News/Final ROM Archive Release Part 4

May 27, 2016

Here it is, the fourth and final part of the Final ROM Archive (for now…)! We have a couple of cool things for this week to wrap up the month.

Check out the Sega ROM Archive article to view some general information about these releases and remember to check out the articles themselves by clicking on the hotlink on each game heading in this article.

Enjoy! Next month we will have a different theme, so stay tuned.

Discuss this announcement here!

The unique builds for this week are as follows:

Death Duel prototype (May 6, 1992)

A prototype of Death Duel for the Sega Mega Drive. Appears close to final. Contains some spelling and grammar errors as well as code changes.

European Club Soccer prototype (Oct 25, 1991)

A prototype of European Club Soccer for the Sega Mega Drive. No Virgin logo credit, lacks copyright on title screen, no "more options" option.

Growl prototype (Aug 26, 1991)

A prototype of Growl for the Sega Mega Drive. Still has the "EASY" difficulty option despite being removed from the US release. Built a few months before Japanese release.

Paperboy prototype (Oct 28, 1991)

A prototype of Paperboy for the Sega Mega Drive. Built two months before the US final.

Pat Riley Basketball prototype (Jun 14, 1990)

A possible prototype of Pat Riley Basketball for the Sega Mega Drive. Almost the same as US final, except for a one byte code change and different data at the end (possibly padding).

R.B.I. Baseball 3 prototype (Jul 18, 1991)

A prototype of R.B.I Baseball 3 for the Sega Mega Drive. The copyright screen appears to be missing completely. Contains some other differences as well.

RoadBlasters prototype (Jun 27, 1991)

A prototype of Road Blasters for the Sega Mega Drive. Build date hints one month before final US, though header references Aug 1990.

Speedball 2 - Brutal Deluxe prototype (Jun 7, 1991)

A prototype of Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe for the Sega Mega Drive. Lacks trademark on the Arena company logo before the title screen. Demo mode starts with a different timer.

Tommy Lasorda Baseball localization prototype (Apr 30, 1989)

A possible revision prototype of the Tommy Lasorda Baseball localization for the Sega Mega Drive. Either pre-US final or pre-PAL final. Contains additional code to control the Z80 bus in VBlank. The code is present in the PAL final but absent in the US final and JP original, however it could be a debug setting.

Turbo Outrun prototype (Dec 9, 1991)

A late prototype of Turbo Outrun for the Sega Mega Drive. Sound test tracks not named yet.

Miscellaneous ROMs

Just like last week, there are a few ROMs that can be considered “Altered Finals”, where the build itself is based off a final ROM but altered slightly for whatever reason. These ROMs have nothing that changes the game in any way, but are included here as an interesting curiosity.

The games are as follows:

• Centurion - Defender of Rome (Apr 24, 1991 build)
• Home Alone 2 - Lost in New York (Sep 29, 1993 build)
• Ren & Stimpy - Stimpy's Invention (Dec 9, 1993 build)
• ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron (Sep 11, 1993 build)

Afterword

This is the last part of this month's Final ROM archive release. We recently retouched all the entries that we have so far to include some general information on what has been discovered so far. In case you're just tuning in, here's a recap of some of the best ones in case you missed it:

• Curse (Jun 26, 1990 prototype) - An unreleased localization of Curse. This game was reported many years ago in magazines but was never released in America.
• Mondu's Fight Palace (Jul 3, 1990 prototype) - Unreleased prototype of Mondu's Fight Palace before being changed to Fatman in Japan and Slaughter Sport in the US.
• Earnest Evans (Apr 19, 1994 prototype) - A prototype of Earnest Evans for the Sega Mega Drive. Has an unused intro and an unused ending, uses text from Japanese Sega CD port still.
• Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi (Oct 2, 1990 prototype) - A prototype of Shadow Dancer for the Sega Mega Drive.
• Battle Mania (May 28, 1991 prototype) - A prototype of Battle Mania (also known as Trouble Shooter in America).
• Thunder Force III (Aug 1, 1990 prototype) - A late prototype of Thunder Force III for the Sega Mega Drive.
• Sorcer Kingdom (Nov 8, 1991 prototype) - A prototype of Sorcer Kingdom. Many text and dialog differences, altered cutscenes, and map layouts.
• Street Smart (Jun 29, 1990 prototype) - A very different prototype of Street Smart for the Sega Mega Drive. Contains different gameplay, graphics, and even an unused ending!
• Gain Ground (Jul 27, 1990 prototype) - A prototype of Gain Ground that has no options screen but lots of inspirational engrish messages that were unused in the final!
• Master of Monsters (Apr 26, 1991 prototype) - A prototype of Master of Monsters with slightly different music and gameplay!
• Whip Rush (Jan 29, 1990 prototype) - A prototype of Whip Rush the Sega Mega Drive that might've been used at CES! Contains a number of differences.
• Growl (Aug 26, 1991 prototype) - A prototype of Growl for the Mega Drive.
• Turbo Outrun (Dec 9, 1991 prototype) - A prototype of Turbo Outrun for the Mega Drive.
• Jesse "The Body" Ventura Wrestling Superstars (Mar 2, 1992_prototype) - An unreleased localization of Thunder Pro Wrestling Retsuden for the Mega Drive!

As always, remember to keep tuning in sometime every week for more releases. And expect to see something different every month! Remember to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube for the latest as soon as it all happens. Be sure to tell your friends as well!

Until next time!

PS: You can download all the ROMs for this week here!