Topic: Whole Castlevania pages gone

[theplottwist]

EDIT: Timeline: http://www.konami.jp/gs/game/dracula/product/data.html Main site: http://www.konami.jp/gs/game/dracula/index.html

(click to show/hide)

https://www.konami.com/games/jp/ja/products/dracula_ooe/
https://www.konami.com/games/jp/ja/products/dracula_gol/
https://www.konami.com/games/jp/ja/products/dracula_dos/
https://www.konami.com/games/jp/ja/products/dracula_judgement/

I was doing research on the game and needed Castlevania pages. Just one week ago it was all up and had all complete information, character bios, ages, official art, all of it. Now this info is gone and just (very) few bits remain. We can't even use them as references on the wiki anymore.

Just a few days ago I used Dawn of Sorrow's japanese Library. Gone. Forever. (<<<<< not really I was losing my shit here and tried searching with a wrong link that returned no cached results further driving me the shit-losing path, read the edits)

Is there anything we can do to retrieve the originals? Wayback Machine doesn't have it all archived... Is there anything we can do?

EDIT: Oh yeah, I just noticed neither Wayback Machine nor Google Cache have these pages anymore. JUST GREAT. I consulted Aria's just some days ago to salvage the character bios -- now gone. I'm trying everything I can, but it seems they weren't cached ANYWHERE on the goddamn internet.

EDIT2: Most recent official japanese timeline (http://www.konami.jp/gs/game/dracula/product/data.html) gone.

BOY. I AM REALLY FUCKING MAD OUT OF MY SOCKS. YOU'RE MAKING IT REALLY, REALLY HARD TO HAVE A SINGLE SHRED OF LOVE FOR YOU, KONAMI.

They can't let us have a freaking WEBPAGE to source our wikis with, no. They want to take everything from us.

EDIT3: OK, what truly happened here:

Konami, on their main Castlevania site, changed all links to ones that send you to an oversimplified page that has none of the features of the previous pages. To illustrate, this is what Dawn of Sorrow looks like now:

https://www.konami.com/games/jp/ja/products/dracula_dos/

This is what it looked like one week ago:

http://www.konami.jp/gs/game/dracula_ds/index.html

This was discovered by a friend of mine while we spelunked after a way to retrieve the original page. Konami is hiding the original link, replacing it with one to a lousy page. Someone unfamiliar with this will never locate the originals by the buttons on the page -- the original way of accessing them.

I lost my shit up there with the cache because I copied the new, lousy link, and pasted on Wayback Machine thinking it would locate the original. It didn't, obviously, because the link changed and I didn't pay the slightest mind to it. And I have a good reason to believe why they would also delete content.

However, I'm still saving it all because, if they're not gone now, I'm almost 100% sure they'll be gone soon. No reason for Konami to hide the links like this if they're not intending to get rid of the pages. This, or they're migrating the links and the lousy page is placeholder, we can't know what Konami is thinking after Erotic Violence. The timeline was gone from the original link, too, but I found the new link, and it has been updated on the Castlevania Wiki (Konami changed a SINGLE LETTER on the link. Almost feels like they did this for the lulz)

Excuse me for the burst. You all know I love this series yadda yadda. I was not trying to put a show, I was really angry. Whenever Konami does something that feels even slightly shady to this series, it's a part of me that dies. These pages not only have info about the game, but have IGA and Yamane's logs, too, chronicling the development process of each game. Making this stuff inaccessible (as they are now, check for yourself and you'll see) by hiding the link is bullshit, man. This riles me up to no end.

I don't know what is going on, they could be simply doing maintenance. But last time this happened, Aria of Sorrow and Harmony of Dissonance got lost forever, along with dev logs. Let's just hope this is a maintenance thing and I'm being a total dick for no reason.

EDIT: I wasn't being a total dick for no reason, after all. Konami did indeed vanish all these pages.

[suomynona]

Sorry to hear that.

Well it IS Fuckonami, so I wouldn't expect anything better then website for that goddam Pachinko :/

[zangetsu468]

Hey Plottwist, have you thought about saving screenshots of those pages into PDF documents?
That might be the most bulletproof way.

[theplottwist]

Hey Plottwist, have you thought about saving screenshots of those pages into PDF documents?
That might be the most bulletproof way.

I'm doing that just now, just not as PDF, but as pictures so they can be uploadable on the wiki.

I lost my shit so hard I almost went in fetal position right now.

[zangetsu468]

I'm doing that just now, just not as PDF, but as pictures so they can be uploadable on the wiki.

I lost my shit so hard I almost went in fetal position right now.

I remember some pages disappearing a decade ago. For some random reason I had saved those webpages to my hd, which is not really the done thing these days - we take for granted information will still be there tomorrow.

Seriously though, it would suck so bad if all of that just vanished.

[theplottwist]

I remember some pages disappearing a decade ago. For some random reason I had saved those webpages to my hd, which is not really the done thing these days - we take for granted information will still be there tomorrow.

Seriously though, it would suck so bad if all of that just vanished.

A friend of mine discovered that the links were changed by Konami, and the original pages are still reachable. STILL I'm saving it all because if they're redirecting the buttons, then this is a bad omen on itself.

[Shiroi Koumori]

Hmmm... I see an update on the page for December 1, 2016 --> for the PS4 JP arcade archives

But yeah, saving the webpages to your HD or virtual drives will be the best future proofing that you can do for now.

[Nagumo]

Konami deletes their old websites from time to time. I'm guessing they do it because otherwise they gave to pay in order to keep these pages online. However, what sucks is that they don't care at all about preserving the information that's on these sites. So it's up to Wayback Machine or fans taking screenshots themselves to prevent all of it to be lost forever. Also a word of warning: most if not all post-2009 website are designed in such a way that the page won't load if you try to access them from the Wayback Machine. I first noticed this when the site for the first Pachinko game got removed. So I ended up making screenshots of the sites for the other two Pachinkos and the Japanese LoS website. I'm not sure if I already uploaded them to the wiki, though.

[TatteredSeraph]

Words... fail me right now.  Time to go curl up and cry.  Konami, please sell this IP to Iga if you clearly have no interest in the series any more.

[theANdROId]

Y'know, at one time I looked at the name Konami with awe and respect.  I rented/bought/played stuff just because their name was on it and I knew they did good stuff.
...
...
...
I don't think that way anymore.  I don't think like that at all.

[Aceearly1993]

It strongly suggests that konami is corrupted and is not that konami what we know from the great golden times anymore. Screw it.

[zangetsu468]

It strongly suggests that konami is corrupted and is not that konami what we know from the great golden times anymore. Screw it.

I think in a very general sense people used to care about people and having good morals. Now people care about money and this is magnified via corporations.

[Aceearly1993]

I think in a very general sense people used to care about people and having good morals. Now people care about money and this is magnified via corporations.

This is exactly what I thought. 
Not here to "anti" money/income related business stuff, but left such a long running series like Castlevania in a dark underground graveyard and without gaving it a proper place to rest...  I just can't get it. I often thought they would be somewhat mad/they couldn't access to their mind properly

[DraculaCronqvist]

At this point, Konami is *very* determined to just put all their old franchises into a mass grave, never to be touched again by them or others. Today, more than ever before, Konami just wants to make cheap cash-grabs with mobile games, Pachinko and Slot Machines. To call them a porper gaming company anymore would be an insult.

[Flame]

to be fair here, its not uncommon for devs to eventually discontinue their product websites. they are mostly for marketing but after the game's been out for a while, they dont serve a purpose and it costs money to keep them up. It's been 8 years already since Judgement alone.

I mean I was sad when Capcom removed their Megaman ZX and ZXA pages last year, (along with other old webpage cleanups) but it's been almost a decade since ZX. I'm honestly more surprised they lasted as longas they did