Over 70 Preserved Prototypes Later, All That Glitters Is Pirates! Gold

By my count, this plucky little site has digitally archived, documented, and made public more than 70 pre-release (or never released) vintage video games–that includes all of the ones that have come into my hands, and others that were charitably donated by passionate folks around the country.

From building blocks to bingo brunches, playing is an inherently essential part of the human experience. It de-stresses us, teaches us, and keeps us healthy. I can trace the years through my choice of play, video games, and use them as markers in my life. Their plastic and silicon can have a transformative effect, and resurrect emotional experiences, unrepeatable moments, dormant ghosts of long ago friends and family, and bring those still with us closer together.

From my earliest conscious memory of gazing in awe at an underwater world in Super Mario Bros. blink alive, its background medley, at once, both alluring and lulling, video games have given me so much wonder, challenge, and escape that I wanted to give back. They saved me in my bleakest hour, and I believed it high time that I save them in theirs.

I kept a slyly apt prototype for the occasion, the definitive version of one of my all-time personal favorites: Pirates! Gold for the SEGA Genesis.

As a companion piece, I also wrote a shorter article about how a prolific Hollywood movie poster illustrator once sketched buccaneers for Sid Meier.

Blast from the Past: a Beat-Up Bullet Bill from the 1993 Super Mario Bros. Movie

I can still remember shuffling out of the theater doors on Memorial Day weekend in 1993, a sweating Yoshi Slurpee in one hand, a clenched ERTL Goomba action figure in the other.

The projectionist could have shown a Buñuel art house film–with wild ostriches poking their heads in and out of frame, with bottomless dinner guests plopping themselves on toilets around a dining room table, engaging in vivid chatter, en français, on the effects of overpopulation on bodily waste management–and the silent expression on my eight-year-old face would have remained no less stoic.

I grew a little older, a little wiser that summer afternoon. I had the Super Mario Bros. movie to thank.

Love it or hate it, a whole lot of time, money, and effort went into Hollywood’s first video game adaptation. This recently discovered 3-inch Bullet Bill cartridge is physical proof of that. To read more about the prop, and a few other items that were rescued from the production, follow the fungus to today’s article.

Remembering Nintendo Power’s Nester Comic Strip Artist Dan Spiegle

The industrious and accomplished comic artist Dan Spiegle, who drew the later Nester’s Adventures strips in Nintendo Power–as well as many movie, television, and literary adaptations in an Inkpot Award-winning career–died on January 28, 2017 at the age of 96.

To commemorate his passing, I looked back at Nintendo’s once mighty official North American magazine and examined one of Spiegle’s original drawings of that publication’s memorable mascot, Nester.

Michael Vick, the Marlboro Man, and the Super Mario Bros. 3 Happy Meal

To find out what these three have in common, check out today’s article, which takes a look at some hand-painted McDonald’s illustrations that were recently unearthed at an Illinois estate sale.

Unreleased Snow White NES Game at Long Last Lives Happily Ever After

I worked “overtime” to bring you today’s update as quickly as possible: The unreleased Happily Ever After for the Nintendo Entertainment System, based on the 1993 animated movie of the same name, has been found and dumped, courtesy of site contributor Sean McGee. See the article for the download and learn the scandalous story behind this unofficial Snow White sequel.

Daikatana GBC Prototype: John Romero’s About to Make You His Beta Tester

I never thought that I’d ever have to say this about a prototype, but this Daikatana Game Boy Color development cartridge, which came directly from DOOM designer John Romero, has too many differences. Documenting them all was a colossal challenge that involved taking nearly 2,000 comparison screenshots over a period of months.

Leave behind any prejudices that you may have about the PC first-person shooter because, as an old-school-Zelda-inspired throwback, the handheld Daikatana‘s right on point.

Cancelled CD-i Skateboarding Nutrition Game from the Makers of Zelda’s Adventure

How’s this for a coincidence: I chanced upon a poorly listed auction and took home an original model miniature that was made by the developers of the Philips CD-i game Zelda’s Adventure. Just days later, news broke about another incredibly rare relic from this era, the “Nintendo Play Station,” discovered outside of Philadelphia, in Bucks County, only a minute’s drive away from me. Nothing exciting ever happens around here, game-wise, but in one week, these two semi-related pieces from the past practically collided with one another.

You’ve likely read about the Play Station by now, but to learn more about my find and an unreleased CD-i game that previously had zero online coverage, check out the full story here.

(My thanks to Jason Bakutis and Scott Kravitz for mailing me materials for this article.)

Is This TMNT: Tournament Fighters SNES Sample Worth Fighting Over?

Today I come bearing a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters Super Nintendo sample, the latest conquest in my psychopathic mission to gain Turtle Power. This marks the seventh Ninja Turtles pre-release video game that I’ve featured here on the site.

Don’t get too excited because this one turned out to be a dud. But as they say, the journey is more important than the destination, and on this journey, I gave up my healthy diet regiment in order to raid Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman’s private stash for some of his mutagenic ooze.

The Case of the Satanic S&M Porn Fetishist’s Super Mario Storyboard (NSFW)

How’s that for a headline? Eat your heart out, Gawker.

This is bar none the strangest thing that I have ever written on this site. The Super Mario presentation storyboard that you see pictured above may appear innocent looking enough, but wait until you hear about the simulated self-mutilation and the computer-generated demonic possession.

Those with a weak stomach and an aversion to S&M are urged to stay far away from today’s article.

Whitewashing, Lies, and a Pocahontas Game Boy Sample

If you ever wanted to read about a Powhatan Chief and a gaming CEO go off on The Walt Disney Company, you’ve come to the right place.