Lost Neo Geo Prototype FOUND, REVEALED & RELEASED : "DarkSeed"

suicidekiller

Host for Orochi,
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I was watching the video haze posted in his blog. While he browsed thru the C roms palette, end of the vid, the first set looks alot like what was supposed to be on the title screen. Is out of order so someone has to solve this puzzle. Japanese knowledge will definitely help.

View attachment 34931

It just reads "ranking" in the middle and the Kanji below are Japanese numbers for one to ten. So nothing special or even title screen material ;)
 

Rot

Calvin & Hobbes, ,
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Also, hello to all the lurkers from Mizuumi IRC, NeoGAF, and Shmups.org!

Love,
~cuilan

Screen%20Shot%202016-04-10%20at%2020.48.34_zpsvpwvzafg.png


xROTx
 

Razoola

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How do I get that 'members who have read this thread' option? :)
 

Waverider2049

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Is it possible that someone like Raz could take what is here and when more information is given, can actually finish it and do a release? Not knowledgable at all in terms of programming so excuse me if My question is ignorant.
 

LegoSlug

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This thread really took off after last night. Thanks for all the hard work. It is an incredible find, a shame it was never completed.
 

kuk

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I am very glad to this discovery
NeoMasta, you have no mention of the Compagny in the Rom ?
thanks for these informations
 

oliverclaude

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Just a simple W O W ! ! !

Compleated and released, it would have probably been just another turd, now it's a living legend, just like the man, who found it. Indy would have been damn proud of you, Turf ;). Congrats!!!
 
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Guess its a smell of money type thing and less a "hey this is an amazing story"

All this time I thought it was the NeoGeo scene that was obsessed with money. ;)

I remember this board when it was up for sale. I was tempted to go for it, but I'm glad I didn't, and that it went to a good home.
 

Geddon_jt

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Alternate theory. Gowcaizer was a licensed title. Perhaps the game began development prior to the license being secured which explains the 66 NGH number. If the mechanics are the same they could have basically changed the sprites and other art to the licensed characters later in production. It would be interesting to match up a move set for a character or 2 from the proto to Gowcaizer. Bad news guys, testing this theory will require somebody to (gasp) actually play Gowcaizer. Any volunteers??
 

Samuray

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Is it possible that someone like Raz could take what is here and when more information is given, can actually finish it and do a release? Not knowledgable at all in terms of programming so excuse me if My question is ignorant.


I was wondering the same thing, although I'm guessing no. If the game is not completed it wouldn't be playable, I suppose.

Would love to be wrong, though - this would be amazing :)
 

famicommander

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This is really awesome. Makes you wonder what other prototypes are out there waiting to be discovered.
 

BanishingFlatsAC

formerly DZ
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I'm just glad Turfy found this and not another one of these proto hoarders, or else non if us would have ever seen it.
 

Razoola

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In my view this proto is so early in development (post voltage fighter or near completion) that it was not ready for submission to SNK to have a number assigned. You could almost say its possible the artists had finished voltage fighter and started drawing more characters for a new fighter (they had a story line outlined) while the programmers tidied up voltage fighter and removed the final bugs. The bosses probably did not want them in the office twiddling their thumbs.
 

Tyranix95

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Data remanence is the residual representation of digital data that remains after the data has been deleted, erased, or removed.

In sum, you need data recovery $peciali$t$.
 

fenikso

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I can 100% say that data is gone. Every time I inserted the cards into my reader, the data on the cards changed and was garbage. Both batteries were fuzzy and green registering no voltage. I tested it many times before giving up.

Damn, that sucks. Glad we got what we did out if it, but it should have been found by you close to tweny years earlier.

Can this thing do a limited two player? No AI, but two people playing some of the more completed characters against each other?
 

SuperGun

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It just reads "ranking" in the middle and the Kanji below are Japanese numbers for one to ten. So nothing special or even title screen material ;)

If it says ranking, then it's not the pieces of a title screen, but the pieces of a high score table screen.
 

Jonmkl

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My good lord this is sick..

Thank you for finding this NeoTurf, Jesus.
 
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Data remanence is the residual representation of digital data that remains after the data has been deleted, erased, or removed.

In sum, you need data recovery $peciali$t$.

The article wikipedia links says data retention is at best 10 seconds at room temperature with modern chips.
 

fenikso

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The article wikipedia links says data retention is at best 10 seconds at room temperature with modern chips.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say we've passed the ten second mark on these bad boys.
 

NeoTurfMasta

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The article wikipedia links says data retention is at best 10 seconds at room temperature with modern chips.

Yeah I went through some articles that basically said they chips would have to be frozen for it to retain a decent amount of residual data. I can see about contacting someone, but I think I know what their answer when I tell them it's been 20 years in unknown temperatures.
 
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