There may well be substantial differences between the prerelease and final versions of these early games. Let's use 3 Count Bout as an example. There was a playable character in early screenshots of the game that was removed from the released version. If anyone ever came across a proto version of 3 Count Bout with that character in it, that's gold baby! So these games need to be scrutinized pretty closely...
Ok, time to update this thread a little.
Today I have met with the guy that these Pre-release carts came from and have spent a few hours chatting together about them and his involvement with the industry.
He has been in the Arcade industry since the early/mid seventies and has been involved in many, many things. One of the main points of discussion was about the history of these carts and how he came about them. He was such a large influencial person in the industry and he was presented with many games before they became into production.
Anyway, these carts he confirmed to me that he was aware of many Neo Geo games that had some major changes to them months before release and that could have included level layout, sound effects changes and even changes to enemy sprite positions and volume, and therefore was adamant that these carts would have differences from the completed production versions. Unfortunatley, work has meant I have not had time to commit to the investigation, but I will and it will be compltetly documented for you all soon.
He mentioned to me, that being a large distributor in the UK for many companies he had very close relations with them all and had a large input into how the games were actually developed. One of these being NAM-1975 and he believes he still has some original sketches of the game during its conceptual phase, I will keep you updated if they surface.
Then the conversation eventually got onto unrelesed carts and he said that he had seen many over the years from all manufacturers/sytems and sadly believes to have destroyed more than you would care to think about. He recollected three Neo Geo games to me that he remembers playing that never got released. I am not going to say too much just yet, but I will say that we looked through the Master list together and none of the ones he mentioned to me are listed at all.
We also discussed one f his friends in Italy that he definitely yknows had some unreleased Neo games and he is going to pass me their details so will be follwoing that lead very shortly as well.
So, we have exchanged details and hopefully I am meeting up with him again soon and once I have more concrete evidence I will share my findings.
That's completely unexpected and totally awesome. Keep us updated.
Well, it's great to have an update on this. But it's confusing whether or not to get excited about it.
On the one hand, it would be absolutely awesome if the 2 or 3 unreleased games he is referring to were actually the very same 2 or 3 as of yet unknown & undiscovered protos that still elude us.
On the other hand, V-Liner, Jockey Grand Prix, & Poker Kingdom / Bingo Island are technically 3 "unofficial" & sort of "unreleased" titles that could be put into a multislot board and wired up to a switch at "special" locations to allow for "gambling" where it is not legal. (trust me, I know plenty of operators who did so with 2-slot boards out on their routes)
And so that would be a buzz kill right there. If these "unreleased" carts are "applications" such as neo print carts, gambling carts, accounting, etc. then that is not very exciting at all.
But if they turn out to be Athena 2, Ikari Warriors 4, or Iron Tank 2, then I will dance a jig right here and now.
I suppose the additional contact in Italy who allegedly may have "other" unreleased protos may be a better shot at some of the really "wanted" titles that we seek. So by all means, yes, please continue the pursuit. I am an optimist and I am confident that at the very least something will come from following this lead.
Thanks again for the update!
He recollected three Neo Geo games to me that he remembers playing that never got released. I am not going to say too much just yet, but I will say that we looked through the Master list together and none of the ones he mentioned to me are listed at all.
We also discussed one f his friends in Italy that he definitely yknows had some unreleased Neo games and he is going to pass me their details so will be follwoing that lead very shortly as well.
Awesome, that's getting more interesting every post!
Hope something cool will surface.
It happened that one of the biggest distributors for Europe was indeed GEVIN from Naples, Italy:
Definitively, some big movement occurred.
A sad note, hopefully they are not the contact, as they runt out of business years ago, selling pretty everything to some italian member here, me included
Fortunatley Massi, that is not the name of the company in Italy that I have been given. He said that he actually had lunch with the guy last week and they are definitely still in business. Fingers crossed that leads to something...
Bi-Plane I am assuming is Ghost Pilots, probably another early version. Makes me wonder if the title screen actually says Bi-Plane.
I don't think it is... from what he described it was a 1 on 1 battle game.
Interesting, like Atari's old Combat or something, then. That would be a really interesting game to find.