Faceball 2000 (Game Gear)

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Faceball 2000 (Game Gear).

Development Timeline#

1991

• December - Faceball 2000 is released for the Game Boy in North America. This version ends up as the direct basis for the Game Gear version, one among numerous versions being worked on by Xanth.¹

1991-1993

• Xanth's Darren Stone ends being "the programmer to start the project and carry it through almost, but not quite, to completion."²

"There was no artist required for the Game Gear project — wherever possible, we reused artwork from the Game Boy version. You can blame me for the nasty colorization of the greyscale Game Boy art!

Some really good music and sound effects were composed and I integrated them into the code. I recently found the Faceball 2000 main theme song extracted from a Game Gear ROM image floating around the Internet. I probably hated listening to that song over and over and over at the time, but it’s my cell cell phone ring now, 13 years later. That’s full circle! I love chiptunes."

• When it came getting the unorthodox 3D environment running on the Game Gear, Stone "mostly took what [Robert Champagne] did on the Game Boy and replicated it on the Game Gear."³
• The project takes "at least 6 months in [Stone's] hands, probably more."

1992

• July 8 - The game is previewed in Beep! MegaDrive August 1992, said to be 70% complete. Screenshots are more reminiscent of the Game Boy version at this point.⁴

1993

• July 8 - The game is previewed in Beep! MegaDrive August 1993, said to be 90% complete. Screenshots are still close to the Game Boy version.
• September 8 - The game is previewed in Beep! MegaDrive October 1993, still said to be 90% complete. Screenshots now resemble the final build.
• October - Estimated launch month, according to an advertisement for the game on page 13 of Beep! MegaDrive August 1993. The game ultimately gets pushed back two months.
• October 8 - The game is previewed in Beep! MegaDrive November 1993, said to be 100% complete.
• November 8 - The game is previewed in Beep! MegaDrive December 1993, said to be 100% complete.
• December 17 - Faceball 2000 is released for Game Gear in Japan.⁵

Riverhill Soft#

According to Henk Rogers (Faceball IP owner and BPS/Tetris head) in a 2025 interview for Stop Skeletons From Fighting, Riverhill Soft's publishing for this version was a result of his brother (likely Edward S. P. Rogers), who was working at the company after time at Bullet-Proof Software, being "a big fan" of Faceball. This likely wasn't publicly known until this interview due to this version of the game lacking credits.⁶

Beep! MegaDrive Screenshots#

August 1992#

In these screenshots, the viewport size and HUD graphics/layout are identical to that of the Game Boy version.

Game Boy	Beep! MegaDrive August 1992	Final

Game Boy	Beep! MegaDrive August 1992	Final

August 1993#

The title screen now matches the final build, but the viewport and HUD are still unchanged.

Game Boy	Beep! MegaDrive August 1993	Final

Game Boy	Beep! MegaDrive August 1993	Final

Game Boy	Beep! MegaDrive August 1993	Final

See Also#

• Prerelease:Faceball_2000_(Game_Boy)

References#