Forbidden things

[HashiriyaS14]

Debug/Dev stuff, pirate ROM's and hardware, not-for-resale store demo items, unreleased games/code/3D models, etc.

Who has it, who wants it?

I collect some of this stuff, and recently I've been focusing on non-physical items (i.e. ROM's, kiosk demo footage, 3D models, etc).

Lately, I've been getting into Chinese remade pirate games for the Famicom.

In China, people can't typically afford a new $400 game console every few years like so many gamers in Japan, Europe, and the US can. Thus, older hardware is still very popular, particularly the Famicom (or NES) and MegaDrive (or Genesis). Problem is of course, no one has produced new Famicoms or MegaDrives for years.

This is where the clone market comes in. Thanks to their healthy disregard for copyright laws, there is a huge pirate industry in Japan for clone hardware and software. The clone hardware comes in all shapes and sizes, and often will look like a PS2 or something, but is invariably a FamiClone or MegaDrive clone.

But these kids don't want to just play Super Mario Bros. year after year, they want NEW software, and obviously Nintendo and Sega don't develop software for "dead" systems. Instead, increasingly talented Chinese coders "adapt" high-profile current franchises to run on these older systems. By "adapt", I mean that they're making new NES and Genesis games from scratch, or sometimes just drastically hacking up ROMs.

Yesterday, I downloaded Final Fantasy 7 for the NES. Here's what it looks like:





The Aeris death sequence:



My copy, however, has an English language patch on it, and I assure you that EVERY SPECK of original dialogue is intact. It definitely doesn't LOOK like FF7, but the story is 100% there.

What's more, it's actually a *really* good game by NES RPG standards. It's better than the original Famicom versions of FF1, FF2, and FF3 by a comfortable margin. It's probably the best NES RPG I've ever played.

Now, I'll say that the original Chinese version is incredibly difficult. Impossibly difficult, to the point of being unplayable. You have maybe a 10% chance of making it through the first few battles. Luckily, my English language patch changes some stats and now it's a very balanced, enjoyable game.

The music is lifted from other Famicom FF ROMs, I'm told, so don't expect FF7 tunes. I was playing with the sound off anyway.

I think eventually I'll buy a retail version, as it comes in this snazzy packaging:



It will ONLY run on Nestopia, other emulators need not apply. If anyone is interested in this, I can send you the emulator, ROM, patch, and the program to apply the patch. It is all small enough to email.

[OldmanPurdy]

Heh that's pretty cool actually! is it mostly rpgs or do action games get this treatment too? CoD4 the side scroller would be pretty neat.

[HashiriyaS14]

Heh that's pretty cool actually! is it mostly rpgs or do action games get this treatment too? CoD4 the side scroller would be pretty neat.

Not everything, but there are some interesting ones.

There's a version of Zelda: Link to the Past for Famicom in Chinese, and there is a Chinese pirate version of Super Mario World for the MegaDrive (i.e. Sega Genesis).

I'm sure more will be "discovered" as time goes on.

[bmike818]

Find me a game cartridge that has 1000 games in 1. I wish I brought my Famicom in the U.S. when I moved here. Come to think of it, why didn't I. Alas my pops used to play Dr.Mario.

R.I.P. pops

I have a Retro Duo waiting for a Programable cartridge that can hold multiple games

[MinisterofDOOM]

I have some early Diablo builds, they're pretty cool to play with and give a neat perspective to the game's development history.

[HashiriyaS14]

I just stumbled into some internal Sega Game Tester orientation docs.

Only about 14 pages, but pretty cool. They talk about the dress code, how to diagnose and report bugs, and other stuff.