Forums

Sega Master System / Mark III / Game Gear
SG-1000 / SC-3000 / SF-7000 / OMV
Home - Forums - Games - Scans - Maps - Cheats - Credits
Music - Videos - Development - Hacks - Translations - Homebrew

View topic - Wonderboy in Monster World Prototype/Beta

Reply to topic
Author Message
  • Joined: 06 Apr 2009
  • Posts: 207
Reply with quote
Wonderboy in Monster World Prototype/Beta
Post Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2009 6:40 pm
Last edited by Logbomber on Sun Apr 19, 2009 8:51 pm; edited 1 time in total
I decided to have a close look at the Wonderboy in Monster World Proto/Beta.

Of course the Master System version is not the greatest of ports(compared to the mega drive version), but it is still a valid entry in the Wonderboy saga; Not to mention there is a released beta for it.

So what is all the fuss about a proto or beta anyway. It is the chance that there might be some new experience waiting, and let's face it, for hard core Wonderboy fans, we are starving for something new.

So did I find anything new you ask? Yes, I did, that is why I am posting.

First of all, it should be cleared up that if you press UP + A + B it warps you to a new area. I found that if you press Down + A + B it warps you also, in the opposite direction.

The bosses in the game cannot be killed, All except 1 boss, the Mushroom Spirit and it is completely different to the released version.

Here is a screenshot of the released version, which should look familiar:



Here is a screenshot of the proto version:



As you can see it is very different. The proto version Mushroom boss has been made similar to the Myconid Mushroom boss in Monster Land. It jumps around and as the fight goes on, it shoots out smaller mushrooms.

Although you can't die in the proto version (you get revived each time), your health still counts down to zero. I suggest trying to defeat the Mushroom Spirit without your health reaching zero from the beginning of the game, without using magic (as in the released version, you did not have any magic by the time you got to the boss).

Also, if you keep talking to an NPC over and over again, it shows you all the text in the game. Including many things that were left out of the Master System version, such as the Pygmy items. Which leads me into a strange find:



What is this?

Logbomber
MW2.jpg (66.31 KB)
MW2.jpg
MW3.jpg (106.57 KB)
MW3.jpg
MW1.jpg (70.71 KB)
MW1.jpg

  View user's profile Send private message
  • Joined: 10 Dec 2000
  • Posts: 592
  • Location: Australia and Japan
Reply with quote
Post Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2009 12:06 pm
You got me drooling. Do tell more.
  View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
  • Joined: 10 Aug 2005
  • Posts: 79
Reply with quote
Post Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2009 9:12 pm
You do know that if you talk to the yellow dragon in the dragon village in the normal game, over and over again he starts showing all the text that is on the cart yet never made it into the game, he mainly talks pygmy item talk, when i was younger I was convinced it must be in the game so I put an insane amount of hours into it searching for pygmy items :)
  View user's profile Send private message
  • Joined: 30 Dec 2008
  • Posts: 24
  • Location: Naples,Italy
Reply with quote
Post Posted: Sun Apr 19, 2009 12:09 pm
I'm very interested!!!!!

Tell me more. How do you reach this room?
  View user's profile Send private message
  • Joined: 06 Apr 2009
  • Posts: 207
Reply with quote
Post Posted: Sun Apr 19, 2009 8:33 pm
I went back and played the Released version (Master System) from start to finish, for an accurate comparison.

What I found, was that the whole world in the Beta version, is designed the same way as the Mega Drive version. The released master system version, is much smaller than the Beta version. It seems they ended up taking a few shortcuts to get the Master System version released.

Here is an example screenshot of something that is in the Beta but not in the Official Release.



The biggest example is the Pygmy quest:

First of all, I have confirmed that this strange room is the room where you are supposed to become Pygmy Wonderboy:



As can be seen from the screenshot from the megadrive game, they are the same room:



Then, there are these places that only Pygmy Wonderboy can enter, that are not in the Official Release:





Oh and here is some text where it talks about the Pygmy Items



What we know for sure is, that the Master System version could have been a whole lot more complete than it was ... hmm ... I wonder if anyone is interested in a re-make project lol.

Quote
You do know that if you talk to the yellow dragon in the dragon village in the normal game, over and over again he starts showing all the text that is on the cart yet never made it into the game, he mainly talks pygmy item talk


I tried this in the Official Release, but I can't get it to work. How exactly do you do it and when in the game? The Yellow Dragon says various things to you at various times, so it may be a matter or working out when the issue happens (ie. when he says "this" , then talk to him over and over again). About how many times did you talk to him too? lol Sorry for all the questions, but I am a wonderboy fanatic, so if there is something I haven't done then I have to do it (^_^)

Logbomber
MW6.jpg (95.36 KB)
MW6.jpg
MW7.jpg (45.1 KB)
MW7.jpg
MW4.jpg (121.8 KB)
MW4.jpg
MW5.jpg (118.64 KB)
MW5.jpg
MW8.jpg (90.61 KB)
MW8.jpg

  View user's profile Send private message
  • Joined: 10 Dec 2000
  • Posts: 592
  • Location: Australia and Japan
Reply with quote
Post Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 11:46 am
Yes a complete version would be sweet. A combo of both versions.
  View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
  • Joined: 03 Apr 2001
  • Posts: 601
  • Location: Asturias
Reply with quote
Post Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 1:54 pm
I just must ask if you guys are 100% sure that this game was developed by Westone.

It feels like 100 steps back in quality from any of their previous games (even the title screen looks copied by hand due to not having the original sprites), not to mention that the prototype is in English...
  View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
  • Joined: 06 Apr 2009
  • Posts: 207
Reply with quote
Post Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 3:56 pm
It was a Sega developed port of the Westone Mega Drive version.

However, Sega does have the rights to Wonderboy, so I consider it semi official ;)

Although it does not compare with the Mega Drive release, I still think it is an enjoyable game.

Logbomber
  View user's profile Send private message
  • Joined: 30 Dec 2008
  • Posts: 24
  • Location: Naples,Italy
Reply with quote
Post Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 5:20 pm


I've taken this treasure box (cheating with memory location of coordinates) and this box contain only an heart.
  View user's profile Send private message
  • Joined: 06 Apr 2009
  • Posts: 207
Reply with quote
Post Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 5:24 pm
I think that might be a new wonderboy first Shion. Nice work ... even if it is only a heart :)

I believe that if you did not have all the heart containers that you would recieve a heart container there.

Logbomber
  View user's profile Send private message
  • Joined: 30 Dec 2008
  • Posts: 24
  • Location: Naples,Italy
Reply with quote
Post Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 7:52 pm
Logbomber wrote

I believe that if you did not have all the heart containers that you would recieve a heart container there.

Logbomber


I thought it too.
  View user's profile Send private message
Frog
  • Guest
Reply with quote
Post Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2009 2:37 am
ICEknight wrote
I just must ask if you guys are 100% sure that this game was developed by Westone.
I don't think the SMS version was Westone, but it also bears mentioning that the MegaDrive version was the only one not done by Ryuchi Nishizawa, who I believe was working on Riot City at the time, so that's another reason it might be considered an oddball.
 
  • Site Admin
  • Joined: 08 Jul 2001
  • Posts: 8643
  • Location: Paris, France
Reply with quote
Post Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2009 3:40 am
That is unrelated but Westone was working on an WonderBoy-unrelated unreleased System-16 game. Shinichi Sakamoto sent me some tracks of that a while ago (asking me not to disclose them). Maybe it is time to go and ask him?
  View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
  • Joined: 10 Dec 2000
  • Posts: 592
  • Location: Australia and Japan
Reply with quote
Post Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2009 11:09 am
Bock wrote
That is unrelated but Westone was working on an WonderBoy-unrelated unreleased System-16 game. Shinichi Sakamoto sent me some tracks of that a while ago (asking me not to disclose them). Maybe it is time to go and ask him?


Please do. grovel grovel
  View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
  • Joined: 06 Apr 2009
  • Posts: 207
Reply with quote
Post Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2009 9:25 pm
While you are there, can you please ask him if Westone are planning to make another Monster World ... I know it is desperate, but surely one day they will make another installment in the Monster World saga.
  View user's profile Send private message
  • Joined: 10 Dec 2000
  • Posts: 592
  • Location: Australia and Japan
Reply with quote
Post Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 5:27 am
Logbomber wrote
While you are there, can you please ask him if Westone are planning to make another Monster World ... I know it is desperate, but surely one day they will make another installment in the Monster World saga.


Yes Bock, please do. Good Luck getting a reply. 99.5% of the time he doesn't reply. Made me look stupid to a sweedish games mag who wanted me to contact him. Long story. write me if you want to hear. Won't bore everyone more.

Hope he writes back.
  View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
  • Joined: 06 Apr 2009
  • Posts: 207
Reply with quote
Post Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 1:34 pm
Mind you Bock is in Japan, so maybe he could go visit them in person. The address is on the westone website (not sure if it is current).

Logbomber - The bomber of logs
  View user's profile Send private message
  • Joined: 02 Jan 2005
  • Posts: 665
Reply with quote
Post Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 10:41 am
Hey, Bock, if you ever get in touch with Sakamoto again, could you ask if he worked on Jaws for the NES? I've been on an LJN kick recently.
  View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
  • Joined: 06 Jan 2005
  • Posts: 177
Reply with quote
Post Posted: Sat Feb 07, 2015 3:09 pm
Was this ever dumped/released? And if not, could it be please? Would love to look around in this.

I played the SMS version of this game as a kid and only recently played the Mega Drive version for the first time. I was really shocked by the amount that was cut from the SMS version. I had no idea the original game was so big!

And finally I understand why the Dwarf Elder thanks you for saving the dwarf child in the SMS version. This dialogue puzzled me even as a kid, as at no point in the SMS game do you save any dwarf child. After playing the Mega Drive version I finally did save the dwarf child and realized that it must have just been removed from the SMS version. But for some reason they left the dialogue in...
  View user's profile Send private message
  • Site Admin
  • Joined: 08 Jul 2001
  • Posts: 8643
  • Location: Paris, France
Reply with quote
Post Posted: Sat Feb 07, 2015 3:36 pm
The dump is widely available. We released it in 1999. Look on other rom sites to find the files.
  View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
  • Joined: 06 Jan 2005
  • Posts: 177
Reply with quote
Post Posted: Sat Feb 07, 2015 5:32 pm
Bock wrote
The dump is widely available. We released it in 1999. Look on other rom sites to find the files.


Great thanks I'll have a look around.

One thing I don't understand though, I thought the SMS Power ROM mirrors included all the released dumps? I can't see it anywhere on these:
http://smspower.vk5fsks.com/roms/
http://smspower.emu-france.info/

Nor is it listed on the official releases page:
http://www.smspower.org/releases.shtml

?
  View user's profile Send private message
  • Site Admin
  • Joined: 08 Jul 2001
  • Posts: 8643
  • Location: Paris, France
Reply with quote
Post Posted: Sat Feb 07, 2015 5:36 pm
It is listed - but we actually released both the release build and the prototype on the same day in the same zip file at the time.
http://www.smspower.org/db/wboy5.shtml
The first page you linked to has in within the same ZIP file.
  View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
  • Joined: 06 Jan 2005
  • Posts: 177
Reply with quote
Post Posted: Sat Feb 07, 2015 5:39 pm
Bock wrote
It is listed - but we actually released both the release build and the prototype on the same day in the same zip file at the time.
http://www.smspower.org/db/wboy5.shtml
The first page you linked to has in within the same ZIP file.


Ah, that would explain it! Thanks again Bock
  View user's profile Send private message
Reply to topic



Back to the top of this page

Back to SMS Power!