40 Winks Kickstarter launched

Now that’s a name you probably haven’t heard in a long time. 40 Winks is a game that was never released back in the day, but actually got close to completion. There have been a ROM or two floating around here and there that you can play on an emulator or flash cart, and now it seems like the game will finally be completed. The 40 Winks Kickstarter can be found here, if you want to contribute to the funding effort. As of now the goal is complete, so the good news is that the game is going to be made either way.

A bit of history about 40 Winks

This is a game that has been drifing in limbo for quite a while. The PlayStation 1 version of the game was released in 1999, but the N64 port was never released due to financial problems that the developer (GT Interactive) had. It turns out that after publishing the PS1 version, they had to cancel a whole lot of projects and the company was eventually sold off to Infogrames, a company known for making a lot of acquisitions between 1998 and 2002.

The N64 version of 40 Winks was thus discontinued. There have been ROMs of the game floating around the internet, but they’re all incomplete. Well, though it’s technically ‘incomplete’, it does seem to be the most complete unreleased ROM that’s available. Most of the others seem like technical demos or game concepts in comparison.

About the 40 Winks Kickstarter

The history was launched the 14th of February, and got fully funded within a week. It’s being currently developed by Piko Interactive, a company that has developed retro games for other consoles in the past; this is their first N64 game. It’e being expected to be released some time in late 2018, which is pretty good for still being in the funding stage.

It is unclear as to how this game is being developed; whether it’s a port of the PS1 code, finalising the N64 source code or a game built from scratch. It might be that they even discovered a completed version of the game somewhere and are just publishing it.

UPDATE 08/Mar/2018: It seems as though the game will be based on a ROM from 01 Oct 2000. Also, it is an NTSC version of the game that is more complete than the one that has been leaked. They also have a PAL version of the game, but they need to test it and have had trouble getting a hold of a PAL console.

They have different tier to get the game: a cart-only version, a CIB boxed version, a branded controller and a collectors edition which includes a poster and art books. The good news is that if there is good demand for this game, Pico Interactive is thinking about making more games for the N64. This will be great for the homebrew community and stretching the legacy of the console.

I for one will give them a few bucks, I’d love to see how this turns out.