Super Famicom DragonFly demo (early PilotWings) pics

somehow the old hosted pictures expired, so i got the pics hosted again, along with an additional screen that i didn't have before.









Dragonfly demo from what I understand, was coded in 1988 or early 1989, this is among the earliest work done on the then still-in-development Super Famicom.

showed the zooming/scaling & rotating capabilities of the system that later all fell under the lable "Mode 7 effects"

Dragonfly would lead to a full blown game by 1990, called Flight Club, which was soon renamed PilotWings.

 

Great pics!

I suppose the Dragonfly demo diverged into 2 separate games, the flight-simulator and the 3D shooter. This reminded me of some pics I have in a Famicom Tsushin magazine from 1989, so here's an example pic:


More pics from the same article on my page: http://disgruntleddesigner.com/chrisc/secrets11.html
And more unreleased stuff here: http://disgruntleddesigner.com/chrisc/secret.html

 

Wow, ccovell those 1989 SF pics are amazing! I had no idea that SMW and Pilotwings were that far along in 1989. US mags only posted a handful of crude game images in their 1989 issues, but seeing that SMW was already in near-final form based on the background and gameplay elements shown in the pics, that's pretty fascinating.
Quite surprising that we US gamers didn't start seeing any "real" pics and hardware info from 1989 up until the Super Fami launch in Japan. I guess we were too caught up in the NES and the Genesis during that era, so mags catered to those consoles instead of hyping up the SF.

BTW: The pics that GigaDrive posted are from EGM issue #2.

 

I love how SMW looks heh. Its hard to tell, but what power does Mario have running up on the wall?

 

Man, those Mario pics are awesome ccovell, and so are the Dragonfly pics GigaDrive! :thumbsup:

Thanks for sharing!

 

Shame on you for never playing Super Mario World! If you did, you'd know that some levels have little wedge-shaped things next to a wall that let Mario run up it.

 

Well, duh, I know that much lol. But it doesnt look like the cape or any of the other powers..it looks my like the leaf/racoon thing. I know he can run up those :0

 

Chris, very very nice pics of SMW from 1989.

what EGM showed of SMB4 (SMW) in 1989 was pretty terrible. I'll try to take a picture and get it online later this week.

the first 2 pics are from EGM issue Number 2.

but the 3rd, the large pic, is from EGM issue Number 4 (page 50)

 

whoa, takes a 2nd look at that 3D shooter.... was that game released, Chris ??

or perhaps only Pilotwings was released. recall that Pilotwings had a helicopter shooting stage at the end.


but honestly, I have NEVER seen those pictures of that 3D shooter in my entire life.

simply AMAZING that you have this saved. thumbs up, bravo ^__^



now, here's the earliest picture that EGM showed of Super Mario World.

EGM Number 4, November 1989, page 29





it's extremely pathetic looking here, IMO, especially because it simply pales in comparison with the pictures Famicom Tsushin magazine had. the EGM picture hardly even resembles SMW, it looks more like something the Famicom/NES could do with an MMC chip or something.

 

The pictures EGM published were FROM Famicom Tsushin magazine.


And no, Dragonfly did not get a release. It became Pilotwings.

 

Id love to play an old version of SMW Im telling you, that looks like a damn racoon tail powerup thing, though the images make it a bit hard to tell just because of their age

 

It is. On Acmlm's board someone found the old spritesheet in one of the SNES test carts.

 

awesome pics, guys!
keep em coming! =)

 

yeah really cool. I love the old smw map

 

Really? Could you provide a link to the thread? That forum's amazing, by the way - loads of interesting rom hacking stuff going on there.

 

I think the image is just of mario swimming on the surface. It does look a bit like the Racoon tail power-up though, with the waves and his feet

 

I love to play that super mario word proto also the level of super mario world proto they have now on super mario bros for nintendo ds lite
I wanted this game for ds or Will

 

yeah is mario racoon tail

 

I wonder why EGM chose to publish the worst looking picture of SMW, the one on the upper left.

I also wonder why EGM never had any of those other Dragonfly pictures.

Famicom Tsushin magazine ROCKS. wish i had been able to see them back in '89.


I mean EGM was very good back then, better than they are today, but Famicom Tsushin magazine, wow. just wow.

 

Yeah but Famitsu are the EGM of Japan. They may have loads of cool pictures but the write shit and do reviews based on how much of a bribe they can get.

Yakumo