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Xkeeper
Joined: 04 Nov 2005
Posts: 327
Location: Henderson, NV
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 Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 10:02 am Post subject: "Mario" proto (supposedly) |
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I was just linked to this and it pretty much pegged my BS meter.
Is that the same impression you folks get? This whole post kind of reminds me of the fake Zelda 3 thing. |
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Afti
Joined: 14 Dec 2009
Posts: 6
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| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 10:39 am Post subject: |
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Well, yeah!
One big issue- why would an early proto be in an NES shell? |
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Xkeeper
Joined: 04 Nov 2005
Posts: 327
Location: Henderson, NV
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| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 10:53 am Post subject: |
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Actually once I read it and noticed that it said "early next month" instead of just "next month" I realized that this is probably a really sad attempt at an AF "prank". This was originally presented as if it was a real thing, so sorry for the confusion. (Though if it does turn out to be real, then, well.)
To answer your question, though, one of those awful edutainment games could've been in one, I'd guess. |
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TheRedEye
The Internet's Frank Cifaldi
Joined: 26 Aug 2003
Posts: 4192
Location: Oakland, CA
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| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 3:33 pm Post subject: |
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| Well if we're really going to spoil the fun here, my guess would be that it's real but it's Mario is Missing or something. |
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ICEknight
Joined: 15 Dec 2003
Posts: 569
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| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 5:18 pm Post subject: |
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| "Historic" Mario = Mario's Time Machine |
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Tongueman
Joined: 27 Feb 2004
Posts: 631
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2012 1:06 am Post subject: |
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Original SMB1 would have had 28-pin EPROMs.
These are 32-pin EPROMs. So... uh, Mario's Time Machine? It was unplayable even in its final state. :LAUGHING OUT LOUD: |
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NESPlayer
Joined: 10 Dec 2010
Posts: 40
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| Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2012 3:54 am Post subject: |
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The prototype is real. I haven't completely finished the article yet, but I think I should probably spoil the surprise now before things get more out of hand. Congrats to the people who got it, but for the others, here's the Wordpress draft that will be published on April 1st:
| Quote: | When we told you last month that we had a "nearly unplayable... historic Mario prototype for the NES" to share, we weren't joking. We do. In the most literal sense, the game is extremely hard to play through and sickeningly historical, indeed.
Mario is Missing! is a Mario-themed edutainment title developed by Radical Entertainment that teaches you about world history, geography, and soul-crushing disappointment.
For some disturbing reason, we decided to pursue a prototype of this game from a former game journalist who obtained the cart from the offices of VideoGames & Computer Entertainment Magazine.
Check out the Mario is Missing! NES prototype article to learn more!
Happy April Fools' Day! |
The initial post that you linked to was my very dry attempt at self-deprecation through ridiculous hyperbole and inflated egotism (both rare qualities among prototype collectors—there's more of that dry humor!). I had someone e-mail me a few days ago asking a ton of questions about the game, and I simply told him to check back in April and he might get a chuckle. I didn't think anything more would come of it, especially not the totally uncalled for insults that have been hurled at me elsewhere.
Really, come April, the only fool would have been the guy (me) who spent way too much money on a silly learning tool game in a cart that's barely held together by scotch tape. I was practically inviting people to laugh at my expense, and the joke still backfired!
Plus, to make matters worse, the prototype is the same as retail.
Since it's all out in the open, here are the full scans of the cartridge (and the scotch tape!):
http://nintendoplayer.com/prototypes/marioismissing/scans/mariofront.jpg
http://nintendoplayer.com/prototypes/marioismissing/scans/marioback.jpg
http://nintendoplayer.com/prototypes/marioismissing/scans/marioside.jpg
http://nintendoplayer.com/prototypes/marioismissing/scans/mariotop.jpg
The cart originally came from well-known prototype collector, Jason "DreamTR" Wilson. Please don't ask him how much it cost. That would be taking the joke too far…
The article that I'm writing mainly focuses on the history of The Software Toolworks, Mindscape, and Radical Entertainment. There's also a look at some early screenshots of the game that appeared in VG&CE.
Hopefully there are no hard feelings, as I was just having a little fun in keeping with the upcoming April Fools' Day. If you still feel that you have somehow been unjustly wronged and misled, just try to imagine all of those innocent children who saved up for Mario is Missing! back in the day, believing that it was a real Mario game (according to The Software Toolworks, Mario is Missing! home console sales totaled more than $7,000,000 by August 1993—that's a lot of tears). By comparison, you got off easy!
I was going to announce this later, but in the next article after this, I will be taking a look at a previously undumped prototype of Konami's TMNT IV: Turtles in Time for the SNES. Unlike Mario, TMNT IV has differences, including level select, Japanese stage names, and some Engrish. I have already handed over the file to Evan of SNES Central for it to be released when I'm done with the write-up.
And as I've told Skrybe, there will also be three previously undumped NES prototypes with differences released after that. (If you didn't already know, everything of mine gets released after I do comparisons and write a proper article.) |
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Xkeeper
Joined: 04 Nov 2005
Posts: 327
Location: Henderson, NV
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| Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2012 3:36 pm Post subject: |
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I see.
Hopefully you can forgive the skepticism.
(Though for the record, adding a "This is not an April Fool's joke" or something somewhere would help a lot.) |
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KingMike
Joined: 04 Nov 2003
Posts: 898
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| Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 1:40 am Post subject: |
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Interesting read.
Just a couple minor thoughts (very minor): I can remember Mario is Missing. Having gotten a SNES as my first console, the first Christmas it was available, I pretty much only thought about SMW for about a year after. So, I guess that made Mario is Missing all the more disappointing. Though I have strong memories of the soul-crushing experience of renting that thing happening a weekend mid-May. (which I believe was the same month the SMB movie was released... two of the most hated Mario products ever, released in the same month!
Though I didn't actually see the SMB movie until a few years later, and even though it's a total abomination of SMB (how could someone who even knows the name Big Bertha turn it into.... that), I still kinda like it for some strange reason.
And $90 for the "deluxe" PC CD version? DAMN! I know in 1992 CD-ROM technology was fairly new but it's really hard to imagine a game being that expensive! If my parents were to ever spend that much on a single game (which they wouldn't), that would've probably been the only game I'd get that year. :P |
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NESPlayer
Joined: 10 Dec 2010
Posts: 40
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| Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 4:56 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for your comments.
Everything that I've come across says the SNES game was released in June (mag ads, VG&CE's preview, Nintendo's official release list, etc.), but I don't doubt you since you link that memory to the Mario movie, which came out on Memorial Day weekend. I'll never be able to erase that 104-minute nightmare, either.
Since we're on the subject, an acquaintance of mine from Brooklyn (of all places) knows someone in the film industry who kept a Thwomp Stomper. They were modeled after ski boots. I believe Nicola of GameSniped.com has a Goomba head, too.
I've actually spoken to a number of the people down in Wilmington where they filmed the movie. The directors were allegedly really abusive to the crew and wanted to add in a lot of inappropriate sexuality to the script (hence big-breasted Big Bertha). |
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ICEknight
Joined: 15 Dec 2003
Posts: 569
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| Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 11:48 pm Post subject: |
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I wonder if that Big Bertha was actually intended to be Birdo, in the movie.
...But on second thought, I probably don't want to know. |
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Smeg
Staff
Joined: 26 Aug 2003
Posts: 1600
Location: beneath enemy scrotum
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| Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2012 7:36 pm Post subject: |
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| ICEknight wrote: | I wonder if that Big Bertha was actually intended to be Birdo, in the movie.
...But on second thought, I probably don't want to know. |
I thought she was the big fish in SMB3? I remember calling it "Big Bertha" before the movie, but I could be wrong. |
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KingMike
Joined: 04 Nov 2003
Posts: 898
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| Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2012 9:12 pm Post subject: |
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| Yes, Big Bertha is the Japanese name for Boss Bass. |
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I am Christina Aguilera
Joined: 25 Feb 2006
Posts: 159
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| Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2012 12:52 am Post subject: |
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| KingMike wrote: | | Yes, Big Bertha is the Japanese name for Boss Bass. |
Weren't the two versions of the giant fish in SMB3 (my out-of-water-jumping, swallowing arch-nemesis and the one that hangs out fully in water, spitting its children at you) named Boss Bass and Big Bertha separately? As a kid, I damn near had my master's in that Nintendo Power SMB3 strategy guide and its enemies list, and I know that I can't have caught that reference in the movie from the enemy's Japanese name. I certainly didn't know from noko-nokos as a young'un. |
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tepples
Joined: 02 Jun 2010
Posts: 3
Location: NE Indiana, USA
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| Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 12:07 pm Post subject: |
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Yes, the SMB3 Player's Guide had different names for Boss Bass (overgrown Cheep Cheep in tide levels who acts like the fish from Balloon Fight and Balloon Kid) and Big Bertha (overgrown Cheep Cheep in swimming levels who carries her young in her mouth).
If you played Super Mario Land for Game Boy, you might recognize the Nokobon (SML1) or its fireproof cousin the Noko Bombette (SMB2).
It's too bad that most of the world had to go to a life-plus copyright term. Otherwise Mario's Time Machine would have been so much cooler 8000-odd centuries in the future where the Toads would become the Eloi and the Koopas would become the Morlocks. |
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