Dinotopia is a fictional series of books about an misterious island inhabited by shipwrecked humans and sentient dinosaurs who have learned to coexist peacefully as a single symbiotic society. [Info from Wikipedia] Various games based on the Dinotopia world have been produced through the years and in 2002 RFX Interactive developed Dinotopia: The Timestone Pirates, [...]
Shin’en Multimedia is a development team that was known on Game Boy Advance for the amazing proprietary sound engine and the beautiful 2D graphics of its games (Iridion II, Maya The Bee Sweet Gold etc.). However it is little known that as early as 2001 they were testing polygonal graphics on the little Nintendo handheld [...]
Treasure Hunt is a cancelled action adventure game that was in development by Orbital Media Inc for the GameBoy Advance. As we can read from Richard Knight‘s website moogle.net: Treasure Hunt was a prototype overhead adventure game for the Game Boy Advance. The concept itself was meant to be a blend of classical click-adventure mechanics [...]
“Odema and the magic book” is a cancelled 2D sidescrolling action / platform game that was in development by french team Namdoo for the Gameboy Advance. From the video below we can see that Odema was going to be somehow similar to a “kiddy Metal Slug”, with 7 huge worlds with multiple pathes, more than [...]
The original Extreme-G is a futuristic motorcycle racing game developed by Probe Entertainment and published by Acclaim Entertainment for the Nintendo 64. In 2001 Acclaim released Extreme-G 3 for the Nintendo GameCube and PlayStation 2, while Similis were working on a Gameboy Advance version too. Sadly the GBA version of Extreme-G 3 / Xtreme-G 3 was [...]
GB Rally 2 Advance is a cancelled racing game that was in development by Raylight Studios for the GameBoy Advance. Only an early demo without sound was created, thanks to their Blue Roses Engine for GBA. It’s curious that despite the 2 in the title, there wasn’t actually a GB Rally 1 available commercially because [...]
It is a cancelled FPS that was in development for the GBA by a company called Graphic State. The engine was really nice for a Gameboy Advance, but sadly the game was never released. We dont know why it was cancelled, if someone knows more about this, please let us know! Post by brendan Videos: [...]
Founded by ex Core Design employees in 2002, Gatehouse Games first and only game was an action RPG for the GameBoy Advance named Spiralstone, heavily influenced by PC titles , like Diablo. Sadly the game was never released for unknown reasons. Images: Videos: Edit
GP Advance was a Formula 1 game built by Prograph Research around their 3d engine called DR Advance in 2003. As you can see from the video the italian developer coded an impressive engine capable of features more inline with a PS1 than a GBA (Over 2.296 texture mapped polygons on screen at 20fps , [...]
Dark Empire is an unreleased RPG that was in development by Marvelous Entertainment for the GameBoy Advance. This project was previusly unknown, untill an auction for its prototype was posted by Sample_Seller on Ebay in June 2009. As we can read from the item description: DARK EMPIRE for the Gameboy Advance !! RARE ORIGINAL SAMPLE/PROMO [...]
Pokémon Emerald is an updated version of Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, that was released in Japan in September 2004 and in America and Europe in 2005. Even if the game is just an “add-on” to Ruby and Sapphire, it’s possible to find some beta and unused content still hidden in its code. As noted by [...]
Sonic Battle is a fighting game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, developed by Sonic Team and released for the Game Boy Advance in 2003 / 2004. As we can see at Sonic Cult, there are some images of a beta version, even if most of the differences are just an old HP meter.We can [...]
Banjo-Pilot is a handheld racer developed by Rare Ltd. and published by THQ in 2005. Originally, Nintendo announced it as Diddy Kong Pilot in 2001. When they sold their share of Rare Ltd. to Microsoft (2002), they opted out of their publishing contract. As the Donkey Kong IP is a property of Nintendo, they could [...]
Banjo Kazooie: Grunty’s Revenge is the third instalment in the Banjo-Kazooie series, and the second in chronological order (in terms of the point of the beginning and end of the game – in fact, as time travel plays a significant part in the plot, most of the action takes place decades before Banjo-Kazooie). Developed by [...]
Sword of Sia: Lady Sia 2 (aka Lady Sia II) is a cancelled action adventure / platform game that was in development in 2002 / 2003 for the Gameboy Advance by RFX Interactive and it would have been published by TDK Mediactive (as was the first game). It seems that Lady Sia 2 was almost [...]
The original I-Ninja is a platform / action game developed by Argonaut Games and released in 2003 for the GameCube, Playstation 2 and Xbox. Argonaut also announced a Gameboy Advance version of the game, to be developed by Destination Software (?), but this port was soon canned. I-Ninja for the GBA would have been a [...]
Mario vs. Donkey Kong is a Game Boy Advance spiritual sequel to the first Donkey Kong game for Game Boy, developed by NTS in 2004. The game concept revolves around a combination of platform and puzzle elements, challenging Mario to find keys, reach a locked door, and rescue mini-Marios. [Info from Wikipedia] Upaluppa and Kiiro [...]
Broken Circle is an unreleased rpg created by 7 Raven Studios. The game, which story was based on Nordic mythology, had a troubled development: publishers weren’t interested because it was too risky to cover the release costs for an unknown title that needed a big and expensive 256mbits cartridge. By the time that the programmers [...]
Monster Hunter (not related with Capcom’s Monster Hunter) was an action game that was in development by Contraband Entertainment for the GameBoy Advance. As we can read from the original press-release: In Monster Hunter, you are the one-eyed hero who travels to the five towers of evil. Your mission as the Monster Hunter is to [...]
Mario Golf: Advance Tour is an RPG-styled sport game developed by Camelot Software Planning and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance in 2004. The game is the sequel to the Game Boy Color version of Mario Golf. [Info from Wikipedia] Robert Seddon has recorded an interesting video about some of the debug rooms [...]
In 2003 Torus Games created a Voxel Engine to develope a new GBA racing game know as Moto X, but the project was later cancelled. Thanks to Celine for the contribution! Images: Edit
A prototype for a new Turok FPS, based on the N64 version, was in development for the GameBoy Advance, but unfortunately the project got shelved. A Turok game (Turok:Evolution) was eventually released, even if it was just a side-scrolling action. In this playable demo, leaked in Febraury 2009 by Hidden Palace, there is no proper [...]
PoketMechs was a prototype for a side scrolling action game that was in development at Puppybomb Games in 2004, but sadly the project was cancelled, maybe because they did not find a publisher interested in the game. Images: Edit
From 2004 to 2007 DHGames were working on a GBA racing game similar to Excitebike, but sadly their publisher changed its mind later and the project was never released to the market, even if it was finished. The game was later reworked and it’s now coming out for the Nintendo DS (maybe? It seems that [...]
The original Tyrian was a shoot ‘em up developed for the PC by Eclipse Productions (later named World Tree Games) and published in 1995 by Epic MegaGames. A version of Tyrian 2000 was in development for the Game Boy Advance, but after the then publisher Symmetry Entertainment had closed business, the European publisher Stealth Productions, [...]
DeltaAdvance was a 3D Engine created by Talos Interactive for the Game Boy Advance. A game know as “Destiny” was going to be developed with this engine, but sadly it seems that they never found a publisher interested in their tech. Thanks to Celine for the contribution! Images: Edit
In Crash for the Gameboy Advance, a series of early screenshots show us some differences, like the Life Crate Icon, a weird character sprite, much thinner waterfalls, a removed Jet-Sub, different Temple Background and some unseen levels, not used in the final game. For more informations check the Crash Mania archive! Thanks a lot to [...]
Robert Seddon has linked us to an interesting topic in the Golden Sun Hacking Community Forum, in which they have found a lot of unused items, sprites and Psynergy spells that were still hidden in the Golden Sun: The Lost Age code! All of these can not be obtained in the final game without hacking. Betweem [...]
The Phantom was an action game that was in development in 2003 at 7th Sense studios: even if the game was finished, the original publisher went bankrupt and there were some problems with the copyrights so it was never released. Thanks to Maciej for the contribution! Images: Edit
Mandrake was an action adventure / RPG game that was in development in 2003 at 7th Sense studios: even if the game was finished, the original publisher went bankrupt and there were some problems with the copyrights so it was never released. Thanks to Maciej for the contribution! Images: Edit
In the Wario Land 4 code a beta logo was found by Racoon Sam and Linkin800 from the JUL Forum found some more unused tiles and a beta test level! As Linkin wrote in his topic, the test level is “surprisingly similar to the Metriod Fusion one, but thats because MF was built off of [...]
In the Youtube Channel of GamesThatWerent we can see a video from Sanxion, a cancelled shoot ‘em up that was in development in 2001 by Thalamus Interactive for the GameBoy Advance. The original Sanxion was a Commodore 64 game released in 1986 and this GBA remake was going to have updated graphics and new features, [...]
Recently a beta version of Fire Emblem the Sacred Stones has been found. It is a very early version of the Sacred Stones and contains many differences. This pre-alpha ROM uses many things from the previous game as placeholder; even the title and menus from the Blazing Sword are still there. The game opens up with [...]
Today Luc Bernard announced Eternity’s Child 2: Retro Child for Wiiware. This sequel won’t use the same engine we saw in the first episode (that will be published soon); instead, it will be like a GBA/SNES game, because it was planned to be realeased on Nintendo’s old handled console. Wiiware-World has a video of the [...]
Golden Sun is the first installment of a series of RPG games developed by Camelot Software Planning and published by Nintendo. It was released in November 2001 for the GBA, with a sequel, Golden Sun: The Lost Age, in 2003. Golden Sun underwent a development cycle of between twelve and eighteen months by Camelot, which [...]
Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi (The Sealed Sword) early beta screens from the game show different characters and graphic style. Different HUD and graphics are present, as well as Roy’s very different portrait. The weapon and item icons seem to be placeholders, as they’re all what look to be Iron Swords, but their names are [...]
Thanks to Serenes Forest we can read about a list of differences that were found in the prototype version of Fire Emblem 7, a beta that was leaked online sometime ago. Major differences are in the colors of the CGs, options, sprites, animations, extra shops and items. The 2 betas can be download at the [...]
Battletoads is a video game by Rare Ltd. created to rival the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games. The first game was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1991 and was followed up with sequels released over the ensuing years for GameBoy, SNES, Megadrive / Genesis and Arcade. [Info from Wikipedia] A proto for 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 [...]
When you enter Starbeans Cafe and drink a new drink, E. Gadd comes and different things happen depending on what you take. But in the beta version, other characters would have come out, to tell you things depending on your choose and give you some gifts. Here are the removed dialogs: Edit
Mother 3 is the latest (and some say last) installment in the Earthbound saga. Released 12 years after the previous game in the series, Earthbound, it offers a radically different story and presentation than the other games it shares its name with, all the while retaining the same combat system and quirky sense of humor. [...]
Metroid Fusion, originally known as Metroid 4, was in development for the GameBoy Color before being stopped and reworked for the GBA. In the gallery below you can see how different the Metroid Fusion beta was, especially in its early proto version shown in 2001. When the game was released in november 2002, the graphic [...]
Metroid: Zero Mission is an action adventure developed by Nintendo R&D1 for the Game Boy Advance, published by Nintendo 2004. In these early screens and trailer we can notice that the graphic was completely different from the one used in the final game! Also the second and third video show that hidden in the game’s [...]
A Shantae sequel was planned for the Game Boy Advance, and screens resembled a port with updated graphics. However, all news of the game stopped and nothing became of it. It is assumed to have been cancelled. As with the original game, Shantae Advance was developed by creator Matt Bozon on his own time. This [...]
Donkey Kong Plus is the name of an unreleased game demo developed by Nintendo as a demonstration at E3 2002. Nintendo had planned for the game to be an extension / sequel of the Donkey Kong Game Boy game. The player would have the ability to design and create levels on the GameCube, and play [...]
The Legend of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link have been introduced as a sequel of the masterpiece “The Legend of Zelda”, released in the NES on the year 1988 (1987 in Japan). However, the only informations that have been discovered about this Tech Demo it was not playable, as the thousands of playable tech [...]
As we can read on wikipedia, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past & Four Swords was a collaborative development effort between Nintendo and Capcom, the process supervised by Minoru Narita, Yoichi Yamada, Takashi Tezuka and Yoshikazu Yamashita from Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development. Capcom had begun development of The Legend of Zelda: [...]
Cendamos was able to find some interesting hidden stuff in the memory of this game. Items such as the Giant Hammer, Mega Crush, Enemy Set and Power Wrist were removed from the final game. Not much is known about these items, other than the Power Wrist was probably similar to the one in Wind Waker, [...]
When it was first shown, Mario Kart for the Gameboy Advance looked a bit different than the final version. If you take a look a these beta images, the characters had bigger heads and smaller karts. Also it seems that the tracks had some differences in the details and in the course design, as we [...]
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.