Was there an unreleased prototype of T & C Surf Designs (NES) released?

[TanruNomad]

The back of my box has screen shots that never happen in the game.

[Edmond Dantes]

Might wanna re-read your thread's title:

"Was there an unreleased prototype released?"

To answer your question though, a lot of times game snapshots from the back of a box come from an earlier build. I remember my box to SMB3 also had levels that never appear in the finish game.

[o.pwuaioc]

Might wanna re-read your thread's title:

"Was there an unreleased prototype released?"

To answer your question though, a lot of times game snapshots from the back of a box come from an earlier build. I remember my box to SMB3 also had levels that never appear in the finish game.

This. And many other games as well. Super Mario World had one too off the top of my head. Sometimes it was other things. Remember when the Nintendo 64 was first called the Nintendo Ultra? And Contra III was actually Super Contra IV? (I spent an hour or two looking for a Japanese game that would correlate to a fourth Contra before I realized the Nintendo Power article was talking about Contra III.)

[Tokimemofan]

Might wanna re-read your thread's title:

"Was there an unreleased prototype released?"

To answer your question though, a lot of times game snapshots from the back of a box come from an earlier build. I remember my box to SMB3 also had levels that never appear in the finish game.

I remember Working Designs creating a mock screenshot as an inside joke on one of their games.

[Superman]

There are a number of reasons something shown on the box (or in a review even) isn't in a game.

Like the others have said, it could be from an earlier build of the game.

It also could be from another region that had that feature/item/layout etc., but was not included in for this region, even though they used it for press materials, packing, etc.

Many times the differences don't amount to much, but it would have been nice to have a two player T&C though!

[BeaglePuss]

Like others have mentioned, the screen caps on the back of the box are often from earlier builds that never made it to the final cut (Battletoads is the first game to come to mind).

There have been instances where a prototype has been found that contains edited material that made their way onto the game's box. I have a Mega Man 2 prototype that contains the "Clashman" typo that is found on back of the box (and possibly the manual, though I don't recall), so it's not out of the question that a prototype with the missing T & C content exist.

You're next step is tracking down owners of any T & C prototypes and trying to find out what differences may exist. Good luck with that!

[Az]

On a related note, Cosmic Carnage for 32x has shots from the unfinished prototype on the back, and 32x Doom uses screens from the PC version.

[TanruNomad]

Thanks for the responses. I've seen dependencies on screen shots before, but never to this degree. It was 2 players for one (awesome!), it had a trophy/rating system, and the surfing stage is completely different. Being a big T&C Surf Designs fan, I'd love to get my hands on that build of the game. Hopefully it will surface one day.