I know this may seem completley and totally ridiculous to some, but I have to wonder, does a working cartridge exist in any collectors hands? I know that this is EXTREMELY unlikley as the game was cancelled in it's original form, which makes it all the more likely that all existing forms (even demos) were destroyed, or locked away in Nintendo's/HAL' vault, never to be seen again. This is all assuming the game was even being run on a cart, as I really don't know what they were running it on. Thoughts?
Not to anyones knowledge. This is an extremely sought after item. If you check the earthbound 3 topic there is an ongoing believe that some collector recently has obtained blue disks with some of the material from the game. Nothing else is know. if it was it would be mentioned at starmen.net
it's probably running on actual hardware, but it is questionable whether it's running from an emulation cart. (partner etc) or a DD blue disk, as I don't recall anyone laying eyes on the demo machine. Truth be told, transfer of the project to cartridge format had long started, even before the release of the 64DD. There were two mother 3 titles planned, Mother 3,and Mother 3.5 , which was in essense the expansion disk to the original game (comming in the form of DD disk) One could assume that the reason behind having a 3.5 is that the whole game just didnt fit in the transfer from one medium to another - not so much space-wise regarding ROM, but rather the elements requiring write. For as big as N64 Gamepaks did get, (64MB vs 65 of 64DD disks) they never achieved the same user-saving space as the DD disks. Ultimately ,this might have been the reason the title was canned, although development was completed (save debugging) and much of the hurdles of transfer were out of the way. The reason probably being that the game depended too heavily on a large user-written area, which the gamepaks just couldn't cope with. It should be recalled that originally, Zelda 64 was to have 'ever changing environments' that would be writen to the Disk and restored upon loading another session (such as items moved around in the world, seeds dropped etc) some even taking advantage of the internal clock. The RTC's glory-time was to be Cabbage, which was eventually canned, especially with the comming of Seaman from SEGA for the DC. PS: I cannot stop but imagine how much money they d make if they were to release Mother 3 on Virtual Console, since the NAND flash could offer the 30-odd user-written megabytes. Too bad nintendo only re-releases titles and doesn't actually take a step in improving or optimising them, let alone releasing the unreleased. Shame, since the Japanese text is all there , at least for japan
The development of EB64 very likely wasn't completed. According to starmen.net "while the storyline was coming along nicely, the development team was having issues with the game's translation to 3D graphics." In fact, the team had trouble converting the story to 3D. From everything I have heard the team just wasn't very good with 3D as a medium, having never used it before. If the development of the game was so far along. Why would they release the game in 2D format and not just finish a small bit of debugging.
Ahh yes, if only Zelda 64 had had it's original rewritable features, and had been released as a DD game...it would have been amazing. The best game of all time would probably be in some ways, even better! What's confusing is that at different points after OOT's release, it was in various interviews with Miyamoto and co. that this planned expansion disk for OOT on the DD would include things such as new characters, new items, and new dungeons. Later on, this plan was apparently scrapped very quietly. It was later planned that "Ura Zelda" (meaning essentially "another Zelda") would simply be a game where things were rearranged; dungeons were changed up a bit, among very few other things. When "Ura Zelda" was finally released as the "Master Quest" on the Cube, it was quite different from what was originally planned, but matched perfectly what was mentined after OOT's release as a cart game. I suppose that once the Nintendo realized the DD was dead before it was even out the door, they scrapped the idea of a true expansion to OOT, and opted for the "rearranged" version that we eventually got to play. This lead the developers to develop and release a full blown sequel in less than two years time. Which leads me to believe that things and elements from MM COULD have originally been meant for this "true" expansion to OOT which never materialzed. Some fans don't even consider "Master Quest" to be the true "Ura Zelda", which it really is not. Sorry for going off topic there. As for Mother 3, it probably is possile to dig up info from Spaceworld 99' that MAY say what the demo was running on, be it an actual cartridge, or something using the 64DD hardware. I too believe that the developers had to split up Mother 3 into two games (Mother 3 on cart, and Mother 3.5 on DD), which eventually led to it's demise. It just makes too much sense.
starmen.net has some pictures of Spaceworld '99 This one shows that there ARE actual cartridges in which the game was stored. And we should not forget that Famitsu reported some time ago that Mother 3 would be one of the first games Nintendo could release for the virtualconsole. So, there might really be a beta cart left somewhere.
Even after it was remade as a GBA game? I don't see that coming but it would be great. It also brings some questions as to in wich form it would be published. I mean, Nintendo already has a working N64 emulator -at least for some of the comercially used RCP microcodes- wich they have been using since OOT on the GC, but what about 64DD emulation? It would mean additional hardware to emulate, for what? a couple of games that very little people know? Take into account that VC retrogames are mainly past hits, games that are known/popular. I don't think they would do (though I would like they did). That leaves only two options for the hypotetical (unlikely IMO) VC release of the game. 1. That only the cartridge part makes the cut, wich would potentially involve resuming development on a unfinished game on a hard-to-work-with platform or 2. That they remake the game as a native Wii program, be it for a disc release or for the VC. None of those options seem too likely to me. That doesn't mean I wouldn't like at least one of them happened. My personal fave is the one that involves that N64 + 64DD emulator, wich is, sadly, the most unlikely of them all.
I don't think this would happen, either. I'm glad they released the game for the GBA, therefore making it playable on the GBA, GBA SP, micro, DS, DS lite and GB Player. As for Nintendo not releasing the game in English, I can only say I'm very sad. Back to the N64/64DD version, I think that at least the playable demo shown in spaceworld '99 COULD be released to the public somehow if Nintendo still has ir somwhere. I know that chances of this happening are zero, especially since very few people would pay for an unfinished game.
Not really, just remember the dummy 360 units running op Apple G5's . It could just as well be a setup, whilst the game was run from something somewhere else.
Giel, I doubt it. The reason being that nintendo would use a standard-form cartridge if it was for props-only. Their usage of a Flash cartridge (And not a partner for example) is indicative of the game being stored in gamepak form on the flash-cart. It's not the most cosmetically pleasing thing to see for the average-joe, and it would make them raise an eyebrow, since most people are used to seeing retail gamepaks (for the same reasons sony uses special TEST PS2s for example in trade shows, instead of TEST-printed ones) the other theoretical options in case the title was for 64DD would be a) running from a PC , but they would need a Partner and the 64DD devkit (not very practical and not what's seen in the pic) b) running from a blue-disk (w/o IPL cartridge) - as seen in the Doshin debug picture I posted a long time ago (it should noted that no dev 64DD has been found with its own IPL, which makes the 64DD in the doshin screenshot unique) c) running from a blue-disk and requiring IPL in the top slot (Since most if not all 64DD devkits dont have IPL in them) All three scenarios above seem unlikely, and the most simple and logical answer is that the game is indeed running from a flash-cart. Comes to show that the process of the transfer from DD to gamepak was mostly completed - a point that is confirmed by the existence of Mother 3.5 in release lists as early as 1997-8 (mother 3.5 was to be the DD expansion for the gamepak title)
Of course! There is even a freaking playable demo in cart form! Now... the question is: is there ANY one of those left out there? :banghead:
I think Shigesato Itoi probably kept one copy as for the rest, it's either the vaults, or the purgatory I m afraid.
The Japanese have a habit of destroying things when they are cancelled, to protect their industrial secrets, sort of like all the super nintendo dev kits going into industrial shredders.
