That's right children, even though you've all been very naughty this year, dear old Santa is forgetful in his old age and has brought you some ROMs anyway. Let's see what's under the tree...


Let's go back to Japan in 1984 and get out our Othello Multivisions, because we have Challenge Derby [16k] for the OMV. I guess it's about horse-racing, gambling and other wholesome childhood activities. But wait! For the same low, low price of nothing you can get the exact same game only bigger: Challenge Derby [40k] for the OMV. Can you spot the differences? Both versions are actually 16KB underneath, but the rainbow title screen suggests there may be other changes too.


That should last us four years or so until 1988 when we can get hold of Miracle Warriors - Seal of The Dark Lord [Proto] for the Master System. If thou be strong and noble, a mighty quest awaits thee! If thou be not, well, it awaits thee anyway. As usual, if you can find what's different between this and the final release, we'd be happy to hear about it.


Next we have Double Hawk [Proto] for the Master System. Shoot bad guys to rid the world of 1990 of war! That makes sense. Where does Santa get all these prototype from? I guess the developers all have open fireplaces.


1990 also brought us Aerial Assault (US) for the Master System. It's just like the European version but with more spangled stars, balder eagles and pluribuser unums.


Now let's get out our Game Gears because we have four new games. First comes Galaga 2 for the Game Gear from 1992. Known as Galaga '91 in Japan, they changed the name for this European release to avoid people wondering how they missed the intervening 89 sequels.


Then we have Astérix and the Secret Mission for the Game Gear, which is pretty much the same as the Master System version but shrunken down to fit the Game Gear screen.


If you like football, you'll probably like Striker for the Game Gear (1995). If you don't, then you probably won't. It is pretty arcadey and the only option is the huge list of countries' teams. North Korea vs. Iran? No problem.


Finally, from 1996 we have Baku Baku (US) for the Game Gear. A fun little puzzle game with weird pre-rendered 3D animals popping out of the screen.

Three releases today, just in time to avoid a two month gap without releases :)

First we have the very rare Tarzan - Lord of the Jungle for Game Gear, late and elusive 1994 release. Just are ugly as it is rare, Tarzan is another of those blend occidental platformer with tons of enemies and not one pattern worth remembering. Cure yourself with a bit of Wonder Boy or Alex Kidd after playing! Thanks for Brynaldo for lending his copy for dumping.

Next we have a Shanghai [Prototype] for the Master System (上海). Early puzzle classic, despite its average production value it's a game always worth playing and addicting. This prototype was spotted and obtained from US.

Last but not least, of limited play interest but quite surprising, we have a The Smurfs Travel the World [Prototype] for the Master System obtained from a source close to the original developer. It's worth mentionning for those who don't know that The Smurfs Travel the World is the last European Master System game to have been released and in extremely limited quantity. The prototype, a near or post final version, has a label dating the ROM "12 October 1996". More pictures of the board in this thread.

Sega has released today a trial version of Fantasy Zone II DX, a remake of SMS Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa Opa, ported to Fantasy Zone's original System-16 Arcade Board. Beautiful and truly insane.



Forum thread with download link:
http://www.smspower.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11207

The full version will be released on September 11 on the Playstation 2, as a part of the Fantasy Zone Complete Collection pack.

Four new releases today, including proper clarification on the various dumps of Olympic Gold.

First we have Super Battletank for the Game Gear, an original title based on so-called "Operation Desert Storm". Unlike EA's attempt at cashing-in from an ongoing murder party with 'Desert Strike', Super Battletank is absolutely awful to play, with not an element to save it from gameplay misery.

Heavy weight Champ for the Gear Gear, Japanese version (ヘビーウェイト チャンプ), decent boxing game. Apparently this version was only released in Japan. Notice the spelling "Heavy weight" with a space, which was corrected for the exported Master System.

Star Wars for the Game Gear, European dump, which is only a minor header change from the US dump.

Last we have Taiwanese/Pirate dump of Olympic Gold for the Game Gear, which is simply an hack over the original version of game to permit running it on unlicensed cartridges.

Here's a run down of all correct Olympic Gold dumps, now all verified and confirmed. All other are bad dumps AFAIK.

Code:

It is still possible that we find out that some dumps got released in other countries (eg: the supposedly Korean dump), but all those CRC32 at least are correct variations of the game, one being an unlicensed modification. I have included all five dumps on the download page.

Two - almost similar - releases today.

- First is Olympic Gold for the Master System, European version, confirmed from European, English, French, German, Spanish and Australian cartridges. Although this was dumped a LONG time ago, confirming various versions including the Game Gear ones - soon to be all released - took quite a bit of time. I'm now done with them and very happy to be over with this game.

- Second is Olympic Gold for the Master System, Korean cartridge, which unlike what's expected doesn't contain any Korean text and include all the regular European languages. So the exact difference between this and the regular European dump is unknown so far. Thanks for Raccoon Lad for providing the Korean cartridge for this game!

The only reason I'm not releasing the various Game Gear dumps right now is that I don't have them handy but I will shortly.

Two Japanese dumps today.

First we have a variation of Aerial Assault for the Game Gear (エアリアルアサルト). The code only include a minor change related to the game initialization process, and I believe is related to Game Gear with or without BIOS (someone in the forum will probably analyze this in more depth).

Second we have Garou Densetsu Special for the Game Gear (餓狼伝説スペシャル), Japanese version of Fatal Fury Special, as ported by Takara from its original NeoGeo version. Graphics were scaled in a way that looking close at them they appear awful, but in the end the original animation key frames are respected with good detail.

See you soon for more dumps!