"This is a Preproduction sample and must be returned to LJN as soon as possible" - just in case LJN decided to send this to magazines or something. Anyway, this is a true prototype cart of Terminator 2 from LJN, bought from a pawn shop for $5.

When a programmer wanted to see how his game was going he would put his PRG/CHR roms (Program/Character (graphics) roms) onto a cart like this, suitably socketed and gutted for the purpose, and play it on a NES. This cart was apparantly snatched from the coders during the game creation process. The roms are labeled 7-16 (T2 was released in the spring of 1992), and the hex numbers are probably the checksums of the rom contents.

Anyway, the game itself.

- Download the Terminator 2 proto ROM in .NES format -

Differences between this rom and the release version:

  • This version is (c) Acclaim while the release is (c) LJN
  • The intro sequence is different
  • The cutscene graphics still need a lot of touching up (and some in here didn't make it to the final cut)
  • The game itself isn't fully coded yet - the only working weapons you have are your fists, enemies don't hurt you, and so on
  • You can choose which level to start on via a menu at the beginning (some options aren't available, and the Cyberdyne level doesn't exist yet at this point so selecting it will result in crashing)

...among other things. Anyway, enjoy the little peek into the NES development process.


    

   

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