From my friend's site:

It really amazes me that this game ever saw the light of day. I've never actually played it, but by watching you and countless other people slog through it, I'm glad that I haven't. Everything about it just seems so rushed and slapped together without care. I've played through a lot of games that could have spent more time baking in the oven but that thing appears to be a bunch of half assed badly coded prototypes. It is legitimately criminal that Action 52 was released, they should have just made a collection of atari games instead because that would have been a hell of a lot better than what the poor bastards that bought this ended up with.

Thanks for the post Pat!  I'm definitely interest in learning where this prototype fits into the Action 52 history books.  It's a sketchy area of Nintendo history, which makes it all the more interesting.

And, yeah, you're both right.  It's probably one of the least playable games in my NES collection...but it looks so pretty on the outside.

I dunno, I enjoy playing it. *shrug*

What game, pray tell, is enjoyable on that cart? Streamerz? Fuzz Power?

I just enjoy playing the entire damn thing. I figure that, for me at least, it falls into the "So Absolutely God-Awful It's Fun" category

Bubblegum Rosy alone is better than both the Zeldas combined.

Action 52 has a bunch of variants anyways, so I am not sure we could for sure if one was a proto or not. There are like 5 or 6 known variants anyways, this just might be one more to add to the list
~~NGD

It really doesn't look like a prototype to me. Like NGD said, this very well could be a variation. I know i've seen the paper label type before. I'm sure each copy/revisions have different bugs they tried to work out, hence so many variations. What the guy has is probably one of the first produced action 52 carts.

I've seen tons of Action 52s, but I've never seen one with a blue PCB and a different mold + screws, so I would not be surprised if that one is an actual prototype or preview copy. But, the copy with the black PCB is a known variant. It's listed in some places as having a blue label, but the blue label came packaged independently in some Action 52s as a sticker (slightly oversized for the label area in the mold, anyway), so there's a good chance that it's not an actual label variant and simply applied on the cartridge by the end consumer.

By the way, aren't there just three variants confirmed? Black PCB no REV, green PCB Rev-A, and green PCB Rev-B? The box variation with & w/o suggested msrp is likely just linked to one of these three releases, and as I said in my previous post, the blue label really shouldn't be seen as a variant as it came as an insert in some (and possibly all) copies of at least one of these three PCB variants.

Action 52 definitely has a ton of variants, so it's unlikely that these are genuine prototypes. But, for some reason the blue one sticks out to me. The fact that it has screws is a sign that the cart may have been disassembled many times; which I'd assume is needed to tweak things during the production stage. I don't believe Active Enterprise would waste money on having screws on every production model, so I would come to the conclusion that it is indeed a prototype.

I've only seen two versions of Action 52: A later revision where Alfredo and the other game works, and the standard one where they don't.

I think it is up to at least 4 Pieter, and I was thinking 5 for some reason.  Dain is the pro on Action 52 though, he was all about them a few years ago.

I know sealed ones have been opened and they didn't have the blue stickers packed in them, so all copies def did not have them.  Who knows on this one.  I was in contact with one of the company owners a few years ago trying to get some answers, but then he stopped responding to me :-/
~~NGD

Many thanks to Jason at National Game Depot for the FANTASTIK info available on his most comprehensive list . This info really helps clear the picture on the various versions of Action 52.

It does appear that the Black PCB version I have, although rare, is likely an early production cart.

It also appears that the BLUE PCB version with the BLUE label, screws( to provide access to the Board), a different cartridge molded body and the "MADE IN AMERICA" lettering on the Board appears to be a prototype/test model previously undiscovered.

Much closer examination shows that there are in fact EPROMS on the board hidden under the BLUE label, but they are unlike any of the production models. Mike at CHEETAHMEN CORNER asked that I open and photograph the board which I will do and share.

I visited Active in Florida before production models were made. I think the original plan was to use the BLUE label on the production carts, but early into production, I believe Active switched to the decal label. I think, until they ran out of them, the BLUE label was included in the gamebox as a "premium" -kind of like the Cheetahmen comic.

Wow, someone who has had contact with Active. What can you tell us about them? Were they just a garage operation or something bigger?

I owned a very large preplayed movie and game distribution business located in Dallas, TX. I set up the game buy back/trade in programs for Babbages, Toys R Us, Software,Etc. and others. We also built the opening store Inventory(movies and games) packages for the Blockbuster Franchisees in North America, Hawaii, Mexico, Canada, Panama, ETC, ETC See: http://www.inc.com/magazine/19971...

I was introduced to Vince Perri, one? of the owners of Active as a potential U.S. distibutor of the Action 52 cart. I went to Florida in either late 1990 or early 1991 to discuss the "deal". He had a large warehouse/office building and appeared to be a legitimate business. I was discussing the purchase of many 1,000's of games and it involved a tremendous amount of money. In a business like I was in that was full of con artists, I was wary because I was told the carts were going to be assembled "offshore" -the Bahamas according to Perri and that they must be paid for in full -IN ADVANCE!

He did not have pallets of finished games in evidence, only a handful of what he called "Prototypes" of which I returned with one(which he was very reluctant to part with). There were employees and activities going on (mock ups, advertising posters,promotional stuff, etc) and Active appeared to be a real business. He never mentioned any partners

We talked and talked, had dinner and I left Florida knowing that the deal was too shaky for me to risk a million dollar upfront payment being wired to the Bahamas...

That is incredible. I know there has been lots of people curious about the whole Active Enterprises thing. I guess they were serious about all those announced plans? Not that they were realistic. Someone needs to interview this Vince Perri.

They tried.

http://www.neswarpzone.com/active...

Good read, sounds like they are paranoid, like thought he was a lawyer or something digging up evidence.

Greg, in hindsight you must be pretty happy you didn't hand Vince Perri a huge wad of cash...or wire it to him in the Bahamas. Then again, if you had done so, perhaps his business wouldn't have gone under and we'd all have had Action 52 carts as kids.

Mark:
Remember we're talking about the "infamous" ACTION 52. They might also have become an organized mob and hanged me!!

Even though the BLUE test cart of the ACTION 52 might one day be considered one of the rarest and most sought after games on the Planet, it will probably be sold under (tongue in cheek!)the billing "THE ABSOLUTE BEST OF THE WORST- THANK GOD ONLY ONE COLLECTION WILL EVER HAVE IT"

GREG
[email protected]

^greg,
I sent you a message. I hope to hear back from you.

LET ME COPY A POST I MADE IN THE CHEETAHMEN CORNER EARLIER:
MIKE:

I RECEIVED THE GAME FROM AUSTRALIA AND IT IS A "REV B" VERSION. WHAT IS INTERESTING IS THAT THE REV B LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE THE CHEETAHMEN ll GAME. IT HAS THE EXACT SAME PINS MISSING, THE WARNING DECAL ON THE REVERSE OF THE CART IS NOT IN PLACE AND IT HAS TWO ORANGE CAPACITORS. THE MAJOR DIFFERENCE CHEETAHMEN HAS IS THAT IT HAS LESS PRODUCTION PROMS AND OF COURSE, THE CHEETAHMEN 'S PROMS SAY "CHEETAHMEN".
IT LOOKS LIKE CHEETAHMEN WAS MADE OF LEFT OVER REV B CARTS WITH A CHANGE IN A VERY FEW PROMS.
WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THE MISSING PINS ON REV B (SAME AS ON CHEETAHMEN)??? THERE HAD TO BE A REASON FOR THIS DELIBERATE CHANGE. DID REV B HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE OVERSEAS MARKET?( I BOUGHT THIS IN FROM A GAMER IN AUSTRALIA) DO YOU KNOW IF REVISION B IS MORE OR LESS SCARCE THAN
REV A??