Chuck Yeager's Fighter Combat for the NES

I just acquired this from an auction on Ebay and I've been able to mess around with it for a few hours now. Like all flight sims, the controls are pretty tough to get a hang of without a manual, but I picked them up soon enough. Pretty fun with just a minor glitch here and there (most notably at the title screen), and as far as I can tell it seems to be complete.

Some screen caps and a shot of the PCB for those interested:



























The two things that continue to stand out for me are:

- The digital voices. Every five seconds, Chuck says something bizarre like "Engage!" or "Out of Missiles" and my favorite "You call yourself a pilot?!"
- The "polygon" graphics that I never thought I'd see on the NES. For the hardware, I can't believe they can pull it off. Sure, it's primitive next to something like Starfox, but not bad at all for the NES.

Hope you guys enjoy, I'll be adding more stuff in the future!

 

I remember seeing you say it went out of your price range haha. Guess you couldn't resist, huh?

Glad to know you got it, maybe we'll see it released someday then.

 

If you've seen the way I bid on NES protos that I know about, it's rare that they really go out of my price range .

Sometimes you have to play possum to land a proto, though this one cost me enough that I doubt I had many fooled.

 

That is... amazing actually. I've grown up with vector graphics like these, and I still remember many early flight"sims" quite fondly.
A great find

 

That has to be the best video game screenshot ever!

Great purchase, what was the finishing price in the end?

 

Not cheap unfortunately; about $2,700. At the same time, I've never obtained unreleased protos by being stingy, so I expected to spend some cash on this one.

 

Why aren't people thinking this is friggin' amazing? Can we get some video? Will you eventually dump it? I just want to see it in action...

 

If it were a huger name than Chuck Yeager it might be getting more attention right about now...

 

I think it has been dumped, considering the pixel perfect emulation screenshots above.

 

Every proto I own gets dumped pretty much as soon as I get it, so yeah, this one has been dumped. As to you seeing video, I'd rather you all have the chance to play it. My brother summed up the way we release things pretty nicely a while back, so I think I'll just quote him:

"It will 100%, positively be reproduced, and the rom will be released for free after the fact. That's our ultimate goal for all such things.

- We make some cash back, and a small profit for our work.
- Collectors get a new snazzy game to put on their shelves.
- Freeloaders still get the rom without having to drop any $.
- The game is preserved and saved from obscurity.

I know that the prototype community doesn't share the same view when it comes to the ethics behind releases, but Mark and I feel like this is the best way to go about doing it. "

Brams: You know that the Yeager games for DOS/Mac were some of the biggest selling and most enjoyed games when this was supposed to be released right? Couple that with polygonal graphics and some pretty deep game play, and I think it's a pretty big deal :dance:

Thanks for all the support guys, I think you'll all enjoy playing this one.

 

mrmark0673, you and your brother are so very generous but I can't help wondering what you guys do. I mean, dropping a few thousand dollars on a proto then releasing it for free is nothing short than being a Saint to prototype fans.

Yakumo

 

Eyes going soft Yakumo?

Cool all the same though!

 

We've made a small profit on past releases, but with $2.7K upfront plus the price of overhead costs for the project, it's unlikely we'll see much of a return. The small profit also factors in the hours of manual labor to release a cool cart/box/manual.

As to what we do...

I am a 7th grade Life Science teacher, Matt is a 6th grade Earth Science teacher. We are both 25 (identical twins) and we own a modest condo just outside Boston. Needless to say, we're not millionaires ;-)

 

Looks like an interesting game, don't expect to see polygons on a nes thats for sure.

As for the repro making, thats a good way of doing it I think. After all you have to outbid proto hoarders to buy it in the first place, so its a big investment. And even if you released the ROM image for free straight away someone else would just sell repros of it - and no doubt badly done and high priced too.

 

As Yakumo perfectly worded it, I have little to add. Thumbs up for your generosity!
I'll be looking forward to release and considering a repro.

 

You could say that. Most of my net surfing is either done on the iPhone at work or in the early hours of the morning at home these days.

Nice to see two guys with modest jobs doing what they do. Even if you do make a bit of cash you're still bringing games to the fans that would otherwise have never seen them.

 

Just keep an eye out for the EA lawyers on this one.

It's one thing to take the risk of releasing a repro of a game from a defunct company with no obvious claim to the rights.

It's another to go up against EA's army of lawyers who could hit anyone selling a repro with willful copyright infringement.

-hl718

 

I'm not too concerned about a company spending thousands to make hundreds by taking me to court over 20+ year old abandonware. Worst thing I could see happening, and it would be a long shot, would be them sending a cease and desist order. If Nintendo isn't going after Bunnyboy for his NWC and Campus Challenge reproductions, I'm doubtful that the boogymen of EA will come looking for me. Thanks for the heads up though!

 

EA is...interesting in who/what it chooses to go after. It can also be highly aggressive since it deals with many licensed properties (whereas Nintendo is usually only handling IP that it owns).

I'm not saying that it'll sic its lawyers on you, but going from a simple dump to making a repro and selling that (especially for a profit) technically dumps you into the realm of willful copyright infringement. For that there is a statutory damage enhancement that isn't there for straight infringement.

There's also the factor that EA is a large company. If it wanted to, it could push for criminal copyright infringement charges. Not saying it would, but if it did chances are good that a complaint from EA's legal dept would be given a bit more weight than a note from an administrator of the assests of a long dead company. The law shouldn't be like that, but in practical terms it is.

The NES fan in me wants to see something like this release (actually reminds me of some of the Microprose developed NES software).

The pragmatist in me doesn't want to see a fellow collector get bitten in the ass by a corporation.

-hl718

 

ok so take the sticker off of the cartridge that says EA on it and make them proves its theirs...