Fun House - NES

[nate80s]

A couple of sites say that there are two different versions of Fun House for the NES.  Is there any proof?  Is the packaging the same?  It'd be nice to know becuase if there are two versions, I'd like to get the one I don't have.

Nate

[wheelloon]

1 FH game released, same packaging for all.

You probably saw a pre-release development box for the game, as box designs usually undergo changes a couple of times before released with the game. The same happened with the NES versions of Hollywood Squares and Double Dare. In the back of some NES booklets and in some magazines, you saw two different packages for the game, while, in the end, it was just the same game being released...

[Matt Ottinger]

The issue wasn't one of box art but rather game content.  I don't know where I got my original information, but I've been under the impression (and if wrong, I've been misleading people on my website) that there was the game with the player rollerblading through rooms and then a different one patterned after the computer game which was more like the TV show.  If that's wrong, I need to make a correction.

[PYLW]

Are they even allowed to do that? The only NES game I can think of that had the same title but different little changes in later editions (And this might even be a bit of a stretch...), was Maniac Mansion, with the exploding hamster.

[vtown7]

What Matt says is correct: I have both the NES game and the PC game.  The Nintendo version is indeed something that is a far departure from the show - in essence it plays more like a search and retrieve while beating the clock-type game, whereas the PC and the C64 version which it was packaged with plays three stunts, three questions, and then goes through the "Fun House maze"

Ryan.

[CarbonCpy]

[quote name=\'vtown7\' post=\'152336\' date=\'May 15 2007, 04:49 PM\']
What Matt says is correct: I have both the NES game and the PC game.  The Nintendo version is indeed something that is a far departure from the show - in essence it plays more like a search and retrieve while beating the clock-type game, whereas the PC and the C64 version which it was packaged with plays three stunts, three questions, and then goes through the "Fun House maze"

Ryan.
[/quote]

And, incidentally, the NES game was rebranded for the original game boy as "Out of Gas."

[JasonA1]

The question was regarding there being two different versions for the Nintendo, which by all indications is false.

-Jason

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'JasonA1\' post=\'152338\' date=\'May 15 2007, 05:23 PM\']
The question was regarding there being two different versions for the Nintendo, which by all indications is false.
[/quote]
Exactly.  There is no question about the computer game being substantively different (and better) than the NES.  The question was whether that superior computer version made its way to the NES at some point.  The answer appears to be 'no'.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'CarbonCpy\' post=\'152337\' date=\'May 15 2007, 05:09 PM\']And, incidentally, the NES game was rebranded for the original game boy as "Out of Gas."[/quote]
It wouldn't be the first time that a game show home game was 'rebranded' to remove the game show references, but my minimal research says that 'Out of Gas' was a space game.  Can anybody shed some light on this one?

[JasonA1]

A quick search of video game review sites turns up that instead of a rollerblader, a spaceship was used, with the concept that a guy picking up his date only has 30 seconds of gas left and must find fuel in the levels. But it's the same game - you string together collected time to continue through level...after level...after level of basically the same thing ad infinitum.

-Jason

[CarbonCpy]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'152340\' date=\'May 15 2007, 05:54 PM\']
[quote name=\'CarbonCpy\' post=\'152337\' date=\'May 15 2007, 05:09 PM\']And, incidentally, the NES game was rebranded for the original game boy as "Out of Gas."[/quote]
It wouldn't be the first time that a game show home game was 'rebranded' to remove the game show references, but my minimal research says that 'Out of Gas' was a space game.  Can anybody shed some light on this one?
[/quote]

Can do:

http://www.mobygames.com/game/out-of-gas/
http://www.mobygames.com/game/out-of-gas/screenshots

Fourth picture looks almost exactly like a level from Fun House.  Only replace "firing the thrusters" with "running" and replace "flags" with "gas tiles."

[ilb4ever2000]

Fun House and Out of Gas were done by the same company, Realtime Associates.

[CarbonCpy]

Posting to provide confirmation: "Lost Levels: The Hidden Gallery of NES Secrets"  Frank Cifaldi talks a little about some of the box art for a couple of unreleased games -- primarily from a retail display system that would print up cards, even for games that hadn't been released.

Relevant portion quoted:

Here is Hi Tech Expression's Fun House. "But wait," no one in particular said, "Fun House was totally released in stores, I even rented it back then!"

Well yes, Hi Tech Expressions did release a Fun House game, loosely based on the Nickelodeon game show, but it was not this Fun House. This was the original, as developed by a company called Mind's Eye Technology. We don't know much about Mind's Eye, other than the fact that it developed Muppet Adventure: Chaos at the Carnival, a game I have no kind words for. It would appear that Hi Tech cancelled this one for quality reasons, which must have been quite an accomplishment if the rest of its catalogue is anything to go by.

(Incidentally, Frank's site is an awesome site for stuff like this -- he did play a part in finding the "lost" Penn & Teller game)

[JasonA1]

Interesting! Looks like this version was even FURTHER away from the TV show compared to what we got. But it puts the whole claim to rest, finally.

-Jason

[wheelloon]

[quote name=\'CarbonCpy\' post=\'251985\' date=\'Dec 2 2010, 10:16 AM\']Posting to provide confirmation: "Lost Levels: The Hidden Gallery of NES Secrets"  

Here is Hi Tech Expression's Fun House. "But wait," no one in particular said, "Fun House was totally released in stores, I even rented it back then!"

Well yes, Hi Tech Expressions did release a Fun House game, loosely based on the Nickelodeon game show, but it was not this Fun House. This was the original, as developed by a company called Mind's Eye Technology. We don't know much about Mind's Eye, other than the fact that it developed Muppet Adventure: Chaos at the Carnival, a game I have no kind words for. It would appear that Hi Tech cancelled this one for quality reasons, which must have been quite an accomplishment if the rest of its catalogue is anything to go by.

[/quote]

Very interesting! I wonder if he has any unpublicized info about the NES Super Password and all the ins and outs of that debacle that eventually got it canned. Even though all indications point to be it being a port from the computer game, there's still a little tiny portion of me that hopes one day a ROM of it will appear somewhere to play or download...