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NEC TG-16/TE/TurboDuo => TG-16/TE/TurboDuo Sales & Trades => Topic started by: exodus on August 01, 2016, 09:26:23 PM
Title: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: exodus on August 01, 2016, 09:26:23 PM
A former Tengen employee put up a bunch of unreleased PC Engine ports, when they were evaluating the system. He has put up Magical Puzzle Popils, Marble Madness, Peter Pack-Rat, and Off the Wall.
Here are his credentials: http://www.mobygames.com/developer/jun-amanai/credits/developerId,195797/
Here are the games:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9co_cYMJkRQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbLdzPWKWBA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyP2lIdfjhQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsvmqVdh3Do
Especially unfortunate that marble madness didn't get released!
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: Digi.k on August 01, 2016, 10:04:28 PM
That off the wall game in his comments :
"Yes, you are right. Manufacturing cost of 8M-bit HuCard was too high, and volume-type controller seemed to be mandatory for this game. So we gave up."
I don't see anything there that suggests the game is 8mbits. 2-4Mbits perhaps, Well at least the audio for all those games are pleasing. Thanks for the compilation of links.
I am liking with what I am seeing with Marble Madness and peter pack rat. The sound samples in that Peter Pack Rat port. The fact that they made this much progress and then not finish and have it released It's breaking my heart !__!
I am assuming the "volume-type controller" is something like these:
Even more heartbreaking now that I see all the abandoned games/Tengen projects for TG-16.
So sad :(
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: SavagePencil on August 02, 2016, 05:22:06 AM
Those are pretty darn accurate ports. I like how very "Lynx-ian" the music sounded on Off The Wall. Popils was good on the Game Gear's small screen, but here it just looks kind of chunky.
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: xelement5x on August 02, 2016, 06:05:44 AM
Marble Madnes returns! I wonder if the proto will resurface again, I can imagine the Nolan's might be intersted in doing a limited release now that they've got the new custom Hus.
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: SignOfZeta on August 02, 2016, 06:58:09 AM
Yeah, "volume controller" is somebody's vernacular for a "paddle" or linear rotory pot. There was one made for PS1 that was actually called Volume Controller around the time of the original Namco Museum ports.
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: Punch on August 02, 2016, 08:09:27 AM
Oh my god.
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: johnnykonami on August 02, 2016, 08:27:22 AM
These are pretty cool to see, shame about them not coming out. I don't know if any of them would have been on my childhood radar though, so maybe they made the right choice for the demographic.
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: SavagePencil on August 02, 2016, 08:33:53 AM
All but puzzle Popils would have been on my wish list. The packrat game in particular looks like it was at an early stage of development... I can imagine a more polished version being great.
Peter Packrat was one of the early-/mid-80s Atari arcade games that ran on the same hardware as Temple of Doom and Marble Madness. That clip looked at least passably accurate:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sIcXxiIKlk
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: csgx1 on August 02, 2016, 08:38:38 AM
Very interesting, thanks for posting the videos.
A real shame none of those games were release. They all look decent.
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: Punch on August 02, 2016, 09:59:22 AM
I like the whistling bgm in Peter Pack Rat even if it sounds a little bit off on the PC Engine. I had no idea these games existed until now, actually. Shame there are no roms of it.
gimme teh r0mz pls
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: NightWolve on August 02, 2016, 10:08:28 AM
Hm, interesting find.
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: exodus on August 02, 2016, 11:40:34 AM
The reason graphics/sound all feel off is because these were ports - different resolution than the famicom, different chip, so stuff is gonna sound weird. And I'm sure they would've smoothed some things out were these to go into production, but he stated they were tests. I am trying to get in touch with him for more info, but haven't gotten there yet.
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: Digi.k on August 02, 2016, 12:09:49 PM
I personally don't find the sound as "off" especially on the Peter Pack Rat game just lower samples that seem to be taken from the arcade game, but the synths sounds just invokes that distinct pc engine sound for me.
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: elmer on August 02, 2016, 01:21:54 PM
Cool find ... these are interesting prototypes. :D
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: ccovell on August 02, 2016, 01:31:28 PM
And expertly made. Marble Madness especially looks impressive.
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: Digi.k on August 02, 2016, 02:07:43 PM
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: dshadoff on August 02, 2016, 02:13:15 PM
I had heard of all of these (except Popils), but was under the impression that they were all abandoned long before reaching this level of completeness.
If they were afraid of low profit margins on HuCards, I'm surprised that they didn't try to sell them as CDROMs (or Super CDROMs), as several games in the 1992 era were basically HuCard games released on CD.
Back in the day, I heard of "a friend of a friend" who owned a copy, but wouldn't even allow it to be seen (in action, or the proto-board), let alone sold/copied/whatever. It's very nice to see them on YouTube pages, to understand how complete they were, and how playable they were.
-Dave
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: Dicer on August 02, 2016, 02:23:33 PM
So, when we getting dumps? cause that would be amazing, they are all solid looking work...
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: Digi.k on August 02, 2016, 02:35:54 PM
Magical Puzzle Popils also seems very interesting. Kinda surprising why they were all cancelled considering this looks like it was for the japanese market and I'm pretty sure the pc engine market was strong in that period. The game designer appears to be Fukio Mitsuji who also created and designed the Bubble Bobble games. Looks like only the Game Gear houses the completed version.
(https://j.gifs.com/M8PpnB.gif)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukio_Mitsuji
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: BigusSchmuck on August 02, 2016, 02:52:58 PM
I'm pretty impressed by the Marble Madness port. Thank god the music in level 3 didn't sound like the Genesis version. I was seriously ready to get my earplugs on. lol
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: HailingTheThings on August 02, 2016, 05:38:21 PM
Wowzers, y'all! Peter Pack Rat and shet?!
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: esteban on August 02, 2016, 05:56:10 PM
WHERE IS PARANOIA_DRAGON?
He's been mentioning Peter F@cking Pack Rat for ages (he's the reason I knew Tengen was working on a port).
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: shubibiman on August 02, 2016, 06:41:52 PM
All those ports where announced in japanese magazines (and for some of them even in french magazines) back in the time. It's nothing new really. But I definitely didn't think they all were at this point of completeness. Very impressive.
I hope the guy dumps them or even better, completes them in order to release them. He should do a kickstarter.
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: ParanoiaDragon on August 02, 2016, 07:11:50 PM
I'm here I'm here!!! Man, it's been forever since I saw anything about Peter Packrat, don't even recall where I saw stuffs about it. It's usually Riftwar Saga that I lament not seeing a release, but I would've loved these, especially Marble Madness even though I suck at that game. Me wonders if Jun has an incomplete Pit Fighter (CD or Hu) laying around as well(even though the game itself is crud).
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: Punch on August 02, 2016, 07:46:12 PM
LOL I was going to mention Pit Fighter, Esteban I don't think we're going to see Pit Fighter CD too soon lol.
Title: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: esteban on August 02, 2016, 08:39:37 PM
All those ports where announced in japanese magazines (and for some of them even in french magazines) back in the time. It's nothing new really. But I definitely didn't think they all were at this point of completeness. Very impressive.
I hope the guy dumps them or even better, completes them in order to release them. He should do a kickstarter.
Here is one....
PCE MARBLE MADNESS: I found an old advertisement... did PCE Marble Madness support the PCE MOUSE! This intrigues me...
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: ginoscope on August 03, 2016, 03:41:45 AM
I love seeing information like this about unreleased games. I wonder how far along some of them actually were. Marble Madness looks like a really good port. Never heard of the Packrat game but that looks pretty interesting. It kind of reminded me of Mappy Land on the NES.
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: Sarumaru on August 03, 2016, 09:06:09 AM
Popils is actually a great game. Very addicting with a level builder that was lots of fun. Most of these games were far along, I believe Popils hadn't gotten the level creator and some other minor things.
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: TheClash603 on August 03, 2016, 02:34:32 PM
I own copies of Marble Madness for about 10 systems and I love the game. The other games are all great to see, but I would love love love to play Marble Madness!
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: esteban on August 04, 2016, 01:52:42 AM
I own copies of Marble Madness for about 10 systems and I love the game. The other games are all great to see, but I would love love love to play Marble Madness!
Yup.
If I had room for a cab, I'd want a trackball with Centipede, Marble Madness, etc. etc.
:)
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: sunteam_paul on August 05, 2016, 07:26:39 AM
(http://i67.tinypic.com/2wdvq15.jpg)
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: Koa Zo on April 04, 2017, 07:55:00 PM
That April Fools SuperGraphx proto thread reminded me of Marble Madness, so I got to searching and found this thread. Hot damn! Popils and Peter Pack Rat too! What an unfortunate shame that Tengen couldn't get these to market.
"Off the Wall", I'd never even known of as an arcade game. It looks like a worthy multiplayer take on the tried and true block & paddle tradition. The music is particularly good, what great fitting compositions for the PC-Engine!
That Tengen crew were doing some eternally respectable arcade translations. Their Mega Drive output is a highlight of that platform's library. Come to think of it, iirc there is a Popils sidebar, interview maybe, in the back of the Road Blasters manual. I'd wondered if a Popils port was intended for the Mega Drive, what a surprise to now see that there was indeed a port in the works for PC-Engine. Now doing some other searching on the internet I see that Off the Wall was also in the works for Game Gear (http://segaretro.org/Off_the_Wall)
It's almost haunting knowing these PC-Engine Atari arcade ports were so lovingly crafted and so far along and have yet to be played by the fans.
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: fragmare on April 05, 2017, 05:50:12 AM
Marble Madness looks amazing on the PCE. Peter Pack Rat has some really nice sprite animation! Looks like it had promise. The others... eh... kinda glad they didn't see the light of day.
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: ParanoiaDragon on April 05, 2017, 05:26:54 PM
Marble Madness looks amazing on the PCE. Peter Pack Rat has some really nice sprite animation! Looks like it had promise. The others... eh... kinda glad they didn't see the light of day.
I think Off the Wall looks good. Popils I think would be much better with enhanced gfx, as those gfx are pretty basic.
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: seieienbu on April 05, 2017, 06:02:15 PM
I just watched the marble madness video. That game was very far along; I'm curious as to why it wasn't finished and released. Does anyone know anything more about that?
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: esteban on April 07, 2017, 04:04:20 PM
I just watched the marble madness video. That game was very far along; I'm curious as to why it wasn't finished and released. Does anyone know anything more about that?
My guess: KLAX didn't sell well on TG-16...
Tengen's Battle with Nintendo
???
:)
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: ccovell on April 07, 2017, 04:16:41 PM
TENGEN of Japan abandoned a lot of their projects suddenly in the early '90s. GDRI just updated their page on the company, so it's worth having a look: http://gdri.smspower.org/wiki/index.php/Tengen_(Japan)
Perhaps it has something to do with their purchase by Time Warner in 1994 (and they were shut down 3 years later.)
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: ParanoiaDragon on April 07, 2017, 09:04:16 PM
I'm still curious about Pit Fighter. Supposedly there were Hu & CD versions. Also, it'd be nice, if we ever get access to these games, if we also got source code incase anybody ever wanted to finish them.
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: SuperPlay on April 08, 2017, 12:47:15 AM
A couple of scans I did a while ago (From my links thread) that you may have not seen
Off the wall - Marukatsu 93 Vol 01: https://tinyurl.com/mcyo4b5
I'm so gullible right now, I want to believe that the site isn't a joke.
Also, I would have contributed for any/all of these if the seller was trusted.
But...it's not like I have too much expendable $$$.
Damn kids and the food they need to eat.
NOTE TO SELF: Three kids are three too many. Three prototypes are one too short.
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: Necromancer on July 03, 2017, 05:30:32 AM
"This shop is only for demo purpose."
Ya damn tease! :lol:
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: Punch on July 03, 2017, 06:33:43 AM
Well the copyright notice says 2017 Jun Amanai, name of the guy who made the videos... I'm willing to believe that the site is real and his.
I thought that Jun only uploaded videos with little to no info on them because releasing a ROM would be a shameful dispray but apparently everyone has a price. Our community isn't one to go gaga over a proto of anything to do a "fundraiser" (which is actually a good thing) so this will probably go back into the dark hole of japanese collectardism to stay alongside PC Cocoron and others, unless some Frank Cifaldi type character comes across it and buys them for public ROM dumping.
Who cares about those arcade ports when we have roms for Taisen PRO Mahjong and The Super Kung-Fu to play in our supergrafx consoles anywyay. :mrgreen:
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: haightc on July 03, 2017, 07:29:45 AM
Is doing a fund raiser such a bad idea? I would imagine there would be enough PCE fans to warrent it.
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: esteban on July 03, 2017, 08:12:24 AM
Somebody should send this off to the Kanye West so he can dump the ROMs!
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: crazydean on July 03, 2017, 08:30:22 AM
Is doing a fund raiser such a bad idea? I would imagine there would be enough PCE fans to warrent it.
There's always a bunch of people saying this but nobody ever puts any money down. While loyal, the fan base of the PCE is minuscule compared to Nintendo.
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: Black Tiger on July 03, 2017, 08:52:27 AM
Is doing a fund raiser such a bad idea? I would imagine there would be enough PCE fans to warrent it.
There's always a bunch of people saying this but nobody ever puts any money down. While loyal, the fan base of the PCE is minuscule compared to Nintendo.
The Henshin Engine kickstarter raised $35,000.
There has never been a group funding attempt yet for any unreleased PCE games that people really care about.
Title: Re: Unreleased Tengen PC Engine games.
Post by: shubibiman on July 03, 2017, 05:50:32 PM