empsolo Posted August 17, 2016 Share Posted August 17, 2016 http://www.polygon.com/2016/8/16/12502364/this-could-be-the-first-code-satoru-iwata-ever-wrote-for-nintendo According to the article an early prototype of the Famicom version of Joust was just recently purchased. According to the article, the prototype was done by HAL Laboratory as part of the planned Atari-Nintendo deal to distribute the Famicom in the Americas. What's interesting is that, as the article points out, a young Satoru Iwata who had recently left Commodore Japan for HAL had been the one commissioned to do the Famicom port of Joust. This might be Iwata's first line of code on a Nintendo project. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Ragan Posted August 17, 2016 Share Posted August 17, 2016 I heard about this! And yeah, Satoru went on to write code for the very similar Balloon Fight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRedEye Posted August 17, 2016 Share Posted August 17, 2016 That's my proto, btw. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMaddog Posted August 17, 2016 Share Posted August 17, 2016 That was my reaction when I came across the prototype ROM file of Joust that was included with the HAL version. After seeing "Atari Inc. 1983" on the screen I was wow, something from the Atari Famicom deal that could have been... Glad to see a physical copy that exists. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRedEye Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 That was my reaction when I came across the prototype ROM file of Joust that was included with the HAL version. After seeing "Atari Inc. 1983" on the screen I was wow, something from the Atari Famicom deal that could have been... Glad to see a physical copy that exists. That's not a prototype ROM, that is the actual Famicom version that HAL published in 1987! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 That's my proto, btw. Was there any other games to be had from this source Frank? Or are these 4 all they had? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRedEye Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 There were others before we found the seller, but they're all gone now. As soon as we were able to verify that one of them seemed legit, we bought everything that was left except a copy of Mario Bros., because the manufacturing dates on the EPROMs were after the game was already in stores. Maybe I should have gotten it anyway but I was already spending a lot on a gamble...someone else has it now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 There were others before we found the seller, but they're all gone now. As soon as we were able to verify that one of them seemed legit, we bought everything that was left except a copy of Mario Bros., because the manufacturing dates on the EPROMs were after the game was already in stores. Maybe I should have gotten it anyway but I was already spending a lot on a gamble...someone else has it now. Well lets just hope they are as sharing as you are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilipTheWhovian Posted February 20, 2017 Share Posted February 20, 2017 Wasn't Joust published in NA anyway? Is there any differences between the NA version and the Famicom version in the code? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ApolloBoy Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 Wasn't Joust published in NA anyway? Is there any differences between the NA version and the Famicom version in the code?The graphics were spruced up for the NES release while the Famicom version is more faithful to the original arcade game in that respect. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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