We have preserved yet another internal Nintendo employee video disc! Dated October 1st 2003, this disc was distributed to Nintendo Merchandising Inc representatives and shows what sort of damage to expect and look out for when working with GameCube kiosks and retail displays.
Screenshots
ROM Information
LBA[000016, 0x00010]: Volume Descriptor
Volume Descriptor Type: 1
Standard Identifier: CD001
Volume Descriptor Version: 1
System Identifier:
Volume Identifier: VOLUME_IDENTIFIER
Volume Space Size: 477104
Volume Set Size: 1
Volume Sequence Number: 1
Logical Block Size: 2048
Path Table Size: 26
Location of Occurrence of Path Table: 257
Location of Optional Occurrence of Path Table: 0
Length of Directory Record: 34
Extended Attribute Record Length: 0
Location of Extent: 259
Data Length: 2048
Recording Date and Time: 2003-10-01T15:22:02-08:00
Disc Serials -
3189J911-02223A02 (Additional Mould)
ZC2608-DVR-G17-T7 (Mastering Code)
Disc Images
Playthrough Video
Special Thanks
Massive thanks to Rezrospect for sending this in for release!
Developed by id Software and released for home computers in 1996, Quake was a fast-paced first-person shooter seen as the successor to the Doom series. The game became extremely popular for its addictive gameplay and a remarkable soundtrack by Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails. Thus far it has received dozens of ports on everything from the Sega Saturn to Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, and all of them are for hardware that natively supports 3D graphics. Well, except for one.
The year is 2002, and Randy Linden is hard at work porting Quake to a little handheld system called the Game Boy Advance. If that name rings a bell, Linden is a veteran game developer best known for the creation of the BLEEM emulator as well as the groundbreaking SNES port of Doom—the latter of which was considered impossible by id themselves. Given his prior experience, a GBA port of Quake seemed like a logical step in his career. This unreleased prototype we present to you today was recently discovered on a 256M Flash Card in Linden’s storage, and is certainly a far cry from anything else developed for the handheld.
(For those who are unaware: Developers often used third party unlicensed flash cartridges thanks to their ease of use and low price point. This was common with several developers, most notably WayForward).
Upon booting the game, we can instantly see how impressive this demo is for the hardware, with its capabilities effectively managing to outshine just about every 3D game out there that was released for the system. Not only that, it feels exactly like a Quake game. From the guns to the environments. You can even dive underwater! The game is fully 3D rendered, rather than the ray casting method most GBA games are known for. It has 3D enemies, animations, and point lighting effects (even on pre-rendered objects like weapons, which use a clever palette-changing trick to achieve the illusion of dynamic lighting). The camera and movement work is equally as incredible; it travels very cleanly, as opposed to being jittery.
As for the soundtrack, the demo makes use of public .S3M files. The sound mixer handles stereo music plus sound effects – basically any .S3M / .MOD music. The tracker songs featured in this demo are “Aryx” and “Cream of the Earth” composed by Karsten Koch and Romeo Knight respectively.
As usual in builds this early, the build we have here contains a handful of debug features! For example, holding the R button upon bootup will bring the player straight to the second map, and holding left on the D-pad will bring you to the third. These map swapping features can also be accessed once the player is dead. Enemies will also not attack the player unless you shoot first.
One thing to note, however, is that the game doesn’t use any assets from Quake. According to Randy, he hadn’t yet reached out to id about the possibility of using their assets. A version with these assets does infact exist however, as of writing, it has not yet been found. By the time the engine was in a working state, the public interest in the GBA began to slowly fade as newer hardware was developed. However, instead of letting all of that dedicated work go to waste, he decided to repurpose his engine into his own game: Cyboid.
Initially starting out titled as “Meat”, Cyboid was created to be a small and fast paced game that you could come back to over and over again. Initially it was very similar to Quake but during its development it slowly began to become its own thing! After playing this Quake prototype, we highly recommend giving it a try! The game can be downloaded from Randy’s website here.
Make sure to download it; it’s a lot of fun! Just like with the older Quake port Randy made, this game also evidently has a lot of passion and hard work put into it. It’s a more realized vision of the game it’s based on. It has split screen multiplayer support and runs exceptionally well on Android. It’s still being updated to this day!
As for the Game Boy Advance port of Quake, it’s an absolutely incredible feat, so we are proud to preserve this amazing port of a godlike game! Massive thanks to Randy for contacting us and being so willing to preserve his work, it’s not every day that we come across something like this!
ROM Information
----| File Data |--------------------------------------------------
System: Nintendo - Game Boy Advance
File: BOBBEE TEC_ABTE.gba
BitSize: 256 Mbit
Size (Bytes): 33554432
CRC32: 10E16DD4
MD5: B10AFB07357CB31AC7C77D431894EA61
SHA1: 91DA59C27F06BEB7D5EE1531300A0D1B7E4BFDE2
SHA256: 1CC084D228983744AC954DC0A40F847F442F124F8369438B17625270B00A7404
----| Header Data |------------------------------------------------
ROM Entry Point: EA00002E
Logo Code: Bad
Title: BOBBEE TEC
Serial: ABTE (USA)
Maker Code: 01 (Nintendo)
Fixed Value: 0x96 (Ok)
Unit Code: 0x00
Device Code: 0x80
Reserved 1: 0x00000000000000
Version: 0x00 (v1.0)
Complement: 0x79 (Ok)
Reserved 2: 0x0000
----| Backup Media |-----------------------------------------------
Chip: None
Size: N/A
We have preserved an internal Nintendo employee safety video disc from 2004! The video was intended for Nintendo Merchandising Inc representatives and features Wario, who mentions that he is his own supervisor at Nintendo, as he assists the narrator in walking new hires through the safety precautions one must take when working with Nintendo retail products within stores.
Screenshots
Disc Information
LBA[000016, 0x00010]: Volume Descriptor
Volume Descriptor Type: 1
Standard Identifier: CD001
Volume Descriptor Version: 1
System Identifier:
Volume Identifier: DVDVOLUME
Volume Space Size: 483408
Volume Set Size: 1
Volume Sequence Number: 1
Logical Block Size: 2048
Path Table Size: 42
Location of Occurrence of Path Table: 257
Location of Optional Occurrence of Path Table: 0
Length of Directory Record: 34
Extended Attribute Record Length: 0
Location of Extent: 261
Data Length: 2048
Recording Date and Time: 2004-10-21T12:26:39-07:00
Disc Serials -
TF416C04208GB (Mould SID)
GD000245 0106 (Mastering Code)
Disc Images
Playthrough Video
Special Thanks
Massive thanks to Rezrospect for sending this in for release!
Today we have released the Controller Test Program for the Famicom, which as the name implies, was used to test both controllers on units at Nintendo’s Uji Ogura factory in the mid 80s. The controller testing software can be seen in use within the image below, in what appears to be a Donkey Kong cartridge shell!
Interestingly, just like the Port Test Cartridge for the NES, the data contains early graphics from Popeye. This is due to the fact that a factory cartridge containing all of these tests exists, thus these graphics were left over. Unfortunately this cartridge has not yet been found, but video of it can be viewed within various pieces of news B-roll footage.
Screenshots
ROM Information
----| File Data |--------------------------------------------------
System: Nintendo - Nintendo Entertainment System
File: Controller Test Program (iNES).nes
BitSize: 192 Kbit
Size (Bytes): 24592
CRC32: C06E5652
MD5: 43CDA3F16CAB6013AC5CAFB3C14E4320
SHA1: ACFD73C38106771ACBB70B65CE6E8FDDBD6A82E6
SHA256: 2743F5B5FD7FE90004B62ACECB75BFDB02F18521098485B254A4F4C372120C63
----| iNES Header Data |-------------------------------------------
Num ROM Banks: 0x01 (16 KBytes)
Num VROM Banks: 0x01 (8 KBytes)
Mirroring: 0 (Horizontal)
Save RAM: 0 (No)
Trainer: 0 (No)
4-Screen VRAM: 0 (No)
VS-System Cartridge:0 (No)
ROM Mapper: 0 (No mapper)
Num RAM Banks: 0x00 (None or 8 KBytes)
Display: 0 (NTSC)
----| NES Header Data |--------------------------------------------
Title: ????????????????
PRG-ROM Checksum: 0xFFFF (Bad; 0x3660)
CHR-VROM Checksum: 0xFFFF (Bad; 0xAFEB)
PRG Size: 0x15 (33554432 KBytes)
CHR Size: 0x15 (16777216 KBytes)
Mirroring: 0x15 (Horizontal)
Board Type: 0x15
Unknown 1: 0xFFFFFFFF
Maker Code: 0xFF (Unknown)
Unknown 2: 0xFF
Vectors: 0x45F100F0F2F2
----| Headerless Data |--------------------------------------------
Size (Bytes): 24576
CRC32: 4BF2C848
MD5: 3DA6F6B278670B7E3A0698B95C2A23C3
SHA1: 07C3D5A33BCB87AC74392908CFE462768B510241
SHA256: 6E7DF08404A22EF7B422C082DE9C28D7D9B226B3CD19E9AA56D9EF9BB9CDF556
Today we’ve preserved the Gateway 64 host software! For those who don’t know, the Gateway 64 was the system powering the Lodgenet Nintendo 64 service for hotel guests. This software enabled developers to test game builds on the Gateway 64 debugger unit and also could convert them to be compatible with units for hotel use. Each build generated is encrypted and converted to little-endian format, the type of encryption format is currently unknown.
To see what compliance standards devs had to follow to submit their games to the Gateway 64, check out these requirements from Nintendo of America here.
Please note that the software will not run without a Gateway Host adapter. To get around this, a dll was created by Windoze999 to simulate it and allow it to boot.
Special Thanks
Massive thanks to BehindTheCode for helping to coordinate this release!
We’ve preserved Knight Rider by Pack-In-Video for the FamicomBox! It contains minor differences regarding headers and padding. Functionally, it is the same as the retail release. Thanks to Fiskbit for investigating the ROM.
Differences
The FamicomBox release contains a Nintendo header which is added in the PRG at address 0x1FFE0. This header allows the FamicomBox to recognize the game.
64kb of 0xFF’s prepended on the ROM.
Screenshots
ROM Information
----| File Data |--------------------------------------------------
System: Nintendo - Nintendo Entertainment System
File: Knight_Rider_FamicomBox.nes
BitSize: 2 Mbit
Size (Bytes): 262160
CRC32: E6D9C9CA
MD5: CAF923EB69DD74B2986E9320C45AE4B6
SHA1: E07190E65D59308A453FBD7F5C46C4F8EE1C6776
SHA256: 5B76C6A0B02F01798288CF5046925724CB1C25A8AEDC6068D199A03162D93239
----| iNES Header Data |-------------------------------------------
Num ROM Banks: 0x08 (128 KBytes)
Num VROM Banks: 0x10 (128 KBytes)
Mirroring: 0 (Horizontal)
Save RAM: 0 (No)
Trainer: 0 (No)
4-Screen VRAM: 0 (No)
VS-System Cartridge:0 (No)
ROM Mapper: 1 (Nintendo MMC1)
Num RAM Banks: 0x00 (None or 8 KBytes)
Display: 0 (NTSC)
----| NES Header Data |--------------------------------------------
Title: KNIGHT RIDER
PRG-ROM Checksum: 0x977F (Bad; 0x11D8)
CHR-VROM Checksum: 0xD455 (Ok)
PRG Size: 0x3 (128 KBytes)
CHR Size: 0x3 (64 KBytes)
Mirroring: 0x0 (Horizontal)
Board Type: 0x4
Unknown 1: 0x010F99F7
Maker Code: 0x99 (Victor Interactive Software)
Unknown 2: 0xF7
Vectors: 0x48D3ECC6FEFE
----| Headerless Data |--------------------------------------------
Size (Bytes): 262144
CRC32: 1A40024C
MD5: 436E4FBE52997096AB9A4014B9257030
SHA1: A80C4B002C557563E689B012DE59A64F42497E53
SHA256: 9D18551F85BBC7E0DFEC978A291A2F965A05CC1C402B651D7C70DD540A0315A4
We’ve preserved Fighting Golf by SNK for the FamicomBox! It contains minor differences regarding headers. Functionally, it is the same as the retail release. Thanks to Fiskbit for investigating the ROM.
Differences
The FamicomBox release contains a Nintendo header which is added in the PRG at address 0x1FFE0. This header allows the FamicomBox to recognize the game.
Screenshots
ROM Information
----| File Data |--------------------------------------------------
System: Nintendo - Nintendo Entertainment System
File: Fighting_Golf_FamicomBox.nes
BitSize: 2 Mbit
Size (Bytes): 262160
CRC32: 636AC31D
MD5: B8938A980D5CC846DE0D8720FB849E8E
SHA1: 8B2DBAEC12E4DD680EB6E02B33D9409613270A78
SHA256: 97596E471CBA5D4616E0D58A90F550EC2C10DD7444089AC50D54575F1B109348
----| iNES Header Data |-------------------------------------------
Num ROM Banks: 0x08 (128 KBytes)
Num VROM Banks: 0x10 (128 KBytes)
Mirroring: 0 (Horizontal)
Save RAM: 0 (No)
Trainer: 0 (No)
4-Screen VRAM: 0 (No)
VS-System Cartridge:0 (No)
ROM Mapper: 1 (Nintendo MMC1)
Num RAM Banks: 0x00 (None or 8 KBytes)
Display: 0 (NTSC)
----| NES Header Data |--------------------------------------------
Title: FIGHTING GOLF
PRG-ROM Checksum: 0x682A (Bad; 0xC00E)
CHR-VROM Checksum: 0x1BCD (Ok)
PRG Size: 0x3 (128 KBytes)
CHR Size: 0x3 (64 KBytes)
Mirroring: 0x0 (Horizontal)
Board Type: 0x4
Unknown 1: 0x010FB71A
Maker Code: 0xB7 (SNK)
Unknown 2: 0x1A
Vectors: 0x79C000C0B7C0
----| Headerless Data |--------------------------------------------
Size (Bytes): 262144
CRC32: 9FF3089B
MD5: EB3DB185CAC18067D308E81CE73997BA
SHA1: C68E559D34E42750E0BF08C3D3BE4D9245581D02
SHA256: AF692581ABB78BECD0A5353EABAF93FB12C25C24365E01D8AB56E07C19D699B4
Today we’ve preserved a prototype of Alone in the Dark by Infogrames! Looking at hex address 0x3FE0 within the data, a build date of the 21st of February 2001 is listed. This places the build around a month or so before the final release.
Differences
Nintendo logo does not show up on the copyright screen.
Screenshots
ROM Information
----| File Data |--------------------------------------------------
System: Nintendo - Game Boy Color
File: AITD4.GBC
BitSize: 32 Mbit
Size (Bytes): 4194304
CRC32: 3821D140
MD5: 5A021B40CCC17A66465DAB276BF06CBE
SHA1: FC2A7DBE5FF60E2704AC78F83D6B6DF2BF9DCC97
SHA256: FE655900647D48339FBA4CEC021E1A0FCBF6D7CDD3E9577EFC88B104E2B00377
----| Header Data |------------------------------------------------
Entry Point: 0x0150C300
Logo Code: Ok
Title: AITD4
Serial: fsh? (Unknown)
GBC Flag: 0xC0 (GBC Only)
New Licensee Code: 70 (Infogrames)
SGB Support: 0x00 (No)
Cartridge Type: 0x1B (ROM + MBC5 + RAM + BATTERY)
ROM Size: 0x07 (Ok; 32 Mbit; 4194304 Bytes)
RAM Size: 0x01 (16 Kbit)
Old Licensee Code: 0x33
Version: 0x00 (v1.0)
Header Checksum: 0x92 (Ok)
Global Checksum: 0x0000 (Bad; 0x4A05)
Board / Cartridge Images
Special Thanks
Massive thanks to Rezrospect for sending this in for release!
Today we’ve preserved a prototype build of Kung-Fu Master by Irem Corp! The build is seemingly late, and any changes are likely localization related as the game was first released in Japan under the title “Spartan X”.
Differences
The differences within this build are currently unknown. If you happen to know the game well and know the differences between the retail release and this prototype, please let us know!
Screenshots
ROM Information
----| File Data |--------------------------------------------------
System: Nintendo - Game Boy
File: Protocart_KungFuMaster.gb
BitSize: 512 Kbit
Size (Bytes): 65536
CRC32: E0C33C1A
MD5: 8CBBFDA8754CCACAAE46AC571F46A034
SHA1: 1CE6301D56294B71068514C666AD2157551134E7
SHA256: D56F6AB3A076B0B5164ACE9B416FE1F7952B9E7B40F709F5755F807D49112A3F
----| Header Data |------------------------------------------------
Entry Point: 0x0150C300
Logo Code: Ok
Title: SPARTAN X
New Licensee Code: N/A
SGB Support: 0x00 (No)
Cartridge Type: 0x01 (ROM + MBC1)
ROM Size: 0x01 (Ok; 512 Kbit; 65536 Bytes)
RAM Size: 0x00 (None)
Old Licensee Code: 0x49 (IREM)
Version: 0x00 (v1.0)
Header Checksum: 0x0A (Ok)
Global Checksum: 0xC891 (Ok)
Board / Cartridge Images
Special Thanks
Massive thanks to FNeogeo for sending this in for release!
Today we’ve preserved a prototype of Prince of Persia by Virgin Games! It appears to be from towards the end of development, with a few differences here and there.
Differences
The game’s title within the copyright screen is trademarked.
Slight graphical differences.
Text changes (notably right after the titlescreen).
Screenshots
ROM Information
----| File Data |--------------------------------------------------
System: Nintendo - Game Boy
File: Protocart_PrinceOfPersia.gb
BitSize: 1 Mbit
Size (Bytes): 131072
CRC32: C81CA14B
MD5: 0941C6D463D971D56EEE8E368A0ABBB3
SHA1: 355709BD9D4B19BE5EE57BD62A0B58B73B25E0BF
SHA256: 591D314E64B555001A1BE3F326279C20DD04974A3D0E0DA4A3D543193E2A48E4
----| Header Data |------------------------------------------------
Entry Point: 0x0164C300
Logo Code: Ok
Title: PRINCE OF PERSIA
New Licensee Code: N/A
SGB Support: 0x4D (No)
Cartridge Type: 0x01 (ROM + MBC1)
ROM Size: 0x02 (Ok; 1 Mbit; 131072 Bytes)
RAM Size: 0x00 (None)
Old Licensee Code: 0x61 (Virgin Interactive)
Version: 0x00 (v1.0)
Header Checksum: 0x4C (Ok)
Global Checksum: 0xC725 (Ok)
Board / Cartridge Images
Special Thanks
Massive thanks to FNeogeo for sending this in for release!
Today we’ve preserved a very late prototype build of The Blues Brothers by Titus Software Corporation! Unfortunately the only differences are within the header, so don’t expect to find any within gameplay.
Differences
Header does not match the retail version.
Screenshots
ROM Information
----| File Data |--------------------------------------------------
System: Nintendo - Game Boy
File: Protocart_BluesBrothers.gb
BitSize: 1 Mbit
Size (Bytes): 131072
CRC32: 1F90D12A
MD5: C4EA13687C331CE83C03D5FB400EA19A
SHA1: F7139BB55C3CC7BAE672ADE9022FB548B72F6F2F
SHA256: 30627AFAB4C3D21173C21A8D1E4A91B78FB1F9BBE82E43BE31582503A4D5225E
----| Header Data |------------------------------------------------
Entry Point: 0x0150C300
Logo Code: Ok
Title: BLUES BROTHERS
New Licensee Code: N/A
SGB Support: 0x00 (No)
Cartridge Type: 0x01 (ROM + MBC1)
ROM Size: 0x02 (Ok; 1 Mbit; 131072 Bytes)
RAM Size: 0x00 (None)
Old Licensee Code: 0x60 (Titus)
Version: 0x00 (v1.0)
Header Checksum: 0x7F (Ok)
Global Checksum: 0x4030 (Bad; 0x0C73)
Board / Cartridge Images
Special Thanks
Massive thanks to FNeogeo for sending this in for release!
We’ve preserved SPOGS Racing by Pronto Games! Although it was the lowest ever rated game on the Wii, we’re gonna save it anyway (as it should be)! This build was recovered from an NDEV development kit, and the build itself contains a few seemingly minor differences.
Differences
Differences within the trailer file.
Differences within the first three app files.
Screenshots
Origin
Special Thanks
Massive thanks to Rezrospect for sending this in for release!
The following cartridge was used within authorized Minolta camera repair stores. It was a cheaper and easier alternative to test and diagnose faulty units using a Game Boy rather than creating a unique testing devices for each new camera. The setup would’ve been connected to the camera via a special jig and a “HIT I/F Box” (really a modified Multi Tap), which was connected to the Game Boy’s link cable port.
Screenshots
ROM Information
----| File Data |--------------------------------------------------
System: Nintendo - Game Boy
File: SLR.GB
BitSize: 256 Kbit
Size (Bytes): 32768
CRC32: 76F0FF74
MD5: 25E0DCB19FA8967455E0A3668B33EDF7
SHA1: A0ADA0DD3CDFD1E0908E90CD512FA094F5396E1E
SHA256: DD8EAD2652E17358F1245E9FF3A1C5F2A8F368EFB526AC6F6A2FEC5331FF2316
----| Header Data |------------------------------------------------
Entry Point: 0x0150C300
Logo Code: Ok
Title:
New Licensee Code: N/A
SGB Support: 0x00 (No)
Cartridge Type: 0x00 (ROM)
ROM Size: 0x00 (Ok; 256 Kbit; 32768 Bytes)
RAM Size: 0x00 (None)
Old Licensee Code: 0x00 (Unknown)
Version: 0x00 (v1.0)
Header Checksum: 0xE7 (Ok)
Global Checksum: 0x0000 (Bad; 0xEDC9)
Board / Cartridge Images
Special Thanks
Massive thanks to Voodooween for sending this in for release!
The following cartridge was used within authorized Minolta camera repair stores. It was a cheaper and easier alternative to test and diagnose faulty units using a Game Boy rather than creating a unique testing devices for each new camera. The setup would’ve been connected to the camera via a special jig and a “HIT I/F Box” (really a modified Multi Tap), which was connected to the Game Boy’s link cable port.
Screenshots
ROM Information
----| File Data |--------------------------------------------------
System: Nintendo - Game Boy
File: 2420.GB
BitSize: 256 Kbit
Size (Bytes): 32768
CRC32: 5BD13F4F
MD5: 6BF40D108CA2EB5D7EFC495832880F24
SHA1: B5994DB5E190BEF18BB7F3D1C25F8B14EF4B9B22
SHA256: 2E236ACE84FDF8816918DD6F26A5DED3BA20997DD3DF3FAC04C3FC54CBA9159C
----| Header Data |------------------------------------------------
Entry Point: 0x0150C300
Logo Code: Ok
Title:
New Licensee Code: N/A
SGB Support: 0x00 (No)
Cartridge Type: 0x00 (ROM)
ROM Size: 0x00 (Ok; 256 Kbit; 32768 Bytes)
RAM Size: 0x00 (None)
Old Licensee Code: 0x00 (Unknown)
Version: 0x00 (v1.0)
Header Checksum: 0xE7 (Ok)
Global Checksum: 0x0000 (Bad; 0x5303)
Board / Cartridge Images
Special Thanks
Massive thanks to Voodooween for sending this in for release!
The following cartridge was used within authorized Minolta camera repair stores. It was a cheaper and easier alternative to test and diagnose faulty units using a Game Boy rather than creating a unique testing devices for each new camera. The setup would’ve been connected to the camera via a special jig and a “HIT I/F Box” (really a modified Multi Tap), which was connected to the Game Boy’s link cable port.
Please note that this cartridge is for use with the Minolta Dynax 303si/Maxxum QTsi.
Screenshots
ROM Information
----| File Data |--------------------------------------------------
System: Nintendo - Game Boy
File: 2156.GB
BitSize: 256 Kbit
Size (Bytes): 32768
CRC32: 3AF37D46
MD5: 3B716F2729FB25EF75BA53C5115BFF89
SHA1: C4B46446553BF6C25E3B3C1D5CD450A205FF6692
SHA256: D2F2427B8C3AA1E31232D82878F8AD8FCCCBFB70B8BE9A95E3D1BDFEC8E81658
----| Header Data |------------------------------------------------
Entry Point: 0x0150C300
Logo Code: Ok
Title:
New Licensee Code: N/A
SGB Support: 0x00 (No)
Cartridge Type: 0x00 (ROM)
ROM Size: 0x00 (Ok; 256 Kbit; 32768 Bytes)
RAM Size: 0x00 (None)
Old Licensee Code: 0x00 (Unknown)
Version: 0x00 (v1.0)
Header Checksum: 0xE7 (Ok)
Global Checksum: 0x0000 (Bad; 0xED9A)
Board / Cartridge Images
Special Thanks
Massive thanks to Voodooween for sending this in for release!
