This little-known game appears as a ‘work-in-progress’ in the September 1994 issue of Sega Power, it was developed by DICE (originally for the Amiga) but it doesn’t have a decent description. According to the article, Hardcore was a typical run-and-gun platformer, similar to the Turrican series or Super Star Wars, with many different enemies to destroy. The press release for the game boasted that ‘you are able to shoot almost everything, even if it’s not necessary’. There was also a Mega-CD version to be released, which was to include a driving segment at the end of each level, similar to Batman Returns. Although planned for a November 1994 release, both versions of the game were seemingly cancelled.
Little else is said about the game in the article, which is a common trend for previews in Sega Power… They seem to have spent far more time writing the amusing captions, which you can see in the article scan.
It seems that the original Amiga version of Hardcore only got half-finished. Then they decided to do it on Megadrive instead; the MD cartridge version was 99% finished (just a bug or two in the game logic, and highscores aren’t saved) when Psygnosis decided not to publish it. The MD-CD version did not get very far in development.
Thanks a lot to Repi for the contribution!
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U64 is an archive with articles, screens and videos for cancelled, beta & unseen videogames. Every change & cut creates a different gaming experience: we would like to save some documents about this evolution for curiosity, historic and artistic preservation.
9 Responses to Hardcore [MD/G & Mega CD - Cancelled]
repi
May 23rd, 2009 at 11:49 am
Hardcore was made by DICE (www.dice.se)
monokoma
May 25th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Thanks for the information Repi :) I have updated the article. So was this really cancelled?
repi
May 25th, 2009 at 10:12 pm
Yes according to Kalms (a fellow DICE:er):
“The Amiga version of Hardcore only got half-finished. Then they decided to do it on Megadrive instead; the MD cartridge version was 99% finished (just a bug or two in the game logic, and highscores aren’t saved) when Psygnosis decided not to publish it. The MD-CD version did not get very far in development.
Figuring out who has the rights for it now would be tricky I’m afraid. (but I suspect the rights lie with SCEE.)”
monokoma
May 26th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Thanks a lot for these informations Repi, they are really appreciated and useful to understand better why we’ll never be able to play the game.
GiantPooka
May 31st, 2009 at 8:17 pm
Wow, thanks for that info, repi! I was the one who uploaded the original article for this game, and I thought no-one else had ever heard of it. Had no idea it was originally for the Amiga, but it makes sense- lots of Amiga games made the jump to the MD. Thanks again!
Celine
July 10th, 2009 at 12:07 am
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/5812/hardcore0en.jpg
monokoma
July 10th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Was it from Console Mania? ;) Thanks Celine! I’ll add that in the gallery
Celine
January 4th, 2010 at 7:32 pm
it’s under the playstation list …
monokoma
January 5th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
mmh.. i think it was a bug, it happened other times that a game got a wrong category by itself X__x now it’s fixed! Thanks Celine :)