Beta of Superman 64 Released

A beta version of the infamous Superman 64 has been released as a ROM.

NES WORLD recently got their hands on a prototype version of Superman64, and held a fundraiser to upload a ROM version of the prototype game. Lucky for users, Martin of NES WORLD was kind enough to release the ROM to the public before they hit the funding target.

A video play-through can be found above. Anyone familiar with the original notice any major differences?

Next upPlay Super Mario Bros. in Counterstrike

Jason Lamb

Jason is a PC Gaming aficionado from the Great White North. You can follow him on Twitter @jasonlamb.

See all posts by Jason Lamb

2 comments

Newest | Oldest

NintendoLegend

Wait, one more thing I feel is worth mentioning: In this beta, the Daily Planet is presented as an actual newspaper. In the released version of the game, the presentation is made as though you are actually visiting the Daily Planet website, complete with a mouse cursor over the "News" button (between "Society" and "People").

NintendoLegend

Very different! Released version has options for displaying the text in other languages; but much more notably, the gameplay is altered, and takes place in a different order. The "real" game is infamous for starting the player by having to fly through green rings within a time limit. Also, rather than starting with a Daily Planet newspaper blurb, there is a rather short cinematic (if you can call it that) of Lex Luthor banishing Superman's friends to his demented dimension, a virtual world.

The actual iteration is also notorious for its green fog. It appears that, in the beta, they just leave it as white. The implementation of the Shadows (although they do appear in the final game), use of superpowers without limiting tokens, etc., is all different from the release cartridge as well. Bizarro does not even appear in the final game (neither do "rhinorobots"). Mala and Metallo do appear, though.

Holding stuff is still buggy in either version, as is hit detection.

One other thing: In this beat, completion of objectives results in a quirky little "check mark" system shown on the screen. In the real game, you just get a message that says "SUPER MAN WINS" at the top of the screen.

This is a radically different experience from the release. And, stunningly (or maybe not so), it looks like the beta might be superior.

Trackbacks

Superman 64 Beta Released Online At Last | N64 Blog says:

April 18, 2013 at 8:10 am

[…] 1 More Castle recently discovered that a beta version of the game has now been made available on the web for all to “enjoy”: […]