I wonder if that build still exists somewhere. The one that we have may have been something sent to reviewers or stores, perhaps? The two known copies appear identical and have a somewhat "presentable" look to them, but of course that doesn't always mean anything. 

Thanks so much for this!

Is it just a photo?....I cannot open the file?

yeah, I know.

Good for you!

THANK YOU!

Seriously!! Thanks! What's your paypal address for those that would like to donate? You guys deserve it. Thanks for everything you do for the community.

On a different note, who can translate this? I would kill for true translation.

We've received a number of messages regarding donations, and while the gesture is greatly appreciated, we will not be taking donations for the release.  The thread title says "free," and we'd like to keep it that way.  People have been extremely grateful and appreciative, and that's more than enough for Mark and I.

We have a few releases just around the corner, so feel free to support us through future purchases (and play some awesome lost gems).

you guys ever plan on getting back into genesis repros? that would be spectacular

We are literally days away from our next massive Genesis project going live.  Bill's Tomato Game will be available soon, and it was constructed using all new parts.  It's the best Genesis game we've ever reproduced, and it's the best quality Genesis reproduction we've created.  We're extremely excited for that.

After that release, we have our crowing achievement.  We're doing an AMAZING SNES prototype reproduction that's full CIB.  The game is IMO the best game on any classic platform that failed to see a release.  It's likely going to be our swan song. 

Well, it seems like the infamous famicomcafe has compared the Nolans'/the mysterious party's dump to his own and claims that the two are different:

http://famicomcafe.blog47.fc2.com...

Any idea what the two numbers after the file name could represent?

sad to see yall retire, swan song and all. i was hoping to get some genesis repros from you all in the future...from my understanding you guys dont have an online store but i see yalls stuff all over the net. the holy diver proto and the such. i suppose you arent going to tell us at this point what snes game it is? 

Ah bummer.  So after the SNES release, will you be getting out of collecting?  Or just quit with the reproductions and proto dumps?

Probably just the making of repros. I'm sure they'll both still be collecting and buying and dumping protos.

Just getting out of repro making (for the most part).  There are 3-4 NES prototypes that would likely be worth reproducing, the rest we'll just slowly leak to the public over time. 

As far as collecting goes, I honestly can't remember the last time I purchased a classic game for my shelves.  I've gotten back into arcades stuff, and I'm hugely into pinball at the moment.  That shit is so expensive that I had to pump the breaks on NES stuff.  I'd still make a run at any unreleased NES stuff I can find, but not much outside of that.

What 3-4 NES protos are you referring to?

Gotta love pinball, I have a 79 Stern Dracula machine in the mancave. Pinball kicks major ass.

Mums the word for now, but you gents will be the first to know for sure.

I have two pins in my current lineup: Party Zone ans Tales From the Crypt. I have some mod plans for Tales, and it would benefit from a flipper rebuild. For arcade stuff, I have two minty candy cabs and two project candies. They minty candies are a Blast City and an Astro City. The project cabs are a pair of Aero City cabs that need total tear downs. Should be a fun project. 

We have a Ms Pacman, Playchoice 10 and the Dracula pinball. All of em need a little work but I'd love to get a couple other machines, primarily a Donkey Kong machine.

Now that I think about it also NFL Blitz 99 or 2000 can't remember exactly, that machine was a lot of fun.

Well I'm looking forward to any future releases from you and Mark. Always quality stuff.

I can respect that.

Wow... i've been out of this for a long time!

Well done you chaps for releasing it!

Sir Nolans, thank you so much. It is now time to Party, I will see you both there!

Which scene are you referring to in A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 3? I thought it might be a reference to Edogawa Ranpo's "The Caterpillar" but that's just a big guess as well.

Wow, I can't believe I missed out on this!

In all honesty, I personally think it may be a bit more suitable if we incorporate some of the bits in the American version to the Japanese version before putting it into a reproduction cart. The American version has some enhancements that makes the experience a bit better and to me, it felt like the Japanese version was somewhat inferior, although it is the original uncensored version.

What I mean by enhancements is that the American version either added some bits to the game or the Japanese version cut these out, which helped make the game feel a bit better. Things like sound effects, bonuses when you defeat the bosses and restoring health when you beat a stage. There are others like you spawning in the middle and the music (some of the tracks are different or cut), but I think it shouldn't be that hard to put them back in. Heck, there are some effects and content that were missing in the uncut version! The Samaria boss doesn't collapse and you don't fight the other Fried Food bosses although they exist in the source code!

Still, it might be something worth considering, because you want the reproduction cart to be the definitive version of the game, right?

Yeah, I think it certainly feels that this was indeed a WIP prototype and not just a pre-production final cart. The strongest evidence of this in my opinion is how the haunted house boss doesn't say anything and doesn't have any sort of meaningful movement/attack pattern. The missing fried foods (which are still in the intro) is another strong indicator. There's also the previously mentioned instances when the screen randomly fills with graphical glitches.

Obviously the repro cart will be interesting with whatever is put on it, but I think it would be nice to have it as-is, but that's jsut me.

I honestly don't think it's right to release the prototype cart as it is, although the Japanese version is beatable, you still get the feeling that the American version has some details that made the game feel so much better, and that is actually the more definitive version (I'm looking at you, Cheetahmen II: The Lost Levels). Remember how most people think censorship can take some things away and the original version is better? It's the exact opposite here as the gameplay still has some kinks in it and it's a lot more difficult than it needs to be because you're starving for health a lot of times. I know certain games have difficulty tweaks during localization, but this is absurd.

Although your theory on the Japanese version being a WIP prototype makes sense, I think that game is ironically the more completed version. I'm not saying this just for the heck of it, I can actually prove it. If you look up "Japanese Secrets Monster Party", you can see some pictures of the game during development, and one of the pictures shows the title screen. You can see that one of the screens shows the mouth being more smaller and you can see the eyes on the top, but that was changed in the Japanese version where the mouth is more open and pronounced. Not to mention, in the American version you may get an item if you visit an empty room.
 
The prototype actually has a couple of things the American version didn't have. In the Japanese version, the game freezes a bit when you get a key, which felt a bit more satisfying than the American version where it appears all of the sudden.
 
So basically, what we got is the older version of the game with some censorship. This made me think that the Japanese version was supposed to be released later, but it got cancelled. My best guess is that Nintendo of Japan themselves canned this game, because where else did the second buyer of the cart found it? In a lot near NOJ's HeadQuarters.
 
I was thinking about taking the American version and add the missing content as well as change some bits (like taking out the third boss in Stage 7 because it didn't exist in the original, it was added in the American version, not to mention it causes an annoying bug which makes the stage unwinnable), but I don't know too much about programming aside from changing the graphics, but maybe I can figure something out.