5 Times Gamers Bought a Prototype Game

Videogames are not new to the idea of there being problems after the game has shipped. For proof of this, just look at the more modern games for countless pieces of proof of game companies charging for prototypes. The number of games being patched to hell and back after they are released is staggering, and a bit sad really. Gamers today are probably used to paying to be guinea pigs for game developers, the problem is it wasn’t always like this. There was a time that games were released after something called “quality control” was supposed to be implemented, developers found bugs and squashed them before shipping the game (when they had time that is). Gamers could, almost, always rest well knowing that when they plunked down a fair bit of cash for that latest game that it was complete and as the developers intended it to be. Here are five examples of when that was simply not the case. While some of these games were good, they were flawed in many ways and quite honestly, were prototypes by all accounts of the term.

Ever notice that some games just don’t seem “complete” or that something is “off” with them? Today, it is not uncommon to see games released in some state of non-completion. This is because developers can simply patch the game at a later time, you know after they got those valuable “early adopter” dollars. Back in the day though, patching was not an option. Developers got one shot at it. If they blew it back then, the game was simply broken and that was that.

It is hard to believe but yes, developers have used gamers as guinea pigs in the past as well as they do now on modern platforms. Just back then the tests were better hidden. While for the most part gamers could depend on the games being complete as the developer intended, there were times that a prototype was sold as a final release. Here are five of those instances.

E.T. for the Atari 2600

This is the “copout” entry on this list. EVERYONE and their dog says E.T. just felt incomplete and was utter trash. I don’t think it was trash, I just think it could have been better than it was. Some go as far as saying E.T. was the reason for the gaming crash of the mid 80’s, I went through that as a fan and trust me, it was not E.T. that caused that event. No single game did.

What is unique about E.T. is that it was programmed by one man in a marathon session of code flinging action that has not been replicated since. It was more intense than a Ludum Dare event as E.T.’s development went on for months and had millions of dollars at stake. Howard Scott Warshaw, the man behind E.T., met the challenge as best he could, even though history has been more than a little harsh on his work.

This was clearly a prototype and something that would have benefited from having at least another three to four months of development time. Atari simply did not have the time necessary for Warshaw to develop the game more fully as they were aiming for the theatrical release of the movie and the lucrative home video option that was all but guaranteed to follow.
E.T. on Ebay

Star Fox for the Super Nintendo

Nintendo released Star Fox at the perfect time. They needed this game to help push the Super Nintendo ahead of the competition (Sega and their Sega CD add-on). While adding in chips on the cartridge to eke out more performance from the console is nothing new, Nintendo had been doing it since the NES days and some Atari 7800 games had similar chips added for more performance. Star Fox was the first title that received advertising that saw Nintendo deviate from their policy of ignoring the competition. The tag line was along the lines of “Why go to the next level when you can go light years beyond.”

Star Fox was obviously troubled from the get go. Just power it up on a standard Super Nintendo for proof of this. It is slow and it is buggy. Had Nintendo kept this one in the oven a little longer they could have certainly fixed both problems. If Nintendo could have released an update to Star Fox I can almost guarantee they would have post haste.

Even though Star Fox was slow paced, not a good thing for a game that is patterned after a genre that is known for its speed. Nintendo went onto celebrate record sales with Star Fox and even continued the brand running up to modern consoles. All because they were able to get gamers to purchase a prototype over 20 years ago.

Star Fox was slow paced and had blocky graphics, not good features to have when you are in a genre known for speed and great graphics. Nintendo was able to defy those problems and convince fans to buy Star Fox in droves. What we got was the first entry in a series that was carried on up to more modern consoles. While only the first game could be called a console seller, the franchise survived much longer than most gave it credit for.

Over on Retro Gaming Magazine we have a historical article for Star Fox is here and another article that featured Star Fox, 5 Retro Games Released Before Their Time, is here.

Pac-Man for the Atari 2600

Another entry for the Atari 2600 here. Pac-Man was simply a rushed piece of crap. Much worse than E.T. ever was. Again, this title is often fingered as the reason for the gaming crash (mostly by people that didn’t know about E.T.). And, again, I say this was not the single point that we can study for the cause of that crash. Sure, Atari was rather ignorant in their business plans because they purchased an alleged 12 million copies of Pac-Man (which supposedly was more than the number of Atari 2600’s they sold up to that point). Many think the limitations of the hardware are at fault for how Pac-Man turned out. I call B.S. on that, I think this game was rushed and the prototype was sold because it is unthinkable when compared to Jr. Pac-Man later. Jr. Pac-Man blows Pac-Man away, easily proving that had Atari not been after a cash grab they could have put out a much better game. Thanks Atari. You “rock”.

Virtua Racing for the Sega Genesis

Alright, some competition from the Sega Genesis, the competition for the Super Nintendo. Virtua Racing holds the same honor here as Star Fox does on the Super Nintendo. Mainly because both were the “showcase” titles for new add-on chips in the cartridges. The difference is, Sega was only able to get one game out to fans using the DSP chip inside while Nintendo’s Super FX chip was used in more than a handful of games. Virtua Racing’s graphics are polygon based, like those in Star Fox, and they suffer the same problem – lack of detail and appearing “blocky” as all hell.

Sega did give fans a “re-release” of Virtua Racing, similar to how they would re-release Daytona USA several times, with each version improving on the last “just a little bit”. Virtua Racing was released on the Sega Genesis (with DSP chip inside), the 32X (basically the Genesis version sped up and no longer needing the DSP chip) and finally the “best” version hit the Sega Saturn.

Blade Force for 3DO

I could have just said “anything on 3DO” as, even though I am a fan of the console, nearly every game on it seemed tobe a prototype. It was just like developers were throwing the kitchen sink at the wall and coloring it purple and calling it a day. At the end of the day, Blade Force beat out over 300 other 3DO titles for the “honor” of being on this list. How about that?

If you have never played Blade Force then you know – this is a hot mess. There is barely a game contained in here. While visually impressive, this is a rough game to play. Sure, the ads used to brag that this game featured over 50,000 polygons on screen at once (that is about 49,000 more than Virtua Racing or Star Fox achieved), it takes more than polygons to make a game. The collision detection absolutely sucked. The difficulty is set on using a rifle to shoot the nuts off the devil down range while you have pepper spray applied to both eyes in a sand storm. Yep, Blade Force is probably not going to show you its ending credits on your first sitting.

Blade Force on Ebay
Prototypes are hard to point out but with hindsight being 20/20 it is a bit easier. What do you think of the picks? Got a prototype that was missed but deserves attention? Let me know.

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