More prototypes added to the Games That Weren’t archive, where today we’re adding a series of Micro Machines 1 and 2 Twin Turbo prototypes for the Nintendo Color Game Boy. These all vary a lot, though we were unable to attribute accurate dates for all of them.
MM2DEMO.gbc is one of the most interesting, as this seems to be a very early iteration where the Game Boy original game was being converted over and re-colourized. The music map is quite glitchy and the sprites are not yet reworked, but you can have a race and even see remains of the original title. There is likely more tucked away, though we think just the one level has been re-done.
Some of the other builds have a different intro screen at the start, along with variations in credits. A few also crash when you try to play the first part (which may just require some minor compatibility fixes to get going). However, the second game seems to work fine – where there are some differences with music playing or with qualifying adjustments.
At least two of the builds with the first part working, the water trail on the boats is very different. mmdemo1410cheat_b.gbc seems to be close to final, though there are major colour differences with some of the levels. The Breakfast level in particular has a much lighter scheme and seems a little slower/more floaty compared to the final build.
There is very likely a lot more to discover lurking in the builds, so if you find anything interesting that we haven’t mentioned – please get in touch and we’ll update this page.
As an additional bonus, there are a couple of music demos that were recovered, and alsoa large amount of graphical assets for the development and have produced a gallery for you below of them all – which includes most of the maps for the game.
With thanks to Mark Greenshields for making it possible to preserve these prototypes.