Game Versions In Physical Prints

[MetalFRO]

Most of us are aware of a couple famous instances where a game changed from the original print run to a slightly (or not so slightly) changed iteration in a future print. The most famous of these are The Revenge Of Shinobi, where you have several iterations of the game, some with or without Spider-Man, 1 with Godzilla, 1 with Batman, etc. There's also the 1.0 versus 1.1 or 1.2 of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, with a couple glitch fixes, but then also with some music changed in one of the temples. Less well known is Mystic Defender on the Sega Genesis, where the initial print run had "nudity" in the end game, with the character you save being naked while trapped in the clutches of the final boss, and floating naked down to the ground before the protagonist goes and wraps her in a blanket, and a later reprint having the graphics modified. I'm sure other examples like this exist, I'm just not acutely aware of any. I'd be curious

What I'm wondering is a bit more specific. Starting in the Game Boy era, with the "Million Seller" carts, and then ramping up more specifically with the "Greatest Hits" line on PS1, and carrying over to PS2 and beyond, Player's Choice on GameCube, or Platinum Hits for the Xbox line, are there any of these reprints that have been documented to have fixes, changes, or notable differences as compared to the original retail releases? If a GOTY print has changes, and then that specific version gets a reprint under a Hits/Platinum/etc. label, I don't know that it counts, but more specifically, if a game came out retail and a major game breaking bug or issue was found, are there examples of that being quietly patched and included on the later prints? I'd be curious to know if any of those exist, because one could consider those later prints the "definitive" version, unless the game breaking bug was exploitable for speedrunning, or something like that. Anyone have insight into that?

[Razor Knuckles]

Very interesting subject. I can only think of one example off the top of my head and that's from Star Fox on the Super Nintendo. It originally had a bug that would not let you 100% on the level Fortuna. This was later fixed on the Scoop cart style cartridge released later in 1993. Not a game breaking glitch but a heartbreaking one for completionists.

[MetalFRO]

I heard on a podcast the other day that the original release of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind for the Xbox had a game-breaking glitch that would cause you to get trapped somewhere, and that only the GOTY version has the fix that allows the game to be finished.

[WhyNotZoidberg]

I can think of a few games that had revised versions after game-breaking bugs were discovered.

Always one for obscure stuff: the game The 7th Guest on CD-i had a bug where a puzzle would crash the game, this was discovered only after hardware revisions had come out and so they revised the software accordingly.

The Horde on 3DO had an intial version where saving the game would wipe all other save files in the console's memory and that was fixed in a further revision. Neither of these titles was re-branded as a "Player's Choice" or anything.

But to add to the topic, Revenge of Shinobi on Genesis/MegaDrive is notorious for copyright infringement when it featured enemy bosses that 100% looked like Rambo, Batman, Terminator and Godzilla in its inital release. This was fixed and the game was eventually re-released as a "SEGA Classics" Genesis game without any of the original "borrowed" characters lol. Interesting facts: 1- the game was "fixed" before they made the SEGA Classics version, so it's entirely possible to find the non-Classics release without Rambo. 2- Spider-Man also appears in the game, but SEGA did have the right to use his likeliness.

[MetalFRO]

There appear to be 5 different versions of Revenge of Shinobi, based on what I'm seeing:

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/whip_ass_gaming/tell-revenge-of-shinobi-versions-apart-t2523.html

Interesting notes about the CD-i and 3DO games. I'm reminded that I remember hearing about either a PlayStation or Saturn game that was similar, where either a spot in the game if you tried to save would crash the game & corrupt the save and/or your memory card, or something along those lines, but I don't recall what game(s) that happened with.

[Bear78]

The Greatest Hits version of Spyro 3 on PS1 has a game breaking big bug fix, restored cut scene, and some additional music added over the original release.

The Greatest Hits version of Silent Hill 2 on PS2 had the Xbox versions stuff added to it to make it a more complete version over the original release.

More recently, the original version of Don't Starve Mega Pack on PS4 was missing a ton of content on the disc.  It was reprinted with a updated UPC/Part # that had all the content on disc: http://www.rfgeneration.c...nfo.pl?ID=U-215-S-08180-A

And again with Spyro, the original PS4 release of Spyro Reignited Trilogy only had the first game on disc and the other 2 as downloads.  Sony changed their rules on this at the end of 2018 so when they started printing new copies of the game in 2019, all 3 games were on disc.  Unfortunately the UPC / Part # did not change and the only thing that did was the year printed on the disc (changed from 2018 to 2019).  The second print also included a AD insert for the Crash Team Racing.  Any new copy of this at this point *Should* be the updated disc though.

I think the LRG version of PS4 Tetris Effect had the most recent patches on it over the initial retail release.  Of course, they have released more patches and the expansion since both of these so neither are complete on disc as of now.

[MetalFRO]

Yeah! This is the kind of great info I was hoping to find out about, as this thread develops. That's great news about Spyro 3 - I'll have to be on the lookout for a GH copy, because all I have is the standard release.

[Bear78]

Some others I thought of. I believe all the Dreamcast games that were released with the "Hot New" label on the front had bug fixes / changes.  I know Mortal Kombat Gold for sure did but I think the others did also.

[MetalFRO]

This thread from Digital Press would seem to corroborate that:
https://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?86836-What-are-Dreamcast-Hot-New!-games-I-don-t-understand

[Schlibby]

I often come across ps2 discs where there is a # at the end of the part number indicating a new version. I would assume these generally have bug fixes implemented.

This is in PAL land. But assume similar in NA

[techwizard]

I would assume most Game of the Year editions of games would have patches added into the game, and some include DLC. I'm not sure if that counts though as they're closer to a special edition almost.

[MetalFRO]

I would assume most Game of the Year editions of games would have patches added into the game, and some include DLC. I'm not sure if that counts though as they're closer to a special edition almost.

I think that's the general assumption for PS3/360 era and beyond, though it could apply to the previous generation in some cases.

[Bear78]

I would assume most Game of the Year editions of games would have patches added into the game, and some include DLC. I'm not sure if that counts though as they're closer to a special edition almost.

I think that's the general assumption for PS3/360 era and beyond, though it could apply to the previous generation in some cases.

It really depends on the game.  Some get actual "Game of the Year" editions while others will just get "Game of the Year" slapped on them as a packaging variation.  The other problem is, even if it's a true GOTY Edition, some have the extra content on disc while others are just DLC vouchers.  Dragon Age Inquisition GOTY Edition is a great example of this.  It's advertised to have all content on the packaging but it's just the standard game on the disc with a DLC voucher for everything else.

[MetalFRO]

That's annoying. I realize it's a cost saving measure, but it's disingenuous at best.

[Bear78]

That's annoying. I realize it's a cost saving measure, but it's disingenuous at best.

Yeah, Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate is another, more recent one.  The PS5 version is the standard game with a DLC voucher for everything while the PS4 version is 2 disc which contains the base game and an extra install disc with all the DLC on it.  It's crazy to think they just didn't put everything on disc on the PS5 version.