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"Divine Sealing" (MD, ~1991, unl) shares BGM with SFC game from 1995. Do you recognise this song?

Discussion in 'General Sega Discussion' started by dust hill resident, Apr 1, 2024.

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  1. Apr 1, 2024 #1
    dust hill resident

    dust hill resident

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    Hello, my friend and I discovered something pretty weird and I'm hoping someone can shed light on the origin of this song. Do you recognise it or have you got any ideas where it might be from?

    "Divine Sealing", an unlicensed hentai flying-shooting game for the Megadrive which came out around 1991 according to all the sources I can find online, shares a song with a SNES game that came out in 1995, "Hisshou 777 Fighter III".
    Here are Zophar links to the tracks from each game:
    https://fi.zophar.net/soundfiles/sega-mega-drive-genesis/divine-sealing/05 - Stage 4.mp3
    https://fi.zophar.net/soundfiles/nintendo-snes-spc/hisshou-777-fighter-iii-kokuryuuou-no-fukkatsu/06 Return of Kokuryuu Ou.mp3

    Unless the release date information for "Divine Sealing" is incorrect and it actually came out after "Hisshou 777 Fighter III", it seems impossible that either game OST is covering the other.
    And even if "Divine Sealing" came later, it seems strange to me they'd plagiarise a song from a pretty random obscure pachinko game from the SFC.
    The two renditions of the song also have some key differences, like the first part looping an extra time in the "Divine Sealing" version, and the melodies are arranged differently.

    So we've come to a conclusion that neither game is at all connected with the other, and instead, they both copied the song from somewhere else.
    My friend did some awesome research with google lens and apparently Hisshou 777 Fighter III has some connection with "Super Sentai" series.
    So she went searching and found this song from a Super Sentai show, at the start it has the same riff as the Divine Sealing/Hisshou song, but after that it's a totally different song. This might just be a coincidence but worth mentioning still:

    Aside from this, another possibility I thought of is that it might be production library music.

    Here are links to the full soundtracks if it's convenient for you (mp3):
    https://www.zophar.net/music/sega-mega-drive-genesis/divine-sealing
    https://www.zophar.net/music/nintendo-snes-spc/hisshou-777-fighter-iii-kokuryuuou-no-fukkatsu
    (rip files):
    https://project2612.org/details.php?id=464
    http://snesmusic.org/v2/profile.php?profile=set&selected=14403

    Do you happen to recognise this tune at all?
     
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  2. Apr 3, 2024 #2
    cartridgeculture

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    I think you're correct: they're just recreating the same song and aren't related. That's a nice catch though, I would not have noticed that.

    EDIT: Wait, I take it back. Hisshou 777 Fighter III is a Jorudan game... and Divine Sealing uses a stolen (?) Jorudan sound driver... could this be the same composer, revisiting their old tune for a later game? Wouldn't that technically link the company to software piracy?

    DOUBLE EDIT: Hisshou's composer, Tenpei Sato, is from Saitama.... where Studio Fazzy was located...

    T-T-TRIPLE EDIT: Sato did the music for both Hisshou and Task Force Harrier EX. And if Sealing uses Task Force's sound driver (which was released in 1991-12), that would mean that the Jorudan custom sound driver debuted in Sealing? Sealing went on sale in 1991-05, and even with the most conservative of indie development schedules, I'd imagine Fazzy had their hands on the driver by 1991-01~. And the only way THIS would happen is if the driver existed internally at Jorudan. Was Sealing a Jorudan-dev garage project?

    Did Sato compose Divine Sealing? Quick get me a corkboard.
     
    Last edited: Apr 4, 2024
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  3. Apr 3, 2024 #3
    Gryson

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    Very interesting find about the matching music!

    My first suspicion was that the composers were the same, and that's what your evidence seems to suggest.

    Divine Sealing wasn't pirated software, it was just unlicensed. It does not even support TMSS. It was basically the same as the early Accolade games in the U.S.

    The thing with Divine Sealing is that it was released in 1991 - very early in the Mega Drive's lifespan. I doubt it was easy to just come by development hardware and documentation back then for someone who wasn't already in the industry. So it makes sense that it was made by someone already working in game development with access to the necessary equipment and know-how (and resources for manufacturing).
     
  4. Apr 3, 2024 #4
    Chimes

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    That game is very peculiar. It has copious usage of 16khz PCM audio, where the level clear jingle is just one big PCM sample.
     
  5. Apr 4, 2024 #5
    cartridgeculture

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    My thoughts exactly. Maybe I'll just email the guy. Man there is so much going on with this game. I also noticed similarities to Dangerous Seed a while back but never got around to looking into it...

    Oh hey, I have a request! Could someone with more technical knowledge take a look at the sound drivers used in both Sealing and Task Force? I don't really have a solid reference for the fact that they share the same driver, and it'd be nice to have more info.
     
  6. Apr 5, 2024 #6
    Gryson

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    @GDRI on Twitter confirmed that Divine Sealing and Task Force Harrier EX seem to use the same sound driver:

    https://twitter.com/MegaDriveShock/status/1775704567726137529

    He also found the old website of Masahiro Kajihara, who did sound arrangement on Task Force Harrier EX:

    https://web.archive.org/web/19991006034809/http://www5.airnet.ne.jp/kajapon/works.html

    He lists a "title unknown" game done for Jorudan on the Mega Drive in 11/1991 for which did music arrangement on 10 tracks. What are the odds that's Divine Sealing? I'd say high.

    Oh, another oddity:

    Not sure if you (cartridgeculture) or someone else put the Divine Sealing release date on SegaRetro, but it's listed as 1991-05, while the linked source page lists it as in 1992, sometime between the second half of May and June (発売時期は1992年5月後半頃～6月頃). That's important because that lines up more with the date given by Kajihara (it would have taken a number of months to manufacture and distribute the game).
     
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  7. Apr 5, 2024 #7
    cartridgeculture

    cartridgeculture

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    Wow, nice find. The 10 tracks thing is curious, as Sealing only has 7 tracks. Maybe he's counting some sfx? Or maybe they went unused?

    I had it at 1992 until literally two nights ago, when I changed it to 1991... for some reason. I think I read the date 1991 early in this thread and was like, "oh shit I must have totally misread the date", and then I did some searching and the whole internet was like, "1991", and then I changed it. Did I check the original source? Of course. And I was so tilted over thinking I effed up the date that I interpreted 発売時期は1992年5月後半頃～6月頃 as being like, "well, the 1991 is the implied start of a release window, and they're just listing the conclusion."

    I'm uh gonna change that back now. Sorry folks.