User:Namcokid47/Action 52

Action 52 is an unlicensed compilation video game developed and published by Active Enterprises for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1991. As the game's title suggests, it includes 52 original games that cover several genres, many being platformers and shoot-em-ups. A version for the Sega Genesis was also released in 1993, with development headed by FarSight Technologies. The game also features the introduction of The Cheetahmen, an attempt by Active Enterprises to capitalize on the success of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. An SNES release of the game was planned but soon cancelled.

Development of the game was rushed to meet deadline, leading most games unfinished or full of bugs, alongside having much of its music being stolen from outside sources. It initially sold for a retail price of US$199. Action 52 was lambasted by critics for its poor graphics, controls, music, glitches and high price point, and is cited as one of the worst video games ever made. The Sega Genesis version, although considered superior, was also criticized for its subpar game quality. Copies of the game typically command high prices on auction sites.

Gameplay
Action 52 is a compilation game that includes 52 original games - these include platformers, shoot-emp-ups, beat-em-ups and puzzle games. The majority of the games included contain glitches or are simply unfinished and therefore impossible to complete, alongside game-breaking bugs. Two games in the compilation, Alfredo and Jigsaw, are unplayable in certain versions of the game due to programming errors - Active would soon release an updated version of the game that fixed these bugs, allowing them to be playable. The main focus of the compilation was The Cheetahman, Active's attempt to rival that of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, who were becoming extraordinarily popular around its release; a comic book explaining the plot was also packaged with the game, which also included an advertisement promoting unreleased Cheetahmen action figures and apparel

To help promote the game, Active held a contest that would place players into a prize drawing of US$104,000 - US$52,000 cash, and a scholarship of the same value, if they were able to complete the fifth level of Ooze, one of the included games - Ooze was reported to crash after completion of the third level, rendering the prize unwinnable. Much of the music for the game was stolen from other sources - the opening for the game features a sample from "It Takes Two", while the games would feature music taken from a Sculptured Software sound program, alongside Activision's music program The Music Studio for the Atari ST. The original retail price for the game was US$199, equivalent to US$366.

Action 52 (Sega Genesis)
A version of Action 52 for the Sega Genesis was released in 1993, being developed by FarSight Technologies and published by Active Enterprises. This version has a largely different selection of games, although a select number of games from the NES version of the game, such as Ooze, Sharks, Haunted Hills and Dedant, have been remade and improved from their original counterparts. The 52nd game is instead an endurance test of several titles at the hardest difficulty. 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.

Several new games were introduced in the Genesis version, a number of which share their names with games from the NES cartridge, but are different in terms of content. The Genesis Haunted Hills, for instance, has a male protagonist and is set outside a haunted house, while the NES Haunted Hills has a female protagonist and takes place inside a haunted house. A new rendition of The Cheetahmen was included, in which the Cheetahmen rescue captured cheetah cubs from Dr. Morbis and his minions.

In addition to the 52 games, the Genesis version features a Music Test mode and a "Randomizer" option. If selected from the main menu, the Randomizer will randomly choose and start one game from the 52 available on the cartridge. The fifty-second game, Challenge, is an endurance test to see how long the player lasts in a random series of the highest levels of the other games.

Development
Little is known about Vince Perri, the creator of Action 52. Perri claims to be a businessman from Miami, Florida and the owner and founder of Active Enterprises. He also explains that the breakthrough came by accident: "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," Perri said. "I figured I'd do it legally. It's obvious when you see something like that, you know there's something there." In 1993, he showcased Action 52 at the International Winter Consumer Electronics Show.

For the NES version, Perri raised $20 million from private backers in Europe, South America and Saudi Arabia. He and Raul Gomila employed three college students (Mario Gonzalez, Javier Perez and Albert Hernandez) to do the game design, music, graphics and programming on an Atari ST, with a three-month deadline and little playtesting or bug fixing done. Technical work was contracted out to Cronos Engineering, Inc., a Boca Raton company that had done work for IBM. According to Gonzalez, the game has been misrepresented as a "scam" in the gaming press; he clarifies that Perri never intended for the game to be a scam, at least at first, and believed it was a genuinely good business venture after seeing his neighborhood become entranced by his son's Taiwanese multicart. However, it was Perri's overconfidence and lack of gaming business savvy that led to the project's downfall, by hiring inexperienced programmers and giving them such a short deadline without knowing how long games typically took to make, and thinking such a poor quality product would be able to make him rich via the Cheetahmen franchise.

Action 52 has eight extra game templates, since the distributor had the carts come with 60 games by default, as well as many unused tiles; this has been confirmed in an interview with Gonzalez. Also, according to Gonzalez, the development team was flown to Sculptured Software to develop the game. While Mario does not remember the name of the game company, he recalls them both being based in Salt Lake City, Utah, and the company was developing an NES adaptation of Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back. This, along with the game using Sculptured Software's sound engine, proves that the game was developed at Sculptured Software, but not by Sculptured Software staff.

Several of the songs from the NES version of Action 52 were plagiarized from example tunes included in Activision's The Music Studio for the Atari ST. The games with plagiarized music include Fuzz Power, Silver Sword, French Baker, Streemerz, Time Warp Tickers and Ninja Assault. Those songs were composed by Ed Bogas. Additionally, programmer Kevin Horton analyzed the music code of Action 52 and found that it matched a music engine programmed by Sculptured Software, featured in all of their NES games.

The Sega Genesis version, released two years later, was developed by FarSight Technologies on a Macintosh LC over the course of a year, under the direction of Jay Obernolte. This version contained far fewer glitches than the NES version, due to FarSight having experienced programmers and pressuring Active into playtesting the game before release. Perez and Hernandez were again involved in the development of this version but Gonzalez had departed from the team at this point to spend more time with his girlfriend, whom he eventually married. Music for this version was contracted out to Mark Steven Miller and Jason Scher of Nu Romantic Productions, which was composed within 48 hours. FarSight was also set to develop a version of Action 52 for the Super NES, as well as another multicart titled Sports 5, but Active Enterprises withdrew from the video game industry shortly thereafter, and no copies of either game are known to exist.

Prototypes
In 2010, a prototype cartridge of Action 52 surfaced, owned by movie and video games distributor Greg Pabich. Originally, Vince Perri had proposed a deal with Pabich asking him if he would be interested in working for Active Enterprises as a business partner. At this time, Perri only had a few prototype cartridges and not the final product. For various reasons, Pabich turned down the offer, but not before leaving with one of the prototypes in his possession, which was stored in his warehouse for over twenty years before it was "rediscovered".

The prototype itself contains numerous differences from the final Action 52 cartridges. It contains minor text differences for the game titles as well as different color backgrounds for the game selection menus. The final version contains the words "Action 52" in its header and copyright information in its footer. The prototype simply contains section numbers in each menu screen's header. The code for Action 52 appears to be heavily based upon the pirate multicart 52 in 1. This is evident due the menu template in the Action 52 prototype being identical to that of 52 in 1. However, the biggest difference between the prototype and the final game is that the final version contains the game Cheetahmen, whereas the prototype does not. In its place is a completely different Cheetahmen game titled "Action Gamer" (presumably taken from the name of the main character, the Action Gamemaster, in Cheetahmen). Action Gamer features only two levels, one of which is incomplete.

On November 11, 2011, Greg Pabich publicly released reproductions of Action Gamer, calling it "Cheetahmen: The Creation". This special package contains a sealed version of the game for collectors, an unsealed copy, a reproduction of the original Cheetahmen comic book, a Cheetahmen music CD, special edition T-shirts, and a poster.

In August 2012, one of the four original Action 52 developers surfaced, presenting their original boxed Action 52 NES prototype cartridge, one of only two known to exist. They have since created a blog documenting their part in the development of the Action 52 NES cartridge.

It is noted that in 2018, Pabich acquired the Prototype owned by Developer #4 for a rumored five-figure price.

Reception
Action 52 has received an overwhemingly negative reception, and has been criticized for its poor graphics and music, glitches, high price point, unplayable games and controls, and is often cited as one of the worst video games ever made, alongside one of the worst NES games ever released. AllGame was overtly negative, describing it as an "unlicensed but legal multi-cart" containing "NES games of extremely poor quality".