Prototypes Update: Bygone; Hangzo; Bombs Away; Sushi Bar; Street Fighter x Tekken & More

arcadehero May 30, 2016 7
Prototypes Update: Bygone; Hangzo; Bombs Away; Sushi Bar; Street Fighter x Tekken & More

You might recall that not long ago, a unique prototype of was discovered of a SegaSonic Bros. game, a puzzle title starring Sonic The Hedgehog designed by the creator of Bubble Bobble. Well the collector who has that board has many other unreleased treasures so let’s take a look at what else he has showcased in recent times. So that this is not just collection of links from ShouTime’s Tumblr blog, I’ve added additional info on each where possible, including videos of those available in emulation. Here’s a list of the 12 games we’re looking at: Ooparts; Bygone; Yukai Tsukai; Hangzo; Dive Bomber Squad; Puzznic Extra; Bombs Away; The Fast And The Furious + Super Bikes Japanese Edition; Tore Tore Sushi/Sushi Bar; Android; Street Fighter X Tekken.

UPDATE: Thanks to a commentor for pointing out that the Fast and Furious games are just very rare to find in dedicated form in Japan…and that SFxTK is a Chinese bootleg. They are still interesting enough so we’ll leave them on the post.

It’s Raining Prototypes

OOParts by Success – Success was a Japanese company who was known primarily for their Cotton shoot ’em up series. Ooparts was apparently going to be a vertical scrolling shooter.

https://www.tumblr.com/shoutime/138964129033/ooparts-ac-attract-screens-from-this

Bygone by Taito – As the post below states, this one was in development by the creator of Chack ‘N Pop, which had been released by Taito in 1983. The game was copywritten in 1985, which shows the amazing difference that two years made back in the 80s if you compare it to CnP.  The game Shou compares it to, Somer Assault, can be seen here. Bygone’s ROM is available to play in emulation so you can see a video of this on in action below.

https://www.tumblr.com/shoutime/139158114883/bygone-ac-unfinished-and-unreleased-title-by

Yukai Tsukai / Pop ‘n Run by Seibu Kaihatsu – Seibu was mainly known for the popular Raiden series and looking at this bizarre game makes you wonder what exactly they were doping on while making this. I’m surprised that they were even considering an overseas release although perhaps the graphics were placeholders(shallow, unlikely hope there)?

https://www.tumblr.com/shoutime/139638648567/yukai-tsukai-ac-megaton-uncovered-from-the

 

Hangzo (HotB) & Dive Bomber Squad (Konami) – Two very different prototype games that Shou got his hands on. From the brief footage on Hangzo, it looks like a grown-up Ninja Kids. Dive Bomber would have been a faster paced Assault style game with those turrets looking like they were ripped from Raiden. 😉 According to a post from today, Andy’s Arcade from California is currently in Tokyo working on Shou’s Dive Bomber Squad board so that it can be released to emulation.

https://www.tumblr.com/shoutime/140089327353/digging-throughout-the-stream-of-time-comes-2-more

https://www.tumblr.com/shoutime/140247302898/hangzo-ac-unreleased-2-player-simultaneous

https://www.tumblr.com/shoutime/140301042152/%E6%80%A5%E9%99%8D%E4%B8%8B%E7%88%86%E6%92%83%E9%9A%8A-dive-bomber-squad-ac-konamis-most

Puzznic Extra Version by TaitoPuzznic was a released game that had two different versions – the Japanese release had you solving puzzles to clear the background to show NSFW type pictures of women while the Western version was solely the puzzle. ShouTime found a location test version of the Japanese build that had additional models such as Time Gal and Nancy from Chase HQ.

https://www.tumblr.com/shoutime/140456053928/discovered-some-time-gal-in-my-puzznic-extra

Bombs Away by ASC / Jaleco – Add a bombing mechanic to 1942 and that’s pretty much what you have with the Bombs Away prototype. This one is available in emulation although with the ASC text, it is probable that Shou has a different version of the game in hand.

https://www.tumblr.com/shoutime/140504874183/bombs-away-ac-another-title-lost-in-history

The Fast & The Furious + Super Bikes Japanese Version: These two games are well-known in the West but Raw Thrills games generally have not received released in Japan (exceptions I know of are Terminator Salvation and Jurassic Park). The example below shows how early the company was looking into releases there.

https://www.tumblr.com/shoutime/142174828033/the-fast-and-the-furious-ac-the-fast-and-the

Tore Tore Sushi by Sammy – Despite being more Japanese in style, a Western version of this was also planned under the name Sushi Bar. A lot of modern puzzle games are designed with some elements of a fighting game in mind, which would have fit nicely on the fighter heavy Atomiswave hardware. Video below as well.

https://www.tumblr.com/shoutime/142458223458/tore-tore-sushi-ac-lost-now-found-puzzler

Android by NASCO – Nasco is a little known Japanese company who primarily developed golf games. This is a title that due to the differences in the two versions, apparently was victim to “development hell”. One version that is available in emulation is shown in a video below and is close to a Galaga-style game as Shou mentions although it borrowed an element that is common to ‘EuroShmups’, with enemies taking multiple hits to be destroyed. In the other version that is pictured on the right of Shou’s Tumblr post below, they seemed to borrow an element from Gyruss (travelling to other planets as levels) while adding much more detailed backgrounds and completely changing the enemy sprites. Video of both versions is found below.

https://www.tumblr.com/shoutime/143523825183/android-ac-from-the-ashes-of-oohiragiken-which

This is the only video I can find of the second version and unfortunately it was filmed sideways…

Street Fighter X Tekken Arcade by Capcom – Last but not least is the appearance of SFxTK Arcade, which had been announced but this is the first time I’ve seen one, which as commentors have pointed out several times, is a bootleg (thanks, got the message the first time). And it’s probably more playable than Street Fighter V /trollmode

https://www.tumblr.com/shoutime/142450747638/street-fighter-x-tekken-ac-most-people-have

That gets us caught up – for now. Thanks to Shou for posting these online, he’s gone to a lot of expense and trouble to do so. Out of all of these prototype games, which one fascinates you the most?

7 Comments »

  1. Nomax May 30, 2016 at 11:55 am - Reply

    Street Fighter X Tekken of course! Japanese versions of Raw Thrills games are nothing special. Your US game will turn into Japanese if you use a Japanese security dongle. Raw Thrills games are distributed by Taito in Japan. I remember Fast & Furious and Super Bikes were shown at AOU trade show. Not sure if many were sold…

  2. dump May 30, 2016 at 12:17 pm - Reply

    FNF definitely did get a release in Japan, but it wasn’t very popular. From what I remember of messing with the game, many different languages were on the drive and you could switch between them, but it’s been a couple years since I’ve messed with it.

    The SFxTekken is a Chinese bootleg. You can buy them from Excellentcom.

  3. Reo Cruz May 30, 2016 at 2:05 pm - Reply

    Wasn’t OOPARTS also the ship select screen song for RayStorm?

    • arcadehero May 30, 2016 at 2:08 pm - Reply

      In looking around for info on it, the term has been used in other games (such as one called China Gate) but not 100% sure what it means…

  4. ernart May 31, 2016 at 2:24 am - Reply

    I hope you would find Capcom fighting All-Stars, I know there is also an Arcade version of Tatsunoko vs Capcom

    • Arcades4ever May 31, 2016 at 3:14 pm - Reply

      Yeah there is an arcade version tatsunako vs capcom and uses arcade hardware based on the wii console. Hope it gets dumped on mame one day as I hear that game is very rare now as capcom can’t sell copies anymore due to the licence expiery.

  5. Smitty June 14, 2016 at 5:13 am - Reply

    SF vs Tekken is not a Prototype , it is Asia PC Version hack, you can pick it up at excellentcom.net -.-

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