Action 52
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''Action 52'' is an unlicensed,
multicart In video game parlance, a multicart is a cartridge that contains more than one game. Typically, the separate games are available individually for purchase (such as ''Sega Smash Pack'') or were previously available individually (such as '' Final F ...
video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
compilation developed by Active Enterprises for the
Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in America ...
, and by
FarSight Technologies FarSight Studios (formerly Farsight Technologies) is an American video game developer established in 1988 by Jay Obernolte. They are an official licensed developer for all current home and handheld consoles including the Sony PlayStation 4, Play ...
for the
Sega Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Syst ...
. The NES version was released in 1991, followed by the Genesis version in 1993. The multicart consists of 52 games in a variety of
genres Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
, mostly
scrolling shooter In computer displays, filmmaking, television production, and other kinetic displays, scrolling is sliding text, images or video across a monitor or display, vertically or horizontally. "Scrolling," as such, does not change the layout of the text ...
s and
platformer A platform game (often simplified as platformer and sometimes called a jump 'n' run game) is a sub-genre of action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are charac ...
s. The "featured" game is '' The Cheetahmen'', which was part of Active's attempt to create a franchise similar to the ''
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''. Active Enterprises was legally incorporated in the Bahamas, however, offices and development were located in Miami, Florida while the company's product warehousing was located in Orlando, Florida. The NES version of ''Action 52'' became infamous among gamers for the poor quality and functionality of its games; it is often considered to be one of the worst games of all time. The Genesis version is widely considered superior, though still of subpar quality. Many video game collectors value ''Action 52'' for its notoriety and rarity. It initially retailed for the comparatively high price of
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199 ().


Gameplay


NES

The NES version of ''Action 52'' includes games that cover a variety of
genres Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
, the most common types being vertical shooters set in outer space, and
platformers A platform game (often simplified as platformer and sometimes called a jump 'n' run game) is a sub-genre of action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are charac ...
. The games have major programming flaws. Some of them freeze or crash; other issues include incomplete or endless levels, confusing design, and unresponsive controls. Each game is given a brief description in the manual for ''Action 52''. Some of the descriptions cover games from the early development of ''Action 52'' that were very different from the games of corresponding titles; for example, ''Jigsaw'' is described as a game involving a jigsaw puzzle, but the game titled as such on the final product is a platformer involving a construction worker avoiding construction tools. '' The Cheetahmen'' is the featured game of ''Action 52'', and was intended to launch a multimedia franchise and an accompanying line of merchandise. A Cheetahmen animated television series, a comic book series and T-shirts were planned. An advertisement for action figures, which included
concept art Concept art is a form of visual art used to convey an idea for use in films, video games, animation, comic books, or other media before it is put into the final product. Concept art usually refers to world-building artwork used to inspire the ...
, appeared in a promotional comic book included in the ''Action 52'' package. However, this was never put into practice due to the extremely negative reviews Action 52 received. Active Enterprises advertised a contest involving ''Ooze'', one of the games of Action 52. Players who could complete Level 6 of the game could enter a drawing for $104,000 ($52,000 cash, and a scholarship with the same value). ''Ooze'' was reported to consistently crash on Level 2; therefore, it was impossible to qualify for the contest without using an
emulator In computing, an emulator is Computer hardware, hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run so ...
; after the contest had been cancelled, a second version of ''Action 52'' was released which fixed this crashing problem, among some others. The opening sequence of the NES version uses a
Yeah! Woo! The Think break is a drum break that has been widely sampled in popular music. It comes from the 1972 song "Think (About It)" by the American soul singer Lyn Collins, written and produced by James Brown. The drum break was performed by John "Ja ...
drum break In popular music, a break is an instrumental or percussion section during a song derived from or related to stop-time – being a "break" from the main parts of the song or piece. A break is usually interpolated between sections of a song, to ...
sampled from
Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock were an American hip hop duo from Harlem, New York City. Rob Base is the stage name of Robert Ginyard (b. 1967) and DJ E-Z Rock was Rodney "Skip" Bryce (1967–2014). They are best known for the 1988 hit " It Takes Two", ...
's song " It Takes Two".


Sega Genesis

Few of the games from the NES version of ''Action 52'' appear in the Sega Genesis version; although many of the titles have been retained, the games themselves have been rebuilt from scratch for the most part. For example, ''Haunted Hills'' appears in both versions, but the player character's gender is different (female in the NES version and male in the Genesis version), as is the setting, which is inside a haunted house in the NES version, and outside of one in the Genesis version. In the Genesis version of ''The Cheetahmen'', the titular characters rescue cheetah cubs from Dr. Morbis and his minions. Many—though not all—of the numerous technical issues with the NES version have been fixed in the Genesis version, which also takes advantage of the Genesis's superior hardware. Each game is color-coded on the main menu screen; "Beginner" games are green, "Intermediate" games are purple, "Expert" games are yellow, "Challenge" games are white, and multiplayer games are blue. The 52nd game, also titled ''Challenge'', consists of a random sequence of the highest levels of the other single-player games. Also included in the Genesis version are the Randomizer, which selects a game at random, and a music demo mode.


Development

The creator of ''Action 52'' was Vince Perri, a businessman from
Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
and the owner and founder of Active Enterprises. According to Perri, "I happened to see my son playing an illegal product made in Taiwan that had 40 games on it. The whole neighborhood went crazy over it ... I figured I'd do it legally. It's obvious when you see something like that, you know there's something there."Video Creator Plays 52 Games to Win
. ''
The Miami Herald The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and headquartered in Doral, Florida, a city in western Miami-Dade County and the Miami metropolitan area, several miles west of Downtown Miami.Tetris ''Tetris'' (russian: link=no, Тетрис) is a puzzle video game created by Soviet software engineer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984. It has been published by several companies for multiple platforms, most prominently during a dispute over the approp ...
'' clone as proof of their abilities. Perri was impressed with the game and, alongside Raúl Gomila, hired them as well as a fourth developer (whose name is currently unknown) to create the game, with Hernández acting as the main programmer, González composing the music, and González, Pérez, and the fourth developer working on the graphics. In 1993, Perri showcased ''Action 52'' at the International Winter Consumer Electronics Show. He claimed to have raised $5 million for the multicart from private backers in Europe and Saudi Arabia. The developers, who used an
Atari ST The Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the Atari 8-bit family. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985 and was widely available in July. It was the first pers ...
, were given three months to complete ''Action 52'', leaving little time for playtesting and fixing bugs. Technical work was contracted out to Cronos Engineering, Inc., a
Boca Raton Boca Raton ( ; es, Boca Ratón, link=no, ) is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It was first incorporated on August 2, 1924, as "Bocaratone," and then incorporated as "Boca Raton" in 1925. The population was 97,422 in the ...
company who had previously done work for IBM. González, one of the programmers, says that ''Action 52''s developers were flown to
Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...
, where they were trained for a week on using an NES
development kit A software development kit (SDK) is a collection of software development tools in one installable package. They facilitate the creation of applications by having a compiler, debugger and sometimes a software framework. They are normally specific to ...
by a video game company, the name of which he does not remember. However, he does recall that the company was developing an NES adaptation of '' Star Wars: Episode V—The Empire Strikes Back''; this would identify the company as
Sculptured Software Acclaim Entertainment was an American video game publisher from Long Island, active from 1987 until filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on September 1, 2004. Through a series of acquisitions between 1990 and 2002, Acclaim built itself a large portfol ...
. Corroborating this is ''Action 52''s use of Sculptured Software's NES music engine. Several pieces of music in the NES version of ''Action 52'' were plagiarized from sample music composed by
Ed Bogas Edgar Noel "Ed" Bogas (born February 2, 1942), sometimes credited as Edward Bogas, is an American musician and composer whose work has been featured in films, animations, and video games. Career Bogas' contributions span four decades and several ...
for ''The Music Studio'', published by
Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...
for the Atari ST. The games with plagiarized music include ''Fuzz Power'', ''Silver Sword'', ''French Baker'', ''Streemerz'', ''Time Warp Tickers'' and ''Ninja Assault''. González also confirms that, in addition to many unused
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, ''Action 52'' has 8 extra game templates, because the distributor configured the cartridges to contain 60 games by default. According to González, the gaming press's characterization of ''Action 52'' as a "scam" is incorrect. He says that Perri, inspired by his neighborhood's reaction to the Taiwanese compilation, fully intended, at least in the beginning, to create and market a legitimate multicart. However, Perri knew little about the video game business when he launched his venture, and as a result made serious errors, such as entrusting the project to programmers who had too little experience, and giving them an insufficient length of time to develop ''Action 52''. Perri's expectation that the multicart would launch a multimedia ''Cheetahmen'' franchise was similarly not well-founded, given the game's low quality. The Sega Genesis version of ''Action 52'' was developed by
FarSight Technologies FarSight Studios (formerly Farsight Technologies) is an American video game developer established in 1988 by Jay Obernolte. They are an official licensed developer for all current home and handheld consoles including the Sony PlayStation 4, Play ...
, under the direction of
Jay Obernolte Jay Phillip Obernolte ( ; born August 18, 1970) is an American politician, businessman, and video game developer serving as the U.S. representative for since 2021. A Republican, he was previously a member of the California State Assembly represe ...
, using a
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. FarSight's experienced programmers, along with the returning Pérez and Hernández (González opted not to participate, in order to spend more time with his girlfriend, whom he would eventually marry), were allowed to spend a year developing this version. FarSight insisted that Active Enterprises playtest it before its release; thus, the resulting multicart had far fewer glitches than the NES version released two years before. Mark Steven Miller and Jason Scher of Nu Romantic Productions composed the music for the Genesis version, in 48 hours. A version of the game for the
SNES The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South Korea, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Euro ...
was planned for release in October 1993 but was canceled. Active Enterprises also planned to have FarSight develop another multicart titled ''Sports 5''. However, Active folded without releasing either game soon after, and no copies of them are known to exist.


Prototype cartridges

Two different kinds of NES ''Action 52'' prototype cartridges are known to have been produced. Prototype I, made first, has a blue circuit board inside a transparent case, with a solid blue label. Prototype II has a transparent case as well, with a black circuit board and a transparent label. ''Active Enterprises'' is embossed on the underside of the cartridge. The Prototype II cartridges, like the original prototype, are the only two versions that do not have capacitors. The final cartridges released for sale feature a green circuit board and either blue or orange capacitors as these were used to bypass the "lockout" function of the Nintendo Entertainment System console. As published by the 4th, original, developer of the Action 52 game; only two known copies of the original prototype I cartridge are known to exist. It is unknown how many of the Prototype II cartridges exist, however, research by Greg Pabich indicates that they were a test batch and are likely very rare. As may be expected, the software on the prototype cartridges is in an even less finished state than that on the released cartridges. The biggest difference is that the game ''The Cheetahmen'' is missing from the prototypes, which instead include a different game, titled ''Action Gamer'', as the 52nd game. It has only two levels, one of which is incomplete, and appears to be an abandoned initial attempt to create a ''Cheetahmen'' game (''The Cheetahmen'' includes a character named the Action Gamemaster in its introductory sequence). ''Action Gamer'' was not put aside entirely, however; it was reworked into ''Ooze'' (the fifth game of the multicart). Most of the other differences between the prototypes and the released product are minor, such as menu screens that have generic headers and footers in the prototypes, as well as game title text that varies from the final version, and menu backgrounds in different colors. The menu template of the prototypes is identical to that of other, illegal multicarts containing 52 pirated games, indicating that the code for ''Action 52'' is based on the code for the pirate multicarts. In 2010, a Prototype I cartridge surfaced. While ''Action 52'' was in development, Perri had asked movie and video game distributor Greg Pabich to be a partner in Active Enterprises. Pabich turned Perri down, for several reasons, but kept one of the Prototype I cartridges. It was stored in Pabich's warehouse for over twenty years before it was rediscovered. Pabich had the ROM data for ''Action Gamer'' stripped from the cartridge, and the game's code completed. He released the result as ''Cheetahmen: The Creation'' on November 11, 2011; boxed, red game cartridges, in a limited edition of 1,000, came with a reproduction of the Cheetahmen comic book that had been included with ''Action 52''. A "Special Collector's Edition" was also sold; in addition to the cartridge (in green instead of red) and the comic book, an additional, boxed, sealed cartridge (with a transparent case), a music CD, a T-shirt, and a poster were included. This edition was limited to 500. In August 2012, another Prototype I cartridge was put up for auction on
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, along with its original box, marked "SAMPLE—Not for sale—Demonstration purposes only". Various rare ''Action 52'' promotional materials were included as well. The seller started a blog, in which he identified himself as "''Action 52'' Developer #4", and related his part in the creation of the multicart. His cartridge and Perri's are the only two examples of Prototype I that are known to still exist.


Reception

Critical reaction to ''Action 52'' has been consistently negative. AllGame editor Skyler Miller described the game as an "unlicensed but legal multicart" containing "NES games of extremely poor quality".


See also

*
List of commercial failures in video gaming The list of commercial failures in video games includes any video game software on any platform, and any video game console hardware, of all time. As a hit-driven business, the great majority of the video game industry's software releases have bee ...
*
List of video games notable for negative reception This is a list of video games that have gained an enduring negative reception, often due to being perceived by reviewers as having low-quality or outdated Video game graphics, graphics, Video game glitch, glitches, poor controls for gameplay, o ...
* '' Caltron 6 in 1'' * '' Cassette 50'' * '' Don't Buy This''


References


External links


List of all ''Action 52'' games
— A comprehensive website detailing all 52 of the games in the compilation.

— A website with information on both ''Action 52'' and Active Enterprises.

— Official website of ''The Cheetahmen''.
Action52Prototype.com
— Action 52 Developer #4's firsthand story of the development of ''Action 52'' and the rare ''Action 52'' prototype NES game cartridge. {{Homebrew Video games scored by Ed Bogas 1991 video games Cancelled Super Nintendo Entertainment System games Unauthorized video games Video game compilations Nintendo Entertainment System games North America-exclusive video games Sega Genesis games Video games developed in the United States Video games with alternative versions FarSight Studios games Video game memes Multiplayer and single-player video games