This Cartridge Contains 52 Games, But There’s a Catch

[@AirZonkWorldChamp]

The scary thing is the game is still going for 199 on the used market, maybe even higher. Great vid!

[@ThriftLife]

thats pretty crazy. who knew such halfhearted work would become so valuable

[@adultmoshifan87]

MN12BIRD got his copy for just $4 Canadian!

[@SparkyMK3]

Nice overview! I think the cowboy space game is a reference to an iconic scene from Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove. Also, that brochure is funny because that TV ad for the game sure as hell ain't Disney quality animation!

[@peterweston6588]

52 games in three months with four developers is one game per developer per week. I'm thinking that most of the games are just reskins with some tweaks.

[@crookedmouth1971]

Another great video. I had no idea this cartridge existed! Looks like with good reason.

[@pojr]

Thank you. Yeah it's an interesting part of history, but the game is terrible

[@b3n4dryl]

Ty for making videos, I'm a huge action 52 fan

[@pojr]

I peaked at your videos. Nice Cheetahmen runs. Impressive that you can do that (I couldn't get past level 3).

[@javaly78]

I enjoy the content of this channel and I hope it continues to grow. Have you ever thought about a video about how arcade ports were created? I’ve always been curious about how old arcade ports were put together. Were assets shared and imported to lower powered consoles, or recreated from scratch. I think I remember reading somewhere that certain home port developers basically took Polaroids of screens and audio samples from the arcade cabinets to build from scratch. It’s an interesting topic I’ve always been curious about.

[@pojr]

If people are down for it, I wouldn't mind making a video like this. Some ports have been done different ways. There are ports out there where the original code was used, and then there's ports where they made the game a second time from scratch.

[@javaly78]

@@pojr would be great to see. To think, with the homebrew demos made over the years (Genesis/Megadrive) it was the matter of time and memory resources that limited accurate arcade ports. 8 bit ports understandably had to be scaled back graphically.

[@jimmyclaw9974]

These games might be garbage, but I kind of dig the weird art style. Did these guys ever make any games that they had more than a couple days to work on?

[@themidcentrist]

There was an interview with one of the programmers somewhere (sadly I cant' remember where) and the impression I got was this is the only game they worked on. They were not NES programmers to start out with and were sent to a training class to learn how to code for the system just so they could make this one game.

[@Riz2336]

199 dude... Man I sure feel bad for the people who got suckered into that back in the day

[@FeralInferno]

What was your favorite game from Action 52?

[@beeto45]

wasnt there a villan who could flyor junmp in the air in one piece? is this where they got the idea from?

[@JoeBee9]

They would have been better off just making a Cheetah Man game rather than trying to churn out 52 unique titles. It takes a lot of effort to create a single polished title; let alone dozens.

[@Lollero200q]

Do you think they could make Cheetahmen better in 3 months

[@JoeBee9]

@@Lollero200q It would not be a masterpiece for sure but still better quality than 52 extremely rushed micro games.

[@themidcentrist]

Okay, did it actually sell for $199 at retail or was that just a highly inflated MSRP? I'm thinking in the real world it must have been more like $20-$30

[@pojr]

It actually was $199 MSRP when it came out in 1991. Don't know how much that is today.

[@elgatofelix8917]

Last time I was this early, it was still "only two weeks to flatten muh curve"

[@zabustifu]

Interesting video, thanks. To nitpick, at 6:00, I was surprised you brought up JPEG, a lossy image format which sounds very unfitting when talking about a NES game. That's not how NES graphics work or even look.

[@pojr]

Didn't realize that, that's an interesting fun fact. I only said JPEG because it rolled off the tongue.

[@wadmodderschalton5763]

You forgot to mention that Active Enterprises held a contest where if a player beat level 5 of the game Ooze the player would've won $104,000 which sadly nobody was able to get the prize, as Ooze was impossible to beat as it would crash every time after level 2. In addition, there are actually 7 playable levels in Ooze as well as even an unused 8th level, rather than 5 levels. Oh and the music was stolen from sample tunes from Activision's The Music Studio for the Atari ST.

[@PKMNwww411_MkII]

Micro Mike is like the infamous turbo tunnel from Battletoads but ten times worse.

[@gaeshows1938]

Where’s cheetah man?

[@lordterra1377]

I always thought most of these are either hacks or early student projects. Which would explain the lack of polish. Also NES couldnt and didnt use Jpeg image files.

[@pojr]

Yeah my mistake on the Jpeg thing.

[@changerstranger6342]

Someone needs to remake these games individually, also these games would be ok if they were onnAtaria 2600

[@bartoman2]

I wonder if there's a SNES Action 52 hidden somewhere...

[@themidcentrist]

There actually was a sequel of sorts on the Genesis / Megadrive. It has a lot of puzzle game and is allegedly not great but much better than action 52

[@bartoman2]

@@themidcentrist yes, that's why I'm wandering if there's a SNES version never released

[@wadmodderschalton5763]

​@@bartoman2its possible that Active Enterprises couldn't bypass the lockout chip of the SNES, resulting in them cancelling plans for a SNES version.

[@claudiasolomon1123]

How'd they make 52 games in a 3 monrh deadline?? Easy to pull off when a large number of these games are shooters.

[@KeithPhillips]

I think if they could have just done only Cheetahmen for 3 months it would have probably been pretty good.

[@pojr]

I agree. Imagine if they put all their time into one game, rather than 52 games.

[@SkootaBoota]

Dude! You did an Action 52 video. I'm about to watch it now Will Cheetahmen 2 get a mention. You know if not, you totally gotta do a follow up?

[@elgatofelix8917]

It was made for 52 year old boomers who don't know any better. Hence the name

[@limabravo0001]

This channel is exploding!! All the other big retro game tech KZbinrs are getting nervous!!! Maybe collab with newsmakers tech and newsmakers games and bring Jacob out of his one year dead????? ☠✝📆

[@WXSTANG]

That is like one game every day and a half. lolol... smh

[@elgatofelix8917]

You're selling face diapers lmao 😂