Jade Shadow (lost PC shooter game; 2005)

A screenshot from the game.

Status: Lost

Jade Shadow is a PC shooter game released on April 1st, 2005 by Zango Games. The game required the Zango client software to be installed.

History

The game was released on April 1st, 2005^[1] as part of Zango's parent company, 180solutions^[2]. It featured graphics similar to its predecessor, David vs Goliath, also released by Zango a few months before.

A quick description of the game is shown in the archived Zango Website that goes as follows:^[3]:

NeoTokyo, 2437AD
You are Kimiko – half-cyborg superspy: a fearless agent powered by long-dead ancestors.
Your nemesis: the evil Dr. Mofune — a mechanical madman with powers beyond comprehension.
Master your weapons, gather your polymer sushi rolls and fight bravely — the ultimate confrontation will amaze you!

Availability

In order to download Jade Shadow from Zango's servers, users had to install the Zango software on their computer, which later became known for being adware^[4].

When Zango was ultimately bought by Blinkx in 2009, all servers needed to download the game installer were subsequently shut down, meaning only users who had already downloaded and installed the game beforehand are the only ones that can ever be able to play the game again.

To this day, only two online installers have been discovered (see External Links) but they cannot reach Zango's servers anymore, and the game files are nowhere to be found.

A beta version of the game was sent to volunteers by e-mail^[5], and it has been speculated that the beta installer could work offline. However, the beta version is entirely lost and this point.

Additional Info

There are two versions of the online installer "ZangoJadeShadow.exe" on the Wayback Machine:

The first one from 2005 has a red Zango icon^[6]
The second one from 2006 has a green Zango icon^[7]

Both of these installers are rendered useless by the absence of Zango's servers. Thanks to computer forums and websites^[8], we know the names of the offline installers that were downloaded by the Zango client:

JadeShadowInstall.exe
JadeShadowInstaller.exe
JadeShadowSetup.exe

Note: The game executable is named Jade.exe

Gallery

External Links

References

[1] ttps://www.gamesindustry.biz/zango-games-deploys-secret-operation-to-protect-neotokyo-jade-shadow-a

[2] ttps://www.gamedeveloper.com/press-release/180solutions-announces-gaming-strategy-with-acquisition-of-full-armor-studios-and-launch-of-zango-games

[3] ttps://web.archive.org/web/20050514014702/http://games.zango.com/downloads/games/jadeshadow.aspx

[4] ttps://www.computerworld.com/article/2523556/notorious-adware-vendor-zango-shuts-its-doors.html

[5] ttps://web.archive.org/web/20050313044332/http://games.zango.com/downloads/jadeshadow/

[6] ttps://web.archive.org/web/20051210065326/http://downloads.zango.com/ZangoGames/InstallFiles/ZangoJadeShadow/5711/ZangoJadeShadow.exe

[7] ttps://web.archive.org/web/20060110150317/http://downloads.zango.com/ZangoGames/InstallFiles/ZangoJadeShadow/5711/ZangoJadeShadow.exe

[8] ttps://www.wer-weiss-was.de/t/zango-was-is-das/3510167/2

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