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Magmavision2000

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Blog Entries posted by Magmavision2000

  1. Magmavision2000
    (Apologies for the short, and underwhelming review, I literally just finished this a couple of minutes ago since I honestly couldn't find anything to talk about)
     
    VS. Super Mario Bros. is a platforming game for the Nintendo VS. system released In 1986 by Nintendo.
     
    The game is hard... Really hard. Like, it compares to Mario 2 JP in terms of difficulty, I rarely get angry at games, but I was this close to throwing my Joycons while playing this.
     
    I'm not gonna talk about the graphics since they're just slightly enhanced versions of the SMB1 sprites.
     
    The controls, sadly, ruin the entire thing for me, in the Arcade Archives release, the controls are delayed. The delay can cause anything from a mild inconvenience to a matter of life and death.
     
    Overall, I'd say that the game itself is great and is a good step up if you've mastered the original SMB. But the delay on the controls on the Arcade Archives release is so bad, I can't justify getting it, especially for $7.99, 5/10.
     
  2. Magmavision2000
    Burgertime is an arcade game released in 1982 by Data East, using the DECO type hardware (although a standard version was also released).
     
    Burgertime is one of the essential arcade games. Everyone has played it at one point or another and overall is one of the classics. Peter Pepper never made it to the same heights as Pac-Man or Mario, but his sprite remains unforgettable.
     
    In the game, you play as the aforementioned Peter Pepper and you gotta make burgers (with your feet...) whilst being chased by evil sentient hot dogs, pickles, and eggs. What's Peter Pepper's solution to this problem? Mace them and smother them in his foot burgers!
     
    This game is probably one of the first games to have a limited ammunition system. You start out with 4 peppers, and you have to use them sparingly, once you use all of the pepper, you're practically screwed. The only way to get more pepper is by making burgers and hoping a bonus appears, but hurry, it will disappear after a short time.
     
    Control-wise, it's great, the controls are super responsive, and snappy, it's very satisfying.
     
    The sound is kinda 50/50. On one hand, the BGM that plays during gameplay is completely fine, but on the other hand, stuff like the level complete jingle and the starting jingle are rather loud and obnoxious and makes you want to turn down your TV.
     
    This release only contains the DECO ROM and the Caravan and Highscore modes. It's kinda disappointing since it couldn't have been that hard to put the standard version on there.
     
    I've been waiting for this release since April, and it's been well worth the wait. It reminded me how good Burgertime is and why it's still a fun experience, even today. 9/10.
     
  3. Magmavision2000
    Yie Ar Kung Fu is a 1985 fighting game by Konami.
     
    Now, this game is one of my favorite games Hamster re-released. In my opinion, it's probably the best fighting game of the 80s and one of the most underrated arcade games in general.
     
    Now Yie Ar Kung Fu is basically a love letter to all of those Shaw Bros. Chinese Opera movies. You play as Oolong, a young Kung Fu master who has entered a tournament in order to avenge his father's death. You have to fight a diverse range of fighters including:
     
    A gliding large fellow who throws mean kicks
     
    A man sporting a yellow gi and nunchuks
     
    And most importantly
     
    A sword-wielding disco dancer
     
    This game also has a lot of firsts, it's one of the first fighting games to have a health bar, it's the first game to have combos and special moves, and I'm 90% certain it's the first fighting game to feature female characters (although you can't play as them).
     
    On the control side, it's a little weird at times, but with enough practice, you can definitely get used to it, the controls aren't like Karate Champ, they're more like normal fighting game controls. The one problem with the controls is the lack of a block button, so if you're in a sticky situation, then prepare to either get into a jumping frenzy or insert more credits.
     
    While we're on the topic of credits, this game has your average arcade difficulty, if it's your first time playing, have fun getting past the 3rd opponent. To tell you the truth, I haven't even beaten the final boss yet. Thankfully, stunlocking your opponent is rather easy, but it obviously won't bring in the big points if you're going for a high score.
     
    The graphics are beautiful for 1985. The sprites, although small, do represent the characters wonderfully. And the backgrounds are amazing, they look almost 16-bit dare I say.
     
    The Arcade Archives release is pretty barebones only having one ROM, and the other modes I've mentioned before, but Yie Ar Kung Fu's gameplay alone definitely makes up for it.
     
     
    Yie Ar Kung Fu is an example of why Arcade Archives is important. They take obscure and underrated games and give them another chance. Yes, there are a few problems, but that's what makes it enjoyable (like Miami Connection). If you like fighting games, there's no excuse not to pick this up, especially for $7.99, 8/10.
  4. Magmavision2000
    I don't really like to post personal stuff on here, but this was so crazy I gotta talk about it.
     
    So out of nowhere, my father called my mother. This may not sound crazy, but between my birth, and now, they've only talked a handful of times (they separated). And oh boy, a lot of things happened.
     
    Firstly, my father got COVID-19 and has mostly recovered, my half brother I guess got mugged and was shot (I didn't hear much about this, but I think he's ok), and I guess all of this made him call my mom to seek forgiveness. 
     
    Thankfully, they made up and he will start getting in contact with my mom more often and be friends. This makes me happy since, you know, it's nice to see your mother and father make up after 1½ decades.
     
     
    What Did We Learn?
    Nothing! But you should call your parents and see how they're doing. They'd like that .
  5. Magmavision2000
    Video games from the 70s are like movies from the late-1800s-early-1900s, people thought it was a passing fad, so they didn't really try to preserve them. unlike movies, video games are more future proof, so more games from the 70s exist today. But some did slip through the cracks. 
     
    Oregon (lost original version of "The Oregon Trail" computer game; 1971)
     

     
    Everyone loves the dysentery inducing, river fording, fort trading, Oregon Trail! But not everyone knows that the Apple 2 version is not the original version. The original version was made in 1971 and was simply called Oregon, it was created by history teacher Don Rawitsch and programmed by math teachers and programmers Bill Heinemann and Paul Dillenberger for the HP-2100 Teletype Device (cool name). Gameplay-wise, it doesn't seem that different from the classic one. After that year's semester, Rawitsch printed out the source code for Oregon and gave one to Heinemann, Dillenberger, and saved one for himself. Rawitsch later joined MECC in 74 and made revised versions of Oregon between 1974 and 1977. You can play a 1975 version and a 1978 version if you do the following:
    1. Telnet to mickey.publicvm.com
    2. Slowly alternate between CTRL+J and CTRL+M until you see PLEASE LOG IN
    3. Enter HEL-T001,HP2000,1
    4. Enter exe-oregon for the 75 version or exe-ore2 for the 78 version
    Rawitsch lost his copy of the source code, but in 2017, Heinemann said he has his copy but said his son isn't old enough to take stewardship of it (you're like 70 something bill and your son is probably in his 30s, let your son take the family heirloom). a 1975 version was found by Micheal Gemeny and is the oldest version we have so far. Bob Brown created the BBS server where you can play the 75 and 78 version mentioned above.
     
    Laser Clay Shooting System (lost Nintendo 16mm film shooting gallery game; 1973)
     

     
    In 1973, Nintendo had a great idea, replace all the empty bowling alleys from the 60s with video clay shooting. These were known as the Laser Clay Shooting Systems, where you would use a light gun and shoot video clay pigeons (duh!). This was technically the first video game Nintendo made. After the 1973 Oil Crisis, orders slowed down, but Nintendo made a smaller, cheaper version called the Mini Laser Clay Shooting System, a mini-console before mini consoles, Nintendo sure was revolutionary! all that exists today of LCSS are photos.
     
    Fascination (unreleased adult Nintendo arcade game; 1974)
     
    Due to the subject matter, this part is hidden, viewer discretion is advised
     
     
    EVR Race (lost Nintendo arcade game; 1975)
     

     
    EVR Race was Nintendo's first non-16mm game, it used EVR film (which is basically the missing link between old film, and VHS) to replicate Horse Betting and Race Betting. No complete cabinet has resurfaced and only the calibration tapes have been found. Judging on the size of the machine, and the type of media it was on, it's unlikely these were repaired often and were probably left to rot.
     
    Heavyweight Champ (lost SEGA arcade boxing game; 1976)
     

     
    I've talked about this, and there's already a thread about this, so I'll keep it short. Heavyweight Champ is a significant game, it may be the first fighting game ever made. the characters kind of look like caricatures of Muhammad Ali and Richard Dunn (not Tim and Eric Richard Dunn) who had a title match in May of 1976. The machine itself had a boxing glove on each side that would be used to control each fighter. There's only one cabinet known to exist today and it's in horrible condition, the bezel is smashed and the insides look like they've been in poor weather conditions. Unfortunately, unless we find a cab, and have a team of people that can replicate the internals (its a discrete logic game), this may stay lost.
     
    Pyramid (lost arcade game; 1978)
     

     
    Pyramid was a Japanese clone of Breakout you have to destroy a bust of King Tutankhamun. from the photos I've seen, it looks nice for 1978, it even has hieroglyphics. I looked at a website that talked about the game and they mentioned MAME, so maybe there's a ROM of the game floating on the internet?
    EDIT: While I was watching an episode of the show Gamecenter CX, I noticed that the host actually plays this when he goes to an arcade based in Osaka. So far, that is the only avalible footage of the game in action (as of 7/24/20).
    Dracula Hunter (Lost Arcade Game; 1979)
     
    Dracula Hunter is a mysterious game. I did some research on it and almost everyone who said they played it at one point, just can't find a cabinet or a ROM. Some people called it an illusion game! In the game, you play as a priest and you have to defend a sleeping princess from demons, occasionally, the castle doors open and you have to shoot a crucifix beam into the building and it explodes. Besides a reference in a manga, a couple of videos containing footage of the game, and a yahoo auction for the machine that sold for 2.7 million yen, there's no public ROM or cabinet of the game. The whereabouts of the yahoo machine are unknown, but hopefully whoever owns it is trying to dump the game.
     
    Sources:https://lostmediawiki.com/EVR_Race_(lost_Nintendo_arcade_game;_1975), https://lostmediawiki.com/Fascination_(unreleased_adult_Nintendo_arcade_game;_1974), https://www.lostmediawiki.com/Heavyweight_Champ_(lost_SEGA_arcade_boxing_game;_1976), https://www.lostmediawiki.com/Laser_Clay_Shooting_System_(lost_Nintendo_16mm_film_shooting_gallery_game;_1973), https://lostmediawiki.com/Oregon_(lost_original_version_of_"The_Oregon_Trail"_computer_game;_1971), https://lostmediawiki.com/Dracula_Hunter_(lost_arcade_game;_1979), https://lostmediawiki.com/Pyramid_(lost_arcade_game;_1978)
  6. Magmavision2000
    Sky Skipper is a 1981 flying arcade game by Nintendo. You may have heard of this game because it never made it out of the test market phase due to poor reviews. Strangely, Parker Bros. made a port of the game for the 2600 and released it in 1983.
     
    In the game, you play as (what for it) Mr. You, and you have to rescue the king's family from gorillas. The whole object of the game is you drop sleeping gas on the gorillas so the King's family has just enough time to jump out of their cells so you can catch them in mid-air. The only three things you have to look out for are the gorillas, your fuel (which you can refill once per level), and how you fly. That's it.
     
    The graphics, while on the chunky side, look pretty good, they used the same graphics style as Popeye (high-resolution sprites but low-resolution background). The sprites themselves have a black border surrounding them, so Nintendo compensated for that by making it night all the time. It also has some familiar sounds like the pause sound for most of the black box games as the 1-up jingle, the first intermission song is really similar to to the title theme for Pinball on the NES, and one of the later jingles has the "how high can ya get?" song from Donkey Kong.
     
    The difficulty is really high, mainly due to the controls being finicky on the switch, you see, the original cabinet had an 8-way joystick and the direction buttons can't emulate that type of joystick like that. It's also rather bland, there are no bonus stages to my knowledge, there are only 4 levels before it loops, and the gameplay can get really repetitive, even in short bursts.
     
    Since Hamster probably got the ROM from the cabinet at Nintendo (which is the only known official cabinet), you're only gonna get one ROM and (like all Arcade Archives releases) the highscore and caravan modes.
     
    Overall, I'd say if you want to play an obscure piece of Nintendo history, then it's a no brainer to pick this up, for $7.99 it's a steal. However, if you just want to spend some gold coins or are looking for a really good game, there are better titles to choose from, this was cancelled for a reason you know. 7/10.
  7. Magmavision2000
    Blazing Star is a 1998 Shmup for the NEO GEO released by SNK.
     
    This game may be the best game I've ever played. The action is over the top (almost to a comedic extent), the bosses are insane, and it's so freaking addicting.
     
    Let's start with the graphics, for 1998, they are great, a little bit pixely, but considering the hardware it's on, it's expected. The music was also pretty good, I wasn't really listening to it because I was concentrating on dodging stuff (which we'll get to later), but it does fit the atmosphere well. I wouldn't say this game is a bullet-hell, but pretty much everything on the screen is gonna kill you, so bring some quarters if you're playing it in an arcade. The bosses are phenomenal. One I remember that was top tier was where after you blow up most of a ship, you have to fight the last functioning part while on a collision course with a planet, but the best two are the last two bosses.
     
     
    The stage 6 and 7 bosses are the best bosses to any shmup I've played (which, is, unfortunately, not a lot), the stage 6 boss is almost like and endurance of some kind, you're fighting a fleet of motherships (I think), and you have to dodge all of there projectiles (they don't take turns shooting), it's really a test of skill, patience, and skill.
    Then you have the stage 7 boss, where you're basically performing an intergalactic abortion on a Lovecraftian fetus (wait a moment just to process that), there were parts in this fight where I had to pause the game just to take it all in.
     
    The Arcade Archives release is your average fair. You get both the Japanese and English versions, which is always great. You also get the Highscore and Caravan modes. It's a decent package for $7.99 in my opinion.
     
    This game is an experience. It's hard to believe how much the genre evolved between Space Invaders and this, and it's also hard to believe I've only dipped my toes in this genre. Get this game now, you won't regret it. 10/10
  8. Magmavision2000
    (Changed the name of the series to better suit some reviews)
     
    Karate Champ is a 1984 arcade fighting game released originally by Data East. In the game, you play as a Karateka who starts out sparring with his dojo (I believe, it could also be a dojo raid) and then you go to the big leagues and fight on national television!
     
    The game simulates point-based fighting unlike most modern fighting games and is rather slow as you need to calculate every strike or else you'll meet certain doom. Speaking of strikes, let me tell you how to perform one. Unlike most fighting games where you have a joystick and buttons, Karate Champ uses 2 joysticks and moves are performed by holding the sticks in certain directions (e.g. holding "up" on the right stick will do a head kick, but holding "back" on the left stick and "up" on the right stick will do a lunge punch). This layout, in my opinion, is both the strength and weakness of the game, it looks very daunting, but trust me, you'll get the hang of it with practice.
     
    Once you get used to the awkward controls, you now gotta get used to the difficulty. One of the problems is that your opponent strikes real fast and you have to hold your stick position or else it cancels out, so it kind of ends up being a game of quick draw.
     
    There are three special stages, in the first one, you have to deflect objects with your feet, it reminds of the bonus stage in the Famicom version of Yie Ar Kung Fu, the second one has you breaking either cement or ice, and in the third one, you punch a bull in the face.
     
    The Arcade Archives release unfortunately, only gives you one version of the game, which is the first Japanese version (there's a second version that looks more like the poor NES version). You also get the High Score and Caravan modes.
     
    On the whole, I'd only recommend Karate Champ to either Martial Arts fans, or people who want to learn about the history of fighting games. The controls, although easy to learn, are very hard to master, on top of that, if you're playing on the Switch, the sticks on the Joycons aren't made for stuff like this. You also have the arcade difficulty which, with the controls, makes it near impossible to do on one credit, even if you master it. And the cherry on top is the rather bare-bones Arcade Archives release, they definitely could've added the second version of the game, or at the very least, the English version alongside the Japanese version.
     
    I'd say either get this on sale or if you know what you're getting into. 6/10.
  10. Magmavision2000
    I've played a lot of bad games, and for most, I can find something to enjoy. But with Double Dragon (Arcade), I can't find anything good to talk about besides the music (which you can listen to on YouTube so don't bother playing the game to listen to it).
     
    Let's start off with the visuals. Now, for 1987 the graphics aren't terrible, but why does everything look off? I look at an Abobo and it looks like oatmeal. Then you have the controls which are very slippery and delayed. I don't know if it was Arcade Archives or not, but it felt like I was controlling a lubed up broken DVD remote.
     
    I don't even want to talk about the hitboxes, oh God the hitboxes, you have to stand in the perfect spot to hit an enemy, but if you even touch the D-Pad, you quit fighting and start moving, and if you start moving, you're vulnerable to attacks, and if you get hit, you might as well put in another credit because it's an instant game over. I think half of my game overs we're due to my character being stuck because an enemy was pummeling me to death. And to top it off, the game is pitifully short. I was able to beat it in 45 minutes (and a lot of credit scummimg), even with all the crap that is put in my way.
     
    I never thought I'd say an NES port us better than an arcade port. How this got past the test market stage is beyond me. I'd rather watch the Double Dragon movie or play the Atari 2600 version of Double Dragon (okay, maybe not that) than play this flawed game. If the Eshop issued refunds, I'd be getting one right now. Don't waste your money, 0/10.
  11. Magmavision2000
    For those who don't know, Nintendo released a free jump rope simulator called Jump Rope Challenge for the Switch on the 15th, I decided to download it after I found out about thanks to Steven Pendleton's post in the witch subforum, after cheating the first 100 while my joycons charged, I decided to actually try and do them.
     
    I might've gone too far...
    Granted, I did take 30 min-1 hour breaks in between, but I'm not active at all (to put it into perspective, I get tired when I go up a large flight of stairs (I know, pathetic)) so doing this really put my body into maximum overdrive. While doing them, I felt like I was going to pass out on multiple occasions, my legs hurt, I'm pretty sure I threw my back out, and to top it all off, my head hurts pretty bad (although that probably has something to do with dehydration). TL;DR I'm beat. But strangely, It felt "good", it was like I got a dopamine rush when I did it. I'll definitely be doing it again but in moderation.
     


  12. Magmavision2000
    So you thought this series was dead? I was only just hibernating!
     
    Super Mario World is the 4th game in the long-running Super Mario series and was the 1st one to be in 16-bit and also was the first game with everyone's favorite dinosaur, Yoshi. Now, to my knowledge; SMW doesn't have a lot of interesting prototypes, they usually have one or two differences, but nothing worth talking about. But I found this one interesting enough due to how different this is graphically. 
     
    Now before I talk about the prototype, I have to take you back to 1987 where the gang at Nintendo was porting the NES game Super Mario Bros 3 to the (at the time) new project, the Super Famicom. This port had more detailed colors and sprites than the NES version and was used to experiment with the SNES, it's safe to assume that after the team was done messing around with the Mario 3 port (let's say late 88-early 89) work on SMW started.
    Nintendo got a prototype of their new game made in late 1989 but wasn't shown to magazines until early 1990. As a matter of fact, besides a sprite sheet that was shown off in an interview in 2017, the only screenshots of this build are from magazine screenshots. speaking of screenshots, let's start looking at some! 

    Now one of the first things you should notice are the goombas (which were replaced with galoombas for some reason), they look similar to the Mario 3 goombas (this will be a reoccurring theme in this one), the clouds have a weird donut shape, it was probably exclusive to the donut plains levels; small Mario also looks different, he kind of reminds me of the overworld sprite...
     Speaking of overworlds, the 1989 build has a completely different overworld the best picture I can find of it is the title screen photo, so we'll talk about that as well! 

    Now this differs greatly from the final release. As you can see, the color of the title is blue (just like the letters on Mario 3's Japanese box art), the map is just one big mushroom island, which, according to The Cutting Room Floor, held 17 levels on it (compared to the final game's 72 levels) now how many of these 17 levels were playable is a mystery. The final game also has a mushroom island, but it's way smaller, and only had the first 6 (?) levels.
     
    This screenshot especially shows how similar this build and SMB 3 were. Mario is wearing the raccoon suit and has the matching icon to boot. I don't know why they decided to replace the raccoon suit with the cape, maybe they wanted something more realistic? Also, those donut-shaped clouds appear in this screenshot too. 

    Here's a screenshot of a very early design of the Banzai Bill. For some reason, they didn't bother drawing a mouth on it.
     

    This screenshot shows Mario, with his Fire Flower power-up activated, jumping over a moving platform. If you look at the power-up window, you can see that the Fire Flower looks similar to the one in SMB3, also, the (?) block on the left is almost a carbon copy of the (?) block in SMB3.

    The whereabouts of this build are unknown, but it's safe to assume it's in Nintendo's archives, My reasoning for this is the fact some of these sprites can be found on the SNES Burn-In Test Cart. This cart was a diagnostics cartridge used by the Nintendo World Class Service to determine what was wrong with your system. If you choose the burn-in test, the sprites for  Small Mario, Bullet Bill, Podoboo, Star, Mushroom, Fire Flower, and the word OBJTEST. But there are some sprites for both big and raccoon Mario as well. 
     
    They couldn't have used the 1989 sprites if they lost the build.
     
    Also, in 2017, during an interview with the game's Director, Takashi Tezuka, Yoshi's Island Artist Hisashi Nogami, and Pikmin Co-Director, Shigefumi Hino, Hino (who was a character designer for SMW) showed off some never before seen sprites from SMW dated November 29th, 1989. 

    The most noticeable difference is the very early Yoshi sprite, he looks half baked.
     
    Unfortunately, no footage of the 1989 build has resurfaced. Everything that I've shown off here is what we have today. Thank you for reading this entry of Lost Gaming Vault, if you have an idea for an entry, just comment it, and I will take a look.
  13. Magmavision2000
    It was the morning memorial day 2019, I got up to make some food when I took the wrong turn and knee when out and back into place, making me fall on the floor in horrible pain. I somehow got to my bedroom when Redlettermedia's Jack and Jill review was playing. I watched most of it, but I was in too much pain to go back to sleep, so I used my wooden practice katana as a makeshift cane and struggled to get to the medicine cabinet and get some anacin.
     
    After getting back to my room, I burst into tears due to the pain whilst the ending of the review is going on (where they take a huge piss out of the movie, doing their own version of it). After my knee healed, I started to watch Best of the Worst and the rest is history.
     
    Here's the ending of their Jack and Jill review, watch it and imagine someone crying in the background: 
     
  14. Magmavision2000
    I take clonidine to manage both my anxiety and my insomnia, unfortunately, I haven't been able to get a refill on it so for the past week or so I've been feeling the effects of not taking it.
     
    The effects started a couple of days ago when it felt like my veins were being shocked. Clonidine is a blood pressure pill so I thought maybe it was my blood pressure going up, turns out my blood pressure was fine. Thankfully, my anxiety has died down considerably since I started taking clonidine so I haven't been feeling anxious.
     
    But then there's the sleep or lack thereof. Since I was a toddler I've been taking sleeping medicine to sleep, for the most part, I've had to change medication since I become immune to them. I haven't grown immune to clonidine, but I've wanted to stop taking sleep medications since I wouldn't say they induce natural sleep (it's more like being drugged), so at first, I was kind of happy since I thought I could wean myself off of clonidine.
     
    Boy, I was wrong, after a couple of days (around the same time I was feeling that shock feel), I started to lose sleep. I'm staying up until 6-8 a.m and only falling asleep due to exhaustion, I usually wake up at 2 p.m and even then, I have to forcefully get myself out of bed. Yesterday I woke up at 4 p.m and today I took melatonin to see if it would work. Since I'm writing this at 4 a.m you can tell it didn't work. 
     
    Listen, before you think about taking any medication for sleep, look for other options. I'm not a huge believer in herbal medicine, but try drinking chamomile tea before you go to bed, or try sleep therapy. Sleeping pills (or any prescription drug for that matter) can be addicting, and once you get addicted, it's hard to stop.
     
     
     
  15. Magmavision2000
    No that's not a bra size!
     
     
    The 64DD was an add-on for the Nintendo 64 that was announced in 1995 and planned to be released alongside the N64 in 1996, but due to multiple delays, it was released on December 1st, 1999. Needless to say, it flopped and it's most likely the worst-selling Nintendo system of all time selling a little more than 15,000 units. during the 4 year period of development, a lot of games were planned for it but were never released. so far, we know there are 17 64DD games that were either cancelled, reworked into different games, released, but on a different system, or simply just faded away. I'll be going through all of them.
     
    Cabbage; date: 1999-2000
     
    Cabbage was going to be a Tamagotchi like game utilizing the 64DD's timekeeping capabilities. Games such as Animal Crossing and Nintendogs supposedly used mechanics from this game.
    It was supposed to be shown at Spaceworld 2000, but never appeared. It was cancelled after that.
     
    Diablo; date: 1997
     
    After Nintendo purchased the Japanese distribution rights to Diablo, they were going to release it onto the 64DD. It most likely would've been a PC port and not it's own game.
     
    Emperor of The Jungle; date: 1997
     
    Emperor of The Jungle was going to be an adventure game based on the manga Kimba The Lion. It was shown at Spaceworld 1997, but due to some problems occurring during development, it was cancelled.
     
    Famicom Classics Vol. 1; date: ???
     
    Not much is known about this one, all we know is it was going to be a compilation of Famicom games (obviously).
     
    Gendai Dai-Senryaku: Ultimate War; date: 1999
     
    This game was going to be developed by SETA Corporation and was a turn-based strategy game that was going to utilize the 64DD's online capabilities. It was shown at Spaceworld 1999 and after that, was moved to being a cartridge game, removing the online multiplayer, and then it was cancelled.
     
    Mario Paint 64; date: 1997
     
    This was going to be a sequel to the awesome SNES paint tool, Mario Paint. This was announced in the magazine Dengeki Nintendo 64 in 1997. This was most likely an early version of Mario Artist: Paint Studio, but there's nothing confirming or denying that theory.
     
    Desert Island 64; date: 1996
     
    Desert Island 64 was going to be a survival game where the player was on (wait for it...) a deserted island. You'd have to farm, breed, and colonize the island (kind of like Minecraft!). It was shown at Spaceworld 1996, but was cancelled soon after due to financial reasons.
     
    Fire Emblem: Maiden of Darkness; date: 1997-2000
     
    This game was mentioned in an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto in 1997 and was formally announced in 1998. it was reworked into Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade for the GBA.
     
    Mother 3/Earthbound 64; date: 1994-2000
     
    Mother 3 started on the SNES in 1994, but was then ported to the 64DD were then ported to cartridge format. at this stage, a playable demo was shown at Spaceworld 1999. After that, it was put in development hell and then cancelled in 2000. After that, they took the story for Mother 3, and developed the GBA version. Footage does exist for this game and it can be found on youtube.
     
    Rev Limit; date: 1996-1998
     
    Rev Limit was going to be an arcade-style racing game, originally developed for the N64, it was ported over to the 64DD and then cancelled in 1998. In 2016, a collector known as コアラ's GAME SHOW found the prototype for the cartridge version of Rev Limit and filmed gameplay footage of it. 
     
    Simcopter 64; date: 1997-1999
     
    Simcopter 64 was a port of the classic PC game. It was shown at either the 1998/99 E3, but it was received poorly and the US version was cancelled and after delays of the 64DD, the Japanese version was cancelled as well.
     
    Super Mario Disk Version/Super Mario 64DD; date: 1999
     
    This one was simply a port of Super Mario 64 that was enhanced in some ways. Thankfully this was found and dumped and you can find it on 64dd.org
     
    Super Mario RPG 2; date: 1997
     
    This is also easy to describe. It was an early version of Paper Mario that was originally going to be developed by Squaresoft. it was shown at Spaceworld 1997 but was cancelled due to legal issues with Squaresoft.
     
    Multiple Mario Artist Games; date: 1999-2000
     
    There were 8 Mario Artist games developed for the 64DD, and only 4 were released. Those unreleased titles were:
    Mario Artist: Game Maker
    Mario Artist: Graphical Message Maker 
    Mario Artist: Sound Maker
    and then the weirdest one... Mario Artist: Video Jockey Maker
     
    US 64DD; date: 1995-2001
     
    I've forgot to tell you, the 64DD never made it to the states, and it was believed no prototype unit existed. Until Collector, Youtuber, and Atariage Member Metal Jesus found a US unit. It came with a blue disk which I believe he dumped.
     
     
     
     
    This took me way too long to write so I hope you enjoy this!
     
    sources: https://lostmediawiki.com/Mario_Artist_(unreleased_Nintendo_64DD_games;_1999-2000), https://lostmediawiki.com/Super_Mario_RPG_2_(lost_pre-release_version_of_"Paper_Mario"_Nintendo_64_role-playing_game;_late_1990s), https://lostmediawiki.com/SimCopter_64_(lost_build_of_cancelled_Nintendo_64DD_remake_of_PC_game;_1997-1999), https://lostmediawiki.com/Super_Mario_Disk_Version_aka_"Super_Mario_64DD"_(found_unreleased_Nintendo_64DD_port_of_3D_platformer;_1999), https://lostmediawiki.com/Rev_Limit_(lost_build_of_cancelled_Nintendo_64_racing_game;_1996-1998), https://lostmediawiki.com/Mother_3/Earthbound_64_(lost_build_of_unfinished_Nintendo_64/64DD_video_game;_1999), https://lostmediawiki.com/Fire_Emblem:_Maiden_of_Darkness_(lost_build_of_cancelled_Nintendo_64DD_tactical_role-playing_game;_1997-2000), https://lostmediawiki.com/Desert_Island_64_(lost_build_of_cancelled_Nintendo_64DD_role-playing_game;_late_1990s), https://lostmediawiki.com/Nintendo_64_Disk_Drive_(partially_found_unreleased_video_games_for_Nintendo_64_add-on;_late_1990s-early_2000s)
     
  16. Magmavision2000
    Welcome to the first (of hopefully many) installments of Lost Gaming Vault, here I'll write about various types of lost gaming media, from prototypes we know little about, to MMOs that have been shut down, I'll try to cover. If you have a game you'd like me to write about, just comment and I'll try to get to it. Now, let's get to the juicy stuff!
     
     
    The early Sonic games have prototypes, lots of prototypes, most have been found and dumped, but one game has 2 elusive protos that we can't find, that game is Sonic 1. Now, Sonic 1 is an influential game, it was one of the first direct competitors to Mario, and boosted sales of the Genesis/Megadrive in North America and Europe, so you'd think we'd have a prototype or two of this game? Nope. 
     
    There are multiple protos of sonic 1, but most seem to have slight changes like the checkpoint being in a different place, but the two I'm going to talk about are pretty different. The first one I'm going to talk about is the Tokyo Toy Show Prototype, but we're going to call it Alpha.
     
    Sonic 1 Alpha was a short tech demo of Sonic 1 made for the 1990 Tokyo Toy Show, it contained only Green Hill Zone and one enemy. 
    As you can see, things look pretty different, Green Hill Zone has foreground objects and the mountains look more realistic, there are also these blue rock formations in the background. But the most interesting thing to me is the enemy. He's not in any other build to our knowledge. He also looks like the rock monster Minifigure.
     
    Another odd thing is the demo is it doesn't have those titles that show up at the beginning of a level, instead, it has a billboard that welcomes you to the level. Again, another thing that's only in this prototype.
    It's unknown what it truly says, the most common theory is it says "You are welcome, Sega Sonic", but I personally think it tells you what level you're in. Yuji Naka was originally going to have this be in Sonic Mega Collection, but Sega supposedly lost the source code. So that means unless they have the cartridge, or it was stolen, Sonic 1 Alpha may be lost forever.
     
     
    Now the next one was shown at the Winter CES in January of 1991, this one's closer to the final version than Sonic 1 Alpha, but it's still rather interesting for one reason.
     
    In the video, there are multiple things you'll notice, like a mysterious monitor and the RINGS counter is missing an S, but there's also a bear enemy that looks similar to the one seen in Scrap Brain Zone (or as it was called at this stage, Clockwork Zone), according to the Lost Media Wiki (where I'm getting this info), the enemy would work like the crab enemy and throw two projectiles instead of one. 
    It's unknown where this prototype is, but if one were to guess, it's probably at Sega's headquarters.
     
    Besides that, there's really not a lot to talk about, I just thought that the enemy was really interesting :-P.  Here's the video showing all the footage we have right now, If you see any more differences, please tell me in the comments. 
     
     
     
     
  17. Magmavision2000
    So I just finished messing around with the Sonic X-treme demo (the one they apparently had trouble porting over to the Saturn), and it was pretty good! According to the Readme, the demo was in the process of a rewrite when it was dropped, and it was still very fun and I could see a lot of potential in it. 
     
    I liked the camera turning mechanic, even if it was like a debug thing, they could've made some cool puzzle levels with it. Even though there was no music in it, I feel like a great soundtrack would've come out of this if it was finished. Also, the level design, although very basic and empty, had a decent start. 
     
    I feel like if this was released, it would've been a real competitor to Mario 64 and it would've helped boost the sales of the Saturn. Unfortunately, that will always be a what-if. Maybe one day, someone will actually be able to finish Sonic X-treme.
     
  18. Magmavision2000
    Right now, it seems like a lot of pessimism is going around the world, and, yes, things are bad right now, but take the time to look at the small things and appreciate them. Since most of us have some spare time now, do something that you've wanted to do for a while but just couldn't get around to doing it. You could challenge yourself, and use the extra time to try something you've never done before, you'd be surprised at how fast you can accomplish something.
     
    For example (this ties into my first entry), I started learning Japanese about 2 weeks ago, here's how my hiragana handwriting looked when I started: 
    As you can see, it's awful. But after using my spare time and not giving up, my hiragana now looks like this:
    Now, it still doesn't look great, but instead of taking up almost an entire page, I now just use up about half of a page and can write and say 60% of these characters from memory, keep in mind, I'm not a good learner, so if I can start writing a completely foreign language from scratch in my spare time, you can accomplish many things with this extra time brought to you due to the virus.
     
    TL;DR Don't let the shutdown get to you, use your new spare time doing things that make you happy.
  19. Magmavision2000
    After studying Japanese off and on for a little over a year, I've finally gone all in and started learning the language! So far I've familiarized myself with hiragana (basic characters) and I've been slowly but surely learning katakana (characters for names and foreign words). I'm still far away from learning kanji though.
     
    I can now recognize about 30-50% of hiragana and 5% of katakana, but I still don't know any words besides the basics, so I assume I know as much Japanese as a 1-year-old in Japan would.
  20. Magmavision2000
    I absolutely love this series (you probably already know since I can't stop talking about it here!), but some of the games they released should've just stayed in the arcade. So I'm going to make a series of entries where I will see whether or not a game is worth the price tag. I will be rating them between 1-10 (0 if it's really bad).
     
    Now, before I start reviewing stuff, I'll give you an explanation of what Arcade Archives is:
     
    Arcade Archives is a series of re-released arcade games, ranging from the early '80s all the way to the early 2000s. This series started in 2014 on the PlayStation 4 but is now on the Xbox One (ACA NEO GEO only), PC (ACA NEO GEO only), and Nintendo Switch. As of 2020, only the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 receive both Arcade Archives and ACA NEO GEO, with the Switch getting some exclusive Nintendo arcade games, and the PS4 getting a mix of Taito and Konami games exclusive to the PS4.
     
    The company who re-releases these games (HAMSTER CORPORATION.), seems to announce games on a live stream on Niconico (a Japanese video sharing site, similar to YouTube). As of writing this, there are 120 games in the Arcade Archives catalog and 108 games in the ACA NEO GEO catalog. 
     
    ACA NEO GEO is a spinoff of the Arcade Archives series where they re-release the arcade versions of various Neo Geo games.
     
    Each game is $7.99 and they rarely go on sale, so they're pretty firm on the price. This where people usually back away, as the price may seem high for just one game, but I personally think if you really want to play a game in their catalog, $7.99 isn't that bad. 
     
    Okay, let's say you go ahead and get one of the games, here's what you get with it:
     
    The game: you'll obviously get the ROM of the game, you get the average stuff that comes with an emulated ROM, the ability to change the controls, a decent CRT filter, a save state feature (you only get one, unfortunately), an online leaderboard, and sometimes, you'll get different versions of the games (e.g. Japanese and English versions). 
     
    High score mode: A mode where you get to compete for a high score on one credit.
     
    Caravan mode: where you try to get the highest score possible in 5 minutes. Think of it as a high score speedrun of sorts.
     
    I think, for what you get, it's not that bad. I'd give the Arcade Archives series a 9/10.
     
    Okay, that's about it! You can think of this entry as a pilot or press release of what's about to come. I currently have 1 review written, and im just proofreading it right now. Thanks for reading!
     
    NOTE: I am not endorsed by HAMSTER CORPORATION. I just really like this series. Some reviews may have a bit of bias in them, so take this (and all reviews for that matter) with a grain of salt.
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