Front-page

Mario Kart XXL, pitched GBA tech demo, dumped and preserved

Untitled.png

​
A tech demo thought to be lost in time from the GBA era has recently been discovered and preserved by the team over at Forest of Illusion.
The tech demo dates back to April 17th, 2004, when Denaris Entertainment Software made a pitch to Nintendo of Europe, using their own engine which showcases dynamic and adjustable perspective views featuring dual playfields.

The dump itself showcases a single track with several Mario Kart assets into it, like Mario being the playable character in a familiar track akin to those found in other Mario Kart titles.
Forest of Illusion also got a hold of the original ReadMe written by Manfred Trenz (founder and creator of the Turrican series).

​


:arrow: Source
 
  • Like
  • Love
  • Haha
Reactions: StrayGuitarist, Lynx64, Kazalber and 45 others
Click to expand...
Ol' Archimedes

Ol' Archimedes

Active Member
Newcomer
Level 5
Joined
Nov 14, 2014
Messages
35
Trophies
0
XP
716
Country
United States
Don't know why but I really like the perspective and the idea of being able to adjust it sounds enticing. Glad this got preserved.
 
KarlslandOtaku

KarlslandOtaku

Well-Known Member
Newcomer
Level 7
Joined
Dec 11, 2013
Messages
58
Trophies
1
Age
31
XP
1,139
Country
United States
ShadowOne333 said:
A tech demo thought to be lost in time from the GBA era has recently been discovered and preserved by the team over at Forest of Illusion.
The tech demo dates back to April 17th, 2004, when Denaris Entertainment Software made a pitch to Nintendo of Europe, using their own engine which showcases dynamic and adjustable perspective views featuring dual playfields.

The dump itself showcases a single track with several Mario Kart assets into it, like Mario being the playable character in a familiar track akin to those found in other Mario Kart titles.
Forest of Illusion also got a hold of the original ReadMe written by Manfred Trenz (founder and creator of the Turrican series).

​


:arrow: Source
Click to expand...

👀
Another one down!!
I can't believe how many of the tech demos, early builds and etc have seen the light of day. Even ones I never thought I would see like Pokemon Gold and Silver Space world '97 demos!!
The last one I know exists that I still want is Mario 128. I'm pretty sure every other one has been looked into that interested me over the years and from my childhood except that one.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DrPerkeleeee and SylverReZ
Veho

Veho

The man who cried "Ni".
Former Staff
Level 41
Joined
Apr 4, 2006
Messages
11,390
Trophies
3
Age
42
Location
Zagreb
XP
41,354
Country
Croatia
It's amazing what people were able to squeeze out of the GBA, and it's a shame more of it has never seen the light of day, let alone a commercial release.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SylverReZ
James_

James_

aka Underscore_ or 'that Meowstic guy'
Member
GBAtemp Patron
Level 15
Joined
Oct 2, 2019
Messages
733
Trophies
2
Age
18
Location
Outside, I wandered off
XP
4,862
Country
United Kingdom
It's about time that this finally got preserved, if I remember correctly one of the previous owners of the cartridge was incredibly hesitant on dumping the ROM.
KeeperCP1 said:
Lost Media Wiki, wake up! We found some lost media!
Click to expand...
Honestly it's pretty incredibly how much lost media has been found this year.
 
DarkCoffe64

DarkCoffe64

Bo
Member
Level 13
Joined
Mar 30, 2011
Messages
1,288
Trophies
2
Age
31
Location
Arcadia
XP
3,712
Country
Italy
Well, this looks interesting, best I also make my part in preserving this game in some HDD of mine or what, heh.
James_ said:
It's about time that this finally got preserved, if I remember correctly one of the previous owners of the cartridge was incredibly hesitant on dumping the ROM.
Click to expand...
I can maybe understand in this case since we know how craptendo tends to be, tho I also suppose you can upload stuff anonymously... whatever.
It's the other cases with people that own cancelled/unreleased games (and other stuff too) and don't share it at all just to be huge dicks that I feel they should get a surprise visit by some gentleman with metal bats, get their knees smashed and whatever they were hogging "borrowed" and uploaded online, mh.
 
UltraDolphinRevolution

UltraDolphinRevolution

Well-Known Member
Member
Level 11
Joined
Jul 30, 2016
Messages
1,806
Trophies
0
XP
2,436
Country
China
Although I love primitive 3D tech, GBA and Playstation (and sometimes DS) have this "disgusting" effect when there is camera movement. I don´t know the term for it. Never seen it on N64 though.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Marc_LFD

Site & Scene News

Go to forum More news

Popular threads in this forum

Wii U and 3DS online services shutting down today, but Pretendo is here to save the day

GBAtemp Exclusive  Introducing tempBOT AI - your new virtual GBAtemp companion and aide (April Fools)

Nintendo Switch firmware update 18.0.1 has been released

The first retro emulator hits Apple's App Store, but you should probably avoid it

Delta emulator now available on the App Store for iOS

MisterFPGA has been updated to include an official release for its Nintendo 64 core

Nintendo takes down Gmod content from Steam's Workshop

Editorial  Making Pokemon Emerald my own one tweak at a time - Scarlet's March of gaming

General chit-chat
Help Users
  • Sicklyboy @ Sicklyboy:
    I'm not familiar with the technicalities of the differences between the two versions, but I'm wondering if at least some of those differences are things that you could port over to the US version in your patch without having to include copyrighted assets from the EU version
  • TwoSpikedHands @ TwoSpikedHands:
    @Sicklyboy I am wanting to fully change the game and bend it to my will lol. I would like to eventually have the ability to add more characters, enemies, even have a completely different story if i wanted. I already have the ability to change the tilemaps in the US version, so I can basically make my own map and warp to it in game - so I'm pretty far into it!
  • TwoSpikedHands @ TwoSpikedHands:
    I really would like to make a hack that I would enjoy playing, and maybe other people would too. swapping to the EU version would also mean my US friends could not legally play it
  • TwoSpikedHands @ TwoSpikedHands:
    I am definitely considering porting over some of the EU features without using the actual ROM itself, tbh that would probably be the best way to go about it... but i'm sad that the voice acting is so.... not good on the US version. May not be a way around that though
  • TwoSpikedHands @ TwoSpikedHands:
    I appreciate the insight!
  • The Real Jdbye @ The Real Jdbye:
    @TwoSpikedHands just switch, all the knowledge you learned still applies and most of the code and assets should be the same anyway
  • The Real Jdbye @ The Real Jdbye:
    and realistically they wouldn't

    be able to play it legally anyway since they need a ROM and they probably don't have the means to dump it themselves
  • The Real Jdbye @ The Real Jdbye:
    why the shit does the shitbox randomly insert newlines in my messages
  • Veho @ Veho:
    It does that when I edit a post.
  • Veho @ Veho:
    It inserts a newline in a random spot.
  • The Real Jdbye @ The Real Jdbye:
    never had that i don't think
  • Karma177 @ Karma177:
    do y'all think having an sd card that has a write speed of 700kb/s is a bad idea?
    trying to restore emunand rn but it's taking ages... (also when I finished the first time hekate decided to delete all my fucking files :wacko:)
  • The Real Jdbye @ The Real Jdbye:
    @Karma177 that sd card is 100% faulty so yes, its a bad idea
  • The Real Jdbye @ The Real Jdbye:
    even the slowest non-sdhc sd cards are a few MB/s
  • Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjCivnt5t50
  • Karma177 @ Karma177:
    @The Real Jdbye it hasn't given me any error trying to write things on it so I don't really think it's faulty (pasted 40/50gb+ folders and no write errors)
  • DinohScene @ DinohScene:
    run h2testw on it
     +1
  • DinohScene @ DinohScene:
    when SD cards/microSD write speeds drop below a meg a sec, they're usually on the verge of dying
     +1
  • Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo:
    Samsung SD format can sometimes fix them too
  • Purple_Heart @ Purple_Heart:
    yes looks like an faulty sd
  • Purple_Heart @ Purple_Heart:
    @Psionic Roshambo i may try that with my dead sd cards
     +1
  • Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo:
    It's always worth a shot
  • TwoSpikedHands @ TwoSpikedHands:
    @The Real Jdbye, I considered that, but i'll have to wait until i can get the eu version in the mail lol
  • I @ I-need-help-with-wup-wiiu:
    i need help with nusspli failed downloads, can someone respond to my thread? pretty please:wub:
  • I @ I-need-help-with-wup-wiiu:
    :yayu::yayu::yayu: