Interested in any Earthworm Jim prototypes.

Hi there everyone. I'm a huge fan of Earthworm Jim, and I'm looking for any EWJ protos. Especially a EWJ 1 proto with with one of these cut levels in it
http://i36.tinypic.com/14wvmte.jpg
http://i25.tinypic.com/sgn1x3.jpg

 

Hey man,

I have no protos myself, but I have some links that will probably interest you a lot.

First of all, the user Kiff on these forums has a set of documents used in the planning stages of Earthworm Jim 3D. Concept art etc. There's a thread that mentions it here, and pictures here, here and here. I'm not sure the thread is particularly current, so you might want to shoot him a PM. I know for a fact that he still has the documentation.

Secondly, DreamTR, as you probably know, has arguably the largest collection of prototypes in the world. This thread has a possibly outdated list of his prototypes. There are not only several Earthworm Jim games in the list, but they also seem to be quite popular. He'd be the one to contact, but remember that he makes a habit of not checking cartridges for differences, so you might end up with a final version.

Good luck!

Cheers,
Franklint

 

There's also this thread for the EWJ2 proto dump that never got anywhere.

http://forums.hidden-palace.org/viewtopic.php?t=2823&sid=0801bae180756f3fc4bca1d0a237dcde

Unless you're only looking to buy stuff to keep for yourself, maybe you can finish off what's needed to get this thing dumped

 

Thanks for the help guys. I'm really interested in Dreamtr's Earthworm Jim 1/2 prototypes, the one thing that's really keeping me from buying them is that he doesn't check his protos for beta differences. With the little amount of money I have I just can't risk the chance of getting a final product, and If I was to buy them I'd dump them to the public. I wonder if anyone would pitch in if there was a fundraiser for his EWJ 1 proto

 

Really, with how the EWJ2 one hasn't really gotten anywhere, I don't think there's much a point in starting another one up for EWJ1 and seeing what happens. Once DreamTRs list was put up, separate funds for games were started and got nowhere. That shouldn't be encouraged anymore, gets too complicated. As far as I see it there's people that donated for EWJ2 and a Goemon prototype for n64 that still have their money just sitting there, waiting for the day that the funding is completed for each. That's obviously never going to happen unless one dedicated individual steps in now and pays off the rest that's needed, since both were advertised fairly enough on sites that are into prototypes and yet the response was met with like 4 guys in a corner that raised their brows XD

I don't blame you for not wanting to spend the money considering you have nothing to go by if it's different from the final or not. One reason why I decided never to donate towards any of this stuff again unless I know what I'm paying for. Sort of off putting that you say you have "little money" though, since protos are never going to be cheap. You'd better expect to pay a lot if you were getting the real deal. EWJ2 is only at the price it is due to it being a dump, and so is everything else from DreamTRs list on hidden-palace; it's only for buying the dump. If the actual cartridge was being sold the price would be higher, you can bet that.

 

Yeah, I don't have enough money at the moment for an actual cartridge, but I only care about getting them dumped. I've never dealt with DreamTR before, if someone had the money and said I'm willing to buy this, but only if you can confirm that it has some sort of difference from the final game he wouldn't do it?

 

No worries .

Probably not. I certainly wouldn't hold my breath. DreamTR has so many prototypes, he generally makes it a rule that he won't check a cartridge for you, even if you have the money on hand. I remember asking him to check a cartridge for differences in the past, when I had the money, and he refused. Maybe if you suck up enough...

Cheers,
Franklint

 

It's not like I don't "want" to check these things, but seriously, I have so many cartridge prototypes it's nearly impossible to do this.

To check for differences what am I supposed to do? Document each and every level of gameplay and dig out a final version of the game to do that with each specific person asking about possibly purchasing it?

I have had too many problems in the past with people just wanting to know if something has documented differences. DRX has purchased a lof of stuff from me and it really is about 50/50 that the games are different than the final. I can't control if they are or not, most of these are just games from contacts, developers, magazines over the years; etc.

So with that I always say I can dig the game(s) out but there is a rare occurence I may or may not HAVE said game anymore, it really depends.

That list on HIdden Palace is very old and outdated and had only a fraction of the cartridge betas I own and to clarify since people think that is an attempt at "bragging", the reason I mention this is to have the person put themselves in my shoes with trying to attempt to find out if a proto I have is different or not.

WIth my schedule it takes awhile just to dig and FIND the games. Testing for differences is time consuming and impossible. I had one guy ask me if there were differences in a $10 disk beta once. Just an example of people not knowing the time involved in something like that.

So again, I'm not trying to be evil here, it is what it is, you take a chance that the games may or may not be different. It's too hard to say, but beggars can't be choosers on these either. If someone is asking for EWJ protos and I might be the only person that has them, it's hard to justify the added "if it has differences" or not because it's not like another is going to be for sale on eBay tomorrow or anything, protos are few and far between for "specific" games...If DRX or I do not have it, you have to hope that someone else out there "possibly" reading this thread on a very niche subject would have it and it just isn't plausible.

I'm more than willing to dig it out for dump prices but that's all I can do. I don't even dump these myself, someone else has to do it FOR me....but that's usually done pretty quickly since I do have to go to the post office daily.

 

I don't blame him.

How long would it take to test out a prototype game AND the retail version to test for any and all differences only to hear afterwords ...um thanks but no thanks.

 

I understand completely why you guys don't. But you have to understand where I'm coming from too. Hopefully sometime in the near future DreamTR I'll have a bit more money and I'll feel comfortable paying for a dump of your Earthworm Jim beta. And I like your avatar Buyatari

 

Kenny, sorry, I can't understand where you are coming from because finding out the differences between games is an unreasonable request. It takes many hours and what happens If I can't beat both games? A simple hex dump probably will not do it, you have to specifically have information comparing and contrasting the differences and is not possible or worth the time. It would take 20-30 hours to find this info out and the amount of time and possibility of "not" getting money after the time spent makes no sense. That's precisely why I don't do it. It's precisely why I sell them the way I sell them. It's a 50/50 chance but I've had some people pick up some amazing treasures from me that way, other times games have been close to the final. I wish in a perfect world I could do this, but it's not logical or feasible.

 

I apologize DreamTR I didn't really think about how much work it work take to compare it to the final, and then have the possibility of having having someone not make the purchase. What I meant by understand where I was coming from was about why I'd be a bit hesitant about spending my money without quite knowing what I was going to get. Do you think could tell me how much you'd want for a dump of you Earthworm Jim 1 proto.

 

Probably not much, like $250 or so...if I get this USB dumping device soon it might be easy mode to dump it...the only problem is digging the thing out. I had a Toe Jam and Earl that donations were taken for, and when I finally tried to dig it out I couldn't find the thing, so either I A, Sold it, or B, misplaced it with one of the unlabeled EPROM games, but after 2 days of digging through and trying to find it, it was a wash, so it was a pretty shitty situation. I KNOW EWJ is easier to get because that purchase is less than a year old.

 

Awesome, my financial situation should be clearing up pretty soon , when I get done with all of this college crap. So hopefully you'll be hearing from me again with cash in the next couple of weeks!

 

Well it took al ot longer then expected (sorry about that), but I'm back, and if you still have the proto I'd like to buy it as long as it isn't to expensive. I sent you a PM a few days ago which I'm not sure if you've seen. But if you still have the proto and would like to sell it to me please send me a message and we can work it out.