Old retro cartridges played an integral role in piquing the interest of the older generation of gamers. The familiar gaming music of the mid-80s and countable pixels of sprites in single-screen platformers now dwell as fragments of nostalgia in the gamers’ minds.
The gaming world would not be the same without the old arcade titles with pixelated graphics dominating the early days. Things have wholly changed, and graphics in video games are hardly distinguishable from real life. However, some gamers are hell-bent on conserving the old legacy of early retro games.
Whether it’s preserving the unreleased ports of ancient games or remastering the aged titles with the twist of modernity, the community never let those games shrivel in the river of time. Recently, a group of enthusiasts who conserve retro title cartridges have banked another unreleased port that was supposed to come out in the antique, Famicon console.
Forest of Illusion, Hard4Games, and Gaming Alexandria have collaborated to reveal the unreleased port of The Fairyland Story. The Fairyland Story was due to receive a Famicon port in 1986. The video produced by Hard4Games provides a detailed analysis and walk-through of the dumping process from start to finish.
This game version was only ever discussed in a few magazine issues back in the day, but it never saw the light of day. Gamers rightfully thought the port was lost to time, and no one expected it to appear in an eBay dump with a bunch of untested Famicom games by a purchase made by the retro modder @FenrisRetro.
The withered cartridge is supposedly a debug build dated 25th April 1986, and there is a bundle of differences between this Famicom version and the arcade version. For one, the level layouts and enemy placements are completely distinct from the arcade version. Moreover, the debug version allows you to skip the levels to allow easy testing capabilities.
— Forest of Illusion (@forestillusion) June 20, 2022
The trio of retro cartridge preservers has reportedly worked together to bring the olden The Fairyland Story experience back to be enjoyed. This one-screen platformer features no fairies, unfortunately. However, you are a witch who can turn everyone into cakes so that’s fun.
The cartridge has now been dumped on the web for interested folks to take a look, which you download from Forest of Illusion. You can also visit the blog post by Gaming Alexandria for an in-depth history of this forgotten port.
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