This sure has been an amazing few days of unreleased prototypes for the Nintendo Entertainment System! Just a few days ago, we brought you the news about “Dino Hockey“, and this morning, we bring you details about another one, this time from infamous developer Tengen. Lost Level’s webmaster Frank Cifaldi has made the ROM image available for download on an emulator, and we have all the details!

In celebration of “Lost Levels” 10th anniversary, Cifaldi got into contact with Mark Morris: A veteran video game programmer for Tengen, turned friend since 2009. Morris, while working with Jurgen Friedrich (the creator of the Atari ST port of the game), the two figured out a way to recreate the arcade classic on Nintendo’s NES platform. Even though the game was shown off at CES, Tengen ultimately decided to shelve the game permanently. Morris kept a copy of the game for himself, along with other games he worked on, as a way of keeping a personal log.

Recently, Cifaldi called Mark to discuss his work on “Hard Drivin'”, in hopes of eventually offering the title as a digital download so that gamers could finally give this title a play at home. What we get in return is an extremely early demo ROM image of the game, in which many of the features had not yet been programmed. In addition, due to a trick that was done in the programming in regards to scanlines, the game currently runs somewhat faulty in emulator programs.

In addition to offering the game itself, Cifaldi also offers gamers a unique interview with Mark, who discusses a lot about what went down when bringing this 3D classic to the (supposedly) underpowered NES console. He talks a lot about his time at Tengen in the interview, and it is certainly an excellent read for anyone interested in the history of a former employee. The link to the interview and the ROM image can be found below. Special thanks to the Xbox 360 ISO forums for bringing this story to our attention!

Hard Drivin’ NES ROM Image: http://www.lostlevels.org/hard-drivin/