I've dug up the ancient prototype versions of AKR1 from 2004/2005. For those of you on mobile, here's a video of them:

For those on old people computers, here are the playable Flash versions:

Older Version Using Pixel Art

Newer Version Using Vector Art

There are two versions, one with pixel art borrowed from various games and no sfx, and another traced vector art based version that includes the first boss, Wario. Both versions are a lot clunkier than the published game and are presented in glorious 15 frames-per-second.

Why did I cancel this build and start over? Aside from the apparent clunkiness, the performance was terrible. Every block you see (including the ground blocks) is constantly running four different collisions against the player. That doesn't sound like a big deal in current year, but back in 2005, when I scrapped it, the programming was painfully inefficient and it ran at even less than 15fps.

In other news, progress on A Koopa's Revenge Gold continues. I've upgraded the game from 40fps to 60fps (long story) and am making progress on rebuilding the levels.

Sorry I posted this to NG a week late. Totally slipped my mind.