1992 Anco / Imagineer
Platform: Nintendo Entertainment System
As the archive continues to grow each week, we’re now excited to bring you the long-lost NES version of Tip-Off (due out way back in 1992), fully recovered in its final state and available for download.
Originally developed by Enigma Variations for Anco and set for release via Imagineer, the NES version was ultimately canned when Anco’s partnership with Imagineer ended. With high manufacturing costs and no major backer to support production, the financial risk proved too great in the end.
The recovery comes thanks to the discovery of a binary file, which showcases a very early prototype with playable characters. This was created by none-other than Jim Smart, who had previously created Chips Challenge on the NES. You can see some similarities in the score panel as a result. We hope to learn more from Jim in the future about the development.
The game currently doesn’t have a CPU player, so you’ll need two control pads configured to be able to play the title. There are a number of glitches present, as you might expect for a game this early into development. Things didn’t get to a stage of title screens and option menus – with the focus purely on getting the basic game up and running.
Although the prototype itself is silent, additionally exciting is the recovery of music composed by David Whittaker. This is seemingly different to his Game Boy music, and was uncovered in source code form and compiled into a working binary.
With a huge thank you to Mark Greenshields and Darren Melbourne for allowing us to preserve this title.
Download
Video with commentary
Gallery
