PCB Trial+ 0.01 Has Been Found!

[Agent of the BSoD]

So you've probably heard of this rare demo, maybe from the interesting ZUN art, or the lost spells that are not in today's PCB. If you've tried to find it on Google somewhere, you probably found nothing.

Well, after months (yes, literally MONTHS, ugh) of searching for this, I finally found it. Mediafire download link. It contains an installer but it's not necessary, the game fully works with what's located in the "youmu" folder. (and also has omake.jpg which you should check out for some rough ZUN art)

There are several different things in this demo. If you don't want to know what they are yet and want to find out for yourself, don't read this next portion.

Spoiler:

The most notable of these is probably the art. Some of the ways that the stages work has also been altered (you'll see that right away on stage 1). The bosses also declare spell cards like they do in EoSD. There are no borders either, but the cherry meter is still there (also, it switches sides of the screen if you get near it, why was that removed- oh wait, fps counter in replays). Gaining lives uses the same mechanic as EoSD, as such, there is no counter on the side for this. I also found that the bgm music is slightly different, but the MIDIs still sound the same. The spell card history is not saved per shot type but for everyone as a whole, just like EoSD.

Sadly, you cannot use vsync for this game, so you're going to have to deal with the input delay. I at least recommend, for newer Windows OSs if you use Aero, that you check "Disable visual themes" and "Disable desktop composition" under the properties for the executable so the actual window doesn't bleed into the game. If you don't use Aero, it probably won't be an issue (I don't and it isn't a problem).

Also, a translation of the custom.exe would be awesome, as it appears to be different from EoSD's and PCB's current versions. I don't know if the conversations differ either since I can't read Japanese.

Anyways, have some fun with a demo that's been nearly impossible to find anywhere!

[Monkeypro257]

The only words I have to say to you are. . .Thank you.

[nintendonut888]

Being possibly one of the first people in the western world to play this felt like an archeologist exploring a lost tomb. Thanks for the effort man, I've been wanting to play this for years.

[Monkeypro257]

The spell card of Cirno's looks different and seems easier. -_- (I only had to stay in a single spot on Lunatic.) Well those Rough drawings did look rather interesting compared to the full game.

[Karisa]

Wait, how different is this from v0.06?

[Agent of the BSoD]

Wait, how different is this from v0.06?

ZUN has a changelog of it here: http://www16.big.or.jp/~zun/html/th07_update.html

Out of curiosity, why are you asking about that particular version? The earliest I found besides this one is 0.07 and 0.08e.

[Karisa]

Out of curiosity, why are you asking about that particular version? The earliest I found besides this one is 0.07 and 0.08e.

It's the version Arcorann linked a while ago, which was used for atypical challenge #17.

[Agent of the BSoD]

It's the version Arcorann linked a while ago, which was used for atypical challenge #17.

Ah, I see. I wonder where they found it, I wasn't successful in finding that version, though then again, I didn't put in much effort there since my focus was finding 0.01. I guess the differences between the two are probably minor ones, though I think I saw in the changelog (based on terrible google translate) that the power on some of the shot types were tweaked, and IMO, MarisaA unfocused is really strong, possibly more so than focused. (I haven't really tested that so don't take my word for it)

[Jq1790]

Ah, so this is the one with..."Freeze Actress", was it?  Sounds pretty neat, so thanks for the work in finding this!  It's really been that hard to find this one, has it?  Go figure.  Looking forward to dying to stuff because I haven't touched the shmup Touhous in forever, but this is something I at least ought to play a little of for the sake of saying I did.

[nintendonut888]

Ah, so this is the one with..."Freeze Actress", was it?  Sounds pretty neat, so thanks for the work in finding this!  It's really been that hard to find this one, has it?  Go figure.  Looking forward to dying to stuff because I haven't touched the shmup Touhous in forever, but this is something I at least ought to play a little of for the sake of saying I did.

It also has a midboss card for Alice on easy/normal that does not exist in any future version (later demos had a unique midboss card, but it was different from the one in this version). And a lot of spell cards and attacks are pretty different.

What I'm wondering now, is if there are hidden secrets in the demo's code that could be found through hacking. I have no knowledge in that kind of thing, but it'd be neat if we discovered something Rin Satsuki-esque.

[Szayelaporro Granz]

I can't run the demo versions of PCB, how come?

[redlakitu]

I can't run the demo versions of PCB, how come?

Are you getting any particular error messages?

[Szayelaporro Granz]

Yes, the error window has DirectInput and other japanese characters in it.

[redlakitu]

Yes, the error window has DirectInput and other japanese characters in it.

Run custom.exe and check the box next to the option with DirectInput in the name (I believe it translates to "No DirectInput joypad" or the like), then click the rightmost button in the bottom right corner to save the changes. Might work.

EDIT: something I should have said before, but forgot - excellent work, Agent of the BSoD. You're a hero. Congratulations! I have already downloaded the demo, I'd hate to miss out on such a delightful piece of archaeology.

How would you feel about uploading all those old Touhou demos and trials to archive.org? I think it's the perfect place for this kind of obscure, hard to find stuff. Jason Scott would be proud of you.

[Monkeypro257]

Man, the game FPS is always at 30! <_> (any suggestions on how to fix this?)

The only portraits that didn't have much of anything different was Chen's.

[Agent of the BSoD]

How would you feel about uploading all those old Touhou demos and trials to archive.org? I think it's the perfect place for this kind of obscure, hard to find stuff. Jason Scott would be proud of you.

I didn't know you could actually do that. Maybe I will, I just have no idea how to go about something like that.

Man, the game FPS is always at 30! <_> (any suggestions on how to fix this?)

The first option in custom.exe might help, the one with the 60 in it. Also make sure your refresh rate isn't checked at 1/2 in there too. If only vsync could work...

[Monkeypro257]

Didn't really make a difference. . . I'm use to playing at that speed though. (My computer wasn't meant for gaming)

[Sparen]

Looks awesome! Lol I hope it actually works in Wine.

[Agent of the BSoD]

Looks awesome! Lol I hope it actually works in Wine.

I haven't had a chance to test that yet, actually, because Wine on my Mac is being really dumb, where one dependency is not compiling for some reason. I'm still working on it. But I wouldn't see why it wouldn't work, the game is very similar to EoSD at this stage, given the many similarities and the format of the files in its directory.

And because of this similarity, I decided to test vsync using EoSD as the dll and renaming the exe accordingly. While no errors are apparent, it still doesn't actually work, using various settings. Just thought I'd mention that before someone else has the same idea.

Edit: Got Wine finally fixed, and the game works just fine, as long as I checked the check box for the DirectInput setting in custom.exe. Before I had that checked, the game was acting like I was pressing X as fast as the frames could render, but never actually quit the game, which I had to force close it. I did have some random fps fluctuations once in a while, but I think that was the computer being a derp as usual. Thing is getting old. (late '06 model)

[Kirin no Sora]

Ah, so this is the one with..."Freeze Actress", was it?  Sounds pretty neat, so thanks for the work in finding this!  It's really been that hard to find this one, has it?  Go figure.  Looking forward to dying to stuff because I haven't touched the shmup Touhous in forever, but this is something I at least ought to play a little of for the sake of saying I did.

It also has a midboss card for Alice on easy/normal that does not exist in any future version (later demos had a unique midboss card, but it was different from the one in this version). And a lot of spell cards and attacks are pretty different.

What I'm wondering now, is if there are hidden secrets in the demo's code that could be found through hacking. I have no knowledge in that kind of thing, but it'd be neat if we discovered something Rin Satsuki-esque.

Perhaps info about this demo and the stuff in it can be written onto the Touhou wiki? It would let the Touhou community there get a hold of it, and from there, someone who would investigate the code.

Although, if it is discovered that Rin Satsuki herself was going to be part of PCB in the code of this demo somehow, I will quite literally explode. Of what, I honestly can't say.

[Szayelaporro Granz]

Run custom.exe and check the box next to the option with DirectInput in the name (I believe it translates to "No DirectInput joypad" or the like), then click the rightmost button in the bottom right corner to save the changes. Might work.

Still not working, it gives me a somewhat(?) different error instead.

[Jq1790]

Still not working, it gives me a somewhat(?) different error instead.

What OS are you running?  If it's a recent version of Windows, have you tried using Compatibility Mode to play it?  (Right-click the .exe, look for something like "Troubleshoot Compatibility", and follow the prompts.)

Not SURE if that'd help, but I figured it's at least a start.

[Szayelaporro Granz]

What OS are you running?  If it's a recent version of Windows, have you tried using Compatibility Mode to play it?  (Right-click the .exe, look for something like "Troubleshoot Compatibility", and follow the prompts.)

Not SURE if that'd help, but I figured it's at least a start.

Oh nvm it's working now. I just need to extract the file >_<

[wyldstrykr]

thanks search god!

[Poison Cat]

thank you for uploading this!