If you're interested in video game preservation and want to help, here are some groups that are actively working to preserve lost video games: gamehistory.org/donate/ www.patreon.com/gamingalexandria www.patreon.com/forestillusion
I once heard about this lost nes game and I can’t remember it’s name. A guy once had it and several people wanted to buy it from him. He then destroyed it and posted a photo of it. Edit: it’s called bioforce ape
The story about the California Raisins prototype is nuts. Starting out with being given to a retro gamer worker after someone's kid wanted an xbox, to the poor guy losing his life over an unfortunate argument. Brandon Murphy could have easily sold it for thousands, but knew something like it deserved to be shared with the world rather than held hostage for the sake of value. Dude will forever be a legend
sadly not all lost games are that lucky. There is a copy of the Resident evil 1.5 (the 80% build) that was found. The collector refuses to sell it or even dump it. So instead we have the 40% that was obtained that people are trying to rebuild.
You have a really poor definition of legend. It was just a random dude who got lucky and came across something rare. You nerds are calling people who buy things legends? Stop.
It's wild to think that the Crazy Raisins game would still be lost today if the kid it was meant to go to hadn't gotten an XBOX. Really makes you think about how many lost or valuable prototypes are just lying around with people who have no idea about what they own.
yo I once bought Mario Paint with the original Box, Mouse and Mousepad at a flea marked for 6 bux. pretty sure the woman who sold it had no idea what it was and how much it was worth. I ended up giving her my last 5 bucks, which is a pretty sweet deal, everything worked perfectly and looked really new. stuff like that happens all the time if you only care to look hard enough
Yeah man, sometimes you get maybe not prototypes but some insane deals, a few years ago i got an OG Diablo 2 Battlechest CIB with the guide books, LoD expansion and the battlenet codes still unused (well unsued until i tried them expecting a “code already claimed” message but instead i got diablo 2 on a friend’s account) and everything like it was never touched on a flea market, i paid 2 bucks
I paid 5 bucks for a box with over 100 NES games and sold them for over 1000 bucks thanks to copies of festers quest and others. I also came across copies of Spiderman Carnage on Sega complete in "like new" conditiom for 2 bucks a piece. Its insane how much good stuff is just lying around for a few bucks.
I've never come across a prototype sadly, but I did once buy a 'not for release' promotional copy of a game (i.e. sent to reviewers ahead of release) from an auction for next to nothing
The one about the California Raisons is depressing all around. From how such a special game was canned by Capcom over something as silly as "It was not made in Japan", to how the collectors clearly just wanted it to keep in a collection and never let the public experience it considering how the offers dropped as soon as he released the ROM, to the horrible way Brandon Murphy was killed at such a young age by a roomate over just some stupid money and possessions.
He literally died for nothing. It genuinely broke my heart to hear that bit of the video. RIP a real one and I'm very much thankful for his contribution to game preservation.
When you think about it, Capcom did not have a legit reason for canceling that game. And you know something? Perhaps if they hadn’t done so, maybe that collector would still be around. Whatever the case, it was tragic to have heard about what happened.
That raisins story ended on a really bad note. Also insane to think that collectors would drop out just because a game has been released yet as if that makes it more valuable solely.
Actually thats one of bad sides (IMO) they're more like speculators than collectors, having the only real copy (digital or otherwise) would push the value so much it could turn into tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars on offers alone. So having a digital rom copy immediately drops its value as its mystique as something unseen is immediately gone.
The dumbest ones are the ones who buy an undumped cart and then refuse to dump it unless they "recoup their losses" for buying the cart via donations. Like. no buddy, you spent your money willingly and you knew what you were getting into. You "lost" nothing. Note that I don't mean donations to acquire the item like with Bio Force Ape; they'd always had the cart in-hand before. I haven't seen that in a while but I remember some dudes doing that with Genesis carts like 15 years ago.
@@stevenwhuntva , if anyone deserves to die, it should be those ass wipes, and not people like Brandon Murphy. Dollars to doughnuts, Capcom probably paid the people that offed Mr. Murphy to off him, as that would open up some bad press that they did not need.
@@stevenwhuntva Wow what an awful perspective to have, with genesis carts of all things too like its not that serious dog. You're 100% right! They chose to spend their money, now we have to pay you to not be selfish? FOH
I'm not terribly surprised that people went ape after seeing the smashed cartridge. Little did anyone know that he was just monkeying around. I'm glad I'm not the only one who was thinking of cracking puns, lol.
Not to mention that footage -- we're talking _Sonic the Hedgehog_ levels of scrolling speed in all directions, on an 8-bit platform with only two screens' worth of VRAM.
I started thinking "Huh a raisin game, neat" but now? I can only salute Brandon Murphys kindness and lament his short-lived life due to those bastards.
ugh. those people who wanted to buy the California Raisins prototype to be the only ones to have it and not release it for documentation make me absolutely sick. if you're collecting rare and unreleased games with the intention of showing them off to friends like a strutting peacock and keeping them away from everyone else, you're in it for the wrong reasons. collect something whose history isn't as important if you want to actively hinder its preservation.
@@marti5420 its different with other historical items. For games, the best way to preserve them is make them accessible using newer hardware. For ancient pieces that are so fragile you need to keep then inside glass to preserve its value else it will just turn to dust. Video games need to be shared to be preserved, ancient historical artifacts need to be kept untouched to be preserved. Some historical pieces can also only be preserved by a handful of professionals whose work consists of very specialized processes that cant be given to just an ordinary joe.
@@crudojoshuaricofort8795 so you're telling me that buying a "lost game," putting it in to a private collection and not sharing it with the world would be a bad thing? The thing I've literally been saying the entire time? No way! 🙀 and yes it's the same with historical pieces, historical pieces belong in museum collections to be shared with the world, not in private collections to be hoarded and potentially mistreat. You're literally same the exact same thing as I am in different words.
You did good, bro. The style reminds me of old school Screw Attack and YT videos. I miss that era of internet videos. BTW, I remember looking at old consoles and wondering what the connection ports were for.
Here's something more you can learn about the California Raisins! During the production of Back to the Future, a shady marketing guy landed a deal to promote the Raisins in said movie by promising them that "this movie would do for California Raisins what ET did for Reece's Pieces." The deal was largely unknown to the director, Robert Zemeckis. He wasn't informed until late in production that he was supposed to add a promotion to the film. Ultimately, an ad for the California Raisins was placed on the bench a hobo is seen sleeping on near the end of the movie, and that was it. Both Robert Zemeckis and the California Rasins Advisory Board were very unhappy with the deal, and since then Zemeckis has avoided having any product promotions in his movies.
@@smileprettymusic lmao how is it an asset? You know, game cartridges don't last forever and are prone to degradation right? Whereas a ROM file can last for generations, why do you think we have retro rereleases all the time?
Bio Force Ape looks like one of those impossible games, how on earth did they squeeze that much speed on a smooth scrolling game on the NES? And that character animation is way beyond what I'd normally expect from that console.
Maybe the game was designed for an enhancement chip? I doubt the base NES hardware could handle the fast multi-directional scrolling on display here. But with an enhancement chip, fast multi-directional scrolling is possible on the NES.
@@RazorEdge2006 at that point in time it's almost certain that it used one of the enhancement chips, but even then it's pretty impressive. A game like Super Mario Bros 3 was capable of doing multi directional scrolling and was a technical showcase but the speed of Bio Force Ape is just bonkers, it's the kinda stuff I'd expect from the Genesis or SNES.
@@Dr0dd ... if I remember correctly, Seta would later develop a title for the SNES, "Nosferatu" ...an impressive game which played like Prince Of Persia as a sidescrolling brawler w/ platforming & puzzle-solving elements done in a Gothic horror style & theme, tho sadly it doesn't seem to have made as big of a splash as it should have. This further supports the appearance of Seta being auteurs within the gaming industry, focusing on both technical brilliance & artistic quality in their work.
Jesus, seeing Bio Force Ape in action is unreal. The thing looks and runs like a modern-day indie game you could get on Steam, even down to the gamefeel. I kept waiting to hear that the footage was just a recreation, but the truth is even stranger than fiction. How the hell did they get that running so fluidly and dynamically on NES hardware?
Its funny you mentioned this as in a community I'm in we had the prototype to the cancelled Battlebots video game finally posted online after nearly 20 years being lost media. I played it and it's actually mostly playable, finding lost video games is truly a wonderful thing :)
I remember the murder, it was a huge deal. I actually worked with Angus as a server at Perkins on San Jose Blvd in Jacksonville when all that happened. I wasn’t close with him but there was definitely something off about him, something just didn’t feel right about him even before everything.
It's becoming all too common of an occurrence for my beloved hometown of Jacksonville, FL to be mentioned somewhere and I get excited, only for the story to take a horribly dark turn.
something i always liked about Bio Force Ape was the care with the animations coupled with the insane scrolling speed. the character crouches on the platform going up, and the hair flutters, gives a superb sense of speed going on, like hes actually withdstanding the force of the air as the platform goes up.
It's infuriatingly crazy to me how people will hoard these prototypes for money given that as time goes on it's increasingly likely that they will begin to break down. I wonder how many prototypes have been lost to time simply due to some neckbeard wanting to be the only one who can play it.
Reminds me of when some Japanese collector splurged nearly $14,000 on a rare prototype of Indy the Magical Kid just to hoard it away from us dirty westerners.
All three stories are amazing, I think this made me appreciate more the gaming community and the passion some people have to protect and preserve this media
The thought of the private collectors who enshrine prototypes like these and never release them fills me with a kind of rage I can't entirely understand. Absolute scumbags
Yeah those stupid private collectors should seriously consider touching grass at some point. Heck, I think they mostly just play League of Legends with their obese-looking ahh.
It's a shame Bio Force Ape never got released considering what a technical marvel it would have been. If it had more direction in the design department and released it probably would have been revolutionary.
@PiroKUSS By definition, an innovative game that does not by itself start a revolution in design is not "revolutionary". The original comment had it right.
The animations in Bio Force Ape are great. I really like how the character is crouching on the elevator platforms that go up in very fast speeds, as if he is unable to stand up because of the heavy force of gravity. I don't remember seeing such thing in any other game.
I actually remember seeing ads for that California Raisins game growing up, I never knew that it never ended up releasing (or that Capcom was stupid all the way back then too).
Wow i wasn't expecting an actual wild ride of stories. This is definitely one of my favorite videos now for sure. So glad we have been graced with such generous folks wanting to just help preserve videogame history!
Some other "lost" games that were recovered with comparable stories: SFC/Satellaview - Cooly Skunk (technically most things that were on Satellaview are like this, but Cooly Skunk is especially notable for it being a canceled retail release) Genesis - Akira Game Boy Color - Resident Evil Playstation - Clayfighter Extreme Famicom Disk System - Aliens Dreamcast - Propeller Arena This can end up becoming a long list easily.
I fucking hate, how many collectors there are who only want something if no one else can have it. How many lost games are sitting in some douchenozzles collection never to see the light of day.
The California Raisins one is particularly strange to me because I very much remember renting a California Raisins game for the NES when I was a kid. Clearly I'm just misremembering things but it's definitely eerie as even the screenshots and label seemed familiar.
@@psychokinrazalon It is a bit. That's why I said the screenshots and label were familiar. But we're talking about a game I MAYBE played one time around 25 years ago. Anything I "remember" now could just be my brain manufacturing memories based off a similar game.
I was sitting here with my brow furrowed while I watched that segment because I recalled seeing a California Raisins game on the rental shelves when I was a kid. I would even bet a small amount of cash on that being the case.
Can even take only a sound, flavor or smell in a completely different context for you to suddenly be lost in thought of one of your childhood memories or similar, really cool when it happens (as long as it's not a bad memory)
I got to try one of those Sega VR headsets once in 1993. I was interviewing for a job with a game company in Tulsa, OK (Greg Zumwalt's company that made Michael Jordan in Flight) and the company was supposedly working on a game for this VR headset and let me try it out, I think it was just running the tank game they showed in this video but I was impressed with it.
@@slagit I guess the games didn't extend beyond a rectangular area in front of you? that way player would be more likely to keep their head still which is the only way I could imagine 15fps not being vomit inducing
@@snooks5607 You know not totally sure. I would think they would be the aspect ratio of the screen being used. But then I was not the programmer tech person just creating the imagery.
I don't know how to feel about the "Congraturaisins" screen, it feels both amazing and insanely cursed at the same time EDIT: holy shit the ending- I mean the cancellation of that game feels like something straight out of SEGA's own disputes between SOA and SOJ, that sucks so much EDIT2: what the fuck was the actual ending, that's awful
Hope you do more of these in the future. I'd love to hear about Dinosaur Planet, my favorite quote unquote lost game. It was the game that Star Fox Adventures was originally going to be but got changed when Miyamoto made an observation about one of its main characters, Sabre, kind of looked like Fox Mcloud from Star Fox.
California Raisins and Bio Force Ape are the example about how videogames' story and preservation are important, and how their story can be filled with the funniest of moments or even unfortunate events. How a simple look at someone else's yard can lead to a literal odyssey about a game from more that 30 years, is always amazing.
There's something so heartwarming and fantastical about hearing of a game lost to time, but ultimately discovered and saved to preservation. Thank you to all who dedicate their time to making sure video games can be saved for all to play and experience. And rest in peace, Brandon Murphy, a true legend who's untimely death and sacrifice lives on with the California Raisins prototype, now thankfully preserved for history.
I love reading through old gaming mags and seeing previews about games I don't remember. Turns out I didn't remember a lot of them because they ended up getting canceled. The highest number I've seen so far is 6 canceled games in one issue, and I believe 4 of them for for the Sega CD.
As a humble archivist, those people who encourage others not to dump a ROM so that the cart maintains a higher monetary value always bother me. Treating an experience built on some much effort and artistry as if it's just some commodity that should be withheld for trading purposes. I'm glad they got pranked hard. ;p
Very cool video and fun to revisit the memories of my time at Futurescape and NUCLEAR RUSH which I worked on and it was my first Video Game job! I had a pal at Sega at that time period and he thought he heard NR was cancelled because of the head gear over heating or something like that. It is interesting years later learning more about the reasons of cancellation. We had headgear at Futurescape and I was into VR at the time and had a blast shooting the ships I built! Anyways having experienced VR now man what we worked on seems so primitive!
A huge thank you to everyone who is putting their time and effort into the preservation and distribution of rare and unreleased games and software. I've been collecting live concert recordings and other rare unreleased music since the early 2000s, and those of us in the tape-trading scene have to contend with hoarders of the same variety - people who love to let everyone know about the one-of-a-kind, highly-sought live recordings and demo tapes they possess, but who refuse to trade or otherwise share them with the community. The unfortunate reality is this: unless stuff like this is shared online for free where it can become accessible to anyone who wants it, these priceless relics - often in the form of degradable media like cassette tapes / floppy disks / burned CDs - will simply rot away in someone's basement or garage for years, and when the person hoarding them eventually passes away, they'll often wind up tossed in the trash by a relative or friend who has no conception of their intrinsic value. It is so vitally important to preserve these unique artifacts from past eras, whether they are in the form of software, music, video, printed ephemera, etc., and make them publicly accessible so anyone who wants to can enjoy them!
I am blown away by the low prices of these one of a kind cartridges. It really shows you that the community doing all this hard work to preserve gaming history is in all likelihood just a small handful of dedicated individuals.
The experience of these wild stories is really altered by the fact that video footage of the lost games plays in the background the whole time. Like, maybe I would be emotionally swayed by all the twists if I didn't know how all these logs must end, but instead I'm like, "that's funny and all, but there's only like three minutes left, it's about time you tell us where the _real_ Bio Force Ape came from now."
FINALLY! A lost games video where NOBODY talked about Gex Jr.! Seriously, when that prototype resurfaced, people wouldn’t stop heckling me about it-it was insanity!
I am pretty flabbergasted that there is a man, walking this earth as I type this, named ‘Rich Whitehouse’. Like, somebody actively chose to give someone that name. That’s so awesome.
Side topic: The California Raisin Christmas Special has been a tradition for my family for 30 years. I always wish they came out with a Blu-ray version
5:18 Imagine your studio working on revolutionary VR technology only to go under and your only legacy being a mention in a game called Ballz 3D. Tragic.
I wonder how many more lost prototypes, whether for unreleased OR released games, are still out there somewhere floating around in someone's basement or attic. Hopefully more and more keep getting found! Thanks for this great info, really appreciate all the work you guys do to bring us all this fascinating info! That Bio Force Ape story was wild lmao, I remembering hearing a little about it but had no idea it was so bonkers.
Huh. Even as someone who watched the Bio Force Ape debacle live, and learned about California Raisins soon after the dump, I still learned a lot today. Thanks for going the extra mile on the research as usual.
Once in awhile I'll come back to this channel to see if you expanded your topics past Nintendo and MGS games, but doesn't seem like that'll ever change
There's so many games you could talk about. Pokemon Spaceworld Gold/Silver are some of the big ones, but just a few weeks ago a completed build of Star Wars Battlefront 3 was found. Even games that have since been released, like Earthbound Beginnings, Star Fox 2, etc.
Ultimate Journey for the NES and Conan The Barbarian for Jaguar are two games I recall that never got released. I even had an Electronic Gaming Monthly with a review of Ultimate Journey in it
Wow I didn't know Sega had a VR headset lined up back in the 90s. It's crazy to me that something like that was even available back then considering that most games up until that point were only in 2D.
Let's also not forget two NES games from the Oliver Twins - Wonderland Dizzy and Mystery World Dizzy. They were found and released less than ten years ago.
12:58 this is why i don't really like videogame collectors. "Video game collectors dropped out once the rom was released online"...the original cartridge is technically still priceless! Those collectors just wanted to make sure it would never release online and just say "I'm the only one that has this game and no one else!"...That's just how it feels....and quite frankly this isn't the first to happen
I agree. The cartridge is still to this day one of a kind. Who cares if the data on the cartridge is available on the web. The prototype cartridge itself is pure Nes and video games history. It’s still the only legit way to play the game. Who cares if people can find the rom online.
I had to do a double take when looking at some older photos of my uncles. What I thought was my three+ uncles donning blackface was, in actuality, all of them doing a combined group costume of the California Raisins. I still am not sure how or why I know of the Raisins, from the 90s.
I still have a Sega magazine around where they talk about the Sega VR. Probably the only Sega magazine I bought back then. I was very curious about it and well...I never heard about it again.
The HMD used by Sega VR was overseen by Virtuality in the UK. My mum's partner at the time worked for Virtuality back in the 90s and he used to take me into work sometimes back in the 90s, they had a few HMDs and VR hardware and made it for quite a few companies that needed VR for whatever. I had a few prototype Virtuality HMDs and some that failed testing that I used to take apart to learn how they worked like I did anything electronic as a kid. Wish I'd kept some of them but I didn't know how cool they were at the time haha
If you're interested in video game preservation and want to help, here are some groups that are actively working to preserve lost video games:
gamehistory.org/donate/
www.patreon.com/gamingalexandria
www.patreon.com/forestillusion
booty
I want a game about cooking steak.
I once heard about this lost nes game and I can’t remember it’s name. A guy once had it and several people wanted to buy it from him. He then destroyed it and posted a photo of it.
Edit: it’s called bioforce ape
@@kailiahmoon you’ll love cooking mama
18:09 A gay diaper wearing monkey saving his "family". Amazing.
The story about the California Raisins prototype is nuts. Starting out with being given to a retro gamer worker after someone's kid wanted an xbox, to the poor guy losing his life over an unfortunate argument. Brandon Murphy could have easily sold it for thousands, but knew something like it deserved to be shared with the world rather than held hostage for the sake of value. Dude will forever be a legend
sadly not all lost games are that lucky. There is a copy of the Resident evil 1.5 (the 80% build) that was found. The collector refuses to sell it or even dump it. So instead we have the 40% that was obtained that people are trying to rebuild.
@@benvictim hope someone steals it from the wanker
@@benvictim is there any footage of that?
@@Rihcterwilker of the 40% build being remade? Yeah lots.
You have a really poor definition of legend. It was just a random dude who got lucky and came across something rare.
You nerds are calling people who buy things legends? Stop.
It's wild to think that the Crazy Raisins game would still be lost today if the kid it was meant to go to hadn't gotten an XBOX. Really makes you think about how many lost or valuable prototypes are just lying around with people who have no idea about what they own.
yo I once bought Mario Paint with the original Box, Mouse and Mousepad at a flea marked for 6 bux. pretty sure the woman who sold it had no idea what it was and how much it was worth. I ended up giving her my last 5 bucks, which is a pretty sweet deal, everything worked perfectly and looked really new. stuff like that happens all the time if you only care to look hard enough
Yeah man, sometimes you get maybe not prototypes but some insane deals, a few years ago i got an OG Diablo 2 Battlechest CIB with the guide books, LoD expansion and the battlenet codes still unused (well unsued until i tried them expecting a “code already claimed” message but instead i got diablo 2 on a friend’s account) and everything like it was never touched on a flea market, i paid 2 bucks
I paid 5 bucks for a box with over 100 NES games and sold them for over 1000 bucks thanks to copies of festers quest and others. I also came across copies of Spiderman Carnage on Sega complete in "like new" conditiom for 2 bucks a piece. Its insane how much good stuff is just lying around for a few bucks.
I've never come across a prototype sadly, but I did once buy a 'not for release' promotional copy of a game (i.e. sent to reviewers ahead of release) from an auction for next to nothing
You're all horrible people exploiting others for your own profit
The one about the California Raisons is depressing all around. From how such a special game was canned by Capcom over something as silly as "It was not made in Japan", to how the collectors clearly just wanted it to keep in a collection and never let the public experience it considering how the offers dropped as soon as he released the ROM, to the horrible way Brandon Murphy was killed at such a young age by a roomate over just some stupid money and possessions.
He literally died for nothing. It genuinely broke my heart to hear that bit of the video. RIP a real one and I'm very much thankful for his contribution to game preservation.
When you think about it, Capcom did not have a legit reason for canceling that game. And you know something? Perhaps if they hadn’t done so, maybe that collector would still be around. Whatever the case, it was tragic to have heard about what happened.
That raisins story ended on a really bad note.
Also insane to think that collectors would drop out just because a game has been released yet as if that makes it more valuable solely.
Actually thats one of bad sides (IMO) they're more like speculators than collectors, having the only real copy (digital or otherwise) would push the value so much it could turn into tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars on offers alone. So having a digital rom copy immediately drops its value as its mystique as something unseen is immediately gone.
The dumbest ones are the ones who buy an undumped cart and then refuse to dump it unless they "recoup their losses" for buying the cart via donations. Like. no buddy, you spent your money willingly and you knew what you were getting into. You "lost" nothing. Note that I don't mean donations to acquire the item like with Bio Force Ape; they'd always had the cart in-hand before.
I haven't seen that in a while but I remember some dudes doing that with Genesis carts like 15 years ago.
Ya a real gamer would always let everyone play it there's no point onto holding it back unless pure greed and naro vision
@@stevenwhuntva , if anyone deserves to die, it should be those ass wipes, and not people like Brandon Murphy. Dollars to doughnuts, Capcom probably paid the people that offed Mr. Murphy to off him, as that would open up some bad press that they did not need.
@@stevenwhuntva Wow what an awful perspective to have, with genesis carts of all things too like its not that serious dog. You're 100% right! They chose to spend their money, now we have to pay you to not be selfish? FOH
That Bio Force Ape story was a wild ride.
I know right? Totally bananas.
I'm not terribly surprised that people went ape after seeing the smashed cartridge. Little did anyone know that he was just monkeying around.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who was thinking of cracking puns, lol.
I was there when it happened as a lurker. The salt and drama was legendary. It was almost as bad as the RE1.5 Playstation Museum drama.
Not to mention that footage -- we're talking _Sonic the Hedgehog_ levels of scrolling speed in all directions, on an 8-bit platform with only two screens' worth of VRAM.
The game looks insane. Like it seems almost beyond SNES level in regards to speed and the moves and stuff.
I started thinking "Huh a raisin game, neat" but now? I can only salute Brandon Murphys kindness and lament his short-lived life due to those bastards.
ugh. those people who wanted to buy the California Raisins prototype to be the only ones to have it and not release it for documentation make me absolutely sick. if you're collecting rare and unreleased games with the intention of showing them off to friends like a strutting peacock and keeping them away from everyone else, you're in it for the wrong reasons. collect something whose history isn't as important if you want to actively hinder its preservation.
Literally all historical collectors. The fact that it doesn't happen more with video game history is the anomoly.
@@marti5420 bs
@@unbekannt1269 explain how putting historically valued items in to a private collection doesn't hinder preservation?
@@marti5420 its different with other historical items. For games, the best way to preserve them is make them accessible using newer hardware. For ancient pieces that are so fragile you need to keep then inside glass to preserve its value else it will just turn to dust. Video games need to be shared to be preserved, ancient historical artifacts need to be kept untouched to be preserved. Some historical pieces can also only be preserved by a handful of professionals whose work consists of very specialized processes that cant be given to just an ordinary joe.
@@crudojoshuaricofort8795 so you're telling me that buying a "lost game," putting it in to a private collection and not sharing it with the world would be a bad thing? The thing I've literally been saying the entire time? No way! 🙀
and yes it's the same with historical pieces, historical pieces belong in museum collections to be shared with the world, not in private collections to be hoarded and potentially mistreat. You're literally same the exact same thing as I am in different words.
I learned more about the California Raisins editing this video than I ever knew prior.
You did good, bro. The style reminds me of old school Screw Attack and YT videos. I miss that era of internet videos. BTW, I remember looking at old consoles and wondering what the connection ports were for.
Here's something more you can learn about the California Raisins!
During the production of Back to the Future, a shady marketing guy landed a deal to promote the Raisins in said movie by promising them that "this movie would do for California Raisins what ET did for Reece's Pieces." The deal was largely unknown to the director, Robert Zemeckis. He wasn't informed until late in production that he was supposed to add a promotion to the film. Ultimately, an ad for the California Raisins was placed on the bench a hobo is seen sleeping on near the end of the movie, and that was it.
Both Robert Zemeckis and the California Rasins Advisory Board were very unhappy with the deal, and since then Zemeckis has avoided having any product promotions in his movies.
Great vid brother 🔥
Great work! I’m glad to now know the real reason the game was canceled.
That's how learning occurs usually, it increases, not decreases.
The people saving these unreleased prototypes are my heroes, the people who buy them and refuse to let them be dumped are the scum of the earth.
I could not agree more
That's why they're butter golems
I disagree, dumping it reduces the value of it, they are just protecting their assets
@@smileprettymusic lmao how is it an asset? You know, game cartridges don't last forever and are prone to degradation right? Whereas a ROM file can last for generations, why do you think we have retro rereleases all the time?
@@smileprettymusic I smell butter
Bio Force Ape looks like one of those impossible games, how on earth did they squeeze that much speed on a smooth scrolling game on the NES? And that character animation is way beyond what I'd normally expect from that console.
the character animations remind me of the Prince of Persia sprites in how smooth and rotoscoped it looks
Maybe the game was designed for an enhancement chip? I doubt the base NES hardware could handle the fast multi-directional scrolling on display here. But with an enhancement chip, fast multi-directional scrolling is possible on the NES.
@@RazorEdge2006 at that point in time it's almost certain that it used one of the enhancement chips, but even then it's pretty impressive. A game like Super Mario Bros 3 was capable of doing multi directional scrolling and was a technical showcase but the speed of Bio Force Ape is just bonkers, it's the kinda stuff I'd expect from the Genesis or SNES.
@@Dr0dd ... if I remember correctly, Seta would later develop a title for the SNES, "Nosferatu"
...an impressive game which played like Prince Of Persia as a sidescrolling brawler w/ platforming & puzzle-solving elements done in a Gothic horror style & theme, tho sadly it doesn't seem to have made as big of a splash as it should have.
This further supports the appearance of Seta being auteurs within the gaming industry, focusing on both technical brilliance & artistic quality in their work.
The rom has been dumped, we already know for a fact it uses no enhancement chips and only contains a standard MMC3 mapper.
Jesus, seeing Bio Force Ape in action is unreal. The thing looks and runs like a modern-day indie game you could get on Steam, even down to the gamefeel. I kept waiting to hear that the footage was just a recreation, but the truth is even stranger than fiction. How the hell did they get that running so fluidly and dynamically on NES hardware?
Its funny you mentioned this as in a community I'm in we had the prototype to the cancelled Battlebots video game finally posted online after nearly 20 years being lost media. I played it and it's actually mostly playable, finding lost video games is truly a wonderful thing :)
that uh, raisins segment took a pretty dark and sharp turn my god
I know! Holy shit. Took a left turn and kept going.
I remember the murder, it was a huge deal. I actually worked with Angus as a server at Perkins on San Jose Blvd in Jacksonville when all that happened. I wasn’t close with him but there was definitely something off about him, something just didn’t feel right about him even before everything.
Bless the souls of those who chose to preserve these lost games rather than take the money and let then sit on a shelf forever.
Cancelled and unreleased games being unearthed invokes a special feeling to the game, regardless of the game's actual quality.
It's becoming all too common of an occurrence for my beloved hometown of Jacksonville, FL to be mentioned somewhere and I get excited, only for the story to take a horribly dark turn.
Yeah, same
Can confirm, am also from Jacksonville, FL. There really is never any good stories from there, is there?
something i always liked about Bio Force Ape was the care with the animations coupled with the insane scrolling speed. the character crouches on the platform going up, and the hair flutters, gives a superb sense of speed going on, like hes actually withdstanding the force of the air as the platform goes up.
The dedication and euphoria people have whenever something new is unearthed never gets old 🥰
It's infuriatingly crazy to me how people will hoard these prototypes for money given that as time goes on it's increasingly likely that they will begin to break down. I wonder how many prototypes have been lost to time simply due to some neckbeard wanting to be the only one who can play it.
Cry harder
Reminds me of when some Japanese collector splurged nearly $14,000 on a rare prototype of Indy the Magical Kid just to hoard it away from us dirty westerners.
@@HistoryandReviews appreciate your contribution and insights to this discussion :)
@@HistoryandReviews Found the neckbeard
@@waspennator if video games are your life you need help
All three stories are amazing, I think this made me appreciate more the gaming community and the passion some people have to protect and preserve this media
Having lived one of them yeah it brought back fun memories and even gave me some new insights!
The thought of the private collectors who enshrine prototypes like these and never release them fills me with a kind of rage I can't entirely understand. Absolute scumbags
pirates like you that think games should be ripped so pirates can emulate it for free are far worse.
It's a video game. Touch grass
Found one
Yeah those stupid private collectors should seriously consider touching grass at some point. Heck, I think they mostly just play League of Legends with their obese-looking ahh.
@@CaptainKreepingDeath man child
It's a shame Bio Force Ape never got released considering what a technical marvel it would have been. If it had more direction in the design department and released it probably would have been revolutionary.
Would have? It still is. Games like I, Robot were innovative, but went unnoticed. Games that innovate aren't always given the attention they deserve.
@PiroKUSS By definition, an innovative game that does not by itself start a revolution in design is not "revolutionary". The original comment had it right.
huge kudos to frank cifaldi, kelsey lewin and all the people at VGHF. they're doing incredible work there
Gotta love a story of a lost treasure being rediscovered years or even decades after.
The animations in Bio Force Ape are great. I really like how the character is crouching on the elevator platforms that go up in very fast speeds, as if he is unable to stand up because of the heavy force of gravity. I don't remember seeing such thing in any other game.
I actually remember seeing ads for that California Raisins game growing up, I never knew that it never ended up releasing (or that Capcom was stupid all the way back then too).
I played the rom of bio-force ape sometime ago and was impressed with it's speed for sure. Would have been nice to have seen it released
Wow i wasn't expecting an actual wild ride of stories. This is definitely one of my favorite videos now for sure. So glad we have been graced with such generous folks wanting to just help preserve videogame history!
game preservationists are the real mvps
[00:33] - Super Mario 64 DD
[02:18] - Sega Home VR
[08:07] - California Raisins (NES)
[14:20] - Bio Force Ape
Some other "lost" games that were recovered with comparable stories:
SFC/Satellaview - Cooly Skunk (technically most things that were on Satellaview are like this, but Cooly Skunk is especially notable for it being a canceled retail release)
Genesis - Akira
Game Boy Color - Resident Evil
Playstation - Clayfighter Extreme
Famicom Disk System - Aliens
Dreamcast - Propeller Arena
This can end up becoming a long list easily.
Speaking of Mature rated GB games, they did release a Mortal Kombat Gameboy game. It came with my GameBoy, but my mom kept it and game me Donkey Kong.
@@LegendStormcrow Probably for the best, since I believe that port was terrible anyway.
@@cabbusses likely was.
@@cabbusses yes it is terrible (trust me I've seen footage online that confirms that theory)
I fucking hate, how many collectors there are who only want something if no one else can have it. How many lost games are sitting in some douchenozzles collection never to see the light of day.
Fucking capitalism.
Love your vids, keep it up your amazing! ❤
The California Raisins one is particularly strange to me because I very much remember renting a California Raisins game for the NES when I was a kid.
Clearly I'm just misremembering things but it's definitely eerie as even the screenshots and label seemed familiar.
The gameplay shown in this video should be familiar if that was the case.
@@psychokinrazalon It is a bit. That's why I said the screenshots and label were familiar. But we're talking about a game I MAYBE played one time around 25 years ago. Anything I "remember" now could just be my brain manufacturing memories based off a similar game.
I was sitting here with my brow furrowed while I watched that segment because I recalled seeing a California Raisins game on the rental shelves when I was a kid. I would even bet a small amount of cash on that being the case.
It's extremely familiar to me too. Not sure why
Fun psych fact: Memories can be strong enough to invoke the exact emotions a person felt when the experience originally happened.
~ True Story
Eh
Can even take only a sound, flavor or smell in a completely different context for you to suddenly be lost in thought of one of your childhood memories or similar, really cool when it happens (as long as it's not a bad memory)
Theses stories are so crazy I can't get enough of them. Great work as always, please keep sharing your findings ✌🏼
This is the kind of content I appreciate from your channel.
Goddamn, the raisins story got a lot more serious at the end there.
“Congraturaisins” .. I think some things are meant to be lost
I agree. I would burn the cartridge if I were the guy
CONGLATURAT ION !!!
YOU HAVE COMPLETED
A GREAT GAME .
AND PROOVED THE JUST ICE
OF OUR CULTURE .
NOW GO AND REST OUR
HEROES !
I got to try one of those Sega VR headsets once in 1993. I was interviewing for a job with a game company in Tulsa, OK (Greg Zumwalt's company that made Michael Jordan in Flight) and the company was supposedly working on a game for this VR headset and let me try it out, I think it was just running the tank game they showed in this video but I was impressed with it.
I worked at Futurescape on the Nuclear Rush game and yeah it was some fun times that were I guess a little bit a head of the times. LOL!
@@slagit I guess the games didn't extend beyond a rectangular area in front of you? that way player would be more likely to keep their head still which is the only way I could imagine 15fps not being vomit inducing
@@snooks5607 You know not totally sure. I would think they would be the aspect ratio of the screen being used. But then I was not the programmer tech person just creating the imagery.
I would love to see those sega VR headsets get found (or at least preserved in pristine condition)
Really liking the amount of content you guys have been pumping out lately
I don't know how to feel about the "Congraturaisins" screen, it feels both amazing and insanely cursed at the same time
EDIT: holy shit the ending- I mean the cancellation of that game feels like something straight out of SEGA's own disputes between SOA and SOJ, that sucks so much
EDIT2: what the fuck was the actual ending, that's awful
Hope you do more of these in the future. I'd love to hear about Dinosaur Planet, my favorite quote unquote lost game. It was the game that Star Fox Adventures was originally going to be but got changed when Miyamoto made an observation about one of its main characters, Sabre, kind of looked like Fox Mcloud from Star Fox.
My love for this channel keeps increasing with every video they release.
Thank you for name dropping Twin Eagle! I have been trying to remember what that game was called for at least 25 years now!
Surf Wisely.
California Raisins and Bio Force Ape are the example about how videogames' story and preservation are important, and how their story can be filled with the funniest of moments or even unfortunate events.
How a simple look at someone else's yard can lead to a literal odyssey about a game from more that 30 years, is always amazing.
I remember the little plastic raisin toys that everyone was collecting when i was a kid. My favorite was the raisin wearing orange sunglasses.
There's something so heartwarming and fantastical about hearing of a game lost to time, but ultimately discovered and saved to preservation. Thank you to all who dedicate their time to making sure video games can be saved for all to play and experience.
And rest in peace, Brandon Murphy, a true legend who's untimely death and sacrifice lives on with the California Raisins prototype, now thankfully preserved for history.
I love reading through old gaming mags and seeing previews about games I don't remember. Turns out I didn't remember a lot of them because they ended up getting canceled. The highest number I've seen so far is 6 canceled games in one issue, and I believe 4 of them for for the Sega CD.
Man, the sheer chance of the guy who knew exactly what mario 64 DD was finding it is boggling my mind
As a humble archivist, those people who encourage others not to dump a ROM so that the cart maintains a higher monetary value always bother me. Treating an experience built on some much effort and artistry as if it's just some commodity that should be withheld for trading purposes. I'm glad they got pranked hard. ;p
wow the people who went to such efforts to preserve gaming history are truly the biggest Chads
Very cool video and fun to revisit the memories of my time at Futurescape and NUCLEAR RUSH which I worked on and it was my first Video Game job! I had a pal at Sega at that time period and he thought he heard NR was cancelled because of the head gear over heating or something like that. It is interesting years later learning more about the reasons of cancellation. We had headgear at Futurescape and I was into VR at the time and had a blast shooting the ships I built! Anyways having experienced VR now man what we worked on seems so primitive!
The story behind how the ROM for Raisins trades hands is crazy!
But it's also very sad to.
Rest in peace Brandon Murphy. Thank you for contributing to game preservation. You will always be remembered by the gaming community.
A huge thank you to everyone who is putting their time and effort into the preservation and distribution of rare and unreleased games and software. I've been collecting live concert recordings and other rare unreleased music since the early 2000s, and those of us in the tape-trading scene have to contend with hoarders of the same variety - people who love to let everyone know about the one-of-a-kind, highly-sought live recordings and demo tapes they possess, but who refuse to trade or otherwise share them with the community. The unfortunate reality is this: unless stuff like this is shared online for free where it can become accessible to anyone who wants it, these priceless relics - often in the form of degradable media like cassette tapes / floppy disks / burned CDs - will simply rot away in someone's basement or garage for years, and when the person hoarding them eventually passes away, they'll often wind up tossed in the trash by a relative or friend who has no conception of their intrinsic value. It is so vitally important to preserve these unique artifacts from past eras, whether they are in the form of software, music, video, printed ephemera, etc., and make them publicly accessible so anyone who wants to can enjoy them!
I am blown away by the low prices of these one of a kind cartridges. It really shows you that the community doing all this hard work to preserve gaming history is in all likelihood just a small handful of dedicated individuals.
I absolutely love covering these kinds of games. They're always the most fun to talk about. :)
The experience of these wild stories is really altered by the fact that video footage of the lost games plays in the background the whole time. Like, maybe I would be emotionally swayed by all the twists if I didn't know how all these logs must end, but instead I'm like, "that's funny and all, but there's only like three minutes left, it's about time you tell us where the _real_ Bio Force Ape came from now."
Probably the most interesting episode I've seen on here. Great job!
FINALLY! A lost games video where NOBODY talked about Gex Jr.!
Seriously, when that prototype resurfaced, people wouldn’t stop heckling me about it-it was insanity!
Ah, Gex, glad to see you here, did you hear about Gex Jr getting dumped?
Bio Force Ape looks like it was modeled after the Ultimate Warrior lol. Especially with the crazy running
I am pretty flabbergasted that there is a man, walking this earth as I type this, named ‘Rich Whitehouse’. Like, somebody actively chose to give someone that name. That’s so awesome.
I grew up with a guy named "Mike Hunt" so... there's another cautionary tale for prospective parents.
never would i have expected a story about the lost california raisins game to end with first degree murder
This video is so awesome! I love hearing about prototypes and lost media
one of the best videos you've done. what a trip.
That's some quality trolling in the bio ape story.
Side topic: The California Raisin Christmas Special has been a tradition for my family for 30 years. I always wish they came out with a Blu-ray version
The scrolling in Bioforce Ape is crazy!
5:18 Imagine your studio working on revolutionary VR technology only to go under and your only legacy being a mention in a game called Ballz 3D. Tragic.
Rest in Peace Brandon Murphy, you were to good for this world.
RIP Brandon Murphy, never chased the bag for te good of all. Absolute legend.
I wonder how many more lost prototypes, whether for unreleased OR released games, are still out there somewhere floating around in someone's basement or attic. Hopefully more and more keep getting found! Thanks for this great info, really appreciate all the work you guys do to bring us all this fascinating info!
That Bio Force Ape story was wild lmao, I remembering hearing a little about it but had no idea it was so bonkers.
The Bio Force Ape story was probably the most epic video game documentary I've ever seen.
Huh. Even as someone who watched the Bio Force Ape debacle live, and learned about California Raisins soon after the dump, I still learned a lot today. Thanks for going the extra mile on the research as usual.
These were so interesting. Especially the last one. That was intriguing as hell
Sometimes reality is weirder than fiction xD
Love the Bio Force Ape story!
1:53 You really are the best youtuber. You make all of our days better
Once in awhile I'll come back to this channel to see if you expanded your topics past Nintendo and MGS games, but doesn't seem like that'll ever change
Imagine wanting to find a game since 2008... And you find it in a very casual place
There's so many games you could talk about. Pokemon Spaceworld Gold/Silver are some of the big ones, but just a few weeks ago a completed build of Star Wars Battlefront 3 was found. Even games that have since been released, like Earthbound Beginnings, Star Fox 2, etc.
Love the videos! You put so much time and work into them and they make my day better
This felt like a vintage YT gaming video, nice work.
The way the California raisins story goes from 0-50 💀
Holy cow! Wasn't expecting murder and fire on a video game video
Amazing and detailed work as always!
Ultimate Journey for the NES and Conan The Barbarian for Jaguar are two games I recall that never got released.
I even had an Electronic Gaming Monthly with a review of Ultimate Journey in it
18:23 - posterity, not prosperity. Great informative vid.
I didn’t expect to hear the word ‘raisins’ so many times in this video
Wow I didn't know Sega had a VR headset lined up back in the 90s. It's crazy to me that something like that was even available back then considering that most games up until that point were only in 2D.
That Raisins game has cursed energy
I mean, there was a murder involved so yeah...p cursed
Let's also not forget two NES games from the Oliver Twins - Wonderland Dizzy and Mystery World Dizzy. They were found and released less than ten years ago.
Very thorough research, nice work!
12:58 this is why i don't really like videogame collectors. "Video game collectors dropped out once the rom was released online"...the original cartridge is technically still priceless! Those collectors just wanted to make sure it would never release online and just say "I'm the only one that has this game and no one else!"...That's just how it feels....and quite frankly this isn't the first to happen
I agree. The cartridge is still to this day one of a kind. Who cares if the data on the cartridge is available on the web. The prototype cartridge itself is pure Nes and video games history. It’s still the only legit way to play the game. Who cares if people can find the rom online.
I had to do a double take when looking at some older photos of my uncles. What I thought was my three+ uncles donning blackface was, in actuality, all of them doing a combined group costume of the California Raisins.
I still am not sure how or why I know of the Raisins, from the 90s.
The Raisins as story was bittersweet
I still have a Sega magazine around where they talk about the Sega VR. Probably the only Sega magazine I bought back then. I was very curious about it and well...I never heard about it again.
Now you know why.
The HMD used by Sega VR was overseen by Virtuality in the UK. My mum's partner at the time worked for Virtuality back in the 90s and he used to take me into work sometimes back in the 90s, they had a few HMDs and VR hardware and made it for quite a few companies that needed VR for whatever. I had a few prototype Virtuality HMDs and some that failed testing that I used to take apart to learn how they worked like I did anything electronic as a kid.
Wish I'd kept some of them but I didn't know how cool they were at the time haha