Anyone remember that Earthworm Jim 2 prototype that funds were being collected for a dump of on the Hidden Palace forums? Well, I just got it in the mail. My very first prototype too, so I'm pretty excited. Unfortunately, I don't have any means to play it, as I'm away from home where my system is located. So what I plan to do is buy a Retrode and, of course, dump it so the data isn't lost forever someday. But I can't even afford that So this is where hopefully you guys come in. Either way, if I was going to share the dump I would need funds since it did cost me a bit to obtain it. The original goal for the dump back then was $200. Since I have it now, I'd want at least $215 to cover just under half of what I spent to get it. Once I have these funds I'd be able to afford a Retrode so I can actually play it and dump it for all, plus the extra left over will go towards another prototype I'm hoping to obtain and dump. Plus once I have a Retrode I can then know about differences on anything else I get before asking people to pay, which would make me feel better going about this =P As it is now I'm just as in the dark as to if this prototype is any different from the final as anyone else is. I don't know how I ever got the "Researcher" title, but hopefully with this I can somewhat live up to it now :v: If anyone wants to help, my paypal is m_devinny - at - hotmail.com, and I will make a list of donations if any actually come in. I plan to post this at other boards eventually, but want to see what the response is here first. And before anyone asks, I've since covered the EPROMs with black electric tape, so the cartridge shouldn't be at any risk of sunlight getting through those covers.
Nice, I was wondering what happened to this. Luckily this game has build dates compiled in the ROM so it should be very easy to determine how old the game is once the ROM is dumped. The build date is usually viewable from the super cheat mode screen, but judging from the SNES EWJ2 prototype, they changed many of the cheat combinations at the last minute so there's no way of knowing without dumping the game. For the record, the US version was compiled on August 23rd 1995 and the Europe version on the 31st. You should be able to easily find the strings in the rom with a hex editor if you search for the string "worm". I'm not familiar with the Retrode, but it should be fairly easy to dump ROMs with the device. As far as I know, you just need to have the game inserted and the device plugged in via USB, where the game rom can be found on a new drive Retrode creates when it's plugged in. Just copy the rom from the drive and there you go. At least, that's how I think it works. If I remember correctly, the fund raiser didn't work as planned due to lack of interest/information. If you want to generate interest for a community dump, it's best to wait to see what the differences are and then tell people during the start of the fund raiser what kind of differences one can expect from the prototype (but I wouldn't tell them too much, it'll knock out all the fun of finding out for ourselves). At least in my opinion. But of course, it's your prototype now and you are free to do whatever you want with it.
Yeah, I'd like to check differences, but it's kind of hard for me to afford the Retrode anytime immediately. Which is why I'm offering it up for funds now since it was previously being offered for dumping without differences being known then, either. So I feel less guilty about it =P I edited the main post so it has my paypal, so no one has to bother PMing me instead Anyway, I am trying to make funds at the moment, but it's a slow process, and will take a bit to get to the point where I can spare the nearly $100 it'd take out of my account in order to get the Retrode.
I have a Retrode, and this is exactly how it works. So long as the game isn't using any crazy mapping hardware (I have a pirate cart that refuses to dump), this should be simple.
Just thought everyone should know I finally got to play it and it turned out to not be significantly different from final. Among the differences: -The Shiny and Playermore logos at the beginning don't show up separately like in the final. Instead they're still just using the same opening from the first EWJ. -The titlescreen has a white background instead of white -Along with the titlescreen, the 2 with Jim's head sticking looks a little different in the fine details, by which I mean it looks like the optimization in compression is different somewhat. -All gun graphics in the HUD look different or not finished. -The crab enemies in Lorenzen's Soil that carry babies also carry tea cups that aren't in the final. -The level select shows a build date of August 9th 1995, two weeks earlier than the retail's August 23rd 1995. Running a comparison with Windhex32 against the final US ROM, there's just nearly 170,000 differences found. I also compared the ROM in Tile Molester a bit and a lot of graphics placement seems to not match up sometimes. There possibly more differences to find, but I don't have the patience or skill to locate everything. If there were a version of Gens or something that let me play two instances of the same emulator at once then it might be easier =P But anyway the cart is on eBay now as I need the money to buy other protos, so I won't be making a release of the ROM. Really wish there were more to it.
Yeah, the level select is the same as final, no new levels to choose from, same naming and all. I looked through with a hex editor too and didn't find any references to cut levels, nothing but all the names we know from the level select in the final.
I'm assuming this is you selling this? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Earthworm-Jim-2-Sega-Genesis-Prototype-Demo-Sample-Cartridge-/280979326012
Yeah. I probably should note differences in the auction, instead of saying nothing :v: So far no one has messaged me to ask though, so that kinda shows what interest anything titled "Earthworm Jim 2 prototype" riles up in people. There's still more to find though, I'm sure. I found another last night, nothing big but in the options screen when you click Password, the final shows a graphic that says Win. In this proto that word's just plain text instead of being a graphic. Amazing :specialed:
Hate to say it, but the best way to search for changes is with a "resynchronizing compare" that can detect matches, insertions, removals, deletions, and replacements. I usually use the one in Hex Workshop. Guarantee you that such a search will not result in 170,000 differences. That's also why the graphics don't match up, there were most likely code and data changes and when the ROM was assembled for the final, things were shifted around.
