[mrdomino]

look, i have an idea. maybe not a very good one, but here it goes. now, parasol stars was ported to many home computers and a few consoles in the early 90s, and as i'm sure you're aware it was never released as an arcade game. all of the computer ports, and the NES and Gameboy ones, were developed in Europe - only the PC Engine version was done in-house by Taito Japan as far as I know.

Now here's the thing. Ports from PC Engine to European 90s computers were an incredibly rare thing, if this ever happened at all -more likely they'd originate from an arcade board. possibly a prototype arcade board of a yet to be released game involving parasols, maybe. and the people doing the porting to these computers are generally european, probably credited in-game and therefore easier to get hold of than some random taito japanese employees. and maybe they would know what became of the arcade parasol stars. maybe.

[kap]

Do you mean it was never released for arcades in the US? I know I played it in an arcade in Greece when I was a kid.

edit: Bah, what I played was Rainbow Island.

[TheRedEye]

"What became of?"

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=P&game_id=8984

[mrdomino]

well, i know it was never released. but i assume there are boards out there somewhere. like, well, that one guy who claims to own it but probably doesn't

[mrdomino]

wait, wait. bollocks. http://unmamed.mame.net/non_taito.html

[TheRedEye]

Wow, what do you know. Good find!

[ICEknight]

Wierd, the guy who was making the C64 port mentioned an actual arcade version.