Original Post

It’s probably clear to you all by now that I’m here largely because of finding out about that game, and will stop at nothing to play it. (Nothing against the other VB games, but this one is my main interest for whatever reason.)

I’ve already read up about the game on sites like this one and virtual-boy.org, and have scoured the forums for additional information, such as the NoA employee who submitted a script for the game that was rejected, some bastard who claimed to have a 47% complete copy of the game and the IP rights and is probably lying, and that someone, somewhere has a prototype and won’t share a dump of it. There’s also some group calling themselves the Tower of Infinity out there that’s trying to get this game released(and also one that the aforementioned lying bastard was under the guise of), though I don’t know where to locate them and ask them about any info they may have gleaned.

All of that was in 2005 or so. It’s now 2008, and perhaps some new info or whatever has cropped up that I’m not aware of. It may take many more years from now before I play it, but I’m not going to stop my investigation until I either play it or die.

I could probably start by investigating that major distribution center that Nintendo supposedly has in Atlanta, since it should only be an hour or two away from where I live. I doubt I’ll get anything DH-related, but I won’t know until I try.

Next up would be the Nintendo of America HQ in Redmond, Washington, which I could probably visit whenever my family takes me to Washington to meet other family members. Perhaps that one guy who wrote the rejected script still works there, and there’s the chance that someone else may know something about the game that I don’t.

Finally, there would be Nintendo of Japan to investigate and especially Intelligent Systems, but I don’t expect to be taking any trips to Japan any time soon. My investigations there would probably be limited to e-mail.

So, is anyone here willing to help me kick-start another investigation? Perhaps we can actually find out who owns that prototype and isn’t sharing, and ask what they want in exchange for it. Or, if nothing else, we can just discuss the game.

15 Replies

um… While you’re at it, can you try to see if there are any “Mother3(64)” a.k.a. “Earthbound 64” dev disks just laying around somewhere? Or if the demo cartridge/disc is in storage somewhere?.. And if it is, can you get one and send it to me?

  • This reply was modified 16 years ago by edracon.

I suppose I could try investigating other unreleased games like Mother 3 N64, but DH gets the bulk of my attention simply because it hasn’t been remade and released on another platform already(not to mention it’s fairly unique).

I interested in seeing DH also, but I guarantee no one will dump that game for cheap, if at all. I guess NoA would be a nice bet, but someone from planet GC went there, and the only VB stuff there was a demo machine, and VB in a case. Good luck though, I hope you find something

I just remembered about something else long ago on these forums: someone was going to create all sorts of Bound High! and Dragon Hopper-related things, like comics and dolls/plushies/whatever. One of those things was going to be a Dorin doll/plush/whatever.

Did it ever arrive on the doorstep of whoever runs this site?

Yea, I remember someone posting something about that awhile ago.

Now, I’ve never tried to find games that were never released (unless its just internet searches), but if it was me, I’d look towards the programers. I’ve only taken a few classes myself, but everyone I know keeps copies of code that they work on.

-Eric

Back to that Planet GC guy-what records do you have of his trip that may exist on the Internet somewhere? I doubt it’ll have any info pertinent to my investigation due to the lack of prototypes, but I could read just about anything at this point.

(As for discussion, I keep imagining what it would be like if I could make Dorin a playable character in a Super Smash Bros. game. Other characters like Chalvo could appear as Assist Trophies.)

NamelessPlayer wrote:
Back to that Planet GC guy-what records do you have of his trip that may exist on the Internet somewhere? I doubt it’ll have any info pertinent to my investigation due to the lack of prototypes, but I could read just about anything at this point.

Here, read this (its just a summary of what the Planet GC guys did)
http://www.vr32.de/modules/misc/?010

(As for discussion, I keep imagining what it would be like if I could make Dorin a playable character in a Super Smash Bros. game. Other characters like Chalvo could appear as Assist Trophies.)

I don’t think they would do that, because only about 4 people in the world know Dorin.

That Planet Gamecube article taught me some interesting things about the NoA HQ, though I had to look it up on web.archive.org-and, even after that, I still had trouble bringing up some of the pages.

Also, as far as Dorin’s obscurity is concerned, I don’t think too many people today would have been aware of, say, the Ice Climbers if they weren’t in SSBM already. If I could just get this game released somehow, perhaps Dorin could garner just enough fame to be featured in the next game-if there even is a next SSB. (I don’t know how they could radically improve Brawl, anyway-at least not to the level of going from SSB64 to SSBM and then to SSBB.)

Anyway, I think I’m going to e-mail Intelligent Systems about the game, seeing as they were its developers. Are there any questions you want me to ask? (Or, would it be a better idea for us all to e-mail seperately so as to make it appear that more than one person in the world wants this game?)

EDIT: Just fired off an e-mail to IS. I hope they won’t mind me talking about an old, unreleased game for a generally-loathed platform in English when they could be developing games…Perhaps the rest of you ought to send e-mails about this game as well to let them know that there is a potential market for this game were it to be released(presumably on the Wii or DS).

(I know, double-posting is frowned upon on the Internet, but I figured that I’d give an update regardless.)

Four days have passed, and I don’t have a reply from Intelligent Systems yet. Perhaps I should have tried to contact a developer directly, though I don’t know who was responsible for creating this game other than a bunch of people working at Intelligent Systems back in 1996. (KR155E said in Lost Levels that he contacted IntSys more than once, though I don’t know if he got any replies either.)

And speaking of Lost Levels, someone there was worried that this game would be lost forever. I refuse to believe that, as Nintendo probably keeps the game data locked up in some vault over in Japan. Even if the Virtual Boy game were to be totally lost even to Nintendo themselves, I’d see to it that they remake it for a modern platform. (I don’t necessarily have to play it on the Virtual Boy, I just have to play it in some form developed by Nintendo themselves.)

I guess I’m going to take this investigation to other forums like ASSEMbler, Lost Levels, and who knows where else, as keeping it confined here won’t help much.

I contacted the manufacturers of the VB developing kit some years ago (I think it was IntSys, but I’m not sure) and the only reply I got was “you need Nintendo of Japan permission to buy one of those kits. We cannot sell it to you” or something like that, so I don’t think they will bother in replying your e-mails, sorry…

I tried to register for the ASSEMbler Forums and inquire about this game there several days ago, but I got no activation e-mail. I’m still stuck with an unactivated account incapable of making threads or anything. Perhaps one of you has an account there and can post on my behalf.

During that time, I could’ve registered for the Lost Levels forums, but didn’t because I’m not sure that having my e-mail address and such in the hands of so many forums was a good idea. I’m going to break the ice now, register yet another forum account, and ask there.

One question that could make this investigation much easier would be contact information for absolutely anyone related to this game, be it scriptwriters(even those whose scripts were rejected!), coders, artists, composers, or whomever else may have played a role in this game’s development. (Contacting a specific person may actually net me a reply this time, as IntSys STILL hasn’t replied. I don’t think they’ll even bother sending a reply at this point.) Could one of you get in touch with that NoA scriptwriter who posted back in 2005?

(Finally, I get the feeling that I should make Dorin my avatar on this forum, and perhaps others…)

I’m registered to ASSEMbler Forums, I could post a topic for ya if you want 😉

Anyway, I’m pretty much interested in Dragon Hopper informations too, so…

god, i wish this game would surface. i’d trade anything i had.

Of the prototypes known to exist, Dragon Hopper is actually the one that excites me the least. I’d still grin like an idiot if a special internet edition turned up though. 🙂

Dj AXS wrote:
I’m registered to ASSEMbler Forums, I could post a topic for ya if you want 😉

Anyway, I’m pretty much interested in Dragon Hopper informations too, so…

I can’t seem to get my account activated by posting in the thread for rectifying this sort of problem, as my post apparently never appears. I guess you’ll have to post in my stead.

Dave_ wrote:
Of the prototypes known to exist, Dragon Hopper is actually the one that excites me the least. I’d still grin like an idiot if a special internet edition turned up though. 🙂

That’s perfectly fine by me; I understand that not everyone has the same taste in games(and, besides, the world wouldn’t be all that interesting if everyone liked and disliked the same things).

Anyway, let’s revisit an old Lost Levels thread. Judging from one comment, the game has been dumped, but said dump is only in the hands of an exclusive few. If only I could find out who those people are so that I(and anyone else)could make a deal to get the dump…(Having the original prototype cart would be very nice, but my main concern is just getting to play the game. Besides, if I did get the actual prototype, I’d probably have it dumped, keeping a dump for myself while I resell the proto cart.)

 

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