A Game Boy game released in 1991 was rumored to be able to be able to be played as a 16-player Game Boy game by connecting 16 Game Boys together using Game Link cables and a proposed multiplayer connector, to be bundled with the game. However, this feature was reportedly scrapped prior to release due to Nintendo refusing to approve it due to them having plans to release their own four-player adapter. Yet the code for the 16-player Game Boy mode was rumored to still be on the cart, as revealed in a 2005 interview with one of the game’s developers!
The 16-player Game Boy game in question is Faceball 2000, a multiplayer first-person shooter originally developed and released for the Atari ST under the title MIDI Maze, which could be played by up to 16 Atari STs, connected via MIDI cables. The game later received a rather impressive port to Game Boy, regardless of whether or not it is actually a 16-player Game Boy game.
The 16-player Game Boy mode for Faceball 2000 was first revealed by one of the game’s developers in a 2005 interview, and following this, a team including YouTuber by the name of Zarithya has spent the last two years investigating the Game Boy version of Faceball 2000 in an attempt to discover whether or not a 16-player Game Boy game was really possible, and if it was, it was indeed accessible via the released version of Faceball 2000 on Game Boy.
It turns out that getting a 16-player Game Boy game up and running was no mean feat, as you’ll see from the video we’ve embedded in this post, but in addition to this video, you can also watch a two-hour YouTube documentary on the 16-player Game Boy game project.
Perhaps best of all, you can even download Faceball 2000 DX, which is a ROM of Faceball 2000 with the 16-player mode restored and working, and which also has a number of other bugs in the game fixed by the team.This is available from Zarithya’s GitHub page.
It’s fascinating to be able to discover bits of retro games that we were never supposed to see, and a heck of a lot of work went into getting the 16-player Game Boy game running, for what is apparently the first time in history, as Faceball 2000’s devs never even got the 16-player Game Boy mode fully working!
Huge congratulations to zarithya and the team!
Image courtesy of MobyGames.
