Possible lead on an undiscovered Neo proto: Ninja Ryukenden/Gaiden 2

[Macaw]

Its a real game. Its a Final Fight clone with 3 playable characters (ryu, a girl and a big military guy) and it was put on location test in Japan in 94 so it was near completion (if not completed).

Its hilarious how just because its a neo game it could be sold for tens of thousands even though countless other arcade proto's and such are around and found all the time but are worth barely a few hundred dollars if that.

I totally hope Shou gets the source code, makes a bunch of ghetto carts with it and retires off the sales from idiotic big tymers lol. I suggest a price of 80k per cart, def will sell.

 

[joe8]

Here is a googel translation of the Japanese text:

Arcade version is about the "Ninja Gaiden", but Rokete the sequel had been made in secret as a NEO GEO title in the summer of '94.
Game content, but was a belt-scrolling action game normally,
Anchan wind of somewhere that you gave to see the sword on the back waist jeans wearing a skin Jean Ryu Hayabusa
Or enabled (the image that really look like hero Yamato Dragoon Might),
And (idle unsalable) female characters get a mock or Manao, and macho military
Was turned into what you have Tsuppashi~tsu in the negative direction in a sense opposite to the previous work (laughs).
It has become the shelved as it is probably because (damage calculation or say) game balance was bad. Unfortunately, the fact that it was Rokete the same time "Eight Force" is scattered people were released but beaten it was considerably more complex look.

 

[YANDMAN]

I really fucking hate when Shigeru Miyamoto gets drunk and calls me, talking about prototype ROMs for Mario 128 and whatnot all night.

Dude sounds to me like one of your friends punked you with the automated 'Drunken Miyamoto' option 5 call back

 

[Heinz]

Dude sounds to me like one of your friends punked you with the automated 'Drunken Miyamoto' option 5 call back

You some sort of punk? huh yandy? Walking and talking round here like you just own the place. I mean don't even get me started son.

 

[SNKorSWM]

Here is a googel translation of the Japanese text:

Arcade version is about the "Ninja Gaiden", but Rokete the sequel had been made in secret as a NEO GEO title in the summer of '94.
Game content, but was a belt-scrolling action game normally,
Anchan wind of somewhere that you gave to see the sword on the back waist jeans wearing a skin Jean Ryu Hayabusa
Or enabled (the image that really look like hero Yamato Dragoon Might),
And (idle unsalable) female characters get a mock or Manao, and macho military
Was turned into what you have Tsuppashi~tsu in the negative direction in a sense opposite to the previous work (laughs).
It has become the shelved as it is probably because (damage calculation or say) game balance was bad. Unfortunately, the fact that it was Rokete the same time "Eight Force" is scattered people were released but beaten it was considerably more complex look.

Sounds like Ninja Commando.

 

[YANDMAN]

You some sort of punk? huh yandy? Walking and talking round here like you just own the place. I mean don't even get me started son.

Ahh man that was years ago

 

[Shito]

A slight more accurate translation by me.

This is related to the arcade version of "Ninja Ryuukenden", but in summer '94 a location test was held for a secret sequel, in the form of a NeoGeo title.
The game contents was that of an ordinary scrolling action game, but Ryuu Hayabusa was in leather jacket and jeans, sword attached to his shoulder hips, sporting someway the look of an 'older buddy' (an image just like Hayato, the Dragon Might protagonist); with a MaoMao-like female character (a famous idol), and something like a macho soldier, the contents had been driven in a direction of mood the was in the total opposite of the original title (smile). I'm sorry to say that since the game balance (meaning: damage level) was terrible, (the game) went just to be shelved as it was, yet it's puzzling that "Eight Force", that was on location test at the same time, despite being totally bashed apparently made it to arrive in actual sale.

---

The source is a comment is Migzou's blog.

To add some other bits of (already known) info, the game was actually on Location Test in July 1994, @ an arcade called 'Conan' in Ochanomizu, Tokyo.

 

[Shou-sama]

Guys, I've been around a long time and am one of the biggest PCB collectors out there, in fact, I've never seen anyone in the West who has more unique boards than me.

Ninja Ryukenden 2 MVS is real and the location test version is archived on media that's only accessible by a PC98. There were MVS carts with EPROMs for the test but I haven't located them yet.

 

[Tacitus]

Guys, I've been around a long time and am one of the biggest PCB collectors out there, in fact, I've never seen anyone in the West who has more unique boards than me.

Ninja Ryukenden 2 MVS is real and the location test version is archived on media that's only accessible by a PC98. There were MVS carts with EPROMs for the test but I haven't located them yet.

You should be able to access the data directly through other means. Do you have a copy of the media?

Also, considering how much of the old PCD98 hardware is Out there, this isn't a limitation.

 

[lithy]

BUT WHAT'S THE NGH NUMBER!?!

 

[RabbitTroop]

Hey, I'm all for more protos bubbling to the surface. I don't mind if it's a crap game. It's got to be better than the early homebrew like Diggerman, right? Right? I hope this gets dumped and added to MAME. I'd love to check it out.

 

[Tacitus]

Hey, I'm all for more protos bubbling to the surface. I don't mind if it's a crap game. It's got to be better than the early homebrew like Diggerman, right? Right? I hope this gets dumped and added to MAME. I'd love to check it out.

If the media is available, someone like myself (or even me) can retrieve it pretty safely and at LEAST make a copy of the original so that someone experienced with the software or hardware can manipulate it without destroying the original. Even preserving it for the future is a good idea. If it's magnetic media, it's going to degrade over time and be lost forever.

I pm'd him directly about this to see if we can at least work something out to get a copy back to him for safekeeping. We'll see what happens.

 

[Dr Shroom]

Guys, I've been around a long time and am one of the biggest PCB collectors out there, in fact, I've never seen anyone in the West who has more unique boards than me.

Ninja Ryukenden 2 MVS is real and the location test version is archived on media that's only accessible by a PC98. There were MVS carts with EPROMs for the test but I haven't located them yet.

Pretty sure there are ways to read PC-98 disks on a windows PC...maybe Omniflop.

 

[SuperGun]

I pm'd him directly about this to see if we can at least work something out to get a copy back to him for safekeeping. We'll see what happens.

That sounds great, but I think you misinterpreted his words. Where in his post does he state that he himself actually has or is in possession of the rom data from this game?

 

[Tacitus]

That sounds great, but I think you misinterpreted his words. Where in his post does he state that he himself actually has or is in possession of the rom data from this game?

I didn't. I asked him via PM if he actually had access to or possessed the disks.

 

[kuk]

Like other i should be very interesting to see the video of this game
But i am very surprice than Tecmo wait an autorisation of SNK, if they don't want, they could product an Jamma version of the game, no ?

 

[supergoose]

For what it's worth ...

Lukemorse1 said in one of his most recent videos that he will try to get a PC98 so he can play one of the games that he got in the mail. Maybe he could help out with copying the files.
Also, James seemed to be in contact with Luke, if I'm not mistaken. Xian Xi = SupremeJudge?

 

[Dr Shroom]

lol lukemorse
might aswell throw the disks in the trash

 

[supergoose]

Why? As long as he made sure that his system works flawlessly, then there should be nothing to worry about.
Shou and Luke seem to live in Tokyo, so he wouldn't even have to send the discs to anyone he doesn't personally know.

I'd rather ask Luke then rely on your help.

 

[Tacitus]

Why? As long as he made sure that his system works flawlessly, then there should be nothing to worry about.
Shou and Luke seem to live in Tokyo, so he wouldn't even have to send the discs to anyone he doesn't personally know.

I'd rather ask Luke then rely on your help.

It's pretty damn simple to just walk someone through the process of dumping magnetic media.

 

[Geddon_jt]

I would think that the best plan would be to get a PC98, or whatever other hardware is necessary to "extract" the magnetic media, into the hands of an accomplished tech who is also knowledgable about Neo Geo specifically. The data may be encrypted somehow, and someone familiar with C and P roms, and all that stuff, needs to know how to "reassemble" the data into workable/playable Neo code... I am sure many on this site (myself included) would contribute to a fund to secure the necessary hardware for whoever is up for the task, that shouldn't be a roadblock here I would think.

 

[Tacitus]

I would think that the best plan would be to get a PC98, or whatever other hardware is necessary to "extract" the magnetic media, into the hands of an accomplished tech who is also knowledgable about Neo Geo specifically. The data may be encrypted somehow, and someone familiar with C and P roms, and all that stuff, needs to know how to "reassemble" the data into workable/playable Neo code... I am sure many on this site (myself included) would contribute to a fund to secure the necessary hardware for whoever is up for the task, that shouldn't be a roadblock here I would think.

It would predate the Neo encryption at this point, that shouldn't be an issue. (94) I also doubt they would encrypt working test code.

Even if the media is encrypted, it can still be imaged and decrypted fairly easily. Anything more than 8-10 years old, cryptography wise, is trivially secure (with a few exceptions). I *highly* doubt any part is encrypted.

Getting it imaged is paramount. At that point, if the guy who owns it wants to distribute, he can get the copied data out there and manipulated.

Odds are, this is going absolutely nowhere but it's fun to speculate.

 

[Dr Shroom]

I'd rather ask Luke then rely on your help.

Yes because its so super complicated to dump disks, only luke "my wife left me again" morse can do it.
Did you get the impression of me being interested in dumping anything or what?

I can extract, read and write my own X68000 disks and the PC98 uses a format even closer to the PC standard, you don't even need any genuine PC98 hardware to access whatever is on the disks and the copy protection (implying there is any) is trivial at best. A standard PC floppy drive (3.5" or 5.25") and the software is all you need, why overcomplicate things?

However, I'm not interested in dumping any of this, just to make that clear for you.

 

[mmsadda]

Cool! Sounds like it might be roughly complete, if it was on location test. I doubt the community will get its hands on the game any time soon, but it'd be cool if it was dumped and made public.

 

[Tacitus]

Yes because its so super complicated to dump disks, only luke "my wife left me again" morse can do it.
Did you get the impression of me being interested in dumping anything or what?

I can extract, read and write my own X68000 disks and the PC98 uses a format even closer to the PC standard, you don't even need any genuine PC98 hardware to access whatever is on the disks and the copy protection (implying there is any) is trivial at best. A standard PC floppy drive (3.5" or 5.25") and the software is all you need, why overcomplicate things?

However, I'm not interested in dumping any of this, just to make that clear for you.

I wouldn't chance that without significant protection.

My suggestion would be using a hardware-based write blocker, even a product such as LinEN or FTK Lite(with a software blocker) to take a bit level image of the media. Not only will this enable them to hash and confirm a good image, it will prevent deleted, hidden or otherwise inaccessible data from being missed by just copying the stuff off.

Anything else has the potential to damage the original... even just putting the disk into a write-enabled drive can damage the original.