FOUND! ECW Hardcore Revolution & WWF Prototypes | ft. John E. Bravo & Tommy Dreamer

[@Larry]

The glitch was in the first printing of the US version of No Mercy, the second printing and European versions had the bug fixed. Though the WWF were super sneaky and demanded that blood be removed from the patched version, so it's not as good as the original in that respect.

[@benjaminvlz]

The U.S. bugfixed copies retain the blood. My guess is the blood was left out European bugfixed version, due to a glitch.

[@drunkensailor112]

The European version had no blood because of German video game laws at that time

[@FatherAxeKeeper]

i got the first pressing of no mercy ( i know because I pre ordered it) and i never had that glitch. I was located in the US at the time.

[@jakecole8343]

A wild Guru Larry appeared!

[@Larry]

That was fun to watch, and yay, Tommy Dreamer!! :D I must admit, I didn't enjoy having all the Mortal Kombat-esque button commands for the Acclaim wrestling games, I feel that was the wrong direction for them, but saying that, still infinitely better than their button bashing nonsense from the 16 bit games.

[@PuroresuFan]

There's probably an alternate universe where New Jack makes a cameo in a GTA game lmaoooooo

[@mangaas]

I loved the N64 wrestling games, I owned a few of them, from WCW v NWO, world tour and WCW NWO: revenge, and Wrestlemania 2000. I think it was all based off AKI's Corporations wrestling system. The character creation was amazing (for the time).

[@KetwunsGamingPad]

It was also originally started with their Japanese only Virtual Pro Wrestling game series before the licensing started

[@loboneiner1034]

WCW vs The World was Virtual Pro Wrestling, World Tour was Virtual Pro Wrestling 64 and Wrestlemania 2000 was Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 developed simultaneously

[@DanielMussen-ex8si]

Elbow Pads|Knee Pads|Taped Wrists|MMA Style Gloves Past Present Future

[@MrDmoney156]

crazy how Rockstar Games was gonna dab with the wrestling genre at one point... I think it would've played out like The Warriors but with ECW wrestlers since in that game you can pick up all kinds of melee weapons and do body slam moves, special rage moves, and the way they move and climb on fences is everything like a wrestling game mechincally plays.

[@michealhunt6607]

There was a revision that fixed the save data bug. I think it mostly occurred in season mode Still, awesome to see a proto build of No Mercy even if its not massively different. IIRC there was a build from May (E3 2000 maybe) that had vastly different menus

[@MonoverSusstereo]

Thanks John and Tony

[@kwizzeh]

The man Dreamer is talking about, Kevin Gill, was really keen on making a wrestling game and ended up being pitching one that ended up being released as Backyard Wrestling: Don't Try This at Home in 2003, developed by Paradox Development and published by Eidos. If Rockstar was at the helm it would have been a better game but knowing financial situation of ECW at the time, would it have had the time to recoup the royalties to save the company? I have no idea. Huge "what if" moment.

[@theretroinggamer1630]

It bothers me that this channel isnt at 100k followers yet. Ive been watching for a long time. Hit the button people!

[@yesticles]

Rob Van Dam is also from MI, Battle Creek to be precise. I always love seeing Michigan stuff crop up in your videos, I had a big wave of nostalgia the first time I saw your Detroit Vipers jersey years ago. Used to go to their games at the Palace as a kid. Keep up the good work and keep the prototype content flowing!

[@ThEJaviViP]

Very cool video. Special time. I remember purchasing Hardcore Revolution day one on n64. I'd just like to ask the developers why they did not allow us to select from all the theme songs in create a player. Only a small list unlike Attitude. Eats at me to this day.

[@bigtimejones831]

This is still my all time favorite wrestling game. It's nice to see the pre-alpha in all it's glory.

[@RenegadeX28]

I really missed the full entrances in No Mercy, but I remember reading they were cut to save on cart space since modes like the ladder match were added. I never came across the game breaking bug that deleted the save data, but I still remember the game had crazy slowdown in 4 player ladder matches. The trick was to turn off the music and the speed slowdown would be fixed.

[@Sterling20073]

the WWF microphone is left in there, can be seen in hardcore matches

[@FatherAxeKeeper]

my favorite wrestling games on the N64 were Virtual Pro Wrestling 64, Virtual Pro Wrestling 2, WCW/nWo Revenge, and No Mercy.

[@p__wing]

So exciting to see this channel continue to blow up over the last 6-9 months. Great niche as you can't find the things you're able to dig up anywhere else really.

[@edmaster93]

fantastic video and fantastic interview, what a great gift to us.

[@kay_glo]

That was very entertaining thanks! And thanks to John E. Bravo!

[@MN_-]

tommy dreamer on h4g holy shit

[@RomanOnARiver]

I played a lot of Attitude back in the day. This game looks and plays very similar for obvious reasons, but I notice a lot of new animations that weren't in Attitude. The Hardys did the motion capture for Attitude, I wonder who did it for Hardcore Revolution. A lot of those jobbers were supposed to be in Attitude but they left them out but put their voices and attires and music in the create section, I don't know how many of them made it to this game or this alpha. The No Mercy glitch was caused by a faulty part (from Nintendo) and they had a program to send in faulty copies and they would replace them with working ones.

[@kwizzeh]

Chris Chetti and Spike Dudley did the mocap work for Anarchy Rulz, they might have done HR too.

[@rileykazama3145]

Impact had a game back in 2008 midway made it I think

[@loboneiner1034]

TNA Impact 2 was in the works but cancelled when Midway went under

[@edmaster93]

I'll loved to see Jhonny bravo plays or review TNA fame handing Tony ace haha thats gonna be really fun.

[@AMDRADEONRUBY]

Really interesting thanks Tony 👍

[@AIRWHITEY]

I had that glitch too. And at one point I looked it up. They recalled that initial release and replaced it with cartridges that wouldn't crash. But unlucky me, I got a V1 cart.

[@theofficialromhackdatabase731]

Thank you for unearthing these wonderful finds! Can this wrestling gold be obtained by any chance?

[@MBM1117727]

Lol Dawn Marie had Mankind's voice.

[@AltimaNEO]

I missed having the h4g crew on camera!

[@benjaminvlz]

I'm a massive pro wrestling fan, so I got the wrestling related references and lingo. I was primarily a WWF/WWE fan when I was growing up, but I also watched ECW and WCW back in the day. I own both ECW Hardcore Revolution and WWF No Mercy and a slew of other pro wrestling video games. I never liked the Mortal Kombat-style button commands that were used in the WWF and ECW games from Acclaim. I always found it difficult to pull off grapple moves. I could never remember any of the button combinations, so I would have to check the moves list to see what moves I could perform and what combination of buttons I had to press. On top of that, the buttons have to be pressed in rapid succession in order for the move to be performed, which I always had a difficult time with. WWF No Mercy and the other pro wrestling games developed by AKI for the N64 had much simpler, more intuitive controls. You tap the A button for a weak grapple or hold it down for a strong grapple and then up, down, left or right on the D-pad to to perform a different move. It's very easy to pick up if you've never played those games before. Anyway, it was really cool to see these earlier builds. There didn't seem like there was much to see with the WWF No Mercy beta build, other than a few cosmetic differences with the wrestler entrances, but the ECW Hardcore Revolution pre-alpha build has a lot of interesting stuff. It was always said in reviews that ECW Hardcore Revolution was simply WWF Attitude with different wrestlers, arenas, logos, music, menu design, intro video etc. and now we can see for ourselves that the game's code was literally lifted from WWF Attitude. It's hilarious to see how much material from WWF Attitude was left in this pre-alpha build. Options screens, arenas, logos, character models, voiceovers etc. I love how the ring just has a random ECW logo on it while the arena itself is just the one from WWF Attitude, logos and all. lol And for those watching this video who may not follow pro wrestling, the character model and voice @ 10:46 in the video when Rhino was selected is that of Sable, one of the WWF (now WWE) stars at the time who is a playable wrestler in WWF Attitude. One other thing I noticed that wasn't mentioned in the video, the background music for the menus hadn't been changed yet, so it's using WWF Attitude's menu music. It makes me wonder if the wrestlers' theme songs were changed at this point. @ 7:09, in the "personality" options of the "Create Wrestler" mode, it lists Bill Alfonso (ECW) as the selected theme song. I wonder if it plays Bill Alfonso's theme song or if it plays one of the WWF stars' theme songs when you preview it. By the way, initial copies of WWF No Mercy did indeed have a bug that would cause save data to be deleted and the game to reset to factory settings. I can't tell you how many times I tried unlocking all the hidden characters, creating wrestlers and custom attires for the in-game wrestlers, only to have my save data deleted. THQ was aware of this and created a replacement program where owners could send in their faulty copies of the game, in exchange for a fixed copy. Only, I didn't know about it at the time, so I stayed my with bugged copy. The bugfixed copies are marked with a "-1" the end of the product code and "08A" etched on the back label. The bugfixed copies are uncommon in the wild, due to them not being sold in stores and not a lot of people knowing about the replacement program, so when they do show up for sale online, they can command high prices.

[@jugghead82]

Not gonna lie I enjoyed the ECW games I believe Legends of Wrestling would have been the 3rd ECW GAME if WWF hadn't brought them out the with WCW an what would have been WCW MAYHEM 2 but became Def Jam Vendetta

[@loboneiner1034]

Correct

[@sgtpieman]

Somehow I was hoping ECW was gonna be Escape (from) Castle Wolfenstein even though I knew it wouldn't.

[@hard4games]

That'd be a really fun one to discover!

[@MonoverSusstereo]

Let's get Dreamer!

[@vehtty]

I'm the only person here that actually enjoys ECW games. Sue me.

[@kwizzeh]

Still can't believe I bought ECW: Anarchy Rulz lmao

[@ECW5320]

Didn't the No Mercy beta have longer entrances?

[@RetroGamerBB]

ECW! The Aki games were top tier

[@BenHughes81]

I remember reading an interview with the Hardy Boyz talking about WWF Attitude and them doing motion capture work for it. I'm curious as to how much of that got reused in the ECW game.

[@AfterBurnerTeirusu]

Pretty sure No Mercy was recalled and fixed.

[@michealhunt6607]

Yeah, the copy i used to rent suffered from that bug but there's a definite 'fixed' version around

[@loboneiner1034]

Now that TNA is TNA again, I'd love for a dev to pickup the license and make a new game

[@EliteEasyE]

I got No Mercy for Christmas the year it came out, I got the memory glitch, so I called up the number on the back of the box and they sent me a glitch-free one in exchange for my current copy with a letter on official THQ letterhead. Haven't had issues with it so far.

[@Executioner30]

If you ever want to sell let me know. I need a copy

[@EliteEasyE]

@@Executioner30 Never ever

[@PedroSilvahf]

I was really bothered on how the ecw games were just wwf attitude with a different license. The blood part isn't new, attitude had it and if you think again the pre alpha version you have here probably is, at the bare minimum, the attitude game released before.

[@raddog1478]

it really is the same game :o

[@TVindustries5000]

Akklaim was lazy as hell. They couldve refined their game engine but they just couldnt be bothered

[@raddog1478]

@@TVindustries5000 then they made some shitty xtreme sports games so bad and cheezy games. but bmxxx sealed their coffin.

[@ari-dynamic]

The Acclaim games have not aged well imo, haha. They were my first "impulse" buys, the ones you buy because of the brand and then start to question the purchase later. Attitude kinda/sorta got it right when it came out but they are games I don't think I could ever go back to again and what THQ/AKI did after that just felt like the best way to go, whether it was Smackdown or No Mercy. A Rockstar/ECW game probably would've been pretty cool, I can actually kinda see that being a real thing at the time had it come out.

[@randyvoid155]

i loved the ecw games.

[@natedoggcata]

Raises hand. My saves were erased multiple times in No Mercy plus the slowdown made me stop playing it. This is probably why I dont have fond memories of this game like others do.

[@RougeOrange]

This is awesome.

[@geneares5063]

Certified Dope!

[@th3rd3arplan3tradio]

I knew right off the back it was a ripoff of wwf attitude game engine. ECW & WWF are two legendary brands. It was just odd they created it that way.

[@collinsd70]

what are the straps on tony's hands?

[@Caolan114]

Wooo! Wrestling!

[@marleensrain]

TOMMY !

[@dotcomGone]

Nice thumb

[@crimester]

gerald brisco

[@zepherscotty]

Rockstar would have been cooler & definitely better, but I highly doubt they could have made it far enough to release the game. Also, I never had the create a player glitch in my no mercy game. Sounds like a weird glitch.

[@CrowleyBlack2]

WWF games!

[@uprightmotivation39]

For years I always wanted to know each individual wrestlers attributes & style from both hardcore revolution & wwf attitude still no success

[@Weaabuu]

I went to a small town house show in my state of MI and JohnEBravo was heeling it up no idea he was so into classic wrestling games. EDIT: WOW JOHNE SAID THE NAME OF MY TOWN IN THIS VIDEO

[@gustafcustoms3121]

The finished products sucked, who cares about the prototypes

[@Aitcheoz]

Alpha or retail? I'll take both cuz I'm hardcore!

[@somedude2342]

List teh differences for no mercy beta

[@collinsd70]

what are the straps on tony's hands?

[@hard4games]

TFCC / Wrist injury. Shredded the cartilage in my right wrist. Injured the left as well, but not as bad. The straps are KT tape. provide a bit of an anti-inflammatory effect, a tiny bit of support, and are also a signal for others to leave my hands alone. 😂

[@sppspharmdude]

@@hard4games I was hoping you were getting into the wrestling spirit with the tape. Hope you heal up man, that kt tape loves my leg hair.

[@sppspharmdude]

I think thq ended up fixing that glitch

[@collinsd70]

@@hard4games sorry to hear that, best wishes for a quick recovery