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Off the Wall for Game Gear (and PC Engine)
Post Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2017 3:48 pm
Last edited by Bock on Sun Jul 23, 2017 3:51 pm; edited 1 time in total
We are on a roll! After our previous set of releases for the 20th anniversary, I managed to get hold of another unreleased game.




Off the Wall for the Game Gear is an adaptation of the Atari arcade game, something between Breakout and Atari's Warlords, a multiplayer brick breaking game. The game was only released in the arcades, and this Game Gear version was ported by Teeny Weeny Games. This version appears to support 2 players via the Gear-to-Gear cable, but I haven't tried that yet. It's unfortunately lacking in the graphics development, and the developer decision to use 4x4 tiles for ease of deelopment makes for a very small playfield. Perhaps they could have managed to use 6x6 tiles?

I got hold of this 9 years after we first spotted the game in retro reviews, and 7 years after someone showed up with a prototype cartridge for it, which eventually got sold and went through other hands. Here it is today!

And...



We are going to break tradition here, because I also got hold of a PC Engine version of Off the Wall. This has been teased a few times over the years. first by Nekofan a long time ago, then more recently by Jun Amanai who programmed that port and apparently own some versions of it. Comparing the version I obtained with Jun's, it seems that Jun's version is more recent and complete. This PC Engine build here seems to be a work-in-progress debug version, where you can skip levels at the press of a button, and not all features have been implemented. Still a cool thing! The files are below.

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Temporary Transitional Attachment Fairy
Post Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2017 3:49 pm
This message will auto destruct itself someday.

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PC Engine version screenshots
Post Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2017 3:50 pm
Screenshots of the PC Engine version (taken with Magic Engine).

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Post Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2017 4:39 pm
Thank you for all your efforts. Without you, games like these could have been lost forever ´cause nobody ever discovered them.
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Post Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2017 9:21 pm
Thank you so much!

edit: And GG2SMS conversion posted ;)
 
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Post Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2017 5:22 am
Very cool! This game was at my local arcade. So much fun.
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Post Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2017 3:22 am
As always, thanks for all your work. :)
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Post Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2017 5:17 am
Is this any relation to the Atari 2600 game with the same name?
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Post Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2017 6:21 am
Gamegearguy wrote
Is this any relation to the Atari 2600 game with the same name?

No
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Post Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2017 11:19 am
Gamegearguy wrote
Is this any relation to the Atari 2600 game with the same name?


Yes it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze6azP0FZI8
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Post Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2017 1:38 pm
No, that's the arcade game this is a port of. There's also a 2600 game that is completely unrelated.
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Post Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2017 2:17 pm
Ok, I guess the title of that video is a bit misleading.
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Post Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2017 10:15 pm
Gordman wrote
Ok, I guess the title of that video is a bit misleading.

Related: Atari game of same name made in 1989

Unrelated: game of same name released for Atari 2600 console
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Post Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2017 3:24 pm
Ah thanks Matt, that Atari word was the problem :D
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Post Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2017 2:51 pm
I am working on a german article for this game at the moment.
But I am lacking of good screenshots. If anybody is playing the game the next days, I would be thankful for some pictures =) It´s an amazing game, what a shame that it was never released. It has wonderful music and sound effects and the stage designs are super creative. Only the backgrounds look unfinished.
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Post Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2017 3:05 pm
There are screenshots here:
http://www.smspower.org/Screenshots/OffTheWall-GG
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Post Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2017 4:47 pm
Gordman wrote
Only the backgrounds look unfinished.


For some reason, those backgrounds remind me a lot of the shirts Parker Lewis was wearing in that TV series.
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Post Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2017 5:40 pm
Bock wrote
There are screenshots here:
http://www.smspower.org/Screenshots/OffTheWall-GG


I know, thank you. But there is much more to show in my opinion, like the screens that show you the upcoming special bricks (like the dancing ones or the parachute ones) or pictures of levels like the guitar or the windmill (which means the bricks have the form of those). Just amazing stuff. I´m still not using emulators, maybe I´m too dumb for it haha
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Post Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2017 6:32 pm
Well, I think you can learn in order to get the screenshots you want. It's pretty simple.
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Post Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2017 1:27 pm
Maxim wrote
Well, I think you can learn in order to get the screenshots you want. It's pretty simple.


So what about a small startup guide?^^
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Post Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2017 4:15 pm
1. Download an emulator
2. Unzip it (usually)
3. Download a ROM
4. Run the emulator
5. Load the ROM
6. Guess the keys
7. Find the screenshot function

I can't recommend any single emulator, some are more user friendly and others are more configurable for the kind of experience you want. Emulicious, Meka, Kega all seem good to me.
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Post Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2017 2:47 pm
I downloaded Meka, but it told me there is a missing data (MSVCR71.dll). Even after downloading this data, it didn´t started. My wonderful PC again *rolleyes*

Edit november 14th: Here is my finished article (in german):
http://www.gordmansgametreasure.com/report-off-the-wall.htm?nocache=1510623565
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