Unreleased Neo Geo Game Writeup: QP (Quality People)

Digmac

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QP - NGH 204​

In May of 1995, Neo Geo Freak magazine had its first issue published. On page number 111 of this magazine, there’s a list of new releases and games currently in development for the Neo Geo platforms. In the list of Neo Geo CD games, there was a new puzzle game slated for a January 1996 release titled “QP.

QP ended up going unreleased for unknown reasons, leaving the information we have on the game, stuck in Japanese magazines like Neo Geo Freak and Gamest. Someone did create a Wikipedia article on QP, however, a lot of the information contained in the magazines is not stated on that article. Today, since I recently got in the magazines talking about QP, I wanted to do a writeup in English with the information that’s available to us. Enjoy!

After Neo Geo Freak Vol. 1, QP continued to be featured in the “in development” lists of Neo Geo Freak magazines. In Neo Geo Freak Vol. 8, December of 1995, the release date was changed from January of 1996, to simply 1996 with no month specified. A percentage of completion was also added, which put QP development at 50% complete as of December 1995. By February of 1996, a release date was no longer listed for QP, and in March of 1996 it was removed from the list of games in development. The April 1996 issue of Neo Geo Freak reinstated QP on the list, stating the same 50% of development completion and no window for release. Development completion stayed the same in the magazines until January of 1997 where the percentage jumped from 50% to 80% complete. In the next issue in February 1997, QP was changed from a Neo Geo CD title, to an MVS title. We would finally get the first look at QP in the March 1997 issue, which bumped up the development completion to 85%.

QP is a variety puzzle game with mini games, similar to something like Puzzle & Action: Tant-R by Sega. In the game you have 6 opponents to defeat in order to beat the game. They are numbered 1 through 6 and are always in the same order when you play the game.

There is a board game element when you’re playing against the opponents. As you win, you move further along on the board towards the boss. When you beat the boss mini game and defeat the current opponent, you’ll move on to the next until you’ve beaten all 6 and completed the game. On the board, there are different squares, each representing a different type of mini game. Squares marked “P” stand for “Puzzle” type mini games, “A” for “Action” mini games, and “B” for “Bonus” mini games. When you land on a puzzle or action space, the mini game played is selected at random with a roulette style. Puzzle type games involve some sort of thinking, such as spotting the difference in a picture, or solving a jigsaw puzzle. Action type games involve more input from the player, through joystick movement, specific button pressing, or rapid button pressing. Bonus squares can replenish your lives or give you items to help you in the game. It would make sense that you would lose a life when you lose in a mini game, and when your lives are out it’s game over.

In total there are 20 mini games in QP; 10 puzzle type and 10 action type games. There are also 3 different bonus games that could be played. The number of bonus games were quite a bit smaller than the main mini games, but this is possibly due to the fact that there are only two bonus spaces per 25 space board.

A developer interview was given as well, in the March 1997 Neo Geo Freak issue, by a female developer going by the name “Ito Shinobu”. About the delays in development, Ito credits other work coming in that ended up pushing QP development to the side. It was expected to be finished closer to when development started, but after the other jobs had passed, she saw that a lot of things on QP needed work. Ito states that she was glad to be able to flesh the game out more when development restarted. An interesting note is that all of the opponents were robots at the start of development, but as time passed, she decided to change things to a quirkier cast of characters. Ito gives details behind the name as well, which originally meant “Quiz” and “Puzzle” due to the game having more quiz focused gameplay earlier in development. As things progressed the quiz elements got dropped in favor of more engaging gameplay, and Ito had to come up with a new meaning behind “QP”. She ended up going with “Quality People” once development had restarted. Her last comments are about the story of the game. It involves the final boss invading the land of where the two main characters live. Apparently, the full story details were too long to explain after putting a coin in and pressing start. Ito instead put the story explanation in the attract mode loop, which looped in this order: Title screen demo – gameplay demo – story explanation.

From the screenshots that we have, the game looks to have been very cutesy. Having a female lead developer, though, it makes sense. I think it fits well with the Japanese market being it’s focus. Neo Geo Freak magazine finally pulled it off of its development list in their August 1998 issue, after four years of being listed. Would a cutesy variety game that’s four years old already have done well? Probably not. Since some of the mini games relied on the Japanese language, and development was stalled multiple times, English localization would have been a pipe dream if it was released. It’s still interesting to see what could have been, and to get a better look at QP.
 

Digmac

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QP screenshot & art gallery: https://imgur.com/a/ImBGJrZ

Character List
1P – Tendō Tomo
2P – Tendō Megu
1st opponent – Atamayoiko
2nd opponent – Toirino Hanako
3rd opponent – Koeruno Riki
4th opponent – Berusaiyu Nobara
5th opponent – Ran Howan & Ran Pai
6th opponent – Marīaso Tatowa Yatsuterasowa

Puzzle Mini Game List
Kurīn Pīsu (Clean Piece) – Jigsaw Puzzle
Kyatch Kopī (Catch Copy) – Find the similarities
Bunbuku Chanpuru (Bunbuku Champ?) – Find the differences
Mojimoji Anburera (Moji Moji Umbrella) – Kanji quiz
Sukuranburu Eggu (Scrambled Eggs) – Card game, Concentration, match the pictures
Tango Tango – Word guessing from scrolling English letters
Kimiwowasurenai (I Won’t Forget You) – Character memorization
Do Kan Han Kan Kuesuchon (Same Can Opposite Can Question) – Yes/No question quiz
Shippo Furi Ma SHOW! (Furry Tail SHOW! ?) – A butt with a tail mimics the brush strokes of a Japanese character, and you have to guess which one it is. The characters are all Hiragana.
Pea Bea Kyūpiddo (Pair Bear Cupid) – Word Association

Action Mini Game List
Enzeru to Gurē Teru (Angel and Grey) – Shooting game, STG
Saru Saru Ukki (Monkey Tree Climb) – Press buttons rapidly to climb the pole
Akazukin-Chan (Little Red Riding Hood) – Little Red Riding Hood themed Whack-A-Mole
Wakage no Anbaransu (Unbalanced Follies) – Balancing game, tightrope?
Kururi Mawari Ningyō (Spinning Doll) – Japanese spinning top (Beigoma) game
Moraru to Ahirunoko (Morals and Ducklings) – Shooting game like target practice involving
ducklings
Ōsama no Hana wa Buta no Hana (Flower of the King, Flower of the Pig) Childrens game of Daruma-San ga koronda, an outdoors game played for sport.
Miru Miru Yaseru (?) – Gachapon style game, pull a lever and something happens
Arabian Faiya (Arabian Fire) – Input specific commands with the joystick and buttons
Matchi Keshi no Shōjo (Match Out Girl) – Extinguish the fire by rapidly pressing buttons

Bonus Mini Game List
QP Fukubiki (QP Lottery) – Random bonus
Sutoppu Chansu (Stop Chance) – Roulette style bonus game
Parasoru Bonbon (Parasol Bonbon) – Parachute landing, possibly one lands faster than the other and that’s your bonus.
 
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Tempest

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I wonder if a working prototype still exists? It looks like it could be fun, like a more limited Mario Party. Too bad the Japanese language dependency would have been a barrier to those of us in the US.

I really wish there were more prototype pages for Neo Geo protos. Billy Pitts old page is good, but he doesn't seem to update it much and there's missing/limited info on a lot of games. Does no one else care about unreleased/WIP Neo Geo games or is the information so hard to come by that no one bothers?
 

Digmac

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I wonder if a working prototype still exists? It looks like it could be fun, like a more limited Mario Party. Too bad the Japanese language dependency would have been a barrier to those of us in the US.

I really wish there were more prototype pages for Neo Geo protos. Billy Pitts old page is good, but he doesn't seem to update it much and there's missing/limited info on a lot of games. Does no one else care about unreleased/WIP Neo Geo games or is the information so hard to come by that no one bothers?

As far as I know there's no prototypes of QP "safeguarded" by community members. There's a lot of information on Warlocks of the Fates that hasn't been posted before either, but the issue is that it's all in Japanese in Neo Geo Freak magazines. The same went for QP, but I wanted to get this information out in English. I would like to do the same with the information for Warlocks. There's also info for Last Odyssey in Neo Geo Freak magazine. I still need to check if that's been covered before though. It wouldn't surprise me if it hasn't.
 

xb74

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Thankyou for sharing this - very informative. The more of this info shared around the better.
 

gusmoney

Unsure if You Asked, For a custom Rank, But Hell,
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Nice write-up, OP. Have you considered buffing up the wiki article with your info?
 

Heinz

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Always good to see more information about unreleased and prototype games. Awesome work.
 

2D_mastur

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Very cool info. Looks kinda pedo-ish though.

Chibi lolis in bathing suits is never a good image... unless you're talking about Saner's preferences.
 
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Burning Fight!!

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Very cool info. Looks kinda pedo-ish though.

Chibi lolis in bathing suits is never a good image... unless you're talking about Saner's preferences.

Tendou Tomo & Megu on Super Smash Bros. when?
:keke:
 

Neo Alec

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I appreciate your passion for unreleased games.
 

SuperGun

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Thank you for researching Q.P. so thoroughly, and for taking the time to translate so much of it. Our member “Shito” has also helped tremendously with this particular unreleased NeoGeo game with translations in the past. While it’s true that I didn’t give Q.P. as much coverage on my site as I have to the other protos, it certainly has generated some more interest over the years.

It’s interesting how the title was changed; intended as Quiz Puzzle and then Quality People. There was some confusion over this in the past. I myself thought it could have been Quiz Party and referenced the Mario Party game series as a model for it. And the other odd thing is how it was originally to be a CD exclusive, and then was going to also be on MVS. While we have certainly seen the opposite, which was the norm, this way is very odd indeed.

Despite the above, obviously when you take into consideration the unusually vast amount of materials that we have found for this game (much more then most of the other protos) it certainly makes for a much stronger case for it to have been assigned a software product number.

However, there are still many other “anomalies” with Q.P. that have always bothered me, and always will. And as such, they have always made me skeptical as to its status.

Q.P., in its shown state, would simply not function in a NeoGeo hardware setting. It looks nothing like a typical NEOGEO game. It has no fix layers for level or credit text displays. The “Insert Coin/Press Start” flashing text layer and the title copyright text lines are also in the wrong place. In addition, this genre of game is not at all conducive to an MVS coin operated environment; especially in 1997. Lastly, Success never made anything for the NeoGeo, nor even worked with SNK, until the NeoGeo pocket system, two years later in 1999.

So while I can’t and won’t completely discredit the possibility that it was intended to be a NeoGeo game, the abnormalities that surround it certainly make no sense and raise many as of yet unanswered questions.
 

Hawwa

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Thank you very much for the topic. Didn't know about this game but I loved Puzzle & Action: Tant-R so I think I'd like it (minus the underage girls btw, in case the FBI is looking).
 

Digmac

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I'm posting this up because of the "concerns" that Billy Pitt has always raised with QP, and I'm here with a little bit of evidence to put that to rest if he so chooses to believe this. I personally think this is hard evidence that QP was being developed on Neo Geo cartridge hardware.

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This is a picture of the lead developer and designer for QP. This image was scanned by myself out of my copy of Neo Geo Freak magazine, the March of 1997 issue. If you look what's behind her on her desk, it's a full size Neo Geo development cart and it's plugged into a development unit which is basically an AES console that doesn't have a top shell and is equipped with the debug bios. Why would she have this on her desk if QP wasn't in development on the Neo Geo cartridge platform? It would make no sense to have it for no reason.
 

SuperGun

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Yes. I reluctantly admit, that what your saying in your post makes logical sense. And that the absolutely unorthodox and completely broken text/fix layers which are clearly shown in dozens of Q.P. screenshots could have merely been attributed to it having been Success’s first NeoGeo title. And that, certainly, despite Q.P. having been reported as much as 85% complete, would have been caught and corrected prior to release. A release, which by then, would have most likely been delegated to CD exclusivity.
 

Digmac

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Yes. I reluctantly admit, that what your saying in your post makes logical sense. And that the absolutely unorthodox and completely broken text/fix layers which are clearly shown in dozens of Q.P. screenshots could have merely been attributed to it having been Success’s first NeoGeo title. And that, certainly, despite Q.P. having been reported as much as 85% complete, would have been caught and corrected prior to release. A release, which by then, would have most likely been delegated to CD exclusivity.

Considering that Neo Geo Freak magazine reported QP as being developed as a Neo Geo CD title first, then shifting to MVS later, I think it’s logical that it wouldn’t have the usual MVS type fix layers in place at this point in development. If the team was really small (the interview made it seem like she did most of the work) I could see that being added at the tail end of development. Neo Geo Freak magazine started reporting on QP soon after they reported the shift from CD to MVS, so I really do think all of this makes sense.
 

Fygee

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Pretty cool to see that the developer of the Cotton series was making a Neo-Geo game. Shame it was so late in the hardware's life where third party support was beginning to wane.

A game like this, or a Neo Cotton would have been fantastic earlier on.
 
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