Got a copy of King's Field 3 Pilot Style

[HwitVlf]

Guyra is probably the only one who would care about this, but I recently got my very own copy of King's Field 3 Pilot Style for PS1.

Among collector geeks, the term "Holy Grail" is thrown around to describe the latest rare item on their want list. Jason Dvorak of game-rave.com announced the 2Ball demo a Holy Grail and now it's selling for $200 bucks a copy. It was a Playstation 1 promotional demo handed out at various NBA sporting events.

I won't call Pilot Style a Holy Grail, but this is the only copy I've found for sale in around 8 years of constant searching in both Japan and the USA. To my knowledge, it was only handed out at the Fromsoftware booth at the Tokyo Game Show and 5 copies were given out as prizes for a Japanese Playstation magazine.

I've tried to ask Fromsoftware how many copies were made, but got no response. My guess would be no more than 1000 copies were produced and maybe as little as 100. Regardless, I'm really glad to have a copy and will post more detailed info when I get time.

[HwitVlf]

Attached is a scan of the Pilot Style components. It comes in an unusual style slim jewel case which was not used much in the USA. I've seen it on BBC Music magazine CDs, PS1 and Sega magazine demos in Great Britain, and the Gran Turismo Pre-release demo in the USA. It takes a single insert that folds around to make a the spine. You're supposed to put the disk in the case label down so that the CD itself is the rear "label".

Pretty cool piece of King's Field history in my opinion!

[dmpdesign]

Hey  I care too!

That is quite cool ;)

[HwitVlf]

In that case, I'll leave it to you in my will!   

[HwitVlf]

Another interesting fact, I found out Pilot Style was given out by the Fromsoft booth at the FIRST ever Tokyo Game Show in 1996.
It ran from only two days (August 22-24) and 87 companies participated with 109,649 people attending.

[JC Bailey]

I really need a time machine.

[HwitVlf]

Ha ha :) Here's another interesting artifact you can pick up when your time machine is functional.

I just got a copy of this. It was released around the same time as KF3 and may have been a pre-order bonus, but I'm not really sure how or why it was distributed. If you see a copy, it's almost always with KF3 original release. It's the same size as the game manuals and contains a synopsis of the entire king's field trilogy. Does anyone know what Lyle's middle name is?

[JC Bailey]

I'll have to put it on my "stuff to grab" list.

And it's Lyle Austin Forester.

[Verdite]

That is a great find John, I have also noticed that the cover text, like the KF3 pilot style has the Shadow Tower / Res Evil font. Could be that From wanted to associate KF with the 'horror' genre of the time? The "Kings field" text is really unique, I havent seen a G like that before! ...