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Unknown Neo Geo Fighting Game Discovered and Dumped

191 points by Karuma 11y ago

Mithaldu 11y ago
Original post: http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?265573-Lost-Neo-Geo-Prototype-FOUND-REVEALED-amp-RELEASED http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?265573-Lost-Neo... Contains LOTS of detail over that article.
- Jaruzel 11y ago
  Cool ta. For the time-limited people here's a link to a post in the middle of that lot, that sums up exactly what's on the ROMs: http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?265573-Lost-Neo-Geo-Prototype-FOUND-REVEALED-amp-RELEASED&p=4036524&viewfull=1#post4036524 http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?265573-Lost-Neo...
- dang 11y ago
  Ok, we've changed to that URL from http://arcadeheroes.com/2016/04/11/unknown-neo-geo-mvs-fighting-game-discovered-dumped/ http://arcadeheroes.com/2016/04/11/unknown-neo-geo-mvs-fight....
marak830 11y ago
That's really cool. Thanks Mithaldu for the link, what an interesting read. I can't wait to hear more about the game.
tombert 11y ago
The part I find especially interesting is that there are probably literally thousands of games that get into more-or-less-working prototypes, the project gets cancelled for any number of reasons, and the game sits on a hard drive until it crashes, and is lost for forever.
- at-fates-hands 11y ago
  I always think of 38 Studios or 3D Realms when I think of places where this could've been possible.
- timpark 11y ago
  I worked on a couple, for almost a year each. One made it into a Kotaku article before being canceled. http://kotaku.com/5686890/a-new-breed-of-survival-horror-comes-to-the-forest http://kotaku.com/5686890/a-new-breed-of-survival-horror-com... A commenter was angry since they submitted the idea to EA when they were a tester, but oh well, no point now. The other made it to a dummy Amazon listing before being canceled. It was basically Mario Party with old Atari properties. (I made about 30 "microgames" for it) You can see pictures of it and the first game in a former co-worker's portfolio here: http://portfolio.gen-n.net/basic-ui.html http://portfolio.gen-n.net/basic-ui.html The sad thing was (apart from this game being canceled meaning our dev studio was closed) that we took the project over from another studio that shut down, and we had a prototype that they were working on. We didn't have the code, though, so we started over.
  - tombert 11y ago
    That's so depressing. I know it's kind of a miracle for any game to make it to the store-shelf, but I'd like to actually see a percentage at some point of how many games never make it, because I would suspect it's pretty high.
    - vvanders 11y ago
      Yup, I've known a few people (un)lucky enough to work on two MMOs in a row that were canceled. They hadn't shipped anything in ~8 years.
      - jmnicolas 11y ago
        I'm exactly the contrary : I "shipped"* about 50 projects in 6 years but maybe half a dozen are really used. * admittedly they're small programs, not the size of a MMO.
CocaKoala 11y ago
Super interesting stuff! SNK made a lot of really classic and beloved fighting games, it's cool to see an unreleased one. Also, god damn that spritework is beautiful. Those backgrounds are amazing.
leonroy 11y ago
Fascinating and a little humbling how easily this gem could have been lost to the salvage yard. Makes you wonder how many other half finished games are sitting on decaying ROM chips on a shelf somewhere. One nice thing about the whole open source movement is that sharing old binaries and source has become increasingly acceptable. To the point where some projects which run out of steam are left out there for the community to finish. Hats off to the guys and gals who keep this gaming scene alive. I just wish I had more time to game it!
mikejmoffitt 11y ago
A late page of the C ROM data looks like it contains data from Money Idol Exchanger, so I think this game was developed by FACE.
state 11y ago
What I'm loving most about this link is the enthusiasm of the community on that board. It's really sweet to find these small communities on the web that still feel really tightly knit. This is especially amazing: http://i.imgur.com/Pk5GpCO.gif http://i.imgur.com/Pk5GpCO.gif

191 points by Karuma 11y ago

Original post: http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?265573-Lost-Neo-Geo-Prototype-FOUND-REVEALED-amp-RELEASED http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?265573-Lost-Neo... Contains LOTS of detail over that article.

Jaruzel 11y ago
Cool ta. For the time-limited people here's a link to a post in the middle of that lot, that sums up exactly what's on the ROMs: http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?265573-Lost-Neo-Geo-Prototype-FOUND-REVEALED-amp-RELEASED&p=4036524&viewfull=1#post4036524 http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?265573-Lost-Neo...
dang 11y ago
Ok, we've changed to that URL from http://arcadeheroes.com/2016/04/11/unknown-neo-geo-mvs-fighting-game-discovered-dumped/ http://arcadeheroes.com/2016/04/11/unknown-neo-geo-mvs-fight....

marak830 11y ago

That's really cool. Thanks Mithaldu for the link, what an interesting read. I can't wait to hear more about the game.

tombert 11y ago

The part I find especially interesting is that there are probably literally thousands of games that get into more-or-less-working prototypes, the project gets cancelled for any number of reasons, and the game sits on a hard drive until it crashes, and is lost for forever.

at-fates-hands 11y ago
I always think of 38 Studios or 3D Realms when I think of places where this could've been possible.
timpark 11y ago
I worked on a couple, for almost a year each. One made it into a Kotaku article before being canceled. http://kotaku.com/5686890/a-new-breed-of-survival-horror-comes-to-the-forest http://kotaku.com/5686890/a-new-breed-of-survival-horror-com... A commenter was angry since they submitted the idea to EA when they were a tester, but oh well, no point now. The other made it to a dummy Amazon listing before being canceled. It was basically Mario Party with old Atari properties. (I made about 30 "microgames" for it) You can see pictures of it and the first game in a former co-worker's portfolio here: http://portfolio.gen-n.net/basic-ui.html http://portfolio.gen-n.net/basic-ui.html The sad thing was (apart from this game being canceled meaning our dev studio was closed) that we took the project over from another studio that shut down, and we had a prototype that they were working on. We didn't have the code, though, so we started over.
- tombert 11y ago
  That's so depressing. I know it's kind of a miracle for any game to make it to the store-shelf, but I'd like to actually see a percentage at some point of how many games never make it, because I would suspect it's pretty high.
  - vvanders 11y ago
    Yup, I've known a few people (un)lucky enough to work on two MMOs in a row that were canceled. They hadn't shipped anything in ~8 years.
    - jmnicolas 11y ago
      I'm exactly the contrary : I "shipped"* about 50 projects in 6 years but maybe half a dozen are really used. * admittedly they're small programs, not the size of a MMO.

CocaKoala 11y ago

Super interesting stuff! SNK made a lot of really classic and beloved fighting games, it's cool to see an unreleased one. Also, god damn that spritework is beautiful. Those backgrounds are amazing.

leonroy 11y ago

Fascinating and a little humbling how easily this gem could have been lost to the salvage yard. Makes you wonder how many other half finished games are sitting on decaying ROM chips on a shelf somewhere. One nice thing about the whole open source movement is that sharing old binaries and source has become increasingly acceptable. To the point where some projects which run out of steam are left out there for the community to finish. Hats off to the guys and gals who keep this gaming scene alive. I just wish I had more time to game it!

mikejmoffitt 11y ago

A late page of the C ROM data looks like it contains data from Money Idol Exchanger, so I think this game was developed by FACE.

state 11y ago

What I'm loving most about this link is the enthusiasm of the community on that board. It's really sweet to find these small communities on the web that still feel really tightly knit. This is especially amazing: http://i.imgur.com/Pk5GpCO.gif http://i.imgur.com/Pk5GpCO.gif