NEOGEO BETA ROM BUILDS

(basically early protos of released games)

While the primary focus of this website has always been and always will be the accumulation of pics and info about the UNRELEASED proto games, over the years I have had many questions and inquiries about the protos of the RELEASED games as well. (actually, my friend Matt is really the ONLY person that has ever asked or cared about this stuff!) But while this subject matter is not as interesting to me, I decided that perhaps it was indeed time to discuss it at length and to cover it in more detail.

Examples of early beta NEO-GEO title screens
An early beta version NGM-041

Baseball Stars 2 was originally referred to in SNK documents as "Baseball Stars Professional II". It was also stated that the player could play in leagues and tournaments. Baseball Stars 2 originally had solid black letters for its title as well as different colors utilized for the stars, the uniforms, etc. The US title screen was also altered prior to release from crediting SNK Corporation to the newly reformed SNK Home Entertainment. Even some debug code can be seen on the top right corner of the title as well.

An early beta version NGM-039

King of the Monsters 2, which has the subtitle of "The Next Thing" was originally called The Next Thing, with the subtitle of King of the Monsters II" The same thing with regards to Sengoku 2. It was originally titled "Sengoku II". The first big "sequel" push by SNK came to us during this time with these three games, as well as the Japanese Quiz Detective 2 game. Someone in the marketing department must have been debating these last minute changes to the titles of these games.

An early beta version
DETAILED DESCRIPTION:

SNK put quite a bit of effort and detail into the Sengoku games. They were intended to be the shining stars of the side scrolling beat 'em up genre. But the theme of Sengoku was (at the time) considered to be unsuitable for the US market. Even the title was going to be changed because it sounded too foreign. (The working titles for Sengoku and Last Resort were Battle World and Shooting World). And by the time Sengoku 2 was nearing completion, the arcade industry trend was shifting from side scrolling beat 'em ups to one on one fighting. Sengoku 2 originally had 6 stages, but the final release was cut down to just 4. The removed stages were excessively violent and contained offensive religious symbols. The game had a very small production run on both MVS and HOME formats and the English home cart release was only intended for the EUROPEAN market.
NGM-040
An early beta version
DETAILED DESCRIPTION:

An early beta of Burning Fight was found and it contained many differences from the final rom build. Some of the later stages were not yet finished and could not be accessed without the memory card. Also one of the 3 main characters was drawn very different.
NGM-018
Robo Army Beta Title Screen NGM-032
Here we can see that Robo Army originally used different colors for the title text and originally kept the forward marching army from the introduction sequence in the background behind it.

Ninja Masters Beta Title Screen NGM-217
Take a look at this radically different and much simpler looking title screen shot taken from an earlier March 1996 rom build of Ninja Master's. (the final was released in June 1996)

Puzzle de Pon beta title screen Puzzle de Pon final title screen
An early title screen for Puzzle de Pon with its' original working title.

Neo Mr. Do! beta title screen Neo Mr. Do! final title screen
An early beta title screen for Neo Mr. Do! with a 1995 copyright date and a red and white versus red and yellow logo.

Neo Drift Out beta title screen Neo Drift Out final title screen
An early beta title screen for Neo Drift Out. Again, a plain black background and the "All Right Reserved" line is missing the S.