A fan is porting Super Monkey Ball over to the Sega Dreamcast, while there is no demo or download available yet, those that have played it say it is great already. Going by the name “Neverball” (wasn’t that a Linux 3D marble game that is basically Super Monkey Ball?), and based on the NAOMI arcade version, this port uses a Nintendo GameCube decompilation source to work. Whew. That is a lot.
A Port That Should Have Happened Officially
Sega very likely would have ported Super Monkey Ball over to the Sega Dreamcast had the console survived another year or so. It is interesting that there has yet to even be a Beta or other work in progress found for such a port though. This tells me likely, there were never plans to port Super Monkey Ball over.
This is sad news because the NAOMI arcade hardware was basically a Dreamcast with more video ram and a few other tweaks. Still, we got it on other consoles so there is that.
Again, fans doing what companies will not.
Still Work in Progress
In a recent video, TheSegaGuru, showed Super Monkey Ball/Neverball running on the Sega Dreamcast. He discussed in his video that this port is using a Nintendo GameCube decompilation code with NAOMI assets to give an interesting mix of the home and arcade.
The game is not complete by any means and has plenty of road to travel before it is considered near complete. It will be interesting to see how Neverball develops on the Sega Dreamcast and if Sega steps in with anything negative to say about this port.
Decomps have been a lifesaver in porting of games. They allow for much closer to the silicon powered ports that emulation and fans reverse engineering could never provide.
What games would you like to see given a similar port? Let me know in the comments below.
