I put together a short article on a near-final Shining Force II SEGA Genesis prototype that suffers from one rather strange save glitch. My thanks go out to Wayde Daigneault for kindly sharing this dump.
I have heard back from Mark Nolan, who owns the second known prototype cartridge of Parody World: Monster Party, along with his brother, Matt, and he would neither confirm nor deny sending the previously mentioned anonymous response to my critical investigation into the Video Game Authority. I then received another anonymous message about an hour and a half later saying, “It seems that that message that was posted is legit.” I’ll leave the conspiracy theories to your imagination while I look into finding a replacement for the site’s current contact form.
Whether pressured to or not, the Nolans have decided to forgo recouping their considerable costs to instead give players immediate access to the long lost Japanese Famicom game. They have uploaded the ROM image online, which can be downloaded through this link.
To satisfy my curiosity, I split their publicly distributed .NES binary and ran file comparisons with the PRG and CHR data that I received privately a day ago. The files are a match.
While you’re playing through Parody World: Monster Party on this Fourth of July holiday, please keep in mind not only the Nolans’ generosity, but also how crucial it is to digitally back up your video game prototypes so that exciting gaming history like this is kept safe and preserved for years to come.
UPDATE: It appears that the second anonymous message was sent in by a tipster who only wanted to point out that the game was now being distributed to the public by the cartridge owners. There is no connection between this person and whoever sent me a link to the digital copy of the prototype earlier.
Today I received the following anonymous message through the site’s contact form:
The sender’s words “gorillions” and “slab” are in reference to an article that I posted a couple of days ago about the Video Game Authority, a Georgia collectible grading company that advertises video game prototype authentication services.
Clicking on the provided URL sent me to a file sharing website that contained a 7z compressed archive with PRG and CHR data. Combining these files resulted in a working ROM image of what appears to be the unreleased Famicom prototype Parody World: Monster Party.
As I previously reported, the cancelled Japanese version of Monster Party was sold on Yahoo! Japan Auctions in May 2011 for around $6,000. The owner took a hard stance against sharing anything more than a four-minute video on YouTube (link). In February of this year, a second cartridge appeared for sale on eBay and went for $3,513.19 (link). The buyers of the latter copy, Mark and Matt Nolan, came forward to say that they had plans to make reproductions sometime in the future.
After playing through the entire game on an emulator, I noticed significant sprite and level layout differences as well as several horror movie cameos by the likes of Alien facehuggers, Gremlins, and Jason Voorhees.
Although I would love nothing more than to distribute the binary for all to enjoy, I have not been able to confirm yet if the Nolans are behind this message or if there is something more going on here that I don’t know about (as crazy as it sounds, there have been “prototype vigilantes” in the past). I believe strongly in video game preservation, but not at the expense of others.
I have reached out to Mark Nolan, and if he explicitly grants me permission, I will post the back-up file immediately.
For now, here are screenshots that I captured showing some of the in-game changes:
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(Image used with permission from Alberto “Kazuya” Mendoz of Beta-Zero.com)
Recently, I was asked to become an outside prototype contact for a grading and authentication company called the Video Game Authority. This admittedly unexpected offer inspired me to begin a serious investigation that led me to study the company’s history, operations, promises, and policies in order to get a better sense of its corporate identity and verification methods.
As someone who is passionate about video game prototypes and digital preservation matters, as well as consumer issues, I decided to compile my findings and share them in a comprehensive article called No Grade: An Investigation into the Video Game Authority.
After years and years of speculation, a kind soul by the name of Sean McGee has come along to solve the over decade-long mystery of the Super Mario Bros. 2 sample cartridges once and for all. Scroll down the original article to read the update.
You may have already read about this Super Mario Kart prototype before, but were you aware that there are far more changes besides a couple of different music tracks? Johan, the current owner, has kindly given me a comprehensive list of differences that will shed some more light on this intriguing beta build.
Site reader R.W. McWilliam has submitted several fascinating pieces of ephemera regarding the 1990 Nintendo World Championships. The 12 megabyte lot includes Mario-signed participation certificates, backstage working crew passes, event fact sheets, Nintendo Game Counselor tip sheets, and original press releases from the event’s PR firm Rogers & Cowan. The great wealth of information in these scans sheds a ton more light on the famous competition, from its early planning stages to the final execution. As a bonus, the unreleased Nintendo knitting machine accessory even gets a special mention in one of the documents! You can view the images at the NWC spotlight page.
“Hot Rodding Teenagers” Preliminary Drawing (9 3/4″ X 16 1/2″)
I just received word that the immensely talented illustrator Greg Martin unexpectedly passed away on May 21, 2013 at the age of 57.
A 1980 graduate of the prestigious Art Center of Design, Greg began his professional career as a production designer and layout artist for Hanna-Barbara where he stayed on for five years before joining the Walt Disney Feature Studio as a background stylist. After a year at Disney, he left to enter the TV animation department at Marvel Productions as a key concept artist.
Greg will probably be best remembered, however, as the freelance artist responsible for the famous American Sonic the Hedgehog game box illustrations done at the peak of the blue blur ball’s popularity (Sonic 2, Sonic 3, and Sonic CD are just a few of his creations). By his own estimation, he made around a thousand covers and other promotional material in total for SEGA and a slew of other video game companies including Capcom, Disney Interactive, Fox Interactive, Hudson Soft, Namco, and Natsume, as well as video tape cassette artwork for major animation studios like Hanna-Barbara and Warner Brothers. To put it another way, if you grew up or gamed in the ’80s or ’90s, you already know his work well.
Most dear to my heart, Greg composed the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles VHS jackets before the cartoon series ever premiered on TV (he would paint them big, with each measuring around two and a half feet tall!). Working from only crude model sheets and storyboards, he conceived, designed, and executed everything. Heck, he even did the mutants’ early fast food tie-ins!
His involvement with the Turtles franchise was how I happened to meet Greg last April, and I was soon blown away when he started listing all of the other properties he had worked on. I was fortunate enough to have obtained an original piece from him at that time when he realized how big of a fan I am (see the above photo), and I was all prepared to set up an interview to finally give him some much deserved recognition when my e-mails started bouncing. The next thing I heard he was gone. It’s a great tragedy that most people are only finding out about him now because of his death. This is a man whose paintings have been admired by untold millions.
His art lives on, though, a sampling of which can be viewed at his Cartoon Originals online gallery.
Source: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/pe/obituary.aspx?n=Gregory-Martin&pid=165268935
I know I promised mutant turtle coverage in the last update, but I decided to postpone all that crazy ooze I had planned to drop on you to instead focus on a couple of more pressing prototypes–beginning with Dr. Mario for the Game Boy.
While healthcare’s on everyone’s minds these days, I’ve only been thinking of one doctor lately, and his name is Mario. That quack doc has drugged me all over again with a newly found prototype of his classic 1990 handheld puzzler.
Will the results be any different this time around? Or will Mario strap on the rubber gloves and proceed with another involuntary colonoscopy? To the prototype page, post haste!
Today I have something to momentarily distract all you flapping mad Batman buffs from The Great Batfleck Apocalypse: a newly dumped prototype of Batman: Return of the Joker for the Famicom! Sunsoft originally released this game in 1991, back when Gotham City was a far safer place with Michael Keaton behind the wheel of the Batmobile.
In other superhero news, if you love the Ninja Turtles, you won’t want to miss the next couple of updates. Even if you’re not a fan, you’ll at least get a glimpse of how incredibly geeky and insane I am for the heroes in a half shell, and that should be worth at least a few judgmental laughs.
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- Glitched-Out Shining Force II SEGA Genesis Prototype http://t.co/SrebbA2l8S
- You Are Cordially Invited To The Parody World: Monster Party http://t.co/IWvBcbfHmY
- Unreleased Parody World: Monster Party ROM Sent Anonymously In Response To Grading… http://t.co/SLRbH7GlBv #nintendo