Prince of Persia 2 Prototype Release (SNES)

[Atamos]

Here's a new prototype for you guys, it's Prince of Persia 2 Shadow & Flame on SNES, I've wrote an article (in french) on my website, the ROM is also available to download at the same place, if you find a problem about the ROM or something else, please let me know, enjoy !

Google english translation:
http://translate.google.ca/translate...prototype.html

Original link:
http://www.legrospixel.com/pop2_prototype.html

[SparTonberry]

Perhaps EA originally considered publishing it?
Strange that there is an EA sticker on the cart when I don't think EA had any involvement with the game.
Did you say the game was PAL? If so, odd that it would be found in a North America-style cart with a SHVC (NTSC) prototype PCB.

[Atamos]

Perhaps EA originally considered publishing it?
Strange that there is an EA sticker on the cart when I don't think EA had any involvement with the game.
Did you say the game was PAL? If so, odd that it would be found in a North America-style cart with a SHVC (NTSC) prototype PCB.

When scanning the rom with NSRT this is what I got:
Country: Euro/Asia/Oceania
Video: PAL
Pretty strange indeed.

Also if I look on wikipedia I can see EA as one of the Publisher to the right.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_..._and_the_Flame

[SparTonberry]

I checked to make sure the game had a valid header (prototypes often don't), and thus one does indeed match up with the header of the US retail. Except of course the country code and that the proto doesn't have a proper checksum or game ID (AUPE, which of course might not have been assigned when the proto was made).

[Atamos]

Thanks for the information !

[bazariah]

Did you say the game was PAL? If so, odd that it would be found in a North America-style cart with a SHVC (NTSC) prototype PCB.

i once had a proto of super probotector (PAL version of contra 3) in an american shaped cart, so they may have just thrown the protos onto whatever they had to hand at the time. it's been seen before on nes carts where a game is programmed onto a super mario or something

[badinsults]

When scanning the rom with NSRT this is what I got:
Country: Euro/Asia/Oceania
Video: PAL
Pretty strange indeed.

Also if I look on wikipedia I can see EA as one of the Publisher to the right.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_..._and_the_Flame

The prototype board has an NTSC lockout chip. I wouldn't read too much into the internal header of a prototype, as they are often not set up properly (in fact, I have a prototype where they purposely corrupted the header, and the rest of the ROM image was identical to the final game).

I'm a bit surprised that this game is so close to final. I guess if EA was going to be the publisher, maybe they decided to pass in 1995, and Titus bought the rights and released it later. Considering the game came out on DOS in 1993, perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that a prototype dating to 1995 was nearly complete. I guess another similar example would be the SNES port of Space Invaders, which came out in Japan in 1994, and in the US in 1997.

[Atamos]

Yeah, I was expecting finding more differences, but at least it's not a final version.

[lkermel]

Excellent article Atamos!!! And, as I'm French, I could actually read the original version

I always LOVE reading about prototypes and also thank you for dumping the ROM!!! Awesome find!

[SparTonberry]

I guess another similar example would be the SNES port of Space Invaders, which came out in Japan in 1994, and in the US in 1997.

Maybe it's because the western version of Space Invaders for Game Boy, released in 1994, included a SNES version that could be played on Super Game Boy (the Japanese version of SI GB was released in 1990, so it almost certainly did not include a SNES mode).
Lost Vikings 2 was mentioned in the January 1996 Nintendo Power as having been given NoA's final approval "a few months ago" yet, as they said they expected, the game was delayed until 1997 so Interplay could make a multi-platform release.

[Atamos]

Excellent article Atamos!!! And, as I'm French, I could actually read the original version

I always LOVE reading about prototypes and also thank you for dumping the ROM!!! Awesome find!

Hey, thanks Ikermel, I really appreciate your feedback !