Trial and Beta software

[Morden]

Since this didn't really belong among the links I posted in the homebrew section, I'm creating a new topic, even though there might be too little content here to justify one. Oh well.

I was browsing through my bookmarks to check if I had more homebrew links and I found this list, which I completely forgot about. It's in Japanese, but it might be of interest to those still hunting down trial cartridges, etc.

- > Neo Geo Pocket Trial Cartridges

The website lists several trial versions which you'd find on display in game stores in Japan. The author also mentions that stores would have to return these cartridges to SNK and were not allowed to keep or sell them under any condition.

I know that about a third of those got dumped and I thought the link might be of interest to some, since it has the cartridge labels and there are comments which explain the differences between trial and retail releases [lack of intros, fewer gameplay modes, the word "trial" on the start screen, etc.].

There are also several beta versions that have been dumped [some of them relatively recently]. The list below comes from No-Intro.

Sonic the Hedgehog - Pocket Adventure (World) (Beta)
SNK vs. Capcom - Gekitotsu Card Fighters (Japan) (Beta)
SNK vs. Capcom - Gekitotsu Card Fighters - SNK Supporter Version (Japan) (Beta)
Puzzle Bobble Mini (Japan, Europe) (En,Ja) (Beta)
Neo Cherry Master Color - Real Casino Series (World) (En,Ja) (Beta)
King of Fighters R-2 (World) (En,Ja) (Beta)
Densha de Go! 2 on Neo Geo Pocket (Japan) (Beta)

I am curious of the differences between, let's say, Sonic the Hedgehog Trial and Beta versions. I'm also wondering if there's a single Neo Geo Pocket game that wasn't released, but exists in a form of a ROM image. Other, more popular systems, have dozens of those, but I haven't seen anything like that for the Neo Geo Pocket.

P.S. - A while ago I read through the bashfest of a thread on the Assembler boards involving Dion Dakis. I saw Flavor asking him about unreleased NGP games, but I don't think he ever answered. Too bad, really. On the other hand, NGP games, even betas, aren't worth that much money, so they might have been of no or very little interest to him.

[Reznor]

These are the trial cartdriges I own.

The trial version of Sonic only has 2 playable levels but it offers an intro sequence not available in the retail version.

As for games that were not released but can be found in rom format you have Wrestling Madness which is the unrealeased US version of Big Bang Pro Wrestling (it only has a few differences) and also a demo of Cool Cool Jam in English.

[Flavor]

Check this one that I found today.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/44451574@N00/4465466637

If someone has an account there, see if you can get ahold of the guy.
EDIT: I found an email address for him, so I'll try.

[Morden]

Reznor - Those are awesome. I see they've been dumped, too. For those who are having a hard time deciphering katakana, the cartridges, counting from upper left are:

Biomotor Unitron, Metal Slug: 2nd Mission, Delta Warp, Rockman Battle & Fighters, Sonic the Hedgehog, Big Tournament Golf and King of Fighters R-2.

How did you come across those? Do they come from one source? I'm just curious, no specifics needed. An answer like "a dude from Japan" would suffice. Hehe.

Flavor - I'm betting those are retail games which had damaged labels or something, so someone just marked them this way. Unless you've seen this kind of labels on something more interesting before.

[Flavor]

I did get in contact with the guy. He thinks that they may be demos sent to magazines. He said he comes across that sort of thing fairly often. It gets more interesting, though.

He donated the carts to The MADE
http://www.themade.org

He said that if someone wanted to stop by with a Linkmasta (or whatever), they'd be free to dump the carts. I just don't live in the SF Bay Area. If anyone does, go dump!

I posted this elsewhere, too. Maybe someone will go. It seems that they're having a chiptune dance party there TONIGHT.

http://www.themade.org/node/92

[Flavor]

About 9 months ago, I found an eBay auction with NGPC protos. I didn't have the cash to spend on it, so I mentioned it to Neoturfmasta. He ended up winning it. Here's a pic he posted at N-G.com. Notice the little round stickers. Though, I do think those aren't prototypes (but rather demos).

[Morden]

Ha! So you did see them before. The same handwriting, too. Nice! And what's up with the spelling on the Party Mail cartridge on the upper right? It says パーテイ メール, where 「パーテイ」 is supposed to be "party", but it's "paatei", when, as far as I know, it's supposed to be 「パーティー」. Oh, I just checked and it's the same on the box. Still, that's not how you usually spell it.

Mail Party and Dive Alert also have different cartridge cases. What's up with that? Are the PCBs slightly larger?

[Flavor]

Ha! So you did see them before. The same handwriting, too. Nice! And what's up with the spelling on the Party Mail cartridge on the upper right? It says パーテイ メール, where 「パーテイ」 is supposed to be "party", but it's "paatei", when, as far as I know, it's supposed to be 「パーティー」. Oh, I just checked and it's the same on the box. Still, that's not how you usually spell it.

Mail Party and Dive Alert also have different cartridge cases. What's up with that? Are the PCBs slightly larger?

I forgot about NeoTurfMasta's carts until today. I don't know why it didn't occur to me earlier.

IIRC, Party Mail and Dive Alert both had support for the wireless link. That thing somehow slides onto the top of a cartridge and then the cart slides into the NGPC. Some retail cartridges have something like this, but I don't think they stick up. It's just on the back of the cart. I think it was Japanese-only, though.

[NiN^_^NiN]

Very nice proto/beta carts I can see how the extra at the top would hold the wireless link in place to plug into the ex port it's a pretty good solutions so the ext port doesn't have to support the whole wireless device.

I'm curious too if there where any games not released for the NGPC that had a working cart floating around.

[Reznor]

How did you come across those?

They come from Yahoo Auctions and and from a french ngp forum.