Total Carnage

This is a relatively late prototype of Total Carnage, notable since it is uncensored. Thanks to Anonymous for dumping the prototype and sending it to me. By: Evan G Last updated: February 2, 2020

During the early 1990s, prior to the release of Mortal Kombat 2, Nintendo had a very strict policy on the depiction of violence and blood in games. Total Carnage, which came out before that, is one of the games that was a victim of this policy. This prototype, which, although nearing completion, shows that the game was originally designed with the blood that exists in the arcade intact. The most obvious part of this is the first boss, where the blood was changed from red to blue. Looking back, we can scratch our heads as to the point of this, but at that point there were politicians threatening to regulate the industry.

Prototype - red blood	Final - blue blood

Prototype - flaming enemies	Final - the flames have been changed for some reason

There are many other differences from final, many which I have noted below. The gameplay and graphics appears to be relatively complete, and I would place this at the 70-80% complete level.

• Pressing L can make the game crash.
• No story scenes.
• No score screen at the end of the level.
• No high score entry.
• No music.
• No sound effects except for shooting, and some of the shooting sounds are different from final.
• After the first level, bonus stages apparently are not present.

Prototype - no "TM" in the top right corner	Final

Prototype - white background Blue Pearl logo screen	Final - black background

Prototype - slightly different civilians here	Final

Final - the score and story screens are not in the prototype

The binary does not have many interesting things. The header is properly formatted, with a title called "Total.bin". The region is set to Japan, but I would assume this is a US prototype (I do not think the game came out in Japan).

I cannot publish a picture of the prototype, but I will say that the labels have 6/10 written on it. Since the game came out in late 1993, and given the state of the game, I assume that it is June 10, 1993, but I suppose it could also be October 6, 1993.

Download here