Hope this is a fit here! It's been the subject of Internet debate for years now, and even the best theories have yet to nail every detail.
Overview
The mystery of Yeah Yeah Beebiss I is described in this video from July 29, 2016 by YouTuber LSuperSonicQ as well as on the Lost Media Wiki. Essentially, a game by that title was listed in two separate video game catalogues in 1989 but has no other evidence proving it ever existed. It specifically appeared in the June, July, August, and September issues of Play It Again (bottom-right corner). Though the listing is mainly in alphabetical order, Yeah Yeah Beebiss I erroneously appears after W but before X. A second catalogue, Funco, printed the same list starting in October of 1989 and ending in January of 1990. In their listing, Funco shortened the name to Yeah Beebiss I, but they still left the game in the wrong spot alphabetically. After January of 1990, the game was never again mentioned.
Past Theories
Placeholder text
The game was made up only to fill a space and allow the lines on the page to sit nicely. Why bother, though? And why give it a specific price like all the other titles?
Copyright trap
The game was made up by Play It Again to catch other catalogues attempting to print their same listings. If this were the case, then Funco fell right into the trap. Still, this theory doesn't answer every question.
Super Pitfall 2
The first satisfying theory came from NintendoAge user Luigi_Master on January 29, 2012. Luigi_Master explains,
I had this discussion with an IRL friend of mine about making a Famicom Kuso-ge, and I decided to "make" one that would've been localized as "Yeah Yeah Beebiss I", with the title being written in Japanese. So I looked up the Romaji for what I would assume would sound like "Bi Be Su" (?? ?), and plopped it into Google translate. It was translated as "The Bibe". I decided to look up what "Bibe" meant, but Dictionary.com thought I meant "Beebe", and behold.
Beebe was the surname of an American explorer and naturalist, and I decided to piece things together. The I probably was taken from the Roman Numeral II as a typo, and the fact Beebe was an explorer, maybe YYBI turned out to be Super Pitfall 2!?
It's crazy, I know, but truth is ALWAYS stranger than fiction!
Most Recent Theory
The most recent theory comes from YouTuber thecianinator in a comment now pinned on LSuperSonicQ's video. thecianinator's explanation is as follows:
I think I found the answer.
Family Trainer: Rai Rai Kyonshis: Baby Kyonshi no Amida Daibouken
It was a Japanese game from 1989.
Rai Rai = Yeah Yeah
The English word baby, written in Japanese characters, could come out as bebii.
Here is bebii spelled out in Japanese: ベビー
Here is the number 1 in Japanese: 一
Here is a page with the box art: https://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/579388-family-trainer-rai-rai-kyonshis-baby-kyonshi-no-amida/images/120004
Look at the text on the box. "Bebii", written on the box in Japanese as ベビー, looks practically identical to "Bebi 1", which would be written as ベビ一. How easy would it be for an American, reading through a long list of Japanese game titles, to see ベビー, and misread it as ベビ一? Here's another thing. Another way of writing "baby" is ベービー, which comes out as "Beebii".
How hard would it be for someone in Japan to shorten "Rai Rai Kyonshis: Baby Kyonshi no Amida Daibouken" to just "Rai Rai Beebii" on a list of upcoming games to be sent to America? How hard would it be, then, for an American to misread that title not as "Yeah Yeah Baby", but as "Yeah Yeah Beebi 1"?
Now plenty of games have used Roman numerals in their titles for ages, so 1 could have been switched with I at any point.
Rai Rai
Yeah Yeahベービー (Beebii)
ベービ一 (Beebi 1)Yeah Yeah Beebi 1
So there's an easy way that the title "Yeah Yeah Beebi 1" could have been misconstrued from the title of a real game. All that's left to figure out is how Beebi turned into Beebiss, and that could be just about anything. The graphic designer who made the ad could have misheard the title on the phone from the person who translated it. The translator could have given the title to the graphic designer on a note with bad handwriting. Or it could just be a random typo from a graphic designer who wasn't paying attention. No matter what, I 100% believe that Family Trainer: Rai Rai Kyonshis: Baby Kyonshi no Amida Daibouken is the real Yeah Yeah Beebiss 1.
Conclusion
LSuperSonicQ believes the above theory to be the most widely accepted today. Its evidence is compelling, though it still cannot explain everything. We may never get the full story, but this theory from thecianinator seems closest to solving the mystery of Yeah Yeah Beebiss I.
Submitted July 22, 2018 at 11:51PM by Yronno https://ift.tt/2Ob8suz
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