Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill to Finally Get Physical Release

[mrmark0673]

Hey all,

Haven't posted here in a while but still lurk almost daily. A couple of close personal friends of mine have been working hard to get the unreleased SNES game Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill released to the general public, and after several years of hard work, the kickstarter is live:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...n-the-clintons

If you have any interest in the game, I feel as though the pricing is pretty fair. I'm not directly involved in the release, so I'm unsure of what questions I'll be able to answer, but feel free to ask anything here and I'll do my best!

[Koa Zo]

Socks the Cat, the most anticipated unreleased game of all-time to reality

It's never good to open a kickstarter campaign with a line of bullshit.

edit: oh, was just skimming..

Socks the Cat is the most anticipated unreleased video game of all-time. Ever. For any platform. Don't believe me? Grab some popcorn and "Google" it.

I guess this was supposed to be a joke? I googled and don't get it.
These kickstarters have become tiresome.

[Zap!]

Awesome! Probably the most famous Presidential pet of all-time.

[mrmark0673]

It's never good to open a kickstarter campaign with a line of bullshit.

Eh, what the hell, I'll bite.

Aside from games that have been leaked (California Raisins, Earthbound NES, Starfox 2, Bio Force Ape, etc.), what, in your opinion, is more wanted/hyped/talked about over the years than Socks?

Yes, the "google it" was definitely tongue in cheek, but it's accurate in that it's one of the most talked about unreleased games of all time.

Again, I am not formally involved in the project, and I did not create the kickstarter, but I'm a huge supporter of the guys involved and think they've done (and will do) a great job with the release.

[Guntz]

It's never good to open a kickstarter campaign with a line of bullshit.

edit: oh, was just skimming..

I guess this was supposed to be a joke? I googled and don't get it.
These kickstarters have become tiresome.

Just more NintendoAge and YouTube shenanigans. They may as well put the NintendoAge logo on the kickstarter page somewhere.

[Tanooki]

Fair enough but still it was in huge demand for a time awhile back. An NA member if I recall had it or ended up with it and kept it under lock n key. I think after some snark and fluff it was eventually sold to another party for a good bit I thinkwith the intent of release. From there I recall nothing. Seems a campaign would make sense if the former owner hit them for every penny possible. Given the likely case of Clinton returning to office it is amusingly timed.

[Zap!]

I'm no lawyer, but back in '93 when it was supposed to come out, shouldn't the company have had to get the rights from the Clinton family (obviously, they didn't even try)? Or are pets protected by the public domain?

[Tanooki]

I think it was a public domain thing and as it wasn't a true representation of the animal it would fall under coverages like parodies do.

[Greg2600]

Couple things. What's with the Nintendo Age hate? The guys who run it, including mrmark, have generously dumped MANY unreleased roms for free. No one site has done as much in the last decade. So back off!

Second, the Socks prototype was an expensive purchase, and this was never going to be a cheap release. Plus they went ahead and secured licenses. I'm likely in for the digital copy.

[SparTonberry]

You HAVE to take a line like "most anticipated unreleased game of all time" with a LITTLE humor.

Though it is true that the unusual subject matter at least makes it a little more curious than a handful of unreleased SNES games based on random TV/movie/comic/etc. licenses probably nobody remembers like Thunder In Paradise, Green Hornet, etc.
(okay, maybe Radio Flyer, if only to see how the hell Ocean could possibly make a game out of, from what I've heard of the few people who had seen or heard of the movie, was about like child abuse or stuff that had no business being in a video game, let alone one on an early '90s Nintendo console)

[Mayhem]

Fair enough but still it was in huge demand for a time awhile back. An NA member if I recall had it or ended up with it and kept it under lock n key. I think after some snark and fluff it was eventually sold to another party for a good bit I thinkwith the intent of release. From there I recall nothing. Seems a campaign would make sense if the former owner hit them for every penny possible. Given the likely case of Clinton returning to office it is amusingly timed.

It was BuyAtari who originally owned it iirc. So wouldn't have gone cheap. I suspect part of the reason for selling it was the constant persistence to release it. At least it's been fully formed up into a working release now.

[Tanooki]

It wasn't NA hate, just said that's who I recalled but not who it was who had it last, a member there and I do recall it being brought up a lot and repeatedly being told NO to selling it or if they eventually would it would be a price that was very high for whatever the reason. Nothing more or less, but if someone wants to get into NA hate it's a fair subject considering all things outside of the generosity of a few members there but it is best left in another thread.

And mayham I figure as much the same, he was consistently badgered about it when I was posting there and it went from like I said no to ...it will if I do it, go for a lot of money to dissuade most people from asking. No difference to me, his (former) toys can do whatever he wants with it. As I said it's amusing given the timing and us likely seeing her in office in another couple months.

[Doonzmore]

It was BuyAtari who originally owned it iirc.

I thought DreamTR was the original owner who sold it MinusWorlds. Did Jason acquire it from BuyAtari?

(okay, maybe Radio Flyer, if only to see how the hell Ocean could possibly make a game out of, from what I've heard of the few people who had seen or heard of the movie, was about like child abuse or stuff that had no business being in a video game, let alone one on an early '90s Nintendo console)

Not going to lie, of all the unreleased Snes games, Radio Flyer is one of the most intriguing to me for the very reasons you listed.

[Gameguy]

Aside from games that have been leaked (California Raisins, Earthbound NES, Starfox 2, Bio Force Ape, etc.), what, in your opinion, is more wanted/hyped/talked about over the years than Socks?

Why ignore games that have already been leaked? It said of "all-time", not of those games currently still unreleased. Personally the hype of Hellraiser for NES is more interesting to me, though the game supposedly hadn't got far enough into development to be playable so there's likely no working prototype to be found in the future. The special hardware for the game was supposedly finished though, something that would have actually used the expansion port in the NES console.

(okay, maybe Radio Flyer, if only to see how the hell Ocean could possibly make a game out of, from what I've heard of the few people who had seen or heard of the movie, was about like child abuse or stuff that had no business being in a video game, let alone one on an early '90s Nintendo console)

I'm pretty sure I saw this movie at some point back when I was a kid, or at least part of it. This would have been just on TV. While there was child abuse in the movie, the kids dealt with it by focusing on fantasy and having adventures. If the game focused on the adventures part, I could see it working. It's sort of like Pan's Labyrinth if you ignored all the war stuff. Nobody focuses on the Goonies when Chunk's hand was being forced into a blender, imagine putting that into one of the games.

[Bratwurst]

Aside from games that have been leaked (California Raisins, Earthbound NES, Starfox 2, Bio Force Ape, etc.), what, in your opinion, is more wanted/hyped/talked about over the years than Socks?

Perhaps only because Socks is considered one of the last holdouts of notorious unreleased games... some of it in part built up by the previous owner(s) teasing it over those years to maximize what they could unload it for. Cooler heads knew in advance the game isn't the second coming of the messiah by any stretch.

And compared to all of the titles prefacing it above, Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill is stale breadcrumbs. It's cool that it's finally getting a release but I'm more interested in the untampered prototype's contents from a historical/archivist perspective. It's nice the fellows behind the kickstarter wanted to polish it into a reasonably playable product. A discerning look at the pedigree of games Realtime Associates put out around that time says more than enough.

Couple things. What's with the Nintendo Age hate? The guys who run it, including mrmark, have generously dumped MANY unreleased roms for free. No one site has done as much in the last decade. So back off!

Lost Levels, easily. They're not even that active anymore but they were hot post 2005. To say the least of the MAME dev community, nesdev community, SMSPower.org, and shitton of discovery / development both hardware and software at Atari Age. ShouTime. Byuu's deconstruction of the SNES architecture by xray dissection?? drx has unloaded tons of prototypes on his own dime.

[mrmark0673]

Why ignore games that have already been leaked? It said of "all-time", not of those games currently still unreleased.

It's not to ignore games that have been released to the public, but in terms of "anticipation", it's hard to anticipate things that have already occurred. I guess it's worded in such a way that some could take issue with it, but it's not the intention.

As far as games with known prototypes in a complete/near complete state that have yet to reach the public, it's tough to beat the hype behind Socks the Cat. It's 100% subjective, so people could absolutely disagree, but many people have been waiting to see this get released for a long time. Tom and Adam have spent a lot of time and money to help this one move from anticipated to enjoyed!

Brat: The game is a fun little platformer with some quirky political satire. With the current political atmosphere in this country, a lot of people will get a kick out of this. Not the second coming, but legitimately fun to play. Give it a shot, you'd be surprised.

Not looking to defend myself or compare my contributions to others, but I feel as though I've done my fair share. Getting more games released to the public is NEVER a bad thing, and this is one more to add to the list.

Over 1/3 of the way funded in less than a week! Thanks for all the support guys, very excited to see this get out to the masses!

[Mayhem]

I thought DreamTR was the original owner who sold it MinusWorlds. Did Jason acquire it from BuyAtari?

No, you're right, I sometimes get the two of them mixed up with what they own. It was DreamTR who owned it previously.

[Greg2600]

Yes DreamTR had it, but he allowed a friend to video tape them playing the game, really as a goof. He was then lambasted for "trolling the community" which of course was not the intent. I personally don't pay much attention to 32-bit and up unreleased prototypes, because they often are found woefully incomplete. But the older stuff is usually close to finished. Some others of interest for me would be the Genesis Indiana Jones Greatest proto, Masters of the Universe for Colecovision, both kind of shelved for release for fear of IP infringement.

[Niku-Sama]

I kinda of want this game but I don't want to do it through kickstarter.

getting soooo tired of kickstarter.

[FABombjoy]

But I love Kickstarter! I've shoveled in close to $1000 in the last 3 years and have received exactly one single bare cart NES homebrew. I love the whole idea! What a country!