Boo! is a cancelled platform game that was in development by Micropose for the Super Nintendo, Genesis / Mega Drive and Amiga in 1994. As we can read on the website of Boo!’s producer Stuart Whyte: Designed by Richard Lemarchand, Boo! was a side on platformer inspired by Sonic and Mario, we wanted to create [...]
Joe & Mac is a platform game originally released in 1991 for the arcades by Data East. It was later ported for various consoles, as the SNES and Mega Drive / Genesis. Rod_Wod sent us some screens from a version of Joe & Mac for the Mega Drive / Genesis that seems to be different [...]
Sparkster is a platform game developed by Konami and released for Genesis in 1994. It is the sequel of the well-known Rocket Knight Adventures. Below we can see some beta screenshots of the first and the second stage. In particular, originally the background of the wood section of the former was the sea and not [...]
City Heroes is a cancelled beat ‘em up that was in development by korean Samsung Electronics for the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis. Thanks to an article at Hardcore Gaming 101, we can read that the game was almost finished, but sadly because of some problems with the country’s censorship system, City Heroes was never [...]
Bounty Hunter is a cancelled (?) beat ‘em up that was in development for the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive. In the game you would have take the role of Garrot, a bounty hunter in the year 2397. You had to travel to four different fantasy realms to neutralize the evil dwellers beating them up [...]
The Swamp Thing is a cancelled action / platform game that was developed for the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive by Nuvision, the same team behind the unreleased Bean Ball Benny. There is a Nes title with the same name, created by Imagineering Inc, but it is a different game. As we can read from [...]
Pinky is a platform game developed by Data Design Systems and published by Millenium for Amiga in 1995. Tengen was supposed to publish the Genesis / Mega Drive and Game Gear versions in 1994 but , as far as we know, they never did. Probably because in 1995 the market for those Sega platforms was [...]
Aspect Warriors is a cancelled action game / RTS based on the Warhammer 40000 universe, that was in development by Electronic Arts for the Genesis / Mega Drive and Super Nintendo. The game was previewed in some european magazines, but in the end it seems that it was never released (or was it published under [...]
Warlock: The Game was released in 1994 on the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis / Mega Drive. Developed by Trimark Interactive and published by Acclaim Entertainment, an advertisement for the game found on the VHS of Warlock: The Armageddon (which the game takes most of the story elements from) shows slower game play and a [...]
Rocket Rescue is a cancelled action game that was in development for the Super Nintendo, Mega Drive / Genesis and Amiga in 1994. Players would had to save people on different planets, exploring the space with a rocket in more than 100 levels. The project would have been published by Hot Shot Entertainments, but we [...]
As we can read in Wikipedia, Dinosaurs For Hire is a run and gun / beat ‘em up game published by Sega and developed by Malibu Interactive for the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive. The game is based on an american comic and features Archie, Lorenzo and Reese as the main playable characters while Cyrano [...]
Matrix Runner is a cancelled action adventure game that was in development in 1992 / 1993 by ZCT Systems Group for the Sega VR add-on based on the Mega Drive / Genesis. Players had to explore the cyberspace and to resolve various puzzles to try to capture a murderer. The concept (and the title) of [...]
Aero the Acro-Bat is a platform game developed by Iguana Entertainment and published by Sunsoft in 1993. Super for the Super Nintendo and Mega Drive / Genesis. At Kombo we can read an interesting article about the game, in which they even shared the original design doc, created by David Siller in 1992. Some of [...]
The Mask is a platform game (based on the film with the same name) developed by Black Pearl Software and published in 1995 by THQ for the Super Nintendo. Early in its development, the game was much different from the final version, as noticed by Mister Syd on the Lost Levels Forum: Health meter is [...]
As we can read on Wikipedia, Elite is a space shooter / trading game written and developed by David Braben and Ian Bell, originally published by Acornsoft in 1984 for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron computers. The game’s title derives from one of the player’s goals of raising their combat rating to the exalted [...]
The Lawnmower Man is a platform / action game based on the 1992 film of the same name, developed by Sales Curve (SCi) and released for the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis / Mega Drive (with different versions on PC, Sega CD and Gameboy). As we can read from Wikipedia, player takes control of either [...]
Spinny and Spike was a Genesis game, produced by Sega Technical Institute, that got cancelled relatively early on in development. It was unique in that it was one of the first games to be made up exclusively of boss battles, with no segue levels between them. Two characters (presumably named Spinny and Spike) were to [...]
Savage Heroes was a fighting game, produced by Electronic Arts, planned for the Genesis / Mega Drive, that was originally conceived as a hybrid between brawler Streets of Rage and 1-on-1 fighting game Street Fighter II. The game would have handled this fusion by utilising two similar, but different, control schemes: for the multiple-enemy-based combat, [...]
Zombie High is a cancelled side scrolling action game that was in development by Electronic Arts for the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive. An incomplete beta rom was somehow leaked online,it seems that there are a few enemies at the end of level 1 that cannot be defeated with your default slime weapon. They can [...]
Converse Hardcore Hoops (also know as Converse City Ball Tour) is a cancelled basketball game that was in development by Virgin Interactive Entertainment for the Genesis / Mega Drive, Super Nintendo, Playstation and Saturn. It was based on street basketball and there were 10 cities in which to play in 3vs3 half court matches. Converse [...]
A platform game based on the Popeye character was in development by Technos Japan for the Genesis / Mega Drive, but in the end this project was cancelled. A Super Nintendo Popeye game was also developed and released in 1994 by Technos, but the sprite of the main character is much different from the one [...]
Halloween Capsule is a cancelled side-scrolling brawler / beat ‘em up with animals for characters, that was in development in 1994 for the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis (or Samsung Super Aladdin Boy, how the system was named in Korea) by the Korean company Softmax, best known for their War of Genesis and Magna Carta [...]
Bean Ball Benny is a cancelled beat ‘em up / action game that was in development in 1990 / 1991 by Nuvision Entertainment for the Mega Drive / Genesis. Nuvision is a rather obscure company that only released Bimini Run before closing up shop and cancelling their 2 projects (Bean Ball Benny and The Swamp [...]
Environmental Detective is a cancelled platform / adventure game that was in development by Magicom for the Super Nintendo and Mega Drive / Genesis. There is scant information about the project, save for a short description in an old Mean Machine magazine, found by Rod_Wod. Players would have taken the role of “Ozone Kid” to [...]
Jester is a cancelled platform game that was in development by Sega of America for the Genesis / Mega Drive. There is not much info on its gameplay and only few levels backgrounds are preserved in the gallery below. Jester was canned after a problematic development and it is unknown how much was completed before [...]
DNAction: The New Breed is a cancelled fighting game that was in development for the Super Nintendo and Genesis / Mega Drive, that would have been published by Accolade in 1994. The game was never released in the end, but some info about the project and various character renders were found in Games World #1, [...]
Zero Tolerance is a FPS developed in 1993 / 1994 by Technopop and published by Accolade for the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis. Megalol noticed that in Sega Power magazine from september 1994 the screenshots in the game’s review are actually from a beta version. Infact, you can notice a couple of small differences in [...]
Pulseman is a side-scrolling action platform game developed by Game Freak and published by Sega for the Mega Drive / Genesis in 1994. The game was released in cartridge format only in Japan, with the North American version being released via the Sega Channel as an “exclusive”. When first announced, Pulseman was originally named Spark. [...]
Smaartvark (also know as “Arnie the Aardvark” and “Miniature Aardvark TV Repairmen”) is a cancelled platform / action game that was in development by Codemasters for the Genesis / Mega Drive. The title is a wordplay between “aardwark”, a medium-sized mammal native to Africa, and “smart”: infact the main protagonist of the game was an [...]
Rod_Wod from the Assembler Forum has posted various scans from the cancelled Akira games (based on the manga / anime with the same name) that were meant to be released by THQ for the Genesis / Mega Drive, Super Nintendo, Mega CD and Game Gear. Probably the screens published in the magazines were all from [...]
Madness: House of Fun is a cancelled platform game based around the Ska music group with the same name, that was in development by Gremlin Graphics for the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive. The project was a “remake” of the original Gremlin’s Amiga title “Harlequin”, with new graphic, characters and Madness’ music. As Robert Hazelby [...]
ResQ is a cancelled 2D shooter / action game that was in development by Tempest Software for the Genesis / Mega Drive. The project was almost finished when the publisher, Psygnosis, decided to pulled it out: even if ResQ was never officially released, a rom of the game was leaked online and can be easily [...]
Nuclear Rush is an unreleased shooter that was in development in 1993 for the Sega VR, the canned “virtual reality” accessory planned for the Mega Drive / Genesis. Four games were apparently developed for the system, each using 16 Mb cartridges that were to be bundled with the headset. One of these was Nuclear Rush, [...]
The Menacer is a wireless lightgun created by Sega for the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis in 1992, as a response to the Super Scope by Nintendo. Sega and third-party developers did not develop many games for the Menacer and one of these projects, know as “Monster Hunter”, was cancelled before being finished. In Monster [...]
A Genesis / Mega Drive version of Road Riot 4WD was in development at Tengen in 1993, but it was later cancelled. The game is an arcade racing game somehow similar to Mario Kart. A SNES (1992) and an Arcade (1991) versions do exist, but while the SNES version doesnt look that good, the Genesis [...]
Interplanetary Lizards is an action game that was in development by Tengen for the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive. In may 2009, Rod_Wod from the Assembler Forum shared various scans from old gaming magazines, and in one of these images we can see a screenshot from IL. The game was cancelled for unknown reasons. Images: [...]
Mortal Kombat 3 is the third game in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series, released in arcades in 1995. It was updated into Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 in arcade and home consoles, and later Mortal Kombat Trilogy home consoles only. Mortal Kombat 3 has been released for DOS, Game Boy, Game Gear, Genesis, Master System, [...]
Mortal Kombat II is a 1993 arcade game and the second title in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. Due to memory limitations for the title two characters from the original Mortal Kombat, Sonya Blade and Kano were excluded, reasoned by Boon as them being the least-picked characters in the original game, and the development [...]
Beyond Zero Tolerance (or Zero Tolerance 2) is a FPS developed by Technopop for the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis. It was meant to be a sequel to Zero Tolerance, but it was never finished. Both games have been deemed by the (now defunct) developer to be publicly distributable as freeware. [Info from Wikipedia] You [...]
Keeper of the Gates is a cancelled action game that was in development for the Genesis / Mega Drive by Razorsoft. This was meant to be a sequel to Stormlord, in which we would have played through 8 levels with hard puzzles and traps to resolve. Also, “six players would have been able to alternately [...]
Dyno Blaze is a cancelled beat ‘em up that was in development by Bonsai Entertainment for the Genesis / Mega Drive, Mega CD and 3DO in 1994 and it would have been published by Virgin. A playable prototype of the game was somehow leaked online in 2008, in which you can try a series of [...]
Beyond Oasis (aka The Story of Thor) is an action RPG released in 1994 for the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis. Celine has found a beta screen of the game in EGM 61, in which we can notice some little differences in the HUD and in the clothes of the characters. As Matthew has noted, [...]
B-Bomb is an unreleased action game that was in development by Sega in 1993 for the Genesis / Mega Drive, in which players had to fight enemies using their characters’ butts (yeah, really) in 5 worlds. There was meant to be a 2 player mode to cooperate against the CPU. The concept could have been [...]
The Simpsons: Virtual Bart was released for the Super NES and Mega Drive / Genesis in 1994 by Acclaim. KeijiDragon (Kei) has recored some videos from an interesting prototype of the game, that is somewhat different from the final version. You can check the annotations in the videos for more details: Japanese Super Famicom (the [...]
Do you remember that damaged ROM of a cancelled genesis game that was found by Mr. Mark? It was Kartoon Kombat, an arcade fighting game developed by American Technos, that was planned for the Sega Genesis, something like a parody of Mortal Kombat with cartoon characters. Sadly, as the ROM is broken we’ll probably never [...]
“Zombies Ate My Neighbors” is a 1993 run and gun ‘horror’ video game for the Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis and Super NES platforms. This video game was originally developed, distributed and produced by LucasArts as a comical tribute to both classic and schlocky horror films of the 1950s through the 1980s. [Infos from Wikipedia] It [...]
“It Came from the Desert” is a 1989 computer game developed by Cinemaware. It was originally released for the Amiga and the gameplay centers on the player choosing what they want to do by selecting an option on the multiple choice screens that pop up. This unreleased Sega Genesis / Megadrive version was going to [...]
At the Lost Levels Forums, GDRI has posted an interesting link to a japanese blog, where we can find some scans with screenshots of Devil Buster, a cancelled action / platform game inspired by Megami Tensei, that was in development for Mega Drive / Genesis at SIMS Studios. In the same topic Kid Fenris and [...]
Kiddo has made us to notice about a beta trailer for Mega Man: The Wily Wars (a compilation from Capcom containing remakes of the first three games) that shows an incomplete, buggy version where Mega Man doesn’t die, his jump animations don’t appear right half the time, and various other funny little things. Video: Edit
Sonic & Knuckles was developed by the Sega Technical Institute in collaboration with Sonic Team, and published by Sega for the Genesis/Mega Drive in 1994. It is the direct sequel to Sonic 3, which was released earlier that year and it seems that some removed levels from S3 were later re-used for S&K. As our [...]
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Different HUD & more? Thanks to MathUser for the scan! Beta: Final: Edit
This is Ninja Gaiden for the Genesis. It is (in theory) a conversion of the 1988 coin-op, but basically the only thing that it is similar to the original is the HUD, because everything else was completely reworked. It was never released (even if some websites claims the opposite) in any region, and since it [...]
MathUser has made us notice that he has posted lots of scans with beta and cancelled games in the Hidden Palace Forum and between those, there are these screens from an early version of Mortal Kombat for the Genesis, with a strange color palette and a exhibition mode that was removed in the final version. [...]
Before being released on the Nintendo 64, Mission Impossible was in development for the Super Nintendo and Mega Drive / Genesis, but soon the 16 bit versions were cancelled, to shift resources to the Ultra 64 one. The game was going to be similar to Flashback by Delphine Software, as a side-scrolling action game with [...]
Although it seems to start out as something completely different, this is a promotional video for Earthworm Jim, mostly focusing on the Mega Drive version. As well as some insight into the design process of the game, it shows a lot of footage from an earlier version of the game. Unfortunately, the way the video [...]
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 [...]
In the August issues of British publications Sega Power and Mean Machines Sega, three different prototype versions of Earthworm Jim 2 for the Mega Drive were previewed. Each of them have some minor yet interesting changes compared to the final product, including a lot of material cut from the game. Edit
Landstalker: The Treasures of King Nole is an action rpg that was developed by Climax Entertainment originally for the Mega Drive/Genesis. The player, as Nigel the treasure hunter, is tasked with searching for clues that lead to the treasure of King Nole. This is accomplished primarily by travelling through both outdoor areas and dungeons. All [...]
Sega, flush with funds from the Sega Mega Drive (released as the Sega Genesis in North America), announced the Sega VR add-on in 1991. It was based around an IDEO virtual reality headset (HMD) with LCD screens in the visor and stereo headphones. Inertial sensors in the headset allowed the system to track and react [...]
A map from an old preview of Shining Force, show us a concept map, that looks different from the one in the final version of the game. Below, you can even see what it looks like an old intro screen with a different font for the title of the game. Edit
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LOBO is a cancelled fighting game that was meant to be released for the Super Nintendo and the Sega Mega Drive / genesis, settled up in the DC Comics’ LOBO universe. Ocean was planning to release this in 1996, but it was cancelled for both platforms at the last minute. A prototype of the game [...]
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Fireteam Rogue is a cancelled action adventure game that was developed by Accolade for the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis. It seems that the project had to be canned for economic isssues. A couple of Alpha of this project were leaked online and you can read a long article with more info about this on [...]
Originally, Phantasy Star IV was to have been designed for the Sega CD system, and would have been vastly different from its final incarnation. Features like 3-D dungeons (such as those featured in the first Phantasy Star), full motion video cutscenes, voice acting, and much more were planned. Unfortunately, poor sales and lack of support [...]
In the beta screenshots of Sonic there are some differences: title screen, the mispelled word “RING” instead of “RINGS”, Sonic that loses rings in a strange way, Sonic punching the air at the end of the level, strange things in Starlight Zone in the background and UFOs in Marble Zone. Sonic Team originally planned 5 [...]
Sonic Crackers, also known by the name in the ROM header, Sonic Studium, is an early Sonic the Hedgehog prototype game for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. It is believed to have been an engine test, containing essentially multiple different game engines, swapped out in realtime using code written into RAM. The game has Sonic and [...]
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The first “discovery” of this prototype was in December 1998, after a discussion in a newsgroup, Simon Wai released, with great surprise of fans, a beta version of Sonic 2, which had easily been found on a chinese website. We say “rediscovered” because in reality the cartridge already existed for some time, and the same [...]
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Ristar’s origins date back to the brainstorming sessions of Sonic the Hedgehog for the Genesis. A rabbit that could throw and grab objects was amongst the several ideas for Sonic. Sonic Team settled for a platforming game with an emphasis on speed for their blue hedgehog, but did not discard the rabbit idea from their [...]
Several pre-release screenshots show that Round 7 originally contained a section where the players got to ride the motorcycles they are so often attacked by. This section was removed for the final version, but is still playable (though buggy and unfinished) with a Game Genie code in the Japanese version. – [Info from Wikipedia] [More [...]
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Thanks to MathUser we have some more infos about this concept: “These images are actually from a small tech demo that was put together before work on Sonic Spinball actually began. That’s why the layout is so simple. It was merely to demonstrate how gameplay would be like.” [Source: www.sega-16.com] Images: Videos: Edit
Shinobi 3 (released in Japan as Super Shinobi 2) was originally set to be released in 1992. Several gaming magazines (including GamePro, Mean Machines SEGA and Computer & Video Games) gave previews and even reviews of the game, showing pictures of levels, enemies, artwork and special moves which were not seen in the final version [...]
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ENG: This entry in the archive doesn’t have a description yet. If you want to add some info about the beta / cancelled stuff that you see in these images, just write a comment or send us an email! We’ll add your info in this page and your name in the contributors list. Thanks a [...]
ENG: This entry in the archive doesn’t have a description yet. If you want to add some info about the beta / cancelled stuff that you see in these images, just write a comment or send us an email! We’ll add your info in this page and your name in the contributors list. Thanks a [...]
ENG: This entry in the archive doesn’t have a description yet. If you want to add some info about the beta / cancelled stuff that you see in these images, just write a comment or send us an email! We’ll add your info in this page and your name in the contributors list. Thanks a [...]
ENG: This entry in the archive doesn’t have a description yet. If you want to add some info about the beta / cancelled stuff that you see in these images, just write a comment or send us an email! We’ll add your info in this page and your name in the contributors list. Thanks a [...]
ENG: This entry in the archive doesn’t have a description yet. If you want to add some info about the beta / cancelled stuff that you see in these images, just write a comment or send us an email! We’ll add your info in this page and your name in the contributors list. Thanks a [...]
Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill is an unreleased video game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the Sega Genesis. It stars Socks, the pet cat of 42nd US President Bill Clinton and his family, in a platforming adventure in which he has to make his way past spies, crooked politicians and the media [...]
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.