indicates, the machine was removed 3 years ago from that place, possibly it has been moved to a warehouse or something like that but that doesn't mean that there are others like it hanging around.

    I don't find it strange that this game has been localized to other countries with a dub, as SegaSonic Cosmo Fighter was recently found in full English, and there is a picture out there of the Waku Waku panels in English.
    What exactly do you think this is about?
     
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  2. JaxTH

    JaxTH

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    Jack shit.
    Yeah, I remember our Spanish members talking about a Spanish version like...a decade ago.
     
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  3. kokocho

    kokocho

    The Great Detective Member
    Are you referring to the post made by ashthedragon?
    Because as far as I know the only difference that was found on the machine found in Spain was that a sticker said Police instead of Waku Waku Sonic Patrol Car.
    I'm talking about a COMPLETELY localized version dubbed and everything.
     
  4. RyogaMasaki

    RyogaMasaki

    0xffffffff Oldbie
    Sure, why not? IIRC, someone found a dubbed version of Sonic Cosmo Fighter in Australia recently-ish.
     
  5. Ted909

    Ted909

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    Fairly confident this one also came about as a result of Sega's overseas arcade centre expansion, which included Spain.

    Australia's was originally installed at Sega World - and we know they liked to supply unique rarities to these places - so it would surprise me if it turned out Sega's distribution arm actually sold this to another venue. More likely it ended up in Colombia after the Sega Parks there closed.
     
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  6. Asagoth

    Asagoth

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    wiki stuff... and a beer... or two... or more...
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  7. nineko

    nineko

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    Not relevant to the discussion at hand, but someone should make a backup of the Facebook pictures linked in the first post before they disappear, because tl;dr Facebook periodically randomizes URLs to make hotlinking impossible.
     
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  8. David The Lurker

    David The Lurker

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    Uploading them here on the forums just in case, because otherwise someone will forget.

    250139_10150238874776891_8261963_n.jpg 281664_10150238874921891_4687101_n.jpg 223884_10150238874641891_391856_n.jpg
     
  9. ashthedragon

    ashthedragon

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    Yes, the one found in Madrid was in japanese, no difference to the one already dumped. The spanish fans talking about it a decade ago was refering to this, not to a dubbed version. This is really interesting, we're also investigating it at Sonic Paradise (contacted several veteran colombian voice actors to see if any remember working or hearing about this project, have not found anything yet...).

    Hope it is found someday! Or at least, more info is found. Great job, Kokocho!

    There is no record of any Waku Waku Sonic Patrol Car located at any Sega Park in Spain. Sega Parks themselves are from a later date, 96-98 to early 2000, and they had no kid rides.
     
  10. Ted909

    Ted909

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    Until it came up for sale and resurfaced, I am fairly certain there was no record that Sega World Sydney had a localised version of Sonic Cosmo Fighter - but as we know now, the place clearly did, even with it also opening several years after that ride had been originally sold in Japan.

    Based on the evidence so far I'd say it's pretty plausible that this could have came from a Sega Park in Spain, and I'm not certain the amount of available documentation about them right now is strong enough to completely rule that out.
     
  11. Jeremias_14

    Jeremias_14

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    Hello, I’m new here and joined because I’m surprised to see someone other than myself finally talk about this. I’ve been doing extensive research and spearheading the search for this for the past six months and I’m basically the first person to have noticed this and brought it to light.


    (Not trying to do a shameless plug here, just wanna show that I’ve been doing this for a while now. Although I suggest you watch if you wanna know the run down of the first like week of my search lol.)

    I really do consider this to be the most obscure peice of Sonic media ever. You guys right now are basically where I was six months ago. I’ve been conducting this search and sharing my findings mostly on my discord server with just a few other people helping me from time to time. So I’m very happy to share my research and discuss on here as well. I’ve found A LOT more since then and spoken directly with various first hand accounts, it’s so much that I’ll be typing here forever if I were to list it all now, but basically I think I’ve exhausted all mentions of it online or maybe 99.99% at least. This definitely is real and definitely exists but there’s just no footage online. I’ll state the most important pieces of information as to not make this any longer but basically I’ve heard that the voice actor for this was the same as the Spanish VA for Sonic SatAM, issue is that there is two of them for the Latin American dub and the person who made this claim didn’t specify which one. I’m currently in contact with the voice actors and awaiting a response. Also, there have been mentions of this version of the game having been in Ecuador, too. Another thing is that from a first hand account I’ve been told that the machine was in fact orange and white, as seen in the images posted here earlier, however if we followed the images of the arcade throughout the years it was clearly repainted by the arcade at one point in time. I found a YouTube comment mentioning this same machine in the same location and he said that the machine no longer works because it didn’t make a lot of money but you can still hear the music (I guess this means the board is still inside and could be salvaged). I contacted the arcade directly and they told me that they moved the machine to another location. Upon researching that I found a similar car shaped machine there. I was able to get someone to go there and check for me, but apparently the car had a different game on it. :/ I suspect that either the arcade might have given me the wrong information and it’s still at the initial location or that whoever went didn’t check the place well enough. I think having someone in Colombia willing to work with us for this would be really beneficial to having this get found.

    As for where these machines were located, after speaking to first hand accounts I’ve been told that they were outside supermarkets, train stations, arcades, etc., in the early 90s. Apparently they were really common but started disappearing during the mid-late 2000s.

    Sorry I’m not able to provide screenshots and images of all of this stuff which I do have, but when I get back to my PC I could send a lot of this stuff over. if you guys would like. I’m currently on my phone and finally noticed this discussion and I just had to give you guys the latest info.

    Anyways I think this is most of the important stuff covered, I hope I did not miss anything lol, it’s a lot of work I’ve been putting into this. If you have any questions or anything you think I might be able to answer let me know.

    Edit: I’ve had people bring this to my attention so I’ll address it. To OP, I saw the video you made about this as it was brought to my attention that it has certainly taken a bit of uhhh… “inspiration” from mine, to put things lightly. The research done, even down to the thumbnail. Also the conflicting story of how exactly you found out about this. I really wouldn’t have minded this at all as long as you gave me a shout or something. I really don’t appreciate you attempting to take my research as yours, but whatever. I don’t like throwing accusations and I’m not looking to make a deal about it but everything pretty much points to this being the case.
     
    Last edited: May 31, 2022
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  12. kokocho

    kokocho

    The Great Detective Member

    Ah, sorry, I thought at some point in the video I had given you credit for doing much of the research. but I seem to have forgotten, I also recommended your video in some spanish sonic communities.

    Anyway, I located someone who claims to know the location of one of these machines in a warehouse, next week I'm going to try to see if my friend can go there and record a video or something. Also in several spanish-speaking sonic communities I saw people claiming that they had found this machine in places in Chile and Ecuador, but I am not sure if this is 100% true.
     
  13. Jeremias_14

    Jeremias_14

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    That’s certainly an interesting development but do we know for sure that the game we’re looking for is in the machine, or do we just know that it’s the same car shaped machine? This machine isn’t unique to this game and pretty much any other game could be loaded onto it. If we look at various pictures of the other locations of this arcade, they also seem to have multiple car machines shaped exactly the same, however I doubt that Sonic Patrol Car is in all of them. If we know it’s the same orange/white colored one, then maybe that’s a solid indication that it is in fact what we’re looking for as the orange and white color scheme is the original prior to being repainted blue by the arcade years later.

    Also, I forgot to mention in my previous post that the machine was in the original arcade until at least late 2020, as I found images of it still being there then. Like I said, I have my doubts wether or not they actually moved it as the arcade could have been confused and have given me wrong information. After all, why would they move a machine that apparently doesn’t work to another location 26 hours away? Also since you can reportedly still hear the music and Sonic speaking, it’s probably the screen that’s disabled and the game itself is probably perfectly fine.

    Another thing I forgot to mention is that I contacted the guy that is in charge of the supposed new location and asked if they could possibly take a video and they said that they’re not allowed because only the marketing team can do that or something like that. So the arcades are mostly a lost cause unless we can get someone down there. I’ve tried getting in contact with the guy who spoke about the same arcade mentioned in the Wikipedia page but he just has never responded. I might try again now since it has been months at this point.

    As for this also having been released in Chile, I can see that happening, however I haven’t found a single claim of that. Almost every single claim except for one says they played it in Colombia. Before I found that one claim that says it was also in Ecuador it lead me to believe that it was for whatever reason a Colombian exclusive release as weird as that sounds. It also having been in Ecuador expands our scope to possibly all of South America, however Ecuador borders Colombia so that might be why it’s also there. I spoke to someone who said they played the game in Bolivia but they said it was the Japanese version, someone that played the game in Peru stated the location of a machine but that was also the Japanese version. I spoke with Neurochild from the Destructoid comment section and he’s actually from Venezuela and was visiting Colombia at the time. You’d think if this were common throughout all of South America he might have been able to see it in Venezuela too.
     
    Last edited: Jun 1, 2022
  14. Chimes

    Chimes

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    Hate to necrobump, but have there been any updates to this? I was thinking of this thread last night and found that it died last June.
     
  15. Jeremias_14

    Jeremias_14

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    Hey, things actually slowed down since June. However, I was contacted out of the blue by someone earlier this morning claiming that his friend actually found it and that he’ll get footage of it soon. It seems to be located in Spain, which doesn’t really correlate with the information we’ve gathered. Hopefully there’s a chance that a machine somehow ended up there and it’s actually what we’re for and not one of the many Japanese machines that just happened to be in Spain, but that’d kinda be random so I’m not counting on it. This is a fresh lead so I’ll look into this more.

    This is the picture he posted of it:
    https://twitter.com/FrideyNehgGuy/status/1605898688957517824

    Seems like it is the same location as this Reddit post:
    https://www.reddit.com/r/arcade/com...urce=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

    UPDATE: So it turns out that the machine he found really was just the Japanese version. I don’t think he was trolling or anything so it was probably a miscommunication from his friend or something. Unfortunate but whatever, we move on.
     
    Last edited: Dec 23, 2022
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