I dunno why I can't just add the photo on here, but Yo Noid is on this listing. I'm starting to think Funco Inc and FuncoLand are separate from each other. The listing is totally differently styled, but the fact they're both in Minnesota is weird.
Edit: Here's a theory, Funco Inc were hacks. They wanted people to confuse them with FuncoLand, hence the close name association. Play It Again brags about being mentioned in the New York Times (which I have yet to come across), maybe they were really the better company. Funco Inc was like this ripoff of FuncoLand and also ripped off Play It Again. But that's just me spitballing.
Scratch that, found a different FuncoLand listing and on the bottom it says Funco Inc. So weird the one with the Yeah Yeah Beebiss listing looks different from the rest. But Yo Noid is listed on that one I posted above.
I dunno why I can't just add the photo on here, but Yo Noid is on this listing. I'm starting to think Funco Inc and FuncoLand are separate from each other. The listing is totally differently styled, but the fact they're both in Minnesota is weird.
Edit: Here's a theory, Funco Inc were hacks. They wanted people to confuse them with FuncoLand, hence the close name association. Play It Again brags about being mentioned in the New York Times (which I have yet to come across), maybe they were really the better company. Funco Inc was like this ripoff of FuncoLand and also ripped off Play It Again. But that's just me spitballing.
Hmm...ok well, I can't download images for some reason, my comp is retarded, but I just checked the actual images of the lists from the actual page and I couldn't find Yo! Noid, unless it was miscategorized too. Can you tell me the game like above it?
Also yes I checked business listings, Funco is basically what FuncoLand was called prior to expanding in the 90s, from what I can see, so they're not separate entities they're just one company that changed names. See here. I just did a "find in page" for FuncoLand and it popped up nine times so at most it was a PART of this Funco Inc business and more likely just their original name before they grew up.
I dunno why I can't just add the photo on here, but Yo Noid is on this listing. I'm starting to think Funco Inc and FuncoLand are separate from each other. The listing is totally differently styled, but the fact they're both in Minnesota is weird.
Edit: Here's a theory, Funco Inc were hacks. They wanted people to confuse them with FuncoLand, hence the close name association. Play It Again brags about being mentioned in the New York Times (which I have yet to come across), maybe they were really the better company. Funco Inc was like this ripoff of FuncoLand and also ripped off Play It Again. But that's just me spitballing.
Ok I could barely see that but It finally worked, yeah so Yo! Noid is listed on FUNCOLAND but that was either after or around 1990, because from what I can gather from the Funco business history they changed there name around that time, which was also around the time that Yeah Yeah Beebiss I was delisted and Yo! Noid shows up. But I still think that this is frankly consistent with the theory, at least it seems like it, because part of the idea is that around 1990 they realized that Yeah Yeah Beebiss I was a horrendous mistranslation of Yo! Noid and dropped it for the real thing. Was that list from around 1990? Because that was the cutoff for when Yeah Yeah Beebiss I was listed, so I THINK it would actually fit...actually that might confirm it on second thought...
Post by thatgamingasshole on Mar 29, 2021 12:55:51 GMT
Ok so I checked, the FuncoLand list is from June which is AFTER January which is the cutoff for Yeah Yeah Beebiss I and seems to be when Yo! Noid appears, so that may actually help the theory...I think? The idea is that Yo! Noid appears after Yeah Yeah Beebiss I vanished, and if I'm correct then it disappeared around January 1990, or at least as far as I remember the video, so unless I'm mistaken that fits in the timeline I think.
Ok so I checked, the FuncoLand list is from June which is AFTER January which is the cutoff for Yeah Yeah Beebiss I and seems to be when Yo! Noid appears, so that may actually help the theory...I think? The idea is that Yo! Noid appears after Yeah Yeah Beebiss I vanished, and if I'm correct then it disappeared around January 1990, or at least as far as I remember the video, so unless I'm mistaken that fits in the timeline I think.
Given that June 1990 is in between the releases of Kamen no Ninja and Yo! Noid, this could support the idea that Yo! Noid wasn't ready before 1990, especially since from what I read the list was probably put together at least a month earlier.
However, something supporting your theory is that apparently Norm Nickin of Domino's "claimed that Capcom took two years to develop the game, including seven months when eight programmers in Osaka worked." But...that very same website reports that it wasn't until November 1989 that news of Domino's signing a contract with Capcom was reported on, suggesting to me that development of Yo! Noid wouldn't have been very far along in June 1989 if it was even being worked on at all.
Given that June 1990 is in between the releases of Kamen no Ninja and Yo! Noid, this could support the idea that Yo! Noid wasn't ready before 1990, especially since from what I read the list was probably put together at least a month earlier.
However, something supporting your theory is that apparently Norm Nickin of Domino's "claimed that Capcom took two years to develop the game, including seven months when eight programmers in Osaka worked." But...that very same website reports that it wasn't until November 1989 that news of Domino's signing a contract with Capcom was reported on, suggesting to me that development of Yo! Noid wouldn't have been very far along in June 1989 if it was even being worked on at all.
Well that's kind of part of it...there are at least THREE games that were either unfinished, in a prototype stage, or hand't been localized yet that are on this list. Four if you include "Zeta Gundam" which was already released in Japan but I can find no evidence of when it's localized. But English screenshots exist everywhere I looked, so it had to be some time either after or around the time of the lists. So some kind of outside party was telling them of games not finished or still in development, and it was only months or even a year or so later that they re-did the lists. There is no other explination for Zombie Master, Zeta Gundam, Titan Warriors and Nightmare because two of those games were unfinished, one was released later under a completely different title, and one was never localized but scheduled to be.
The timeline isn't perfect, but it requires only one or two logical reach arounds and few real leaps of faith. All it requires is some third party likely in Japan was announcing games BEFORE they were officially released or even finished and they listed them before checking to see, and someone horrendously mistranslated something, likely on both sides.
I dunno why I can't just add the photo on here, but Yo Noid is on this listing. I'm starting to think Funco Inc and FuncoLand are separate from each other. The listing is totally differently styled, but the fact they're both in Minnesota is weird.
Edit: Here's a theory, Funco Inc were hacks. They wanted people to confuse them with FuncoLand, hence the close name association. Play It Again brags about being mentioned in the New York Times (which I have yet to come across), maybe they were really the better company. Funco Inc was like this ripoff of FuncoLand and also ripped off Play It Again. But that's just me spitballing.
Hmm...ok well, I can't download images for some reason, my comp is retarded, but I just checked the actual images of the lists from the actual page and I couldn't find Yo! Noid, unless it was miscategorized too. Can you tell me the game like above it?
Also yes I checked business listings, Funco is basically what FuncoLand was called prior to expanding in the 90s, from what I can see, so they're not separate entities they're just one company that changed names. See here. I just did a "find in page" for FuncoLand and it popped up nine times so at most it was a PART of this Funco Inc business and more likely just their original name before they grew up.
Oh yeah I realized, I did a separate post but it should have been an edit, FuncoLand's listing says FuncoInc on the bottom, which yup means they're the same. Also dates are on the bottom which if we can find a Yo Noid with the date it would help.
As for the lists, Yo Noid is on quite a few of them if you just search FuncoLand lists. I think it was gone by November?? I should double check that, on one list it was 2.99 and on another it was 1.29 which shows it was going down in price. Not to mention it was sometimes on lists where SNES games were listed after Nintendo games, so I'm pretty sure it was on that list for AWHILE.
Here's another thought that I'm not seeing brought up, why is Yeah Yeah Beebiss not in alphabetical order? After looking at a lot of these Funco lists, and how detailed they are, this seems like an extra weird mistake.
Edit: This alphabetical mistake is also present on both lists. Which I need to ask, what was the original source for both of these lists? I can find the images, message boards as far back as 2009, but where did these lists first pop up in both print and online?
That's an interesting question, I'll rummage through reddit to see...
I watched a different video about Yeah Yeah Beebiss where someone asked in the comments if these listings were ever authenticated, and I think that really should be priority over trying to place a game that fits.....because I hate to suggest this, what if this was some kind of weird elaborate prank that just got spun out of control? Of course there are holes in this theory too, but I think it's weird we don't know the origin offhand, just that these listings exist, and that only Funco and Play It Again have this mistranslation. If this was a mistranslation, wouldn't we see it in other lists or gaming magazines? Why only these two?
That's an interesting question, I'll rummage through reddit to see...
I watched a different video about Yeah Yeah Beebiss where someone asked in the comments if these listings were ever authenticated, and I think that really should be priority over trying to place a game that fits.....because I hate to suggest this, what if this was some kind of weird elaborate prank that just got spun out of control? Of course there are holes in this theory too, but I think it's weird we don't know the origin offhand, just that these listings exist, and that only Funco and Play It Again have this mistranslation. If this was a mistranslation, wouldn't we see it in other lists or gaming magazines? Why only these two?
It is odd that we only know of two list which mention Yeah Yeah Beebiss, but an explanation for that could be that Funco saw the name on Play it Again's list and copied it. And yeah, it's definitely possible that the game isn't even based on a real game and is just some sort of mistake. I did quickly confirm "Yeah Yeah Beebiss I" is in a scan of Video Games & Computer Entertainment from June 1989 though. The other scan also lets me read some of the listings more clearly.
I'm going through every game on the Play it Again list to see what games were included. There are quite a few games on the list that never got released in North America, some of which never got released at all (often arcade ports, such as Black Tiger and Cycle Shooting). I also noticed that "Flying Dragon I" is also listed, with the only other games with a "I" or "1" following them being "Spy vs. Spy 1" and of course "Yeah Yeah Beebiss I." I have no idea why Spy vs. Spy has a 1 after it (there wasn't even a second Spy vs. Spy on the NES), but Flying Dragon I's full name is "Flying Dragon: The Secret Scroll" and it is part of a Japanese series whose second game had already come out in Japan at the time. Thus, it might make sense that, since the full name was too long to fit, the name was cut down with the "I" added to indicate that this was the first in the series to avoid potential confusion with the sequel if it was announced. Or, since The Secret Scroll hadn't come out yet in America, the game might've just been referred to as "Flying Dragon I" (Indeed, I found a September 1988 article in Computer Gaming World which merely calls it "The Flying Dragon"). Thus, perhaps "Yeah Yeah Beebiss I" had a subtitle which had to be cut.
Most of the other unreleased games on the list seem to have been advertised somewhere else, so perhaps looking for any mentions of unreleased games around that time might be a good way to tell which one is "Yeah Yeah Beebiss," if it refers to one at all.
I watched a different video about Yeah Yeah Beebiss where someone asked in the comments if these listings were ever authenticated, and I think that really should be priority over trying to place a game that fits.....because I hate to suggest this, what if this was some kind of weird elaborate prank that just got spun out of control? Of course there are holes in this theory too, but I think it's weird we don't know the origin offhand, just that these listings exist, and that only Funco and Play It Again have this mistranslation. If this was a mistranslation, wouldn't we see it in other lists or gaming magazines? Why only these two?
It is odd that we only know of two list which mention Yeah Yeah Beebiss, but an explanation for that could be that Funco saw the name on Play it Again's list and copied it. And yeah, it's definitely possible that the game isn't even based on a real game and is just some sort of mistake. I did quickly confirm "Yeah Yeah Beebiss I" is in a scan of Video Games & Computer Entertainment from June 1989 though. The other scan also lets me read some of the listings more clearly.
I'm going through every game on the Play it Again list to see what games were included. There are quite a few games on the list that never got released in North America, some of which never got released at all (often arcade ports, such as Black Tiger and Cycle Shooting). I also noticed that "Flying Dragon I" is also listed, with the only other games with a "I" or "1" following them being "Spy vs. Spy 1" and of course "Yeah Yeah Beebiss I." I have no idea why Spy vs. Spy has a 1 after it (there wasn't even a second Spy. vs Spy on the NES), but Flying Dragon I's full name is "Flying Dragon: The Secret Scroll" and it is part of a Japanese series whose second game had already come out in Japan at the time. Thus, it might make sense that, since the full name was too long to fit, the name was cut down with the "I" added to indicate that this was the first in the series to avoid potential confusion with the sequel if it was announced. Or, since The Secret Scroll hadn't come out yet in America, the game might've just been referred to as "Flying Dragon I" (Indeed, I found a September 1988 article in Computer Gaming World which merely calls it "The Flying Dragon"). Thus, perhaps "Yeah Yeah Beebiss I" had a subtitle which had to be cut.
Most of the other unreleased games on the list seem to have been advertised somewhere else, so perhaps looking for any mentions of unreleased games around that time might be a good way to tell which one is "Yeah Yeah Beebiss," if it refers to one at all.
Can you link Video Games and Computer Entertainment? I wanna see it too.
I think looking for other unreleased games is a good idea. I definitely do think Funco copied Play It Again, because the lists are basically the same except for price and changing the title a bit. If they did copy Play It Again, we should look for more Play It Again listings. If it is a copyright trap, then maybe there would be other instances of weird titles in their old listings?
But if this is an unreleased game with a different title, going through game magazines from around that time would be a good start. I also like your one theory, it makes sense.
It is odd that we only know of two list which mention Yeah Yeah Beebiss, but an explanation for that could be that Funco saw the name on Play it Again's list and copied it. And yeah, it's definitely possible that the game isn't even based on a real game and is just some sort of mistake. I did quickly confirm "Yeah Yeah Beebiss I" is in a scan of Video Games & Computer Entertainment from June 1989 though. The other scan also lets me read some of the listings more clearly.
I'm going through every game on the Play it Again list to see what games were included. There are quite a few games on the list that never got released in North America, some of which never got released at all (often arcade ports, such as Black Tiger and Cycle Shooting). I also noticed that "Flying Dragon I" is also listed, with the only other games with a "I" or "1" following them being "Spy vs. Spy 1" and of course "Yeah Yeah Beebiss I." I have no idea why Spy vs. Spy has a 1 after it (there wasn't even a second Spy. vs Spy on the NES), but Flying Dragon I's full name is "Flying Dragon: The Secret Scroll" and it is part of a Japanese series whose second game had already come out in Japan at the time. Thus, it might make sense that, since the full name was too long to fit, the name was cut down with the "I" added to indicate that this was the first in the series to avoid potential confusion with the sequel if it was announced. Or, since The Secret Scroll hadn't come out yet in America, the game might've just been referred to as "Flying Dragon I" (Indeed, I found a September 1988 article in Computer Gaming World which merely calls it "The Flying Dragon"). Thus, perhaps "Yeah Yeah Beebiss I" had a subtitle which had to be cut.
Most of the other unreleased games on the list seem to have been advertised somewhere else, so perhaps looking for any mentions of unreleased games around that time might be a good way to tell which one is "Yeah Yeah Beebiss," if it refers to one at all.
Can you link Video Games and Computer Entertainment? I wanna see it too.
I think looking for other unreleased games is a good idea. I definitely do think Funco copied Play It Again, because the lists are basically the same except for price and changing the title a bit. If they did copy Play It Again, we should look for more Play It Again listings. If it is a copyright trap, then maybe there would be other instances of weird titles in their old listings?
But if this is an unreleased game with a different title, going through game magazines from around that time would be a good start. I also like your one theory, it makes sense.
Can you link Video Games and Computer Entertainment? I wanna see it too.
I think looking for other unreleased games is a good idea. I definitely do think Funco copied Play It Again, because the lists are basically the same except for price and changing the title a bit. If they did copy Play It Again, we should look for more Play It Again listings. If it is a copyright trap, then maybe there would be other instances of weird titles in their old listings?
But if this is an unreleased game with a different title, going through game magazines from around that time would be a good start. I also like your one theory, it makes sense.
Awesome thanks! I'm gonna comb over these and see if I find anything that stands out. Maybe we can find older issues of that magazine and see if there are any strange titles in any game lists.