Alpha, Beta, Demo and RC Homecart discussions

[Big Bruno]

Hey, been a llloooonnng time since i posted here. Anyway I recently brought my homecart collection back from storage and decided to finally shift through some of the early version of released games I had bought, really to just see what was different on them aside from being broken. Figured i put a bit more structure to this

here's the wayback on where i got some of these

[ neogeousa.com ]

Ninja Combat (Examination Done)

• This version appears about 90% complete (purely a guess on my part)
• Games is complete all levels and bosses are included
• bosses are missing some moves (i.e. stage 5 boss does not launch missal)
• Sound kit is incomplete (i.e. no voice samples and some of the hits noises are off)
• Music appears complete
• Enemy placement and breakable placement is different from release
• swastika in beta game was removed in final version (pictures below)
• Gameplay is slow (your character moves slower)
• no weapon powerups (i.e. soda drops are not there)
• Glitches in areas (it will play all the way through but will go into a restart loop if game is not started quickly or attract completes, enemy glitches in areas). edit was able to try different modes seems like MVS mode does not loop.
• label difference (as shown below)
• should note can not seem to get into English mode and pause does not work.

Mutation Nation (Done)

• Game boots but appears to be have a bad graphics set
• In game music is different.
• pretty much unplayable since graphics do not pull in but does allow you to start game
• White English label
• Game had loose prom, re-soldered prom but same graphic issues
• uses the test board shown below (note the loose chip )
• Checksum different the orginal.
• Seems to be corrupt graphic neo logo partially boots up (330 mega and snk are readable)
• My guess is some evil SNK guy pealed of the window stickers on the graphic roms and light erased them. maybe was about to build another version of the release but ended up stopping. not sure if these can be recovered.

Puzzled (done)

• Game appears 100%
• Never finished playthrough
• Check rom a match to released version
• Uses program board
• B/W english label

Super Spy (ver. 3) (done)

• Game appears almost 100%
• All level bosses and rooms appear complete
• Different end credits (appeared shorter but noticed after watching playthrough of orginal)
• Music not complete done (seems like a lighter version of completed background music)
• One boss missing gun sound.
• TEXT Japanese/English label
• Checksum different the release

Art of fighting (done)

• Game seems about 100% with issues
• Background music slows badly at points
• Game seems complete, all bosses, moves, stages story.
• Japanese label logo, smaller version.
• Checksum matches release
• No noticeable changes anywhere.

 

[max 330 mega]

Holy shit, Big Bruno returns!!! I used to read your old website when I was about 10 years old, haha.
Super interested to see what you find out about the mutation nation rom.
Welcome back!

 

[Heinz]

Welcome back into the fold BB. Great post.

 

[CORY]

Again, legendary men return.

Billy Pitt enters the chat.

 

[Neo Alec]

Hey Big Bruno. Interested to see if there's a date on Mutation Nation.

 

[Vectorman0]

This is neat, thanks for sharing. I'm interested to see what other changes might have been made in those other games.

 

[Raguy]

If you can make some longplay video on YouTube, it would be nice because we could directly compare with the officials versions.
Happy that you share all theses informations with us.

 

[Big Bruno]

Hey thanks, yeah I'm still around just been off forum, no real reason just working more (salary man) and playing next gens but still buying SNK just newer stuff not so much on the older stuff (every now and then but not often) . upgraded my pocket and about to shop out all my MVS and Neo home systems. no promises on videos, but I have a el gato setup just have not used it yet. on the Mutation nation it is a later version release, really for awhile I though it was a regular version but it has a white label and is using a link cart shell. more then likely this one will be fairly close to the release version but I need to crack it and look at the boards (I'll take pictures) cart boots on program but not getting in graphics)

 

[SuperGun]

Oh damn!
Big Bruno in the house!
It’s great to hear from you man.

You like completely disappeared into the Comic-Con world for decades and never returned!

 

[Big Bruno]

Well cracked open the mutation nation. And found a problem maybe not the problem anyway one of the proms was not solder in, so I will check them all and resolder the loose chip then see if it comes up, anyway here is the board Pic. I covered the windows after taking the picture, weird chip was loose and all proms were uncovered.

 

[max 330 mega]

Woah yeah, an unsoldered chip could definitely be the culprit. Lol!

 

[Big Bruno]

Oh damn!
Big Bruno in the house!
It’s great to hear from you man.

You like completely disappeared into the Comic-Con world for decades and never returned!

Hey,

Yeah I still help out with an anime convention in Galveston called oni-con, every year I say I will quit but I always come back. They pretty much give me free reign on the room to do what I want. Maybe I will bring me neo this year since it maybe my last but gezz neo stuff cost to much now and anime fans tend to wreck my equipment

 

[Neodogg]

Welcome back!

 

[Big Bruno]

Geez, looks like I hit the image cap so finished 2 more, aof and Mutation nation. Nothing really to report on these other then aof music is bad and Mutation nation is broken (maybe I can flash the bad graphic roms) . Super Spy and puzzle will take awhile. Other then the check rom differences they play normal, both are long games though so need time to go through them.

 

[Geddon_jt]

Hey Bruno. Awesome to hear from you man. Welcome back.

 

[kernow]

Gotta take those rare pcbs off the carpet man. See this so often it hurts

 

[Ajax]

Feels like the early 2000s in here

 

[Big Bruno]

Gotta take those rare pcbs off the carpet man. See this so often it hurts

Pfffft, Texas air is half water anyway, blanket keeps it dry besides that's my sofa....

 

[Big Bruno]

Well think I am done looking at these. Main find seems to be in ninja combat. Mutation nation did have totally different gameplay music. Also end credits in Superspy seemed different (I did not record them but compared to releases version and seems it mostly missing some of the sound credits from memory) No other real differences I noticed other then the test boards used in a lot of these.

 

[Mr. Karate II]

Ninja Combat (Examination Done)

• Sound kit is incomplete (i.e. no voice samples and some of the hits noises are off)
• should note can not seem to get into English mode and pause does not work.

Also The full version of 'Ninja Combat' is quite peculiar, since in the Japanese version all the protagonists are mute, while in the western version there is an English dubbing, so, if your prototype has as exclusive region only Japan, it is quite normal that there is no the voices inside it.

Ninja Combat (Examination Done)

• swastika in beta game was removed in final version (pictures below)

This is an informative note to readers, but what you see is not the coat of arms used by the Nazis, but is instead the original symbol of the manji, which in Buddhism indicates peace and good luck: during the World War II, Hitler's men they stole this symbol from Asia and improperly used it to represent the identity of their political party.

The History of a Controversial Symbol.

However, I am not surprised that the Alpha Denshi and the SNK have removed this symbol to avoid of the polemics derived from Western public opinion: seen also what happened recently with the 'Tokyo Revengers' anime.

TOKYO REVENGERS ‘SWASTIKA CONTROVERSY’ EXPLAINED: THE SYMBOL ISN’T WHAT YOU THINK!.

 

[Neo Alec]

Well think I am done looking at these. Main find seems to be in ninja combat. Mutation nation did have totally different gameplay music. Also end credits in Superspy seemed different (I did not record them but compared to releases version and seems it mostly missing some of the sound credits from memory) No other real differences I noticed other then the test boards used in a lot of these.

Any chance of dumping and sharing these? The Mutation Nation music has me intrigued.

 

[Big Bruno]

Also The full version of 'Ninja Combat' is quite peculiar, since in the Japanese version all the protagonists are mute, while in the western version there is an English dubbing, so, if your prototype has as exclusive region only Japan, it is quite normal that there is no the voices inside it.

Well voice I was referring to was when the girls screem for help which is in the Japanese version. There are other missing hit effects and sound differences really to many to list from memory.

 

[Big Bruno]

Any chance of dumping and sharing these? The Mutation Nation music has me intrigued.

well the music seems broken but it remind me of a action 8bit tune (hard to explain) as opposed to the somewhat rock track on the release version. maybe a dump would provide more sounds, i can not dump though (well i do have a eprom reader but i do not want to desolder all the chips ). i recorded it to video though just ended up being 100mb (probably used to high of a quality record). there also maybe more music in there but since graphic are broke it is hard to do a play through. i will see if i can work through a way to record it at least maybe using my el gato setup.

 

[Neo Alec]

well the music seems broken but it remind me of a action 8bit tune (hard to explain) as opposed to the somewhat rock track on the release version. maybe a dump would provide more sounds, i can not dump though (well i do have a eprom reader but i do not want to desolder all the chips ). i recorded it to video though just ended up being 100mb (probably used to high of a quality record). there also maybe more music in there but since graphic are broke it is hard to do a play through. i will see if i can work through a way to record it at least maybe using my el gato setup.

If you can upload it to Youtube or Google Drive, that will probably be easiest. I'm sure everyone here would appreciate being able to see Mutation Nation and others in action. Thanks at any rate!

 

[BBH]

Sorry for the thread bump, I didn't see this thread when it was first posted and it's very fascinating reading about the Ninja Combat changes! I realize that not many people have the ability to dump the roms off cartridges but I do hope something can be arranged, because preservation of this stuff is very important.

I am kinda disappointed The Super Spy sounds like it's near final because I've been wondering about the version that could be seen in old screenshots and the 1991 Summer CES video that's on youtube. Note that the lifebar has 10 small blocks of health instead of 8 larger blocks, and the default high score is 50000 instead of 30000. I assume the version you have has neither of these.




(final version)