List of Unreviewed Genesis/Mega Drive/CD games (as of 03/09/2012)

[goldenband]

@goldenband: No worries, I'm the one who started the thread, so as long as no mod decides to do it for me, I'm the one who needs to update the list anyway . As soon as you come up with two or three russian bootlegs, I'll add those in as well. But I think we should refrain from simple spritehacks, so no "The Tick" or "Harry Potter"-pirate trash, okay? Let's keep it closer to the official lifespan of the Genny...

Fair enough, though I don't have the encyclopedic knowledge that some folks have about which games are spritehacks. OTOH, I think most of what's here is not a spritehack:

http://rufiles.narod.ru/page1.htm

Whereas most or all of what's here is:

http://rufiles.narod.ru/page2.htm

From the first link, I'd say that Chess, Death Caliber, Deer Hunter, and Domino are all fair game. The others I'm not sure about; some, like Tiny Toon Adventures 3, were reviewed in the Top-Tier Pirate Games feature. So was Smart Mouse, BTW. It seems like site policy is not to officially review anything with stolen content or trademark-infringing use of licensed characters (er, hi, Revenge of Shinobi!).

BTW there are more protos that aren't in the list, I think: Beastball, Davis Cup World Tour Tennis 2, Dragon's Lair, Fido Dido, It Came from the Desert (which can be finished IIRC), Itchy & Scratchy, Jelly Boy, ResQ, Stone Protectors...those are the ones I can come up with, and all but DCWTT2 have been reproed FWIW.

[Phantar]

False. http://www.sega-16.com/2007/05/classic-collection/

Good call, Zebbe, didn't see that one when I checked the reviews. Entry omitted.

@goldenband: Yeah, looks like some of the first ones are fair game. There is no general guideline on which pirate games get a review and which are "just" features (I did a feature on Lion King 2 and 3, for example). I *think* they should mostly contain no stolen content, were ideally released during the "official" release years and have gameplay mechanics of their own. Maybe we should get a more concise guidelines on those matters.

Anyways, added your suggestions to the unreleased/promo section. Tomorrow I'll have a closer look at the russian bootlegs.
(By the way, Shui Hu Feng Yun Zhuan was also part of that feature on pirate games and later got a full-fledged review anyway, so exceptions can definitely be made).

[goldenband]

@goldenband: Yeah, looks like some of the first ones are fair game. There is no general guideline on which pirate games get a review and which are "just" features (I did a feature on Lion King 2 and 3, for example). I *think* they should mostly contain no stolen content, were ideally released during the "official" release years and have gameplay mechanics of their own. Maybe we should get a more concise guidelines on those matters.

Sounds reasonable.

BTW I also meant to include Iraq War 2003 (aka Voina Irak) as one that should be fair game.

EDIT: This list might also be helpful. Chao Ji Da Fu Weng is an interesting case, since it's built on the Taiwanese version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? IIRC, and I don't know how to divine whether that's legit (probably isn't but who knows).

[Phantar]

Fair enough, though I don't have the encyclopedic knowledge that some folks have about which games are spritehacks. OTOH, I think most of what's here is not a spritehack:

http://rufiles.narod.ru/page1.htm

Looking at that list again, I don't know... the mix is not very convincing. They're either renamed versions of other existing bootlegs (Battle of Red Cliffs looks like Yang Warrior Family, for example), spritehacks (Harry Potter is just a - well done - sprite swap of Pac Man 3D), contain lots of stolen content (Tiny Toons 3, Lion King 3), are incomplete (Rick Dangerous) or are simply dreadful (Iraq War 2003, Pokémon Crazy Drummer... those are barely above Crazy Bus-level of pirates!). A case could maybe be made for A bug's life, the chess games and Domino, but the others.. I dunno...

[Melf]

Only legitimate releases are eligible for review. Any hacks, pirates, protos, etc. are not eligible, since they weren't retail or Sega Channel releases. Unlicensed games, such as those by Wisdom Tree and Chinese releases, are acceptable. All the others go in features.

Also, are we sure that all the 32X games are done?

[Phantar]

okay, I changed the unreleased/protos-section to "Not for Review, possibly features". Though I'd like to mention that an exception had been made for Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors

Looking at both Segaretro and Guardiana it indeed appears that we've covered all known 32x-cartridge releases with a Review. Only two 32xCD-Games are still missing: Slam City and Surgical Strike.

[goldenband]

Only legitimate releases are eligible for review. Any hacks, pirates, protos, etc. are not eligible, since they weren't retail or Sega Channel releases. Unlicensed games, such as those by Wisdom Tree and Chinese releases, are acceptable. All the others go in features.

Is there a formal (site) definition of the difference between a pirate and an unlicensed game? If it's what I said above -- i.e. that a pirate is "anything with stolen content or trademark-infringing use of licensed characters" -- then games like Chess, Domino, Iraq War 2003, etc. should be fair game (right?).

okay, I changed the unreleased/protos-section to "Not for Review, possibly features". Though I'd like to mention that an exception had been made for Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors

I was going to say, I thought we'd reviewed at least one proto in the past. Are there any others on the site?

[Melf]

Is there a formal (site) definition of the difference between a pirate and an unlicensed game? If it's what I said above -- i.e. that a pirate is "anything with stolen content or trademark-infringing use of licensed characters" -- then games like Chess, Domino, Iraq War 2003, etc. should be fair game (right?).

There isn't one in the Review Manifest per se (I should add that), but it's been the site's policy since we launched in 2004. An unlicensed game is a complete game that was released at retail. The only thing it is missing is the Sega Seal of Quality, which indicated that the company was an officially licensed third party. Homebrew games like Pier Solar fall into this category, as do games by Wisdom Tree and RealTec. That's different from a pirate, which may use stolen assets to release a copy or hack of an already released title or may even be an unfinished game.

I was going to say, I thought we'd reviewed at least one proto in the past. Are there any others on the site?

Penn & Teller was eligible for review because it was a licensed and finished title that simply never got released. The same goes for titles like ResQ and It Came from the Desert. They were all official games that just got canceled due to reasons having nothing to do with their actual development, like the publisher going bankrupt.

EDIT: Ok, added in the definitions to the Review Manifest. Hopefully, that will clear things up.

[Phantar]

Gotcha. I'm putting ResQ and It Came From The Desert back into the eligible reviews and try to make it clearer which can be reviewed and which can't.

What about the following games:
- Mr. Nutz 2
- Lobo
- Fido Dido
- Tecmo Cup

They appear to be complete (maybe only missing some polish and bit parts), are very playable, and can be finished (not sure about Mr. Nutz 2, though it had been reviewed by a few magazines even though it didn't manifest). Eligible for review or feature only?

[Barone]

can be finished (not sure about Mr. Nutz 2, though it had been reviewed by a few magazines even though it didn't manifest)

IMO Mr. Nutz 2 is perfectly eligible for a review.
And, yes, it can be finished:

[Phantar]

looks very good indeed, far better than Lobo for example (which supposedly is 100% complete, but feels a bit off).

[StarMist]

What about the following games:
- Mr. Nutz 2
- Lobo
- Fido Dido
- Tecmo Cup

They appear to be complete (maybe only missing some polish and bit parts), are very playable, and can be finished (not sure about Mr. Nutz 2, though it had been reviewed by a few magazines even though it didn't manifest). Eligible for review or feature only?

I'm interested too, Fido Dido was the one I'd alluded to earlier, not that I've honestly played far into it but what I did seemed a finished product.

By the way, is it possible to add reviewer names to some of the games that are in the process of being reviewed? Myself and vintagegamecrazy have a list of reviews we're working on in our sigs, which might help to keep others from claiming what's either just been finished, or is already claimed.

This as well. One doesn't wish to get jealous over them but it would be a general waste of time if writers were stepping on each other's toes.

I'll cover The Hurricanes. I've completed it with plenty of screenshots and now wish to write it out of my system. I can also handle The Flintstones unless somebody badly wants it. Same goes for David Crane's Amazing Tennis.
Just as a broad heads up I certainly won't be covering any strategy games, those are all Phantar's, Coop's, etc's.

[Phantar]

Since a few people asked I decided to update which reviews have already been claimed by date - I don't want to put any pressure on anybody who wanted to review a game but hadn't had the time to do so yet, so I won't publish any names here. Adding the date seemed reasonable enough though - that way, if a review hadn't been done for too long, someone else might have the opportunity to step up and take over.
/edit: Did some thinking, and decided to provide a link to the post whenever a review was claimed (where applicable).

@StarMist: Oh, if you want to do Strategy Games you're very welcome, I don't claim them as my own. I've practically done reviews in almost every genre imaginable, and after doing several strategy games in a row I need a break anyway.

I'll jot down that "Hurricanes" has been claimed. Just one request though: If you want to announce a review, please do so in the Upcoming Reviews and Features- thread. I want to keep things nice and tidy in this thread, spreading claims over two topics just makes things harder to assess!

[vintagegamecrazy]

Add Tintin In Tibet to the Pal exclusives list. Also you never added Tecmo Super NBA Basketball to the US lists.

Asia:

Chao Jí Dà Fù Weng (Puzzle)
Feng Shén Ying Jié Chuán (RPG/Tactical)
Link Dragon (Action)
Què Zhēn Wù Yǔ (Mahjongg)
Sān Guó Zhì 5 (Strategy)
Shì Jiè Zhí Bàng Zhēng Bà Zhàn - World Pro Baseball 94 (Sports)
Shuǐ Hǔ Zhuàn (RPG)
Tái Wān Dà Hēng (Puzzle)
Tūn Shí Tiān Dì 3 (Conquering the World 3) (RPG)


Unreleased:

Iron Hammer
Prince Of Persia 2: The Shadow Of Flame

[Phantar]

Unreleased:

Iron Hammer
Prince Of Persia 2: The Shadow Of Flame

Those aren't exactly unreleased, but prototype and beta versions respectively, no? At least the PoP2 Rom I know of is incomplete, and according to Unseen 64 Iron Dragon only exists as a working prototype.

- Added Tin Tin in Tibet, Tecmo Super NBA Basketball and 8 Asian unlicensed games to the list (already had Feng Shén Ying Jié Chuán in there, only with an alternate spelling).