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Lady Bow

Member
Nov 30, 2017
11,277
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Build: Pre Beta / Version 79

Build Date: July 21st, 1999

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YouTuber 'Gamers Manuel' happened upon a one of a kind find during meetup to buy some N64 games, spotting a peculiar N64 tall cart. (used for prototypes and n64 game testing by devs) When asked about the cart the seller said his friend's dad used to work for Nintendo and that his friend ended up giving him the cart. As a big N64 enthusiast/historian, this is really a treat when rare finds like this happen; especially for a widely loved series like Panel de Pon.


Panel de Pon 64 was a cancelled 2000 Nintendo 64 port of the original Panel de Pon/Tetris Attack, which ended up becoming "Pokémon Puzzle League".

lostmediaarchive.fandom.com

Panel de Pon 64 (Cancelled Japanese Nintendo 64 game)

Panel de Pon 64 was a cancelled 2000 Nintendo 64 port of the original Panel de Pon/Tetris Attack, which ended up becoming "Pokémon Puzzle League". When often bringing up Panel de Pon or Pokémon Puzzle League on boards, it was rumored that there was going to be a planned Nintendo 64 remake of the...
 
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Naga

Alt account
Banned
Aug 29, 2019
7,850
Weird it'd have been just an enhanced port. Super cool find though.

Hopefully Panel de Pon being released in the west recently (thanks NSO) is an indication this IP is coming back rather than the boring Puzzle League one.
 

Clov

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,929
Wow, this is great! I never thought they'd find the original N64 version of this! I hope he releases the ROM.

Weird it'd have been just an enhanced port. Super cool find though.

Hopefully Panel de Pon being released in the west recently (thanks NSO) is an indication this IP is coming back rather than the boring Puzzle League one.

It's not an enhanced port of the SNES game. The story, though similar, is all new (along with the characters, believe it or not), and there's even more stages than before. There's also plenty of new modes. It's a full featured sequel!

I do hope that Panel de Pon, fairies and all, comes back though. Was really happy that it came to NSO overseas!

Nice! This is the same game later included in Nintendo Puzzle Collection, right?

This appears to be the exact same game as Panel de Pon in Nintendo Puzzle Collection.
 

Zan

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,418
Cool. Maybe this can be the lost bonus game in a N64 mini?
 

Birbos

Alt Account
Banned
May 15, 2020
1,354
The name on that cartridge belongs to one of my professors. I couldn't believe my eyes.
 

Kazooie

Member
Jul 17, 2019
5,012
The name on that cartridge belongs to one of my professors. I couldn't believe my eyes.
This one from DigiPen I guess?
Prasanna Ghali
Principal Lecturer
Since Prasanna Ghali joined DigiPen in 1994, he has been instrumental in developing and implementing DigiPen's computer graphics and game software development curriculum. Between 1998 and 2002, he was the Vice President of Engineering at Nintendo Software Technology (NST).
During his tenure at NST, Mr. Ghali served as the technical lead for several video game titles, including Ridge Racer 64, Wave Race: Blue Storm, and 1080° Avalanche. He was also the key software engineer for the design, development, testing, and benchmarking of video game prototypes on Nintendo's Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Nintendo 64, and GameCube platforms.
Mr. Ghali returned to DigiPen in 2002 to continue his interests in teaching and research on various topics related to game development, including computer graphics and game engine design. He has co-published articles in various journals, and is the author of nine U.S. patents, which deal with game design and/or game engineering.

Well, talk about a passionate teacher, he probably earned much more in his role at NST ;).
 
Oct 25, 2017
4,792
New York City
Woooooooooooooah... Time to put this "watch thread" feature on Resetera to good use for the 2nd time!


Seriously though, lately I've been working on making a cute action puzzle game, so I've been playing a lot of similar games for inspiration. Of everything I've played, I've been getting soooo hard into Panel De Pon all over again because it's just such an incredibly good video game. I'm so excited to see what comes from this prototype.
 

L Thammy

Spacenoid
Member
Oct 25, 2017
49,972
Since I was just going through the credits of the SNES Panel de Pon last night, I'm wondering if this one was also made by Team Battle Clash.

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Lady Bow

Lady Bow

Member
Nov 30, 2017
11,277
Footage of Manuel picking the cart up in the wild at a N64 selling meetup! Crazy to see it just sitting in a box like that. Apparently the seller's friend's dad used to work for Nintendo and the cart was given to him.

 
Oct 25, 2017
4,792
New York City
Since I was just going through the credits of the SNES Panel de Pon last night, I'm wondering if this one was also made by Team Battle Clash.

panelg9jtm.png
No. Panel de Pon 64 and Pokémon Puzzle League were developed by Nintendo Software Technology (NST), a US subsidiary developer of NOA.

A couple months ago, Nuclear Muffin wrote this post in reply to something I said, with regards to the developers of this game:

Pokemon Puzzle League is not strictly a US developed game... It is actually a localised version of the cancelled Panel de Pon 64. NST were given the cancelled game and we're tasked with adding the Pokémon anime skin on top. You can actually visibly see which parts of the game were originally developed by IS and which parts were NST (look at how janky and poorly coded all the menus are, and then the gameplay itself is silky smooth; there are two entirely different engines being slammed together here).

Panel de Pon 64 would actually eventually see a release... in Nintendo Puzzle Collection! The version of PDP in that collection is actually the previously unreleased PDP64!

On top of that mystery is another... Nintendo Puzzle Collection was originally due to have a fully localised western release, including PDP64 itself! With the original characters intact!

You can actually find a remnant of this cancelled localisation in the Dr Mario & Puzzle League GBA release! The Download Demo option in GBA Puzzle League is actually the original GBA Download version of PDP that was also included in Nintendo Puzzle Collection; completely unaltered... except it's entirely in English now. Pupuri still hosts the game and still makes reference to Furil and the rest of his fairy friends from PDP64!

Really fascinating to see what was going to be! Damn shame that they cancelled NPC's western release... I bet that they still have the fully localised English GCN release hiding in their vaults, just like what happened with StarFox 2...
 

L Thammy

Spacenoid
Member
Oct 25, 2017
49,972
No. Panel de Pon 64 and Pokémon Puzzle League were developed by Nintendo Software Technology (NST), a US subsidiary developer of NOA.
Huh, so was this a case where the Japanese version was going to be made later? I'd expect NST to be more of involved in things like localizing a Japanese version.
 

MondoMega

One Winged Slayer
Member
Jan 10, 2018
47,474
Australia
This is a super cool find! The game technically ended up releasing in two different forms anyway (Pokémon Puzzle League and the Panel de Pon featured in Nintendo Puzzle Collection), but it's nice to see the original unlocalized N64 version.
 

Seafoam Gaming

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 3, 2017
2,692
Holy fuck: Looked into the history of this game when playing PDP on NSO, and thought I'd have to go and import a GCN copy to even glimpse at what could have been for PDP64. But now we've found it! Curious to see the differences and whatnot~ Also, I hope this means someone can find the Panel De Pon GBC proto someday (one more advanced than what's in Pokemon puzzle challenge)
 
Oct 27, 2017
3,426
Very cool. My childhood self would have loved a Tetris Attack/Panel de Pon on N64, although my friends and I would have been a little confused and disappointed if it had just been a straightforward port of the SNES game.
 
Oct 27, 2017
1,296
Since I was just going through the credits of the SNES Panel de Pon last night, I'm wondering if this one was also made by Team Battle Clash.

panelg9jtm.png
"Team Battle Clash" was just a fancy name for the specific group of people inside IntSys who worked on Panel de Pon and, well, Battle Clash.
– You're credited under the name "Team Battle Clash" in the ending credits. Where does the name come from?

Toshitaka:
We made a game for the American release of the Super Scope called Battle Clash, and a lot of the people from that team carried over to Panel de Pon. There was a boss in Battle Clash named Thanatos, who we casually went ahead and included in this game too.
This one was made by NST, IIRC.
Looking at the credits of the GC version, it was co-developed by R&D1, IntSys and NST
 

L Thammy

Spacenoid
Member
Oct 25, 2017
49,972
A couple months ago, Nuclear Muffin wrote this post in reply to something I said, with regards to the developers of this game:
This is pretty fascinating; thanks Why would you do that? and Nuclear Muffin . I wonder if even the Gamecube credits neatly map up to the unreleased N64 release? Toshitaka Muramatsu is listed for the concept (the original game, I guess) and as an advisor...

EDIT: Thanks to GingerbreadMan too, you caught me when I was posting.
 
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Oct 28, 2017
295
Wow, I didn't know the N64 supported 16:9 until now

There were a fair number of N64 games with 16:9 support, including most of the Rare titles (Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, DK64, etc.). There were PS1 and Saturn games that supported it too, like NiGHTS and Wipeout 3. Theoretically any console supports 16:9—16:9 in the pre-HD era was just a "squeezed" standard-resolution image that was "unsqueezed" by the monitor. The game itself has to be designed to support it but it doesn't require anything special from the hardware. There's even a 32X game with 16:9 support (Virtua Fighter), and apparently World Cup '94 for the Sega CD has an optional 320x224 mode that works much like 16:9 support, though it's not clear if that was the intent.
 

Clov

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Oct 25, 2017
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Deleted member 55822

User requested account closure
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Huh, so was this a case where the Japanese version was going to be made later? I'd expect NST to be more of involved in things like localizing a Japanese version.
That's Nintendo Treehouse's job. NST is in fact a game development team at NoA. They have done quite a number of games over the years (Wave Race on the Gamecube, Some of GBC ports of NES games, etc.) Now they're only really work on Mario vs. Donkey Kong games. Though they also recently worked on the Captain Toad port on Switch (not sure about 3DS though.) and involved in indie games like The Stretcher and Good Job!.
 

L Thammy

Spacenoid
Member
Oct 25, 2017
49,972
That's Nintendo Treehouse's job. NST is in fact a game development team at NoA. They have done quite a number of games over the years (Wave Race on the Gamecube, Some of GBC ports of NES games, etc.) Now they're only really work on Mario vs. Donkey Kong games. Though they also recently worked on the Captain Toad port on Switch (not sure about 3DS though.) and involved in indie games like The Stretcher and Good Job!.
NST also does ports and other less visible work, if I'm not mistaken. They're credited for the English version of Sin & Punishment going by Wikipedia (although I don't know what you'd actually need to localize there). That's what I'd have expected them to do with Panel de Pon.
 
Oct 27, 2017
1,296
NST also does ports and other less visible work, if I'm not mistaken. They're credited for the English version of Sin & Punishment going by Wikipedia (although I don't know what you'd actually need to localize there). That's what I'd have expected them to do with Panel de Pon.

NST added English subtitles to the ending of Sin & Punishment for the VC release. It was an official romhack. Well, not really a hack since iirc they didn't touch the ROM, but they forced the emulator to display the subtitles. (They did something similar for the VC release of PKM Puzzle League: since Wii wasn't powerful enough to emulate the game playing the anime FMV, they included a movie player in the emulator itself and it played the FMV)

They also made the emulator itself, which was a more advanced version of the one used for the GC Zelda Collection.
 
Oct 29, 2017
4,721
Wow! I can't believe that it actually turned up! Amazing!

Yeah, this is an Intelligent Systems game that NST were given to re-tool and localise as Pokemon Puzzle League.

I don't know why they cancelled the original N64 release in Japan, but it did eventually get ported over to the Gamecube as part of Nintendo Puzzle Collection. I think NST might have been involved in the development of Nintendo Puzzle Collection itself as well; since the version of Dr Mario 64 that appears in that collection runs on NST's N64 emulator (and NST were probably also involved in its reverse Japanese localisation; since Dr Mario 64 was never actually released in Japan originally).

Now, I've been assuming for years that the 4 player mode was added especially for the Gamecube release and wasn't actually in the N64 original (due to the way that the game appears to take advantage of the GCN's higher resolution), so I'd be really interested in seeing if my theory is right here!

I'm also 100% certain that Nintendo have a fully localised version of Nintendo Puzzle Collection and Tetra's Trackers kicking about somewhere in their vaults as well...

not sure if this is actually exactly the same as the GC version, that froggy theme you hear in the footage sounds like a different arrangement to me!

Yeah, it's a bit hard to tell due to the Shot on Shitiovision form of the video, but it sounds like some of the musical arrangements are different in this prototype.
 
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Rlan

Member
Oct 27, 2017
823
Wellington, New Zealand
So Nintendo Puzzle Collection on the Gamecube does include this - it featured Panel De Pon (Just without the 64), a port of Dr. Mario 64, and a new version of Yoshi's Cookie.


With this, I do wonder if Yoshi's Cookie on this collection was also intended for the N64. I imagine so, but I wonder why Panel De Pon (As Pokemon Puzzle League) and Dr. Mario only came out this way.
 

liquidtmd

Avenger
Oct 28, 2017
6,129
Wait, someone on the internet's family member worked for Nintendo...and they were telling the truth??!
 
Oct 29, 2017
4,721
So Nintendo Puzzle Collection on the Gamecube does include this - it featured Panel De Pon (Just without the 64), a port of Dr. Mario 64, and a new version of Yoshi's Cookie.


With this, I do wonder if Yoshi's Cookie on this collection was also intended for the N64. I imagine so, but I wonder why Panel De Pon (As Pokemon Puzzle League) and Dr. Mario only came out this way.


Yoshi's Cookie was not a port, it was a native GCN title developed by Tose (even a cursory glance is enough to give away that it's a native GCN game as it's the only one that has native 480p resolution graphics).

Nintendo Puzzle Collection is a very odd product; it seems like it was basically an excuse to release two cancelled N64 titles (though mainly PDP 64) and they commissioned Tose to whip up a new version of Yoshi's Cookie to boost the value of the package as a whole.

Intelligent Systems clearly have a soft spot for the series and the staff were likely very unhappy to have their pet project cancelled on them and bowdlerised yet again! So this was likely an olive branch to placate the staff. PDP 64 was also a significant project for IS as they were hugely struggling to make the transition to developing 3D games. Remember that they were still primarily making SNES games as a studio all the way up until 2000! Paper Mario was their first 3D game, and it wasn't even true 3D in the traditional sense (IS' first game with fully 3D graphics wouldn't happen until 2005, when they finally released Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance; they were the last Nintendo studio to make the jump to 3D!).

Mind you though, this kind of forward port is VERY much standard fare for Nintendo. Almost ALL of Nintendo's early GCN titles started out on N64 dev kits in some form or another, and many of the titles they did eventually release (and didn't release) were originally planned for the N64. Same thing happened with the Wii, where pretty much every game released within the first two years of that console's life were originally built for GameCube (Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn was such an incredibly last minute GCN-Wii port that the GCN builds were the public face of the game right up until less than two months before launch! Every single piece of pre-release press material was actually taken from a GCN build!). The western release was actually quite a significant overhaul that was a MUCH more polished product and a native Wii title in a way that the Japanese release was not; with substantially improved visuals that were retooled for 16:9 (the original JPN version was 4:3 only).

Nintendo LOVE revisiting cancelled releases and prototypes... Nintendo Labo is a fantastic example; as it is basically a collection of cancelled Wii and Wii U prototypes (that's the real reason why they made it in the first place; they really didn't want their prototypes to go to waste!)

If there's one thing that has always been consistent about Nintendo, it's that they never let good ideas, good prototypes and good assets go to waste. They ALWAYS turn up eventually, even if it's not until 25 years+ later!
 

Efejota

Member
Mar 13, 2018
3,750
Weird it'd have been just an enhanced port. Super cool find though.

Hopefully Panel de Pon being released in the west recently (thanks NSO) is an indication this IP is coming back rather than the boring Puzzle League one.
I'd love to, but at the same time, Nintendo hasn't been releasing that many puzzle games lately. Only Dr. Mario and Picross, and they haven't comitted to an story mode presentation since Dr. Mario 64... The only "high"-budget puzzle game I can think of from this last gen is Picross 3D Round 2.

If there's one thing that has always been consistent about Nintendo, it's that they never let good ideas, good prototypes and good assets go to waste. They ALWAYS turn up eventually, even if it's not until 25 years+ later!
Drill Dozer never released in Europe before the WiiU, but SURPRISE: that virtual console release was PAL-Multi5 and even had a scanned manual with all those languages.
 
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ryan13ts

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,101
Nice find! I love when prototypes get found, so much interesting history to be learned from them. Hopefully it will get dumped soon so we can all check it out.

Here's to hoping that a prototype of Resident Evil 0 N64 or the the prototype of Resident Evil 4 (RE3.5), will pop up soon. Resident Evil has such interesting prototypes, been interested in them for decades at this point.
 

rawhide

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,003
I'd love to, but at the same time, Nintendo hasn't been releasing that many puzzle games lately. Only Dr. Mario and Picross, and they haven't comitted to an story mode presentation since Dr. Mario 64... The only "high"-budget puzzle game I can think of from this last gen is Picross 3D Round 2.

Sushi Striker. It was by one of the creators of Panel de Pon and they made a very deliberate effort to keep that game from being "low-budget", but it didn't make a difference.
 

Efejota

Member
Mar 13, 2018
3,750
Sushi Striker. It was by one of the creators of Panel de Pon and they made a very deliberate effort to keep that game from being "low-budget", but it didn't make a difference.
I stand corrected! I pretty much forgot about that one because it's not the usual "block pieces" puzzle game. Sadly it didn't seem that interesting to me even as a puzzle fan. Probably the artstyle for the characters.

Anyways, looking at the intro from the protoype/GC game, I wish they would do a re-release for it like it happened with Mr. Driller recently, but I wonder if it would be hard to justify with the SNES Online version is out there. I'd certainly love to have it officially translated, and the rotating column is a nice change of pace from the regular Panel de Pon.
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