ACTIVE ENTERPRISES --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Active Enterprises was founded in Florida in 1989 by two entrepreneurs who wanted to cash in on the success of the bootleg multi-game NES carts that had made their way into the US. The only NES game they ever officially produced was Action 52 featuring 52 original games which, individually and collectively, are widely regarded as some of the worst NES titles ever released. The flagship game was The Cheetahmen, a not-too-subtle clone of TMNT. Before getting out of the video game business the company did produce a second game, Cheetahmen II, which was never released and remained unknown until the mid-1990's when 1500 copies were found in a warehouse and made their way into circulation. Cheetahmen II is loaded onto an Action 52 cartridge and features a gold sticker with the title misspelled as "Cheetamen".
Action 52
Cheetahmen II
The prototype version of Action 52 was sent to potential investors and distributors as part of a larger presentation package that included plans for a comic book, cartoon show, and toy line all based on the Cheetahmen characters. The proto carts differ from the final retail carts in several ways:
- They have blue PCB's and a different set of IC chips than the retail copies that have green or black PCB's.
- They have a purple label (that was later included in retail copies as a box insert), as opposed to the clear label.
- "Made In America" is molded into the cartridge instead of "Made In USA" being printed on the PCB.
- The cartridge is screwed together, unlike the retail copies that are glued shut.
The most interesting thing about the Action 52 prototypes however, is the fact that they are too small! Apparently there was a mistake made with the original case molds that left the games 8mm too short, as noted on the box insert below.
Action 52
prototype cartridge
Action 52
prototype box insert
Action 52
prototype box