Games with different versions that have signficant differences

[KokiriChild | 1,644]

So, I've been really diving into my DS and 3DS backlog recently, and I've been obssesively binging Harvest Moon DS. It's been a while since I've played a good, calm simulator and it entranced me. 

Fast forward about twenty hours into the game or so, and I go on the Harvest Moon wiki to look something up. Turns out, Harvest Moon DS is universally dispised due to bugs and programming errors that go from the minor and humorous such as bad translations; to massive such as making certain bachelorettes like the Harvest Goddess and Witch Princess unmarriable; to the catastrophic like game-breaking glitches and corrupted save files. 

I was shocked, as I hadn't experienced any of this, only to find out my copy of Harvest Moon DS is the rarer Version 1.1 that Natsume rushed out in response to all the massive bugs, which patched about 90-95% of them. This explains why I had been none the wiser. Boy, am I glad I have the patched version. 

But this got me thinking, before the days of online patches, the only real solution was a second printing of the game. Are there any other games you can think of that are in this same boat, where the game is virtually identical except for the fixing of bugs or other major problems? How much rarer are the corrected versions? Or perhaps it's the opposite of HMDS and the broken version is the rare one? My curiosity is peaked!

Edited March 19, 2021 by KokiriChild

[OptOut | 8,892]

Turok Rage Wars and WCW Backstage Assault are two famous "grey cart" variants on N64, released with fixes for game breaking bugs. Both are SIGNIFICANTLY more expensive than their regular counterparts!

[Tulpa | 3,537]

The original Castlevania had a bug that if you spammed holy water in the hall before the grim reaper it would hard lock the game. Later versions corrected it. Though some of us learned to beat Mr. Reaper with the boomerang. No idea which is more common.

Not a glitch, but Mike Tyson's Punch Out. They didn't renew the license with Tyson (because he lost to Douglas), so the Mr. Dream version was created. I've heard rumors that they tweaked the game in between, but I've never seen convincing evidence that they're any different in terms of boxing difficulty, etc. I think MTPO is slightly more common, but it's also more desirable.

 

[rdrunner | 422]

On the original version of StarFox (SNES), it is impossible to get a score of 100% on Fortuna (Route 3, Stage 3).  On v1.0, the highest possible score is 87%.

Went through a bit of trouble a couple of decades ago searching for a cart with v1.1.  Can't tell the version just by looking at the cartridge shell.  My local game retailer looked at me funny as I kept exchanging my copy and explaining that it wasn't broken but it was.

Edited March 19, 2021 by rdrunner

[KokiriChild | 1,644]

3 hours ago, OptOut said:

Turok Rage Wars and WCW Backstage Assault are two famous "grey cart" variants on N64, released with fixes for game breaking bugs. Both are SIGNIFICANTLY more expensive than their regular counterparts!

I was an active collector in the community when the gray cart Rage Wars were on eBay in bulk for... what was it, 15 bucks? I already had a black cart so I didn't pick it up. I've regretted that choice for years

[phart010 | 1,708]

I know Mario Land 2 on gameboy early version has a glitch that allows you to warp to the game ending. That’s removed from later versions. 
 

Wasn’t one of the Harvest Moons on GameCube a bug fixed version of the other Harvest Moon?

I seem to remember a discussion on forums about a version of Mario All stars that you could toggle through Mario 3 weapons with by pressing select.. maybe a debug version that actually made its way into production??

I have a memory of my brother killing the final Sigma in MMX with the hadouken. I tried doing that recently and it doesn’t even affect him.. maybe my memory is bad, or maybe there’s a different version out there

[Tanooki | 4,952]

Kind of the same but not I suppose.

Castlevania 64 vs Legacy of Darkness

 

Story as it goes back in the 90s.  The game fell behind badly, Konami's Japanese board had to answer to stock holders if it kept slipping.  They took the finished part of the game, and got it up and running with some horrid bugs but not crashing at least as Castlevania 64.  Just under a year later Legacy comes out with the other 60% of the intended game included.  But it wasn't just that, the massive bugs of the original were fixed too.  Collision issues with clock gears killing you when you're visually in the clear, jump physics not landing you with the same effort in the same spot twice, camera moving and throwing you off cliffs/ledges you're gripping onto, and other infuriating stuff.

[MegaMan52 | 2,461]

Version 1.0 of Tetris has different A-Type music and some minor bugs. It is not extremely rare but it is uncommon, since only the earliest copies have version 1.0 (and apparently only in Japan).

The GameCube version of Finding Nemo has probably the longest load times of any game on the console, as well as some missing sound effects. Revised copies have fast load times, include the previously missing sound effects, and increase the volume of the shell collecting sound effect. Revised copies are common, unless it's a black label copy. Only some black label copies have the revised version.

Edited March 20, 2021 by MegaMan52

[mbd39 | 2,030]

Revenge of Shinobi has changes in boss characters in the later versions for copyright reasons.

 

[0xDEAFC0DE | 1,277]

10 hours ago, rdrunner said:

On the original version of StarFox (SNES), it is impossible to get a score of 100% on Fortuna (Route 3, Stage 3).  On v1.0, the highest possible score is 87%.

Went through a bit of trouble a couple of decades ago searching for a cart with v1.1.  Can't tell the version just by looking at the cartridge shell.  My local game retailer looked at me funny as I kept exchanging my copy and explaining that it wasn't broken but it was.

I believe the version 1.1 for most snes games have an A stamped on the back next to the stamped two digit number. 

[SilverspoonGaming | 334]

Tecmo Bowl on NES copies can have either Albert Bentley or Eric Dickerson as the starting RB on the Colts.

One version of Tecmo NBA on NES doesnt have Jordan.

[phart010 | 1,708]

2 hours ago, mbd39 said:

Revenge of Shinobi has changes in boss characters in the later versions for copyright reasons.

 

Oh yea I forgot about Shinobi. Aren’t there like 3 or more versions of that game?

[Webhead123 | 687]

3 hours ago, phart010 said:

Oh yea I forgot about Shinobi. Aren’t there like 3 or more versions of that game?

I believe there are as many as 5-6 versions of the rom. Some of them have the more significant changes to the enemy and boss sprites but other versions have only very minor variations. My personal favorite to play is of course the 1.00, since it has all the character references intact.

[fcgamer | 4,753]

Initially when I read this thread, I was going to mention the Castlevanias like @Tanooki did.

Here's a fun one. Chinese Kung Fu by Sachen. The game originally had a flying side kick in it, but this was removed before the game was released. The removal made the game terrible to play, too difficult. Then when Spica released it in Australia, the kick was reimplemented, and also found reimplantation on the multicart versions, etc.

 

[CMR | 522]

Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade.  Two different games made by two different companies both based on the same property.  I still don't know how this happened.  The only thing they have in common is both are kind of bad.