the cutting room mirror

Venice Beach Volleyball

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Venice Beach Volleyball is an unlicensed beach volleyball game. Set on Venice Beach, one would assume.

Sadly, animosity between unlicensed publishers meant the crossover Menace Beach Volleyball never saw the light of day.

Sub-Page#

Prototype Info

To do:
Add IPS patch.

Super Mega

AVE

The Super Mega release contains code and graphics for an early version of the American Video Entertainment logo screen, which was disabled by removing several JSRs near the beginning of the program. The old screen features a purple background, abbreviates "American Video Entertainment" to "A.V.E.", and shows the game's copyright year, 1991. The screen also does not fade in or out as it does in the later AVE release.

Regional/Revisional Differences#

To do:
Screenshots; and there are probably more differences than this.

The following versions are known to exist, all of which have since been dumped:

  • Original Asian version from Super Mega, with hidden early American Video Entertainment logo buried inside the ROM data.
  • North American early version from American Video Entertainment.
  • North American regular version from American Video Entertainment.
  • Spanish version from Gluk Video.
  • Asian version from Taiwan X'tal Corporation (TXC) published under their Micro Genius brand, cartridge code MGC-010.

North American Version#

The game underwent a number of changes between its initial release by Super Mega and its US release by American Video Entertainment:

  • The game now opens with an American Video Entertainment logo screen.
  • The word "BALL" was added to the title screen, and "Venice Beach" slightly redrawn.
  • The music from the Super Mega character select screen was moved to the US version's options screen, and a completely different piece of music is used on the US character select screen. The in-game music was also completely replaced.
  • Two female teams were introduced, replacing two of the teams in the Super Mega version's all-male lineup. The remaining players were renamed and their positions reshuffled.
  • The second player on each team is now a palette-swapped version of the first; in the Super Mega version both players were identical.
  • A scoreboard is now permanently present as part of the court background; in the Super Mega version the scores were only displayed after a point was scored.

Asian Version from TXC Corp.#

This version was also released by TXC Corporation on two of their multicarts: 4-in-1 (MGC-026) and 6-in-1 (MGC-023).

Despite its later release date, it appears to be an intermediate revision between the Super Mega and AVE versions, having the team and scoreboard changes from the US version but lacking the music changes and the word "BALL" on the title screen.

Interestingly, on the "Maxivision" television infomercial, the TXC version is shown, even though the actual Maxi 15 cartridge contains the regular North American version.

References#

  1. Aventuras de um videogame nacional "Adventures of a national console" - O Globo, June 24, 1991↩︎
  2. SELECT: LANÇAMENTOS NACIONAIS - NINTENDO: VENICE BEACH VOLLEYBALL - Ação Games, Issue 7, November 1991↩︎