New Cancelled Games & Their Lost Media Added to the Archive

Nes / Famicom, Nintendo

Super Mario Bros 3 [NES – Beta / Concept / Unused]

U64 Staff & Contributors
14-04-2008
11 Comments

There were going to be two new enemies called Gold Cheep Cheep (a golden version of a Cheep-Cheep), and Green Parabeetles (green colored Parabeetles). The Gold Cheep Cheeps would come in groups and swim faster than regular Cheep-Cheeps and the Green Parabeetle is a green Parabeetle that flies faster than normal ones. The game coding reveals an item-sized Toad icon among some of the game’s suits; this is interpreted by several as a sort of “Toad Suit”, although it makes no changes to gameplay when granted to Mario. This is likely due to it being scrapped early and never given any purpose. Designers also considered a power-up to turn Mario into a Centaur (half-man, half-horse), although this was rejected (Tilden 1990, 21).

Koopa Troopas and and Hammer Bros. were going to host the mini-games. They were replaced by Toad. However, it could also be possible that they were all around at the same time, but all got scrapped except for one due to memory size. There were also different kinds of mini-games, similar to the ones in New Super Mario Bros..

Finally, fifteen extra levels exist within the coding of Super Mario Bros. 3. Some of these are strange and unique, while others bear much resemblance to levels in the final version and were very likely redone as those. Also, the back of the box of some copies of Super Mario Bros. 3 depicts Mario traversing a hilly grassland stage with tons of Parabeetles and two Note Blocks about. This particular stage is not any of the lost ones present on the cartridge, nor is it in the final game. It could even be a press mock-up from Nintendo. Reports say it might be in the Japanese version either hidden ingame or in code, but there is no proof of it’s existance on the American Version. The “special” boxes also feature a beta map of Grass Land. [Info from Mariowiki]

In december 2008, Linkin800 found some unused sprites in the game code and posted them in the Mushroom Kingdom Forum:

I found some unused Mario overworld sprites.

It seems like Nintendo was originaly going to have it so that mario could walk in all derictions instead of just facing the screen all the time.

some beta buildings I found. (palletes could be wrong): the first one looks like some kind of wooden toy block fortress thing, the second im not sure what it is and the last one looks like a factory to me, or it could be a beta fortress, the thing underneath the 3rd building is it crushed after you beat the level.

I also found something small but intresting. (palletes are also wrong) its the mario that appears in mini games, but there are 2 bodys found in the game, one is fatter then the other, the fat body is used in the game but the skinny one isn’t, I think originaly Nintendo was going to make a diffrent sprite for luigi but never did, not sure.

 

Thanks to Linkin800, Keith Sass, Inferno and Luiszena for some of these images!

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This Famimaga video shows the various differences of this early version to the final that the annotations go over. For one, none of the levels are recognizable (except perhaps one particular part), and the HUD is different.

Nes / Famicom, Nintendo

The Legend Of Zelda [NES – Beta / Concept]

U64 Staff & Contributors
14-04-2008
1 Comment

zelda1logo.jpg

As the inaugural game of The Legend of Zelda series, it was first released in Japan as a launch title for the Famicom’s Disk System peripheral, a year and five months before it was released in the United States. Because the Famicom Disk System was not released outside Japan, the game was published internationally on the Nintendo Entertainment System’s cartridge format in 1987, with an internal battery to facilitate data saving. Nintendo released the game in Japan in 1994 on cartridge format for the Famicom. [Info from wikipedia]

In the beta version of Zelda 1, in the first cave the player had the option to choose between the sword or the boomerang. In the final version you can only find the sword. The image of this beta cave is still in the manual of the final game.

Thanks to one of the “Iwata Ask” interview series, we found out more info on the development of Zelda NES. The game was internally known as “Adventure” or “Adventure Mario”, as wrote by Miyamoto in some early design docs, created in 1985. Some of the items and enemies drawn in the design-doc, were never used in the final game. There’s also an early version of the world map!

The “Second Quest” was created because they had spare memory room:

Iwata: In order to fit in as many dungeons as possible given the limited memory, you were making them like you were doing a puzzle.

Nakago: Right. Tezuka-san said, “I did it!” and brought this to me. I created the data exactly in line with it, but then Tezuka-san made a mistake and only used half of the data. I said, “Tezuka-san, there’s only half here. Where did the other half go?” and he was like, “What?! Oops, I messed up…” But Miyamoto-san said it was fine just like that.

Tezuka: Heh heh heh. (laughs)

Nakago: So, using the half of the memory that was left over, we decided to create the Second Quest

Some more info on the beta and development of Zelda for the NES were shared in the book “Hyrule Historia” and translated by Glitterberri:

The first thing I thought about was a game that made use of the Disk System’s function of rewriting data so that two players could each create their own dungeons and make the other player solve them. We actually created such a game, and when I played it, I felt it was very fun playing in the dungeons themselves. So we put together a game with a series of dungeons underneath mountains distributed around Death Mountain for a single player to solve them. But we also wanted it to feature a world above, so we added forests and lakes, and so Hyrule Field took form gradually.

Now, we didn’t decide the game’s title from the very beginning either. Originally, I wanted it to be “The Legend of X,” but I couldn’t find the appropriate word for the “X.” Then, the planner to whom we assigned the PR project suggested we did a story book of the game.

Also, a prototype version of Zelda 1 was somehow leaked, and thaks to the Cutting Room Floor we can see all the little differences that were made before the game was relased:

  • The prologue and item list are not in the prototype.
  • When a candle is used in a dark room, the game does not pause while the room lights up.
  • It’s not possible to hit the old men in the prototype.
  • The Magical Sword requires 8 hearts in the prototype and 12 in the final build.
  • Armos Knights take much longer to come to life in the prototype. The waiting time was reduced from 128 frames to 60 frames.
  • Moldorm has 1 HP per segment in the prototype, but 2 in the final version. Likewise, the Blue Wizzrobe got its health buffed from 8 HP to 10 HP.
  • Both Wizzrobes’ beams do less damage in the prototype. The Blue Wizzrobe’s beams went from 1 Heart to 2 Hearts of damage, and the Orange Wizzrobe from 2 Hearts to 4(!) Hearts.
  • There are a few sprite changes in the prototype. Three of them are used in-game, while the other two are earlier designs left in the ROM.

In another interview with Miyamoto, we learn that originally Zelda was meant to have a futuristic setting:

Link’s name come from the fact that originally, the fragments of the Triforce were supposed to be electronic chips. The game was to be set in both the past and the future and as the main character would travel between both and be the link between them, they called him Link.

You can find more info about Zelda NES in the Zelda Wiki! Thanks to kek8 for the contribution!

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Nes / Famicom, Nintendo

Seiken Densetsu: The Emergence of Excalibur [NES – Cancelled]

U64 Staff & Contributors
14-04-2008
4 Comments

This was to be a massive RPG which would encompass an impressive, Riven-esque five disks for the Famicom Disk System (a floppy drive add-on for the Japanese NES). By that point, though, the FDS was waning in popularity and Square lacked the resources to develop such an ambitious epic for a fading peripheral. The game was reportedly killed before it even got underway, and Square apologetically informed consumers that perhaps they should spend their money on the upcoming Final Fantasy instead. The company then slapped the Seiken Densetsu name on an upcoming GameBoy adventure — to save the expenses of registering a new trademark and hiring someone to do up a new logo, perhaps?

The first Seiken sold well enough to warrant the creation of a sequel, which was planned as Square’s debut title for Nintendo’s PlayStation CD-ROM system being developed in collaboration with Sony. But once again, the medium spoiled the message; when Nintendo pulled the rug out from under Sony’s feet and decided to axe the idea of a Super NES CD-ROM add-on altogether, SD2 was hastily repurposed as a standard SNES cartridge game. Presumably, this accounts for the rather noticeable game glitches which plague the game and its US counterpart, Secret of Mana. A different Seiken Densetsu appeared on the Gameboy in 1991. – [info from GAF?]

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Nes / Famicom, Nintendo

Final Fantasy IV [NES – Concept / Cancelled]

U64 Staff & Contributors
14-04-2008
4 Comments

Apparently what we know as Final Fantasy IV was originally going to be Final Fantasy V for the super famicon. the above picture is a mock up of what Final Fantasy IV for the nes would most likely have looked like in the beta stages had it gotten past the drawing board. So yes, there is a lost final fantasy game, but only in concept because it never made it past a concept sheet and into a playable beta.

For more infos: www.lostlevels.org/200311/200311-square.shtml

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