I must admit somewhere in the back of my mind theres something shouting : "40 winx on the N64!".... Hmm....
Theres plenty of unreleased games that have box art online, doesn't prove the game had a commercial release though. Untill someone can show a photo of an actual copy then consider it unreleased.
According to an old post on IGN64, http://ign64.ign.com/articles/073/073321p1.html, the game was complete and ready to ship. If it was that far along, it wouldn't be surprising to see advertisements for the game. IGN lists the game as canceled/unreleased. As for your memory of playing it, I have no answers to that.
Theres a poster for the game from a amagzine on ebay right now: http://cgi.ebay.com/RARE-MINT-PROMO-POSTER-40-WINKS-NINTENDO-POWER-1999_W0QQitemZ260208673426QQihZ016QQcategoryZ45101QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I see how this wasn't released in the UK - 40 Wanks would seem excessive to any kid. Sort of like how Elebits got a name change!
Care to explain the reasoning behind Elebits? I just can't seem to find anything wrong with it as an American.
LOL, this is the first time I ear that tbh, when prononced correcly it doesn't sound like that at all...
I also thought this was released. I had a heap of promo 64 stuff when new games were coming out and I chucked heaps out (don't ask me why!). But I did hang on to 40 Winks Promo Box, has full artwork back and front and is like any normal 64 box. Also had some posters and other stuff. I never saw the game, always assumed it was released.
I suppose it didn't help that GT Interactive was falling apart at the time (this was late '99, after all). Maybe it got a minute release in some areas, but no major push.
40 Winks was in fact released US side, though it may have been released in small quantities, due to GT Interactive or other issues. If the rom that has been dumped is multi-lingual (I have not checked it out), then it is not the same as the US one that I am familiar with. How do I know all of this, and why am I so sure of myself? I worked in a small used/new game store from 1998 - 2000 (one which I will refrain from mentioning it's name), and we sold the game new, along side the PlayStation 1 version. I specificallly remembered it, because the N64 version was so much better, and PS1 version looked like ass in comparison (not to mention the 64 version sold better). I also got to play it on N64 a couple of times, because someone brought it in to trade, 1 TIME. We kept it on demo for a bit, but as soon as the new ones ran out, we had people wanting the demo copy, which ended up getting sold a couple of days after the new ones were gone. After all the copies were gone, we couldn't get anymore in despite the demand (the game was a great alternative to Mario 64, and we sold it as such), and I never once saw it traded back in for the rest of the time I worked there. We sold it sometime in 1999, but I was thinking it was sometime in Fall, which would match up with what everyone is saying about the dates mentioned. I'm not sure how many copies the owner got in at the time, but it was under 100 for sure, as he split the copies he got between his other 2-3 stores, and we got about 30 or so where I worked. If I had known then what I know now (or even a couple of years ago) about the game, I would have bought 1 or 2 of them and hoarded them back until about 2-3 years ago, when I saw that it was still undumped. I never once thought at the time that the game was released in limited quantities, nor had I ever heard of it when it came in. Either way, like I mentioned above, if it is multi-lingual, it is not the same as the one I was selling back then. It's nice to finally see some version of it dumped either way, the game was a lot better than most of the N64 crap that had come out.