2018‐05‐31

I came back from hiking on Memorial Day weekend to a handful of days‐old IRC queries saying the SpaceWorld demo had leaked. One of the queries was from Sanqui. Apparently someone anonymous had posted in the pret discord a link to the ROMs that was limited to 20 downloads. Sanqui downloaded it, realized what it was and started preparing for a TCRF release.

Why not release it right away?

Sanqui sent me an invite to a new private discord. The plan was to simultaneously ① datamine the ROMs and write a TCRF page ② disassemble enough of the ROM to support a translation patch ③ translate the text. Hard deadline was one month—Sanqui and I emphasized this repeatedly.

We knew from the start it would probably get leaked before that. At least a dozen people might have downloaded from the link. There were lots of people in the pret discord who saw the resulting discussion even if they didn’t download it. One guy who had the ROM posted screenshots in other channels, spreading the story even more. This led to the first 4chan thread. Next thread someone from the private discord posted a couple of things including Pichu, but apparently stopped there. Later someone else who had the Gold ROM, probably one of the original 20 downloaders, leaked it to 4chan. After that we posted the half‐finished docs and wiki page publicly.

Where did the guy who leaked them to Sanqui get them?

Not a clue.

Was there an old collector in Japan whose collection spread after he died?

Don’t know for sure. I doubt it. Only ever heard that story on 4chan, never privately.

Are they real?

Yes.

Is there a Green beta?

No.

You’re attention whores!

Nobody cares.

The translation would have taken longer than a month, and then they’d never have been released!

If it had taken longer than a month I would have leaked them myself.