What Do Sumo Wrestlers and Color Dreams Game Testers Have in Common?

They both stink at their jobs.

This site is a celebration of all the creative work that goes into making games, and the culture that surrounds them. As I alluded to in my tribute to illustrator Greg Martin, who passed away in 2013, a mere month after he and I first spoke, video game artists are shamefully underreported. I want to try to change that by dedicating an entire section to gaming art of all types, and interviewing the artists behind them.

I’m christening this new part of the site with an article about original artwork from two unlicensed Nintendo Entertainment System game instruction manuals, Menace Beach and King Neptune’s Adventure. The page includes input from two former in-house Color Dreams artists, Nina Stanley and Roger DeForest, who discuss, among other things, sumo wrestlers and game testers.

Ghost in the Game Boy: Casper Sample Reveals Apparent Publishing Dispute

In an effort to further rid this site of an audience, here are 3,000 words about Casper the Friendly Ghost.

The Head Unreleased MTV SEGA Genesis Game Source Code

Happy Halloween! Thanks to the detective work of Piko Interactive, and the kindness of former SEGA of America programmer Earl K. Stratton, the source code for an unreleased SEGA Genesis game based on the strange 1990s MTV animated show The Head has been discovered. According to a 1994 press release from the developer’s parent company, the title was also going to come out for the Super Nintendo. Click here to learn more about this find.

Ghostbusters Famicom Prototype: Dumpin’ Makes Me Feel Good

Before I get to today’s update, I feel compelled to comment on a current online social media movement called #GamerGate. To any of my readers who happen to think that there are important concerns in the gaming media that need to be addressed, please understand that having any association with #GamerGate is the wrong way to go about airing your grievances. Supporting the group accomplishes the exact opposite of what you want to see happen. #GamerGate was started and promoted by right-wing ideologues and conspiracy theorists, and has gone on to be co-opted by an anonymous terroristic hate mob, one that targets and tries to silence female voices working in the industry. I say this as someone who is immensely distrustful of the big-name gaming publications out there; I have exchanged some choice words with more than a few professional video game reporters while addressing their incompetencies in my years running this site. #GamerGate, however, is a ruse, and a violent one at that. This is video games, a massive global industry with a diverse audience of more than one billion people. There’s enough room for everyone to develop, criticize, and play without anyone having to feel physically threatened for doing so.

And not to disrespect the Twitter activists who seem handcuffed to their hashtag couch revolutions, but, historically, real change occurs in the voting booth. There is a midterm election this year. It falls on November 4th. Mark your Google Calendars.

With that off my chest, in celebration of the 30th anniversary of Ghostbusters, I have prepared an article that deals with what some call one of the worst video game ports ever. Click here if you dare.

On a closing note, if you’re like me and dig 8-bit demake games, a talented homebrewer by the name of PSC is currently working on bringing Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 to the Game Boy Color. He sent over a demo recently, and it’s very impressive, even if I did get my butt handed to me. You can follow the project’s progress at http://twitter.com/PortableMK and watch a video of the game in action on YouTube.

How Rescuing a TMNT III Game Boy Sample and Ninja Turtle Weapons Gave My Life New Meaning

In celebration of Michael Bay and fiery explosions and Megan Fox and Orange Crush, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue for the Game Boy is now the sixth Ninja Turtles pre-release game documented on the site. There’s unfortunately not much to report. Instead, join me on a trip to Hawaii to save some very special martial arts weapons.

The Entire Ninja Gaiden Nintendo Trilogy in Pre-Release Form

I was recently contacted by a video game prototype collector named Danny “Armageddon Potato” Tatro. He was eager to document and share three of his pre-release cartridges: Ninja Gaiden, Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos, and Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom.

“These articles are dedicated to anyone who has dumped a prototype to preserve for others to enjoy,” Danny said. “This is my thanks to you! Thanks for the inspiration!”

Glitched-out Shining Force II SEGA Genesis Prototype

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.

You Are Cordially Invited to the Parody World: Monster Party

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.

Unreleased Parody World: Monster Party ROM Sent Anonymously in Response to Grading Company Investigation

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:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No Grade: An Investigation into the Video Game Authority

(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.