Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill (partially lost Super Nintendo/Sega Genesis 2D platformer; 1993-1994)

Title screen.

Status: Found (SNES version)
Lost (Sega Genesis version)

Date found: 2002 or 2003 (SNES prototype) / 1 Feb '18 (SNES version offical release)

Found by: Jason Wilson (aka DreamTR) (SNES version)

Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill is an unreleased 1993 SNES/Sega Genesis platform video game that starred a cartoon, fictionalized version of Bill Clinton's famous pet cat, Socks.

Premise

According to magazine articles, the game centred around Socks fighting foreign rat spies invading the White House to steal nuclear plans, leading him through several levels to fight said enemies.

Bosses were allegedly based on real-life American politicians, including Ross Perot and a Jimmy Carter stand-in with a "smile attack."

Cancellation

Although the game was fully developed and featured in ads and game expositions, its release was cancelled for unknown reasons, although it has been speculated that it was due to the political satire inside the game that would not have possibly lead to legal problems. People who have worked on the game denied this, however, and stated that it was due to the publisher being shut down before the game's release.

Availability

SNES

Only one prototype cartridge of the SNES version has been known to exist still. It ended up in possession of Jason Wilson, aka DreamTR, an avid collector of video games and owner of a video arcade. However, he refused to make its ROM available to the public because it would lower the value of the cartridge, although he kept a duplicate of the ROM.

Aware of its uniqueness, DreamTR had a friend upload an (intentionally) blurry, poor-quality five-minute video of the game being played on a TV. He and his friend admitted they did it in order to "troll" fans/gamers who would wish to play it. After this, they got flooded with countless requests that he'd dump the ROM, some of them being extremely aggressive.

In a forum on NintendoAge, DreamTR explained that he refused to dump the ROM. However, he would sell the prototype cartridge for a minimum of $5000 or exchange it for either a Medieval Madness pinball machine or a copy of Stadium Events on the NES with the original box and manual, either also be being worth around $5000.

Eventually, a member of the forum, MinusWorlds, did buy the cartridge and promised that he would release it to the public in the near future, but in the form of boxed reproduction cartridges, after which a Kickstarter was eventually launched.

On February 1, 2018, the game's reproduction cartridges were finally shipped, and it was later dumped online for people to play the game.

Sega Genesis

No prototypes of the Sega Genesis version have resurfaced in any way, and little is known about it in general, apart from the fact that it would have been very different from the SNES release.

Gallery

5 minutes of poor-quality gameplay footage.

Clearer gameplay footage.

Boss fight.

12 minutes of higher quality gameplay footage of the SNES version, courtesy of YouTube user NR Productions.

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  The game was developed as "Socks the Cat Rocks the House".

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  Advertisement for the game.

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  Kickstarter advertisement.

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  Original box art

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  Back of the original box

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  Gamepro's review of the game

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  The only known screenshot of the Genesis version.

External Link

• Hidden Palace's page on the game, provides a download link to the ROM of the SNES version of the game.