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Super Volley '94
In March of 1994, the FIRST RUN of MVS cartridges were manufactured with the
66 MEG Super Volleyball '94 version of the game contained within. These cartridges
were quickly recalled and modified by SNK. Shortly afterwards, in September of 1994,
a SECOND RUN of MVS cartridges went out with the 82 MEG version of the game. These
boards were populated with replacement P, M, and S mask roms as well as 2 additional
C roms.
The known differences are the obvious title screen change and subsequent attract
mode title logo of the game. In addition, it has a completely different introduction
sequence opening. (video and BGM are altered) And finally the league selection screen
has the men, women, and hyper choices in different order and with different icons.
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE COMPLETE ARTICLE ON THIS GAME!
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The King of Fighters '91
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King of Fighters '91
Former Capcom developers Takashi Nishiyama and Hiroshi Matsumoto,
joined SNK sometime after creating the original Street Fighter back
in August of 1987. They developed Fatal Fury both as a spiritual
successor to SF1 as well as an answer to SF2. Street Fighter 2 was
released in February of 1991 and Fatal Fury in November of 1991.
While SF1 offerred 2 fighters to select from (Ryu and Ken) FF1
gave the player 3 choices with Terry, Andy, and Joe. The animation
was much smoother and the graphics and sounds were far better. It
also told a more Americanized story which USA players could relate
to much better.
What SNK didn't count on (or see coming) was that Capcom had also
worked on a successor to SF1 and it beat them to the coin op market
by 8 months. Capcom's game was also light years ahead in terms of
it's own improvements over their original. With 8 characters to choose
from and the ability for 2 players to use the same character.
SNK would quickly realize this and catch up almost immediately with
Fatal Fury 2, released a year later in December of 1992. And from here
on it was a back and forth battle between Capcom and SNK.
Anyhow, here are some early beta screenshots of the original Fatal
Fury for NEOGEO. It would be very interesting to see how and why SNK
made the many changes to the game.
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Examples of beta NEO-GEO title screens
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Baseball Stars 2
Baseball Stars 2 was originally referred to in SNK documents as
"Baseball Stars Professional II". It was also stated that the player
could play in leagues and tournaments. Baseball Stars 2 originally had
solid black letters for its title as well as different colors utilized
for the stars, the uniforms, etc. The US title screen was also altered
prior to release from crediting SNK Corporation to the newly reformed
SNK Home Entertainment. Even some debug code can be seen on the top
right corner of the title as well.
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King of the Monsters 2
King of the Monsters 2, which has the subtitle of "The Next Thing"
was originally called The Next Thing, with the subtitle of King of the
Monsters II" The first big "sequel" push by SNK came to us during
this time with these three games, as well as the Japanese Quiz Detective 2
game. Someone in the marketing department must have been debating these
last minute changes to the titles of these games.
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Sengoku 2
SNK put quite a bit of effort and detail into the Sengoku games. They were
intended to be the shining stars of the beat 'em up genre. But the theme of
Sengoku was (at the time) considered to be unsuitable for the US market. Even
the title was going to be changed because it sounded too foreign. (The working
title was Battle World) And by the time Sengoku 2 was nearing completion, the
genre was fading away. Sengoku 2 originally had 6 stages, but the final release
was cut down to just 4. The removed stages were excessively violent and contained
offensive religious symbols. The game had a very small production run on both
MVS and HOME formats and the English home cart release was only intended for
the EUROPEAN market.
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE COMPLETE ARTICLE ON THIS GAME!
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Here we can see that Robo Army originally used different colors for
the title text and originally kept the forward marching army from the
introduction sequence in the background behind it.
Take a look at this radically different and much simpler looking title screen shot
taken from an earlier March 1996 rom build of Ninja Master's. (the final was released in June 1996)
An early title screen for Puzzle de Pon with its' original working title.
An early beta title screen for Neo Mr. Do! with a 1995 copyright date and a red and white versus red and yellow logo.
An early beta title screen for Neo Drift Out. Again, a plain black background and the "All Right Reserved" line is missing the S.
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