We have just been contacted by Willy Elektrix about a rather unusual release called the '1999: Megallennium 6-in-1 Mega Cart' that has been made available through Gamejolt and is free to download and play. This bundle of fun released recently, is a PC port of a lost NES multi-cart developed in 1989, which was meant to be released during that time but due to internal issues at Megallennium never saw the light of day until now.
So now's your chance to play through a set of games you've probably never heard of, games such as Dr.Moonlight's Happyworld, Owlbears, PicOHRoss, Xoo:Xeno Xafari, Ultra Frontier and Star Dartle 2000, however before you rush off to have a go, make sure to read the history of the game's development below, sent to us by Willy Elektrix himself!
Megallennium Software was founded in 1988 as a subsidiary of Megallennium Race Track Services Limited, an American manufacturer of analog scoreboards for horse and dog racetrack venues. In an attempt to diversify, Megallennium hired Charlotte “Civil” Milton to develop coin-operated gambling video games for racetracks. Civil was a computer science graduate student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Uninterested in developing gambling games, she spent her development budget to create a game for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
The NES game was a consumer-friendly multi-cart featuring six games for the price of one. During development, it was called 1999: Megallennium 6-in-1 Mega Cart – The New Millennium of Video Entertainment. This was later shortened to 1999: Megallennium 6-in-1 Mega Cart.
To help with the project, Civil Milton hired seven fellow MIT students who she met while playing Dungeons & Dragons. Civil and her team shared a three bedroom apartment during four months of intensive development. Under Civil’s influence, work on 1999 was constant. Two of the students failed out of MIT as a result. In 1989, 1999: Megallennium 6-in-1 Mega Cart was finished. Civil Milton demonstrated the completed multi-cart to Megallennium’s owner Todd Bonzalez. Bonzalez believed Civil had been working on a coin-operated gambling video game. Civil was promptly fired and the multi-cart was never released.
One member of the 1999 team was Bruce Kazantazakis. He retained a prototype of the multi-cart. In 1990, he hosted an NES competition in New York City called “Video Apocalypse”. He used 1999 as the final round challenge. Word about 1999’s radically strange games spread among the city’s gamers. Following this, Kazantazakis tried to release 1999, but was unsuccessful in purchasing the rights from Megallennium. A year later, he moved to Haiti to work as a missionary. 1999: Megallennium 6-in-1 Mega Cart disappeared with him.
1999: Megallennium 6-in-1 Mega Cart was lost until 2017 when the a prototype cartridge was found and uploaded to the internet by Civil Milton’s mother, Rosie Mecherle.
Links : 1) Source
The NES game was a consumer-friendly multi-cart featuring six games for the price of one. During development, it was called 1999: Megallennium 6-in-1 Mega Cart – The New Millennium of Video Entertainment. This was later shortened to 1999: Megallennium 6-in-1 Mega Cart.
To help with the project, Civil Milton hired seven fellow MIT students who she met while playing Dungeons & Dragons. Civil and her team shared a three bedroom apartment during four months of intensive development. Under Civil’s influence, work on 1999 was constant. Two of the students failed out of MIT as a result. In 1989, 1999: Megallennium 6-in-1 Mega Cart was finished. Civil Milton demonstrated the completed multi-cart to Megallennium’s owner Todd Bonzalez. Bonzalez believed Civil had been working on a coin-operated gambling video game. Civil was promptly fired and the multi-cart was never released.
One member of the 1999 team was Bruce Kazantazakis. He retained a prototype of the multi-cart. In 1990, he hosted an NES competition in New York City called “Video Apocalypse”. He used 1999 as the final round challenge. Word about 1999’s radically strange games spread among the city’s gamers. Following this, Kazantazakis tried to release 1999, but was unsuccessful in purchasing the rights from Megallennium. A year later, he moved to Haiti to work as a missionary. 1999: Megallennium 6-in-1 Mega Cart disappeared with him.
1999: Megallennium 6-in-1 Mega Cart was lost until 2017 when the a prototype cartridge was found and uploaded to the internet by Civil Milton’s mother, Rosie Mecherle.
Links : 1) Source
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