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dmxratedHere's my thread on the VGMusic forum about the supposed censorship of anime-style games from the United States:
McKnight:
So, this is a moot point, but I'd like to point out (for anyone who's interested) an entire lot of anime-style Super NES games that were never released in the United States. You might be thinking "Sure, we had some anime games during the 16-bit era. We had Mega Man, Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, and even a few lesser-known ones like Kendo Rage." And that is true, we Americans did get a handful of anime games back then, but not as many as we have today. Get a load of these:
Akazukin Cha Cha- Some kind of RPG. I was never able to get past the beginning of the game, and never bothered to figure out how. (The respective anime, which this game is based on, is called Red Riding Hood Cha Cha in North America.)
Battle Zeque Den- This is a side-scroller beat-em-up game with three girls as your playable characters. I chose the girl with the segmented ponytail and the round, puffy cat-gloves. (God she's got such an annoying scratchy voice!) I only got to the beginning of the third level in this game, and the game itself wasn't all that interesting.
Bisojo John - Shi Suuchipai- Okay, I just never understood this game. First, we get the title screen of some sexy busty lady, then some menu screen. Then, when you start the game, we're shown a picture of someone's glasses that the owner apparently lost (supplemented with some rather bad-news-ish music), and then for the game, you start off by playing some card game that I don't know or care what the point of it is.
Bisyoujyo Wrestlinger's History- Some kind of women's wrestling game. I just don't understand what all those options do when you play the actual game. I got bored of it before I actually fought any matches (assuming you do so).
Columns- Pretty simple. Three jewels in a column float down the board, and you need to align three rocks of the same color in order to eliminate them. Along the way, you'll also have bombs (for blasting away the gems with) and brick blocks (which can only be destroyed with bombs) among the gems. In the background is a picture of a naked lady, and for every four levels you clear, the board disappears, allowing you to see the entire "background", before moving on.
Coron Land- The point of this game is to kill enemies with this weapon that shoots red "prison" bubbles (similar to the Martian Bubble Gun from Zombies Ate My Neighbors). Some enemies explode when you try to bubble-trap them. Unfortunately, I lost all my lives before even clearing the first world.
Ghost Sweeper Mikami- based on the anime of the same name. Some of the levels are actually spooky, while others aren't so much. Level 7 (last one before the final boss)...well, see it for yourself if you wanna download it. It is such an interesting level, though.
Kingyo Chuiho Tobidise! Game Gakuen- Some kind of puzzle game. I don't remember what the objective is, unlike for Mahou Poipoi Poitto.
Mahou Poipoi Poitto- Now this one was one of my favorites, mainly as a time killer. You can play as a boy or a girl, both of whose objective is to kill generic monsters such as a skeleton, a witch, Medusa, and a black knight. Four elemental blocks descend from the board, and your job is to get combos or more than three of a kind to attack your opponent (just like in Tetris Attack or Bust-A-Move).
Kendo Rage- Actually, this one did arrive in the U.S. in 1993, but it was previously called Makeruna Makendou. For some reason, the box/cartridge art was changed to not look anime-like, and some censorship was also applied to the game itself. For example, Josephine is introduced as a Japanese exchange-student from America, whereas in the original version, her name is Hikari, and she was born in Japan to begin with.
(On a side note, I don't know where to find any standalone fanfiction based on this game. However, if anyone wants to read any fanfiction about this girl, I own a currently discontinued fanfic based on SMW2: Yoshi's Island which features Hikari and a male OC as the main characters, along with Baby Mario. Give it a read if you don't mind crossovers or nose-modification (which only Hikari and my OC undergo).
Makeruna Makendou 2 - Kimero Youkai Souri- This is a fighting game, not a side-scroller like its predecessor. Josephing (a.k.a. Hikari) is the only playable character in the game. The music for the first game was okay, but in this game, I found it godawful. I never did win the first fight (which takes place against Masoccer) because I only played it once. (There is another game in this series for the PC Engine, titled Makeruna Makendou Z, which never made it into the United States either.)
Miracle Girls- Never got past the first level of this game. You select Tomomi or Mikage (I think that's what their names were), and you attack by throwing candy at your enemies, which doesn't kill them but does stop them in their tracks, allowing you to jump on them.
Otoboke Ninja Colosseum- The levels and gameplay in this game are similar to any 16-bit Bomberman game I ever played. There's a difference, between those bombs and the bombs in this game. Here, when the bombs explode, they shoot shuriken in all four directions, which have infinite range but can only take out one block each. There was a level in the first world which I had no idea how to clear, thus I never got very far into the game.
Panic in Nakayoshi World- Some kind of dream world game, which includes Sailor Moon as one of the playable characters. You shoot crescent moons at blocks to obliterate them, and you have a second character following you, whom I think you're supposed to protect. The boss for the first world is a dancing yellow star, and I never bothered to actually fight it. I just turned the game off upon reaching it.
Police Armor Metal Jack- Only three male characters to play as. I never got very far into even the first level, let alone the game. The music sounds similar to a bunch of car horns honking, and it was really annoying.
Sakura Wars- Just a slideshow based on the respective anime.
Those were only the games that I actually gave a try upon downloading, and there are even more for the Super Famicom that I never even did download despite keeping a list of. A lot of these are:
Ace wo Nerae
Ancient Magic
Angel Eyes
Angelic Voice Fantasy
Angelique
Block Kuzushi
The Blue Crystal Rod
Dear Boys
Dekitate High School
Der Langrisser
Doukyusei 2
Forest of Beginning - Haji Mari
Gan Gan Ganchan
Ginga Sengoku Gunyuuden Rai
Gourmet Sentai Bara Yarou
Kishin Douji Zenki 2 - Den Ei Rai Bu
Lodoss Tou Senki
Love Quest
Madou Monogatari - Hanamaru Dai Youchienji
Magic Drop 2
Mahoujin Guru Guru
Marmalade Boy
Masoukishin - Super Robot Wars Gaiden - Lord of Elemental
Melfand Stories
Metal Combat - Falcon's Revenge
Mini 4ku and Power WGP2
Multi-Play Volleyball
Nage Libre
Natsuki Crisis Battle
Princess Maker - Legend of Another World
Robotrek
Ruin Arm
Far East of Eden
Tsume
Seifuki Densetsu Pretty Fighter
Shushoku Game
Slayers
Star Ocean
Stardust Suplex
Super Family Gerende
Super Momotaru Densetsu 3
Super Nazo Puyo - Ruru no Ruu
Super Puyo Puyo
Super Robot Taisen
Super Variable Geo
Super Wrestle Angels
Super Zugan - Hakoten-Jyo Kara no Syoutai
Sword Maniac
Tokemeki Memorial
Tower Dream
Wedding Peach
Wonder Project J
Yujin Janjyugakuen
Yujin no Furi Furi Girls
Zero 4 Champ R R
WTF? Why did America have such a problem allowing most of these games past its borders? Obviously, this just has to coincide with the fact that back then, there were very, very few anime TV shows available in the U.S. for some odd reason. Sure, after having looked at game lists on Wikipedia, I've noticed that there were occasional games for later consoles that didn't reach America (such as Card Captor Sakura for the Playstation, Neon Genesis Evangelion 64 for the Nintendo 64, and Air for the Playstation 2), but that's okay because America has already become more tolerant of anime than it used to be. I can understand Columns being banned from the U.S. because of its sexual nature, but all these other games?
Anyone got comments or answers about this? I'll be glad to hear 'em.
Also, these games are available to download at [red]Link removed by Admin: Linking to ROM sites is against the forum rules[/red], in case anyone's interested in giving them a try.
billybandit:
McKnight wrote:
Columns- Pretty simple. Three jewels in a column float down the board, and you need to align three rocks of the same color in order to eliminate them. Along the way, you'll also have bombs (for blasting away the gems with) and brick blocks (which can only be destroyed with bombs) among the gems. In the background is a picture of a naked lady, and for every four levels you clear, the board disappears, allowing you to see the entire "background", before moving on.
Woah woah woah... I'm not sure where you've got this information from but I'm pretty sure Columns was never one of those games.
One censored game I can think of was Hokuto No Ken for Megadrive. When it got released outside of Japan it was re-named "Last Battle", all boxart was redone in typical western style and bloody death animations were completely stripped from the game. The Master System's Hokuto No Ken/Black Belt was better, and pretty much untampered (title screen on all versions was very Manga IIRC)
Also, a lot of these games would have been completely unsellable (even violence and erotica aside) due to the fact that it wasn't until very recently that Anime became at all "popular" in western society. By the masses, even today, it can be seen as laughable. So 10 - 20 years ago - trying to market games such as "Super Happy Magical Sex Block-Buster Surprise" (your special hack of Columns - just an example) would cost whatever companies dumb enough to attempt to market/distribute it thousands and thousands of dollars. Things have changed, and now with all the imports and whatnot people are able to get hold of whatever games they want. So even if a game is not officially marketed in an area of the world it's probably for good reason, but people who really want it will still be able to order it
McKnight:
billybandit wrote:
Woah woah woah... I'm not sure where you've got this information from but I'm pretty sure Columns was never one of those games.
Where did I get this information from? It's the Super NES version, and I played it myself, by downloading it. See for yourself if you want to.
Just answering your question. Let's stay on topic, shall we all?
silentzorah:
La Pucelle Tactics on PS2 underwent some censorship before it hit the states, mostly for the usage of religious imagery. It's most noticable on Prier's baton, which originally had a cross on the end of it.
Of course, since they're censoring smoking in cartoons now, why not in gaming? Croix's trademark cigarette was removed from his sprites, even though his victory animation still shows him reach for something in his mouth and put it out... Yeah, real offensive. Official artwork remains unchanged...
billybandit:
McKnight wrote:
billybandit wrote:
Woah woah woah... I'm not sure where you've got this information from but I'm pretty sure Columns was never one of those games.
Where did I get this information from? It's the Super NES version, and I played it myself, by downloading it. See for yourself if you want to.
Just answering your question. Let's stay on topic, shall we all?
You idiot! "Hentai Columns" is clearly a hack. And Columns was never even officially ported to the SNES (although there is a very good unofficial port from 1999 going by the name of "Columns"). And while we're on the subject I'd be highly surprised if there was ever an erotic/hentai related game released on a console - licensed by whoever made the console.
McKnight wrote:
Police Armor Metal Jack- Only three male characters to play as. I never got very far into even the first level, let alone the game. The music sounds similar to a bunch of car horns honking, and it was really annoying.
Also another good example - I've not played this game but - apart from not being at all relevant in any other community/region, some games aren't even deemed good enough to be given a release outside of their native area. It's not Corporate American Nazi's trying to censor your eyes from freedom and Anime and good
Geo:
I hate to go back to Columns, but I've just gotta say this: Columns was conceived and programmed in the USA, and the most popular versions were published by Sega. As far as I know (and both Wikipedia and GameFAQs support this), there never even was a Super Nintendo version, and I'm quite sure there wasn't a pr0n edition either. McKnight, I'm certain what you've got is a hack. [Edit: billybandit beat me to this, apparently. I need to write faster.]
Back on topic. Lack of interest wasn't the only factor in choosing whether to release a game here; I know that some titles didn't make it across the Pacific due to Nintendo of America's policy against things like religious symbolism in games. Devil World is the oft-cited example, but I believe there are others.
TestDummy:
This topic amuses me already.
McKnight wrote:
Let's stay on topic, shall we all?
I cannot see where he actually did deviate from it. You're really paranoid about your threads, it seems.
[written in small font:]
This post has nothing to do with the topic at hand. EVERYBODY PANIC!
[/small font]
DrZaius:
Ah-ha ha! Ah-ha ha ha! Ah-ha ha ha ha ha!
Ha ha-where's that picture of the falling bear I had?
*falls over*
Aw, screw it! I'll get it later.
Ah-ha ha ha! Hentai Columns!
billybandit
TestDummy wrote:
This topic amuses me already.
McKnight wrote:
Let's stay on topic, shall we all?
I cannot see where he actually did deviate from the topic. You're really paranoid about your threads, it seems.
Thank you, TestDummy
McKnight wrote:
Just answering your question. Let's stay on topic, shall we all?
Let's not try to undermind me with patronising backpeddaling, shall we McKnugget? Judging solely from the Columns "research" you've undertaken, I'm guessing a lot of this information is defunct/erroneous. Don't trust ROMs you've found floating around, very many are hacked. And that "Columns" one you mentioned (which I just played) is so obviously a homebrew that if you can't differentiate between a proper release and some home-made sad cartoon porno... I don't know how to end this.
Powerlord:
Speaking of which, linking to ROM sites is explicitly against the forum rules.
Kefkarjp:
Duh?
Powerlord:
This topic has been locked for encouraging software piracy.
Okay, so I forgot how to make the text appear red (for the link removal note in the first post) or small (for the line "This post has nothing to do with the topic at hand. EVERYBODY PANIC!"). Don't worry. I'll get around to looking them up...sometime, like when I've got my life all in order.
McKnight:
So, this is a moot point, but I'd like to point out (for anyone who's interested) an entire lot of anime-style Super NES games that were never released in the United States. You might be thinking "Sure, we had some anime games during the 16-bit era. We had Mega Man, Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, and even a few lesser-known ones like Kendo Rage." And that is true, we Americans did get a handful of anime games back then, but not as many as we have today. Get a load of these:
Akazukin Cha Cha- Some kind of RPG. I was never able to get past the beginning of the game, and never bothered to figure out how. (The respective anime, which this game is based on, is called Red Riding Hood Cha Cha in North America.)
Battle Zeque Den- This is a side-scroller beat-em-up game with three girls as your playable characters. I chose the girl with the segmented ponytail and the round, puffy cat-gloves. (God she's got such an annoying scratchy voice!) I only got to the beginning of the third level in this game, and the game itself wasn't all that interesting.
Bisojo John - Shi Suuchipai- Okay, I just never understood this game. First, we get the title screen of some sexy busty lady, then some menu screen. Then, when you start the game, we're shown a picture of someone's glasses that the owner apparently lost (supplemented with some rather bad-news-ish music), and then for the game, you start off by playing some card game that I don't know or care what the point of it is.
Bisyoujyo Wrestlinger's History- Some kind of women's wrestling game. I just don't understand what all those options do when you play the actual game. I got bored of it before I actually fought any matches (assuming you do so).
Columns- Pretty simple. Three jewels in a column float down the board, and you need to align three rocks of the same color in order to eliminate them. Along the way, you'll also have bombs (for blasting away the gems with) and brick blocks (which can only be destroyed with bombs) among the gems. In the background is a picture of a naked lady, and for every four levels you clear, the board disappears, allowing you to see the entire "background", before moving on.
Coron Land- The point of this game is to kill enemies with this weapon that shoots red "prison" bubbles (similar to the Martian Bubble Gun from Zombies Ate My Neighbors). Some enemies explode when you try to bubble-trap them. Unfortunately, I lost all my lives before even clearing the first world.
Ghost Sweeper Mikami- based on the anime of the same name. Some of the levels are actually spooky, while others aren't so much. Level 7 (last one before the final boss)...well, see it for yourself if you wanna download it. It is such an interesting level, though.
Kingyo Chuiho Tobidise! Game Gakuen- Some kind of puzzle game. I don't remember what the objective is, unlike for Mahou Poipoi Poitto.
Mahou Poipoi Poitto- Now this one was one of my favorites, mainly as a time killer. You can play as a boy or a girl, both of whose objective is to kill generic monsters such as a skeleton, a witch, Medusa, and a black knight. Four elemental blocks descend from the board, and your job is to get combos or more than three of a kind to attack your opponent (just like in Tetris Attack or Bust-A-Move).
Kendo Rage- Actually, this one did arrive in the U.S. in 1993, but it was previously called Makeruna Makendou. For some reason, the box/cartridge art was changed to not look anime-like, and some censorship was also applied to the game itself. For example, Josephine is introduced as a Japanese exchange-student from America, whereas in the original version, her name is Hikari, and she was born in Japan to begin with.
(On a side note, I don't know where to find any standalone fanfiction based on this game. However, if anyone wants to read any fanfiction about this girl, I own a currently discontinued fanfic based on SMW2: Yoshi's Island which features Hikari and a male OC as the main characters, along with Baby Mario. Give it a read if you don't mind crossovers or nose-modification (which only Hikari and my OC undergo).
Makeruna Makendou 2 - Kimero Youkai Souri- This is a fighting game, not a side-scroller like its predecessor. Josephing (a.k.a. Hikari) is the only playable character in the game. The music for the first game was okay, but in this game, I found it godawful. I never did win the first fight (which takes place against Masoccer) because I only played it once. (There is another game in this series for the PC Engine, titled Makeruna Makendou Z, which never made it into the United States either.)
Miracle Girls- Never got past the first level of this game. You select Tomomi or Mikage (I think that's what their names were), and you attack by throwing candy at your enemies, which doesn't kill them but does stop them in their tracks, allowing you to jump on them.
Otoboke Ninja Colosseum- The levels and gameplay in this game are similar to any 16-bit Bomberman game I ever played. There's a difference, between those bombs and the bombs in this game. Here, when the bombs explode, they shoot shuriken in all four directions, which have infinite range but can only take out one block each. There was a level in the first world which I had no idea how to clear, thus I never got very far into the game.
Panic in Nakayoshi World- Some kind of dream world game, which includes Sailor Moon as one of the playable characters. You shoot crescent moons at blocks to obliterate them, and you have a second character following you, whom I think you're supposed to protect. The boss for the first world is a dancing yellow star, and I never bothered to actually fight it. I just turned the game off upon reaching it.
Police Armor Metal Jack- Only three male characters to play as. I never got very far into even the first level, let alone the game. The music sounds similar to a bunch of car horns honking, and it was really annoying.
Sakura Wars- Just a slideshow based on the respective anime.
Those were only the games that I actually gave a try upon downloading, and there are even more for the Super Famicom that I never even did download despite keeping a list of. A lot of these are:
Ace wo Nerae
Ancient Magic
Angel Eyes
Angelic Voice Fantasy
Angelique
Block Kuzushi
The Blue Crystal Rod
Dear Boys
Dekitate High School
Der Langrisser
Doukyusei 2
Forest of Beginning - Haji Mari
Gan Gan Ganchan
Ginga Sengoku Gunyuuden Rai
Gourmet Sentai Bara Yarou
Kishin Douji Zenki 2 - Den Ei Rai Bu
Lodoss Tou Senki
Love Quest
Madou Monogatari - Hanamaru Dai Youchienji
Magic Drop 2
Mahoujin Guru Guru
Marmalade Boy
Masoukishin - Super Robot Wars Gaiden - Lord of Elemental
Melfand Stories
Metal Combat - Falcon's Revenge
Mini 4ku and Power WGP2
Multi-Play Volleyball
Nage Libre
Natsuki Crisis Battle
Princess Maker - Legend of Another World
Robotrek
Ruin Arm
Far East of Eden
Tsume
Seifuki Densetsu Pretty Fighter
Shushoku Game
Slayers
Star Ocean
Stardust Suplex
Super Family Gerende
Super Momotaru Densetsu 3
Super Nazo Puyo - Ruru no Ruu
Super Puyo Puyo
Super Robot Taisen
Super Variable Geo
Super Wrestle Angels
Super Zugan - Hakoten-Jyo Kara no Syoutai
Sword Maniac
Tokemeki Memorial
Tower Dream
Wedding Peach
Wonder Project J
Yujin Janjyugakuen
Yujin no Furi Furi Girls
Zero 4 Champ R R
WTF? Why did America have such a problem allowing most of these games past its borders? Obviously, this just has to coincide with the fact that back then, there were very, very few anime TV shows available in the U.S. for some odd reason. Sure, after having looked at game lists on Wikipedia, I've noticed that there were occasional games for later consoles that didn't reach America (such as Card Captor Sakura for the Playstation, Neon Genesis Evangelion 64 for the Nintendo 64, and Air for the Playstation 2), but that's okay because America has already become more tolerant of anime than it used to be. I can understand Columns being banned from the U.S. because of its sexual nature, but all these other games?
Anyone got comments or answers about this? I'll be glad to hear 'em.
Also, these games are available to download at [red]Link removed by Admin: Linking to ROM sites is against the forum rules[/red], in case anyone's interested in giving them a try.
billybandit:
McKnight wrote:
Columns- Pretty simple. Three jewels in a column float down the board, and you need to align three rocks of the same color in order to eliminate them. Along the way, you'll also have bombs (for blasting away the gems with) and brick blocks (which can only be destroyed with bombs) among the gems. In the background is a picture of a naked lady, and for every four levels you clear, the board disappears, allowing you to see the entire "background", before moving on.
Woah woah woah... I'm not sure where you've got this information from but I'm pretty sure Columns was never one of those games.
One censored game I can think of was Hokuto No Ken for Megadrive. When it got released outside of Japan it was re-named "Last Battle", all boxart was redone in typical western style and bloody death animations were completely stripped from the game. The Master System's Hokuto No Ken/Black Belt was better, and pretty much untampered (title screen on all versions was very Manga IIRC)
Also, a lot of these games would have been completely unsellable (even violence and erotica aside) due to the fact that it wasn't until very recently that Anime became at all "popular" in western society. By the masses, even today, it can be seen as laughable. So 10 - 20 years ago - trying to market games such as "Super Happy Magical Sex Block-Buster Surprise" (your special hack of Columns - just an example) would cost whatever companies dumb enough to attempt to market/distribute it thousands and thousands of dollars. Things have changed, and now with all the imports and whatnot people are able to get hold of whatever games they want. So even if a game is not officially marketed in an area of the world it's probably for good reason, but people who really want it will still be able to order it
McKnight:
billybandit wrote:
Woah woah woah... I'm not sure where you've got this information from but I'm pretty sure Columns was never one of those games.
Where did I get this information from? It's the Super NES version, and I played it myself, by downloading it. See for yourself if you want to.
Just answering your question. Let's stay on topic, shall we all?
silentzorah:
La Pucelle Tactics on PS2 underwent some censorship before it hit the states, mostly for the usage of religious imagery. It's most noticable on Prier's baton, which originally had a cross on the end of it.
Of course, since they're censoring smoking in cartoons now, why not in gaming? Croix's trademark cigarette was removed from his sprites, even though his victory animation still shows him reach for something in his mouth and put it out... Yeah, real offensive. Official artwork remains unchanged...
billybandit:
McKnight wrote:
billybandit wrote:
Woah woah woah... I'm not sure where you've got this information from but I'm pretty sure Columns was never one of those games.
Where did I get this information from? It's the Super NES version, and I played it myself, by downloading it. See for yourself if you want to.
Just answering your question. Let's stay on topic, shall we all?
You idiot! "Hentai Columns" is clearly a hack. And Columns was never even officially ported to the SNES (although there is a very good unofficial port from 1999 going by the name of "Columns"). And while we're on the subject I'd be highly surprised if there was ever an erotic/hentai related game released on a console - licensed by whoever made the console.
McKnight wrote:
Police Armor Metal Jack- Only three male characters to play as. I never got very far into even the first level, let alone the game. The music sounds similar to a bunch of car horns honking, and it was really annoying.
Also another good example - I've not played this game but - apart from not being at all relevant in any other community/region, some games aren't even deemed good enough to be given a release outside of their native area. It's not Corporate American Nazi's trying to censor your eyes from freedom and Anime and good
Geo:
I hate to go back to Columns, but I've just gotta say this: Columns was conceived and programmed in the USA, and the most popular versions were published by Sega. As far as I know (and both Wikipedia and GameFAQs support this), there never even was a Super Nintendo version, and I'm quite sure there wasn't a pr0n edition either. McKnight, I'm certain what you've got is a hack. [Edit: billybandit beat me to this, apparently. I need to write faster.]
Back on topic. Lack of interest wasn't the only factor in choosing whether to release a game here; I know that some titles didn't make it across the Pacific due to Nintendo of America's policy against things like religious symbolism in games. Devil World is the oft-cited example, but I believe there are others.
TestDummy:
This topic amuses me already.
McKnight wrote:
Let's stay on topic, shall we all?
I cannot see where he actually did deviate from it. You're really paranoid about your threads, it seems.
[written in small font:]
This post has nothing to do with the topic at hand. EVERYBODY PANIC!
[/small font]
DrZaius:
Ah-ha ha! Ah-ha ha ha! Ah-ha ha ha ha ha!
Ha ha-where's that picture of the falling bear I had?
*falls over*
Aw, screw it! I'll get it later.
Ah-ha ha ha! Hentai Columns!
billybandit
TestDummy wrote:
This topic amuses me already.
McKnight wrote:
Let's stay on topic, shall we all?
I cannot see where he actually did deviate from the topic. You're really paranoid about your threads, it seems.
Thank you, TestDummy
McKnight wrote:
Just answering your question. Let's stay on topic, shall we all?
Let's not try to undermind me with patronising backpeddaling, shall we McKnugget? Judging solely from the Columns "research" you've undertaken, I'm guessing a lot of this information is defunct/erroneous. Don't trust ROMs you've found floating around, very many are hacked. And that "Columns" one you mentioned (which I just played) is so obviously a homebrew that if you can't differentiate between a proper release and some home-made sad cartoon porno... I don't know how to end this.
Powerlord:
Speaking of which, linking to ROM sites is explicitly against the forum rules.
Kefkarjp:
Duh?
Powerlord:
This topic has been locked for encouraging software piracy.
Okay, so I forgot how to make the text appear red (for the link removal note in the first post) or small (for the line "This post has nothing to do with the topic at hand. EVERYBODY PANIC!"). Don't worry. I'll get around to looking them up...sometime, like when I've got my life all in order.