# No April Fools, the BioForce Ape ROM has been released!



## Dangy (Apr 1, 2011)

Bio Force Ape was first revealed to the North American gaming press at the Consumer Electronics Show in June of 1991. Many NES owners first became acquainted with the title in August, when it was featured in a brief Nintendo Power preview. Promising that a release was "just around the corner," Nintendo detailed a game starring a mild-mannered chimpanzee who suddenly found himself in possession of superprimate strength. Being a fan of professional wrestling, the "practically indestructible" ape took out foes using suplexes and piledrivers.​




These small blurbs near the back of the magazine would be easy to write off as a running gag, but the screenshots that accompanied them were too detailed to be a joke. Even with the trademark blurriness and washed-out colors of print magazine screenshots in the early '90s, they were just convincing enough to make one believe -- or at least want to believe -- that an NES game starring a superpowered wrestling ape was out there, somewhere.​


In 2005, a thread titled "Bio Force Ape" was created at Digital Press, a popular forum among video game collectors.
Offering scant few details, "Paul Brown" posted evidence of his discovery. Images of a prototype cartridge surfaced, along with photographs of the game in action. Brown's gameplay descriptions matched Nintendo Power's previews. His screenshots showed a side-scrolling platformer in an early state of development, but with many gameplay features fully implemented. As Brown's posts continued, forum members were treated to odd cutscenes, questionable enemy designs, and...this.

Soon, an argument erupted. Collectors urged Brown to sell the prototype. Preservation-minded replies asked Brown to consider the possibility of dumping the game and distributing a playable ROM image. The collectors warned that dumping the game would reduce its market value, while an undumped cartridge could fetch $2,000 or more from a willing buyer.

Pages of angry diatribes followed. A befuddled Brown continued to post screenshots. One of the game's later cutscenes proved surprisingly relevant to the conversation. Somehow, the arguments at Digital Press continued without a hiccup. Frustrated at his inability to generate meaningful discussion and concerned that his discovery had upset the Digital Press community, Brown made one final reply, showing the Bio Force Ape cartridge smashed into pieces.

In March of 2010, a prototype version of Bio Force Ape surfaced in a Yahoo! Japan auction. A single screenshot and a picture of the cartridge were posted, along with a very short description. The seller was seemingly unaware of the treasure he possessed (though he priced it high, just in case!).

Notified by "Paul Brown" himself (who had in the years since revealed himself to be Digital Press forum regular Bratwurst), Lost Levels founder Frank Cifaldi organized an emergency meeting of site staff. Little had to be said about what was at stake. Gathering donations from friends and forum members, Cifaldi placed a bid.

The auction ended at 250,000 yen, or about $2,700 -- slightly more than the 2K monies prophesied years before. There was still a fair amount of uncertainty that loomed large, however. What if the auction was fake? What if the cartridge was dead on arrival? What if the game was bitrotted, incomplete, or unplayable? It was a lot of money to risk on a legendary piece of gaming history that had only been rumored, parodied, and pranked in the past. Moreover, the auction ended on April 2nd, 2010, leading some to believe that it was simply an April Fool's joke. When the cartridge arrived, would-be dumper Chris Covell produced a devastating photograph. In the fine tradition of Bio Force Ape, however, the picture turned out to be a hoax. The game arrived at its destination intact, and was dumped immediately.

Bio Force Ape was saved.








Playing the game for the first time, something unexpected becomes apparent; not only is Bio Force Ape playable from beginning to end, but the game is somehow even weirder than what Nintendo Power, Internet rumors, and Paul Brown's hoax had suggested. Below is a complete playthrough of Bio Force Ape.
[youtube]BmSgbhAxZ_k[/youtube]


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## The Catboy (Apr 1, 2011)

Communism is tasty


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## DryYoshi (Apr 1, 2011)

I read the site about the hoax.
Neat! This game seems so weird, that I might play it 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



EDIT: Watched a bit of the video. Boss with crocodile legs? LOL
The mine cart part reminded me of Donkey Kong Country.
Also, the distances you have to fall sometimes seem annoying.


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## machomuu (Apr 1, 2011)

A Gay Little Catboy said:
			
		

> Communism is tasty


I think I may be allergic.


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## Recorderdude (Apr 1, 2011)

Damn, playing this thing, I think I can say that it scrolls flawlessly without any sprite disappearing and is on par with summer carnival '92 for technical prowess (while SC92 was praised for the speed of its sprites, the speed of the backgrounds is the amazing thing here.)

Also, the playable character has a striking resemblance to the guy from the first castlevania DS game, or at least his run cycle does.


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## Mesiskope (Apr 1, 2011)

personuser said:
			
		

> Also, the playable character has a striking resemblance to the guy from the first castlevania DS game, or at least his run cycle does.


so he runs like a metrosexual?
should make him run like Richter.


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## Eckin (Apr 1, 2011)

oh god after beating up a kangaroo thing the character finished him with a GERMAN SUPLEX

also this game feels ultra fast, pretty cool


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## Hadrian (Apr 1, 2011)

Saw this and thought "finally"!

So many good ideas in this game, I especially love the main characters animations and actions even most modern 2D games don't so much.

Would be great if someone could finish this off, its too fast in some parts.


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## Dangy (Apr 2, 2011)

Hadrian said:
			
		

> Saw this and thought "finally"!
> 
> So many good ideas in this game, I especially love the main characters animations and actions even most modern 2D games don't so much.
> 
> Would be great if someone could finish this off, its too fast in some parts.



Yeah, some parts were like faster than Battletoads.


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## zeromac (Apr 2, 2011)

What is this..?


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## Deleted-273695 (Apr 2, 2011)

I say hack it up


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## stanleyopar2000 (Apr 2, 2011)

I love it when old unheard of games like this gets released...ssh..kinda wish I found something like this 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




dump it to my computer...sell it..then release the dump to the internet


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## Schlupi (Apr 2, 2011)

Errr... your sauce has the rom link at the end of the page. >_>


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## machomuu (Apr 2, 2011)

Schlupi said:
			
		

> Errr... your sauce has the rom link at the end of the page. >_>


Thanks 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




Oh -um, I mean...you should probably do something to prevent access to that rom.
...Yeah, that's it.


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## Dangy (Apr 2, 2011)

Schlupi said:
			
		

> Errr... your sauce has the rom link at the end of the page. >_>



It's legal.


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## stanleyopar2000 (Apr 2, 2011)

Dangy said:
			
		

> Schlupi said:
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I know...its NES..it's not even SNES...



and furthermore it's not even officially under the ESA protection..due to the company not existing anymore and the game being a mere UNOFFICIAL release prototype..

I pirate NES and SNES shit without even thinking about it.


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## YayMii (Apr 2, 2011)

Cool news. But are you sure that this ROM link is legal?

BTW, what's with the hoaxes?


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## RupeeClock (Apr 2, 2011)

YayMii said:
			
		

> Cool news. But are you sure that this ROM link is legal?
> 
> BTW, what's with the hoaxes?


It was someone tugging at the heartstrings of avid collectors and preservers of gaming memorabilia.


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## injected11 (Apr 2, 2011)

Sigh... I should've known better than to get my hopes up today. Link doesn't work.


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## purplesludge (Apr 2, 2011)

injected11 said:
			
		

> Sigh... I should've known better that to get my hopes up today. Link doesn't work.


Works for me.


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## injected11 (Apr 2, 2011)

purplesludge said:
			
		

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I'll wait til tomorrow to ask around just so I can know who to take seriously.

Unless you feel like PM'ing me a mirror link now, since it's apparently a legal rom (if real).


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## purplesludge (Apr 2, 2011)

injected11 said:
			
		

> purplesludge said:
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Apparently the download is dead. It's on my desktop which I don't have access to right now so assuming it is legal I'll be able to send it to you Sunday if you don't have it by then.


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## dib (Apr 2, 2011)

Technically this would be considered 'abandonware', which is a vague term describing the legal gray area when a copyright may still exist but is no longer enforced.  The development company is now out of business, and while Seta's IP would have been transferred to another company or absorbed by a parent, it's very doubtful that would have included an unpublished game from the early 90s.  It's even more doubtful that they would ever pursue a claim to it.


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## Celice (Apr 2, 2011)

this is some of the sexiest animation the NES has ever seen


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## Rayder (Apr 2, 2011)

Appears to work fine in the latest version of nesDS.


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## indask8 (Apr 2, 2011)

Nice game with amazing animations for a nes.


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## Seaking (Apr 2, 2011)

...i wanna play this, but the download link is dead. but awesome news!


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## Dangy (Apr 2, 2011)

Seaking said:
			
		

> ...i wanna play this, but the download link is dead. but awesome news!



I'm sure somebody here would be willing to make a mirror for you.

I'll post it in the 1st post.


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## Seaking (Apr 2, 2011)

Dangy said:
			
		

> Seaking said:
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that would be awesome 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




!
i think its even better that it is a legal rom too.

Edit: 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 seems it cant be posted


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## indask8 (Apr 2, 2011)

Looks like Rydian has edited the first page because of the potential rom link...

Even if this game is unreleased there may still be some copyright running on it.


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## Rydian (Apr 2, 2011)

1 - "Abandonware" is *not* a legally-recognized term.
2 - Even though NES games are old, they're still nowhere near copyright cutoff for unpublished works.

Removed the source just to play it safe.  Feel free to grab blocks of text from the source to fill in the missing info in the first post now, so people know WTF's going on. XD


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## The Pi (Apr 2, 2011)

The rom has been mirrored on a number of sites, it shouldn't be too hard to get a hold of.


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## Seaking (Apr 2, 2011)

The Pi said:
			
		

> The rom has been mirrored on a number of sites, it shouldn't be too hard to get a hold of.


but what is the filename? i have already tried the name from the lostlevels page and could not find it

Edit: nevermind, it seems the link on lostlevels is back up. yay


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## cwstjdenobs (Apr 2, 2011)

Rydian said:
			
		

> 2 - Even though NES games are old, they're still nowhere near copyright cutoff for unpublished works.



2039 ftw, lol. And you know we'll hook our brains up to computers that will allow a new era of human progress due to augmented memory and faster person to person communications just so we can emulate nes games and feel the bruises and numb thumbs of early game pad designs.


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## injected11 (Apr 2, 2011)

... This is pretty awesome. I've played


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## Rydian (Apr 2, 2011)

cwstjdenobs said:
			
		

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I'd take some copyright reform and an NES-USB adapter over that.


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## dib (Apr 2, 2011)

Rydian said:
			
		

> 1 - "Abandonware" is *not* a legally-recognized term.
> 2 - Even though NES games are old, they're still nowhere near copyright cutoff for unpublished works.
> 
> Removed the source just to play it safe.  Feel free to grab blocks of text from the source to fill in the missing info in the first post now, so people know WTF's going on. XD


I'm assuming this was directed toward me, so I'll point out that I never said it was a legal term.  I said it's the term used to describe a legally ambiguous area.

And I'm not going to criticize for dropping the link because it's what I would do in your position.  But the fact remains that there is no reason to presume any claim exists at all.


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## Dangy (Apr 2, 2011)

dib said:
			
		

> Rydian said:
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I'm sure it was just a general post, if it was directed towards you, he would've quoted your post.

Thanks for letting me know Rydian, I'll fill in the 1st post a few paragraphs from the original source.


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## dib (Apr 2, 2011)

Which is why I said I'm assuming, since it happened to rebut my post just prior about abandonware and the fact that it's a twenty year old unpublished game from a now defunct company.


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## Rydian (Apr 2, 2011)

It was just a general post (I do that a lot).  In this world of submarine patents and patent trolls we don't want any surprises.


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## Snailface (Apr 3, 2011)

The Pi said:
			
		

> The rom has been mirrored on a number of sites, it shouldn't be too hard to get a hold of.


+1 
Several major gaming news sites have now done stories on the game and posted links to the source site. Seriously, you could be decapitated and still be able to find BFA easily. No need for temp to take that .01% chance of getting in trouble.


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## Sheimi (Apr 4, 2011)

I finished the game. I wonder why this game was canceled. It was fun


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## RupeeClock (Apr 4, 2011)

Good news, if you want to play this, you can on *snip*.



Pretty sure this is legal as it has the loophole of never actually downloading the rom (except to temporarily files that will get cleared)


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## Rydian (Apr 5, 2011)

Cache is still an unlicensed copy.

Damn copyright laws.


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## Dangy (Apr 5, 2011)

Sheimi said:
			
		

> I finished the game. I wonder why this game was canceled. It was fun



It wish it was longer. Hopefully some better home-made versions will come out.


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