{"id":15210,"date":"2021-09-19T17:04:54","date_gmt":"2021-09-19T23:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gamingalexandria.com\/wp\/?p=15210"},"modified":"2021-09-22T21:51:02","modified_gmt":"2021-09-23T03:51:02","slug":"raiden-proto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gamingalexandria.com\/wp\/2021\/09\/raiden-proto\/","title":{"rendered":"Raiden Densetsu (SNES, Prototype)"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a prototype build of Raiden Densetsu,<\/em>\u00a0the Japanese version of Raiden Trad<\/em> for the Super Nintendo. The cartridge was bought off of the Mercari marketplace by atrocity3010 and was sent to Jonas Rosland at Hit Save!<\/a> for inspection. In the video below, you can see the prototype has many differences compared to the retail release \u2014 right down to the title screen. A deeper analysis can be read below.<\/p>\n

The prototype can be downloaded here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Special thanks to Jonas Rosland and atrocity3010 for providing help in researching these materials.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Game Details<\/span><\/h2>\n

Raiden<\/em> was originally a vertically-scrolling arcade shooter released in 1990 by Seibu Kaihatsu, a development company founded back in 1982. Development began after it became apparent that Kaihatsu’s previous title \u2014 the 1989 arcade action game Dynamite Duke<\/em> \u2014 was not selling enough to warrant a sequel. According to graphic designer Toshinobu Komazawa in a 2006 interview with INH Group<\/a>, despite shooter games being “relatively inexpensive to produce,” the divergence from Dynamite Duke 2<\/em> to Raiden<\/em> surrounded production with a swarm of negativity.<\/p>\n

“In other words, Raiden<\/em> was a financial decision for the company \u2014 a title we had to make.”<\/p>\n

~ Toshinobu Komazawa, as translated by shmuplations.com<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Raiden<\/em> was a commercial success, selling over 17,000 arcade units worldwide. Several ports got introduced for home consoles like the Sega Genesis and the Atari Jaguar. A Super Famicom port got released as <\/span>Raiden Densetsu<\/span><\/em>\u00a0(or “<\/span>Legend of Raiden\u201d<\/span><\/em>) on November 29th, 1991. The North American version (“<\/span>Raiden Trad\u201d<\/span><\/em>) saw store shelves\u00a0<\/span>the following March<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and was met with moderate reception. “Simultaneous two-player play is a nice change of pace,” read the\u00a0<\/span>June 1992 issue<\/span><\/a>\u00a0of GamePro. “But super slowdown mars the fun. […] Although there is nothing new or different here, [<\/span>Raiden Densetsu<\/span><\/em>] packs more than a few hours of good shooter action.”<\/span><\/p>\n

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The lack of copyright information at the title screen is one of many noticeable differences found in the prototype.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As of this article, two prototypes of Raiden Densetsu<\/em> are known to exist: one found and dumped by The Cutting Room Floor<\/a> in August of 2020; the other being presented to you today by Gaming Alexandria. Courtesy of atrocity3010, here are all the differences they were able to spot:<\/p>\n