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Santa claus somehow got sidetracked in the woods and arrived late this year, but we have three new prototypes with a focus on games that were renamed.

We have a Prototype of Fantasy Zone: The Maze for the Master System. Sega's interesting effort at creating a Pac-Man style arcade game using Fantasy Zone is actually a fun game on its own, perhaps shadowed by the comparison with mainline Fantasy Zone titles (in Japan the game was called "Opa Opa", but US/Europe were less scrupulous in using the Fantasy Zone brand to market it).

A Prototype of Wonder Boy for the Game Gear. Late prototypes in the USA where sometimes distributed in regular cartridge forms, with small-form EPROM chips. The game was eventually renamed to "Revenge of Drancon" for the US market but this cartridge proudly says "Wonder Boy" on label and title screen.

Mentioned in 1994 magazines as Global Golf, CodeMasters 3D golf effort carrying a 8 KB ram chip was eventually released as "Ernie Els Golf". It turns out that in their usual fashion of inundating medias with sample cartridges, CodeMasters created a fully packaged sample set which we spotted in 2012 (thread). Here's the dump for Prototype Global Golf for the Game Gear !

Please note that CodeMasters own checksum (which appears when holding both 1+2 buttons during boot) is faulty on this version for some reason but the game itself runs correctly.

Enjoy the last few days of 2023 :)

gg-usa-proto-wonder boy-01.jpg (231.54 KB)

gg-usa-proto-wonder boy-02.jpg (220.77 KB)

gg-usa-proto-wonder boy-03.jpg (223.52 KB)

gg-usa-proto-wonder boy-01-thumb.jpg (39.27 KB)

Global Golf (thumb).jpg (36.91 KB)

GlobalGolf-01.jpg (277.37 KB)

GlobalGolf-02.jpg (175.68 KB)

GlobalGolf-03.jpg (249.87 KB)

GlobalGolf-04.jpg (205.89 KB)

GlobalGolf-05.jpg (151.96 KB)

Fantasy Zone The Maze (Proto).jpg (401.98 KB)

Fantasy Zone The Maze (Proto) (Thumb).jpg (70.45 KB)

This message might auto destruct itself someday.

fantasy_zone_the_maze-proto-sms.zip (65.22 KB)

wonder_boy-proto-gg.zip (77.48 KB)

global_golf-proto-gg.zip (166.67 KB)

Very nice work, as always!

Bock wrote

This message might auto destruct itself someday.

Thank you :)

Nice to see more history documented!

bsittler wrote

Nice to see more history documented!

Ah I forgot to thank you Ben for being the mailbox and reshipper to buy the Wonder Boy prototype from the USA :)
Thanks!

Bock wrote

bsittler wrote

Nice to see more history documented!

Ah I forgot to thank you Ben for being the mailbox and reshipper to buy the Wonder Boy prototype from the USA :)
Thanks!

No worries at all, I am just glad that it worked out and got released

Author	Message
Bock Site Admin Joined: 08 Jul 2001 Posts: 8653 Location: Paris, France	End of year 2023: 3 prototypes: Fantasy Zone: The Maze (SMS), Global Golf (GG), Wonder Boy (GG) Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2023 10:44 pm
	Santa claus somehow got sidetracked in the woods and arrived late this year, but we have three new prototypes with a focus on games that were renamed. We have a Prototype of Fantasy Zone: The Maze for the Master System. Sega's interesting effort at creating a Pac-Man style arcade game using Fantasy Zone is actually a fun game on its own, perhaps shadowed by the comparison with mainline Fantasy Zone titles (in Japan the game was called "Opa Opa", but US/Europe were less scrupulous in using the Fantasy Zone brand to market it). A Prototype of Wonder Boy for the Game Gear. Late prototypes in the USA where sometimes distributed in regular cartridge forms, with small-form EPROM chips. The game was eventually renamed to "Revenge of Drancon" for the US market but this cartridge proudly says "Wonder Boy" on label and title screen. Mentioned in 1994 magazines as Global Golf, CodeMasters 3D golf effort carrying a 8 KB ram chip was eventually released as "Ernie Els Golf". It turns out that in their usual fashion of inundating medias with sample cartridges, CodeMasters created a fully packaged sample set which we spotted in 2012 (thread). Here's the dump for Prototype Global Golf for the Game Gear ! Please note that CodeMasters own checksum (which appears when holding both 1+2 buttons during boot) is faulty on this version for some reason but the game itself runs correctly. Enjoy the last few days of 2023 :) gg-usa-proto-wonder boy-01.jpg (231.54 KB) gg-usa-proto-wonder boy-02.jpg (220.77 KB) gg-usa-proto-wonder boy-03.jpg (223.52 KB) gg-usa-proto-wonder boy-01-thumb.jpg (39.27 KB) Global Golf (thumb).jpg (36.91 KB) GlobalGolf-01.jpg (277.37 KB) GlobalGolf-02.jpg (175.68 KB) GlobalGolf-03.jpg (249.87 KB) GlobalGolf-04.jpg (205.89 KB) GlobalGolf-05.jpg (151.96 KB) Fantasy Zone The Maze (Proto).jpg (401.98 KB) Fantasy Zone The Maze (Proto) (Thumb).jpg (70.45 KB)

Bock Site Admin Joined: 08 Jul 2001 Posts: 8653 Location: Paris, France	Attachment Fairy Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2023 10:46 pm
	This message might auto destruct itself someday. fantasy_zone_the_maze-proto-sms.zip (65.22 KB) wonder_boy-proto-gg.zip (77.48 KB) global_golf-proto-gg.zip (166.67 KB)

carmiker Joined: 04 Sep 2021 Posts: 7	Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2023 3:27 am
carmiker Joined: 04 Sep 2021 Posts: 7	Very nice work, as always!

yogi_om Joined: 05 Apr 2020 Posts: 28 Location: Marseille	Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2023 8:34 am
	Bock wrote This message might auto destruct itself someday. Thank you :)

bsittler Joined: 22 Apr 2018 Posts: 530	Posted: Wed Jan 03, 2024 4:16 pm
bsittler Joined: 22 Apr 2018 Posts: 530	Nice to see more history documented!

Bock Site Admin Joined: 08 Jul 2001 Posts: 8653 Location: Paris, France	Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2024 7:52 pm
	bsittler wrote Nice to see more history documented! Ah I forgot to thank you Ben for being the mailbox and reshipper to buy the Wonder Boy prototype from the USA :) Thanks!

bsittler Joined: 22 Apr 2018 Posts: 530	Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2024 12:31 am
bsittler Joined: 22 Apr 2018 Posts: 530	Bock wrote bsittler wrote Nice to see more history documented! Ah I forgot to thank you Ben for being the mailbox and reshipper to buy the Wonder Boy prototype from the USA :) Thanks! No worries at all, I am just glad that it worked out and got released

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