Married... With Children for NES

[strassy]

i remember seeing this is an upcoming release in an issue of Nintendo Power a long time ago. obviously, it never made it, but I did find this info on the game in this site's "online rarity guide"

Based on the long-running TV sitcom, this was to be a point and click adventure game in which Al Bundy tries to raise money for a trip to the National Association of Shoe Salesmen Convention in Hawaii. Though a 1990 trade-show sales sheet clearly states that the game is coming soon for the Nintendo, references to VGA and AdLib sound board supportö suggest that it was being developed for the PC first. Conversations with programmers on the project support this theory as well.

Does anyone know anything else about this game? Married...with Children is by far my favorite TV show, if i were to ever find out that a prototype of this game existed...well, my head might very well explode.

[Haoie]

You mean Married With Children in the title, right?

Wow, just when I thought the concept of a Desperate Housewives game was over the top, 2 decades earlier they already beat me to the punch.

[exit]

I remember reading about it in an old article and I believe it stated that the game got canceled midway through.

[Push Upstairs]

A game based around "NO MA'AM" would have been better.

[otoko]

A game based around "NO MA'AM" would have been better.

I agree with that. Including all the bitter husbands against the tyrannical wives would be, indeed better.

[Blitzwing256]

screw all that, I just want to play the kelly minigame ;-)

[Volcanon]

They could have had a seinfeld RPG before kramer went krazy.

[ryborg]

i remember seeing this is an upcoming release in an issue of Nintendo Power a long time ago....Though a 1990 trade-show sales sheet clearly states that the game is coming soon for the Nintendo...

Any scans or anything of this? I'd love to hear more about this.

[MarioMania]

Is there a Prototype or a Beta

[DigitalSpace]

A Married... With Children game gets cancelled, yet a Home Improvement game is eventually released on the SNES. More proof that life's not fair.

Then again, for all we know, this could have just turned out to be another licensed stinker.

[jhd7]

This is all I found on it:

"Another company bringing out nonlicensed, Nintendo-compatible games is Sharedata. Four new titles priced under $20 were announced, including the first Nintendo game intended strictly for adults: Married... With Children, based on the off-the-wall comedy show on Fox TV. Sharedata says the Nintendo-compatible version of Married... With Children, like the TV show, will be humorous but slightly risque, similar to Sierra On-Line's Liesure Suit Larry series of computer games." - Game Players Magazine March 1990 (pg 26).

[Thrillo]

This is all I found on it:

"Another company bringing out nonlicensed, Nintendo-compatible games is Sharedata. Four new titles priced under $20 were announced, including the first Nintendo game intended strictly for adults: Married... With Children, based on the off-the-wall comedy show on Fox TV. Sharedata says the Nintendo-compatible version of Married... With Children, like the TV show, will be humorous but slightly risque, similar to Sierra On-Line's Liesure Suit Larry series of computer games." - Game Players Magazine March 1990 (pg 26).

My god, this could have been awesome...Married With Children would work well in a Leisure Suit Larry format since LSL and MWC share a lot in common.
I wonder if there are any hacks for the LSL games that let you play as Al Bundy. If not, I'll just use my imagination: when I get around to playing through LSL 3, I'll pretend that that Larry is Al...

[strassy]

yes, i did mean "married" with children...too bad these forums don't allow you to edit topic titles.

i highly doubt that there is a prototype out there...if there was, that would be one prototype that i would be willing to go after with gusto.

i'm at least hoping that at some point, we can find a screen shot or two...

[DigitalSpace]

This is all I found on it:

"Another company bringing out nonlicensed, Nintendo-compatible games is Sharedata...

Damn. Now it sounds like it could have been quite an interesting game if done right.


yes, i did mean "married" with children...too bad these forums don't allow you to edit topic titles.

It is possible to edit topic titles. Click on edit and then at the bottom of the edit box that opens up, click the "go advanced" button, and it will take you to a more detailed page that allows you to edit the title however you like.

[strassy]

thanks for the info on editing titles...it works differently from the forums that i have been posting on before, and i'm just a simple caveman...

it's interesting that they mention Sharedata was a non-licensed company. i am really quite confident i saw the game mentioned in a "coming soon" list in Nintendo Power. i'm pretty sure that was the magazine, in 1990 I don't think I had discovered GamePro or EGM yet.

[otoko]

Shall the world ever know?

[Dreamc@sting]

As much as I hated the TV show and it boggles my mind as to why they'd ever make this into a game...(yes even with all the much more weird choices out there)...If I ever found a proto for this in the wild I'd still buy it....I can see this being a crazy point and click adventure

[strassy]

if you ever find a proto, i'll buy it off you for double what you paid...not that i think a proto will ever be found.

[Greg2600]

I am surprised this game was not made for Commodore, since almost every other conceivably licensed entity was.

[nate1749]

Even if it would have been a cheesy license title I would have still loved to have a game for my favorite tv show.

[Blitzwing256]

i'd be curious to see if the pc version ever did come out.

[Jorpho]

Four new titles priced under $20

Do you really think a quality point-and-click adventure game could have been produced from scratch in those days on the kind of budget where the game cartridge was supposed to be sold for a profit at $20!?

Think Alf! Think Gilligan's Island! Think Three Stooges!

[TheRedEye]

I have vague memories of TRM posting somewhere in this forum that he discovered the NES game was never even started.

[Push Upstairs]

I'd say we dodged the bullet there.

[strassy]

I have vague memories of TRM posting somewhere in this forum that he discovered the NES game was never even started.

i read somewhere on the internet within the past few days that this was probably the case (if i am to believe random people on the internet)

sounds like it was a PC title that was in the works, but Sharedata switched their focus to NES games and it died. as some sort of cruel method of torturing me, they decided to pretend that it was going to be an NES release. consequently, i have spent the last 18 years hoping that this really existed. ugh

[winniethepujols]

I'm surprised that they didn't just scrap the original idea and instead release a run-of-the-mill generic platformer.

[strassy]

that would be pretty cool as well. if i ever step up the nerdiness factor and learn how to ROM hack, that would be my first project.