The Video Game Project
A Closer Look At The Prototypes That Became Your Favourite Games!
Game Action Replay NES Prototype
The Game Action Replay, not to be confused with the Action Replay from Datel, is a NES accessory that allows you to save your game state at any point during a game and then recall that point in the future, even if that game doesn't natively support game saving!
The Game Action Replay (copyright 1991) was "manufactured" and distributed by STD Entertainment (yes.... you read that correctly... STD) in Northern America but never received a European release.
To save a game, the user had to press the Select and A button simultaneously and the screen would then flash, indicating that the save was successful. Pressing Select and B simultaneously allowed you to retrieve a saved game. However, the Game Action Replay is only capable of storing five game saves at any one time but these saves are of course also stored after the NES console has been switched off.
There's even a built in slow motion with the options of Normal, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4 and 1/5 but it really doesn't work very well.
STD Entertainment (USA), was merely a venture capital company with Chinese investors. This obviously explains why "Made in China" appears on the box. STD manufactured a wide range of accessories for both Sega and Nintendo systems during the 1990's and the Game Action Replay's copyright of 1991 meant it is one of their earliest products. The company went on to be quite successful and managed to grow from $250.000 to 4 million in sales in just 18 months.
This prototype holds information about the accessories actual origins and will feature in a future episode!
Proto - Front
