Help sort out the No-Intro Dat

[hornpipe2]

Hello fellow collectors -

I posted this on the DigitPress.com forums, and they redirected me here.

I'm on a mini-quest to repair No-Intro.org's GCE Vectrex datfile. For those who don't know, No-Intro catalogs ROM dumps of "official" releases by CRC and MD5 sum. This might be a long post, so please stick with me : )

Let's start by looking at their list of titles:

1. 3D Crazy Coaster (USA)
   
2. 3D Mine Storm (USA)
   
3. 3D Narrow Escape (USA)
   
4. [BIOS] GCE Vectrex (World)
   
5. AnimAction - Advanced Animation (USA)
   
6. Armor..Attack (World)
   
7. Art Master (USA)
   
8. Bedlam (USA, Europe)
   
9. Berzerk (World)
   
10. Berzerk Debugged (USA)
    
11. Blitz! - Action Football (USA, Europe) (0F11CE0C)
    
12. Blitz! - Action Football (USA, Europe) (881B27C5)
    
13. Clean Sweep (World)
    
14. Cosmic Chasm (World)
    
15. Dark Tower (USA) (Proto)
    
16. Engine Analyzer (USA) (Proto)
    
17. Fortress of Narzod (USA, Europe)
    
18. Heads-Up - Action Soccer (USA)
    
19. HyperChase - Auto Race (World)
    
20. Mail Plane (USA) (Proto)
    
21. Melody Master - Music Composition and Entertainment (USA)
    
22. Mine Storm (World)
    
23. Mine Storm II (USA) (Rev 2)
    
24. Pitcher's Duel (USA) (Proto)
    
25. Polar Rescue (USA)
    
26. Polar Rescue (USA) (Beta)
    
27. Pole Position (USA) (A00ED3D6)
    
28. Pole Position (USA) (C10F37D8)
    
29. RA+A Spectrum I+ Stress Tester (USA) (Proto)
    
30. Rip Off (World)
    
31. Scramble (USA, Europe)
    
32. Sledge 3D (USA) (Sample)
    
33. Solar Quest (World)
    
34. Space Wars (World)
    
35. Spike (USA, Europe)
    
36. Spin ball (USA)
    
37. Star Castle (USA)
    
38. Star Ship (Europe)
    
39. Star Trek - The Motion Picture (USA)
    
40. Star Trek Debugged (USA)
    
41. StarHawk (World)
    
42. Test Cartridge (USA) (Rev 4) (Proto)
    
43. Tour De France (USA) (Proto)
    
44. WebWarp (Europe)
    
45. WebWars (USA)

Now for my suggested improvements. I am no Vectrex expert, so any and all of these are up for debate.

• An updated prototype of Mail Plane has been discovered and released, but their dat still refers to the older non-functional one.
• Mr. Boston Clean Sweep is not listed, though a real dump of this game is out there.
• Berzerk Debugged and Star Trek Debugged are NOT official releases, but hacks released later by CGC. Is that correct?
• BIOS / Mine Storm / Mine Storm II / (rev 2) / etc. madness. How many MineStorm releases are there ON CART? How many versions of the Vectrex BIOS are there BUILT-IN?
  
• 3D Pole Position. Does anyone know if any prototypes of this game exist and have been dumped?
  
• Blitz! Action Football has two entries depending on CRC: (0F11CE0C) and (881B27C5). What is the difference between these? Are both official, real dumps?
  
• Pole Position also has two entries depending on CRC: (A00ED3D6) and (C10F37D8). What is the difference between these? Are both official, real dumps?
  
• Polar Rescue has a (Beta) available too, is there more information available about that one?
  
• Several games need to be dumped to confirm / deny that they are 1:1 matches with the US release. Does anyone have / can anyone dump any of these:
  Harmagedon (Japan) - aka Star Trek
  Scramble Wars (Japan) - aka Scramble
  Soccer Football (Europe) (Rev Hong-Kong) - aka Heads-Up Action Soccer
  Soccer Football (Europe) (Rev Ireland)
  Flipper Pinball (Europe) (Rev Hong-Kong) - aka Spinball
  Flipper Pinball (Europe) (Rev Ireland)

[VectorX]

I can only get a few out of the way:

Jan 31, 2014 15:47:32 GMT -5 hornpipe2 said:

Mine Storm / Mine Storm II / (rev 2) / etc. madness. How many MineStorm releases are there ON CART?

I think only two, one being Mine Storm II, the rare replacement cart that very few copies are known to exist from those who wrote to GCE and requested it from back in the day, and Mine Storm III, where supposedly only one cart was ever made of that.

Jan 31, 2014 15:47:32 GMT -5 hornpipe2 said:

How many versions of the Vectrex BIOS are there BUILT-IN?

At least three: the original that crashes at level 13, the later one that goes up to level 89, and the one that I assume just lasts forever that is bug fixed and could be the same as the Mine Storm II cart but I'm not 100% sure.

Jan 31, 2014 15:47:32 GMT -5 hornpipe2 said:

[/li][li]3D Pole Position. Does anyone know if any prototypes of this game exist and have been dumped?
[/quote]

I don't think anyone knows of a prototype that exists and it hasn't been dumped. There's a ROM with the title screen or something that comes on a multicart that claims it's 3D Pole Position but it's just the regular Pole Position and is fake.

Jan 31, 2014 15:47:32 GMT -5 hornpipe2 said:

[/li][li]Polar Rescue has a (Beta) available too, is there more information available about that one?
[/quote]

I think one is easier than the other (i. e. the official game released).

Good luck, it sounds like quite the ambitious project!