Japanese Mega Drive Beta Cartridges of Axis FZ and NBA Jam

[Yakumo]

I've come across these two Japanese cartridges containing Axis FZ and NBA Jam. I've yet to play them but I can tell you they both needed a hell of a clean to get them working. I'll be selling them on after I've seen what they are.

Axis FZ cartridge


Game running



NBA Jam cartridge


Game running


And then crashing


Yakumo

[HEX1GON]

Nice finds Mark! :)

[sabre470]

Nice find dude!!! Let me know sell Axis :)

[CoolMod]

Report the errors to Iguana!!!

[Yakumo]

It would be funny to do so but Iguana were part of Acclaim and they're well gone now. Just as well since 90% of their stuff was rubbish IMO and 100% of the shit released by LJN (Also part of Acclaim) was pure crap. the Angry Video Game Nerd covers a lot of LJN stuff.

[Nano Babe]

Nice Find, it is amazing what turns up over the years, let me know if you want to sell either of them Cheers

[Johnny]

Great finds Mark!

By the way, finding a sample/debug version of NBA JAM in Japan!? Am i the only one who thinks that's funny?

[Yakumo]

It is pretty funny. By the way, I played the Axis FZ game last night and it is indeed different from the retail game. Different graphics and many missing screens I'll document the differences tonight if I get time.

[Yakumo]

OK, so here we go with a few differences between the prototype and final game.

First off we have the title screen. Both games have the same introduction and same title screen. the colour looks different in the photo due to light settings in the room.



The prototype has no level introductions at all. After the title screen you go straight in to the first stage. It is also lacking the completed level screens and instead gives you a white screen with some text rather than the graphical screen found in the final game.



I only took screen shots of the first stage because the prototype is very difficult to play. First thing you'll notice is that the Enemies are called "REST" (top left of each screen shot) and you also start with a different weapon set and you have to take out 30 enemies/rest rather than the 20 in the final game.



The final game has re-drawn versions of every enemy. Just check out the different colour pallets or completely different designs.









In the final game 3 fighter jet shadows will pass over the screen as they nuke the place but in the prototype there's only one and it doesn't really drop than many nukes.



The prototype must have more than 1 stage since the rolling demo shows more but the 1st level boss is just way too hard to defeat. In the final release the first level boss isn't such a problem but in this prototype it's going to take a lot of work to get past it.

Yakumo

[G0dLiKe]

thx for sharing the pictures Yakumo

[willcrook]

interesting, thanks for the comparison!

[Yakumo]

I'm going to try and complete level 1 tonight but I doubt I can kill the boss. The amount of stuff it throws at you is crazy. If only I had a Mega Drive Action Replay cartridge.

Yakumo

[wheelaa]

Great stuff!
I'll send you an Action Replay if you sell me the Axis beta lol.

[Mystical]

nice one for the updates, interesting stuff

[Yakumo]

Great stuff!
I'll send you an Action Replay if you sell me the Axis beta lol.

I'd love to mate but I've already said I'd sell it to someone else.

[wheelaa]

Cheers. I was only joking (well half). Tbh (never thought I'd say this), but I'm in a 'not so into collecting / gaming' phase. Guess life creeps up on us all at some point.

Still can send an AR if you really need it though!