There was a contest, where anyone who completed level 5 of Ooze had to take a photo of this screen, If they did, the first player to do it would earn $104,000. The problem was that the game originally locked up on level 2 or 3 making it imposible to win. The code is the same on every single revision of the ROM/cartridge
If instead of making 51 other games they had focused a little more on Ooze a decent little game could have come out with a splendid soundtrack and that would have been remembered above all for that as well as a little game without infamy and without praise
A TAS of the entirety of Action 52? I actually started doing that a while ago, but gave up on it because it was so dreadfully boring. Also, apparently I had the wrong version of the game, as mine crashed at the end of Level 2 of OOZE, but I just thought that was how it was. I might pick up the right version of the game at some point and do a new TAS, because I’m not even sure if I have the file for the old one (plus the other issues) Hell, I remember that Levels 3-5 (I think) were literally pink screens, but after realizing that the game was still running, I blindly played through them to get to level 6, which was an impossible level. If you ever decide to finish yours, I’d love to see it, but be prepared for endless levels of the same thing over and over again.
Nobody won the cash prize. At the time, emulators & save states weren’t a thing and it quickly became apparent that the game in it’s original form was unbeatable. Action 52 for the NES had two versions: cartridge Revision A & cartridge Revision B. Revision A was the original release and the version where Ooze wouldn’t play (along with two other titles). In Revision B this was corrected but by that time Active had already pulled the contest. Some ROMs floating around are Rev A and some are Rev B; you can tell by whether or not the game “Alfredo” runs; if it does you have Rev B.
Arielol The Rev B did see the contest win screen removed but there’s always been question as to whether it was because Active had no money. Remember, even after the NES version of A52 failed to “blow out” of stored Active still went on to pay Far Sight Technologies to develop and distribute A52 for the Sega as well as maintain a presence at CES up through 1994. Growing up in Central FL local video game stores in the late 90’s were loaded with Sega A52 carts as the publishers sold them off for pennies on the dollar to try and recoup anything they could. By 1994 it was clear that whatever money Vince Perri had raised in the early days was either gone or he pocketed the rest; finally realizing the title had no hope of selling. I, personally, think the contest was pulled moreso because A52 failed to get NES licensing and that de-legitimization combined with the early sales flops meant that there’d be no return on actually going through with the contest so Perri pulled it; even though Active still had money at the time. There’s evidence of early on changes to the game; there are very rare, select carts that exist without capacitors in them, evidence that Active had to change their strategy very early on and very quickly. These rare non-capacitor carts will not play on US NES consoles (unmodified) and as such mostly ended up lost overseas.
How do you beat levels in this game? It seems arbitrary, you’re just walking and jumping and it says “Level 3 complete” or something. There’s no goal to speak of.
this makes me think that James deliberately got the bad version just to spite the company. not complaining since this game is ass but still. Now all you have to do is email Active enterprises for your 1 million dollars and...oh wait, they no longer exist
