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Most polished beta you've played of an unreleased game?

 
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Dais



Joined: 26 May 2004
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 11, 2004 3:59 am    Post subject: Most polished beta you've played of an unreleased game? Reply with quote

That is, of the various betas you've played of games that were never released, what one has struck you the most as the oddest that it never got released commercially?

I'd have to go for Jelly Boy 2 (SFC). I'm not sure what happened to Epic Sony Record (who also appear to have been the publishers for Equinox/Solstice and some rather bleah licensed games), whether they were some part of Sony that got destroyed in the hideous battle between the two awesome universal powers (Nintendo and Sony) and the game was lost in the fallout, or what....

But this game is great. It's not the best platformer on the system, but it's still damn fun - the graphics are cute, the music manages to be simple without being too annoying, and the gameplay is actually quite fun. Sure, it has it's flaws (especially the fact that you can't see what levels you've already found a piece of the final-boss-unlocking-puzzle on), but not enough that it didn't warrant a release. It's just.....a great game. And I can't think of why it wasn't released...
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ManekiNeko
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Joined: 10 Jan 2004
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 11, 2004 6:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Frogger on the Game Gear, easily. It looks as though the game is more or less finished... it even has an ending, not to mention a whole buttload of stages.

JR
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ArnoldRimmer83
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 11, 2004 9:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I agree about Frogger. Would've been a nice addition to a Game Gear library. Star Fox 2 is fairly decent as well, though in need of a little polishing up. A shame Nintendo killed it.
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KingMike



Joined: 04 Nov 2003
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 12, 2004 8:00 pm    Post subject: Re: Most polished beta you've played of an unreleased game? Reply with quote

Dais wrote:
I'm not sure what happened to Epic Sony Record (who also appear to have been the publishers for Equinox/Solstice and some rather bleah licensed games), whether they were some part of Sony that got destroyed in the hideous battle between the two awesome universal powers (Nintendo and Sony) and the game was lost in the fallout, or what....


They probably just became Sony Computer Entertainment Incorporated when the PlayStation came out. I have no idea, but it's plausible. Anybody got a time frame on JB2? Without a timeframe, it would be plausible to conclude that since Sony went first-party, they probably canned third-party games (and maybe JB2 was in there?).

By the way, is the Secret of the Stars beta a bad dump, or just a beta of buggy code? Given the insta-retroness of the game, I'm probably the only person on Earth who cares, though.
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lugnut
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 12, 2004 10:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sony/Epic Records was, as far as I know, merely the Japanese name of the company known in the states as CSG Imagesoft (and later Sony Imagesoft). Prior to being Sony/Epic, they were CBS/Sony. (And I assume the CSG in CSG Imagesoft stands for CBS/Sony Group).

(Incidentally, Epic Records is part of the Columbia/CBS conglomeration of companies too.)
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Blitzwing
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 13, 2004 1:08 am    Post subject: secret of the stars Reply with quote

not sure where the dump came from
but its a bad dump.

the reason it crashes is it tries to read the script data...which isn't there..
(it actually crashes zsnes if you try it in certain spots)

I think it was either liwang or bmf that fixed it by inserting the regular release script

I have it here:
http://www.green-ranger.com/snes/

there are numerous non-script differneces..particularly the title screen.

I havn't been able to play all the way through to see what else is idiffernet.
i'd be pretty curious to find out just where it came from .
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Li Wang
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Joined: 29 Aug 2003
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 13, 2004 1:09 am    Post subject: Re: Most polished beta you've played of an unreleased game? Reply with quote

KingMike wrote:


By the way, is the Secret of the Stars beta a bad dump, or just a beta of buggy code? Given the insta-retroness of the game, I'm probably the only person on Earth who cares, though.


Yeah, it's missing a good 1/3 of it's data. You can make it work by tacking the end of the data from the released version onto it.
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KingMike



Joined: 04 Nov 2003
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 13, 2004 5:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I noticed that the released US version has both an unused script in place of the original Japanese text, and the actual used script in the expanded area (the Japanese version is 1MB, US beta is also 1MB but I guess should be 1.5MB then, which is what the US release version is).

And going back to Jelly Boy 2 (interesting name mix-up as the Japanese original was Jerry Boy and yet there's an unrelated European? game called Jelly Boy), it seems fun as much as I've played.
Not sure how necessary it would need to be to have the Japanese text translated, but it would be nice to see. Okay, I think I just suck at the original. At first in an emulator I blamed it on my slightly crappy gamepad that I kept dying (the controls are kinda sensitive. If you accidentally hit up, that causes Jerry to stretch upward, thus almost killing his forward momentum). Now I managed to grab a real US cart (Smart Ball), and I still suck. I could come close to beating this when I was like 8. Though I liked that Smart Ball did use L/R for shooting, so that you don't waste ammo when using X/Y to run (slither faster?)/stick to walls (but they cut the plot).
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Carnivol
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Joined: 21 Jun 2004
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 21, 2004 2:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

As far as I can remember, Jelly Boy = Jerry Boy, just that the English release got the stuff between the stages removed (towns and stuff I think...)



Anyway,

As for
Quote:
I'd have to go for Jelly Boy 2 (SFC). I'm not sure what happened to Epic Sony Record (who also appear to have been the publishers for Equinox/Solstice and some rather bleah licensed games), whether they were some part of Sony that got destroyed in the hideous battle between the two awesome universal powers (Nintendo and Sony) and the game was lost in the fallout, or what....

I loved Jelly Boy 2 myself...
Now, it's dated back in 1994/1995 I think...
It was propably lost when Nintendo and Sony parted.
Funny thing however is that:

Jelly Boy 2:

Developed by "GameFreak" (name ring any bells?)
Graphics artist "Ken Sugimori" (Name ring any bells?)

No bells ringing?

GameFreak, Sony seems to've owned the license for titles from them... and also had Ken Sugimori on their side!?

Gamfreak = developer of the Pocket Monsters (Pokémon) series.
Ken Sugimori is the graphics designer in Pokemon too.
And he's also the main artist/designer of those little creatures (his artwork can both be seen in the games and on a big majority of the pokemon trading cards)
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Kitsune
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 21, 2004 4:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

GameFreak was an independent software house before Pokemon. I recall a game released by... Namco, I think, which was developed by them, and has the same art style as the overworld Pokemon graphics for their main characters.
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ArnoldRimmer83
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 21, 2004 5:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Probably "Quinty" you're thinking of. It got released in the US by Hudson Soft, as "Mendel Palace".
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Richter Belmont



Joined: 16 Jan 2004
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 22, 2004 9:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

ArnoldRimmer83 wrote:
Probably "Quinty" you're thinking of. It got released in the US by Hudson Soft, as "Mendel Palace".


Mendel Palace, yeah, that was a fun game. It isn't terribly easy to find either. Wonder what it ranks on Etler's list... ah, a B. Makes sense.
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TheRedEye
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Joined: 26 Aug 2003
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 22, 2004 2:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Oh wow, I didn't know we got Quinty. Some expert I am.
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ManekiNeko
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 26, 2004 5:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

They also made a Mega Drive game called PulseMan. It wasn't anything special, but from the way Die Hard Game Fan talked about it, you'd think it was the greatest game in the history of the universe. Ah, Die Hard Game Fan... where would we be without your constant hype of Japanese imports, used to move product in your store despite its inflated prices?

JR
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Ichiban Crush
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 27, 2004 5:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Interesting note: Mendel Palace is one of those sleepers that actually had a television ad. Wish I had a recording of that. That AND the Xexys commercial...
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lugnut
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 27, 2004 7:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've got an MPEG of the Mendel Palace ad I could shoot over in an email or something if you want it.
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Ichiban Crush
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2004 6:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sure, I'd appreciate it Lug. I'm at ichibancrushATkurayamiDOTnet
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Raccoon Lad



Joined: 20 Jul 2004
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 20, 2004 10:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I managed to snag a copy of Beach Head 2000 PSX from the last company I worked at.

The game was totally complete, exept for a bug that wouldn't allow you to watch the replays half of the time.

Pretty good game too, but supposedly wasn't released because the publisher figured they wouldn't be ablt to turn a profit from it.
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