Unseen News

It Came from the Desert [MD / Genesis – Cancelled]

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 be released in 1990. The game has little in common with the Cinemaware classic as it’s more action oriented: an overhead shooter with the main protagonist running around on foot, and able to walk in all directions. Among the differences in play mechanics, the Sega version allowed the player to create powerups that were fashioned by collecting machinery pieces and joining them together in different combinations.

Note that the Sega version was originally cancelled and never actually released in physical cartridge: only later it was distributed as a ROM  from the Cinemaware website after the turn of the 21st century. Despite the similarity of camera perspective, the Sega version did not appear to reuse any of the graphical elements created for use in the computer-based versions. [Infos from Wikipedia]

We cant thanks Cinemaware enough for their decision to share this unreleased game with everyone, instead to forgot it somewhere in their basement! An interesting interview with the main programmer of this project can be read at SEGA 16.

Here’s an interview by Ross Sillifant with Bob Jacob (Cinemaware)

Ross Sillifant: What happened to the MD/Genesis version of It Came From The Desert? I believe it was a very different game in terms of plot and gameplay, being more akin to an overhead shooter. Why the changes to game format and further canning of project?

Bob: I don’t remember! (getting old)

Ross Sillifant: It’s been claimed that when S.D.I was in process of being ported to
another format, it’s release was delayed as the company had asked the programmer to add extra features and such needed extra time, is this claim true? If so which format was it and what extra features did you ask for and why?

Bob: The port referred to has to be the C64. It was never completed, not because we asked for features, but because the programmer was not up to the task (he later became quite good).

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

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[New Article] Resident Evil 5 Beta Analysis

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Resident Evil 5 was officially announced on June 2005, but it was shown to the public for the first time only two months later in a CG trailer. Capcom created another trailer for the game in 2007. Even in the last year of the development Capcom was still moving things around. For example, the crash site of the helicopter was originally a fully playable section, not a series of QTE. >>> Read the full article: Resident Evil 5 Beta Analysis 

Wonder Boy in Monster World [MS – Prototype]

Wonder Boy in Monster World (Wonder Boy V Monster World III in Japan) is a title in the series of Wonder Boy games which were developed in the 1980s and 1990s by Sega and Westone. It is the fifth game in the Wonder Boy series, and the third game in the Monster World sub-series. [Infos from Wikipedia]

As Zero7 has made us to notice with a topic in our forum, a prototype of this game was leaked online and it’s possible to find it on various Master System roms archives. Some of the differences that can be found in the proto are:

  • Title screen doesnt animate like the final
  • There is a placeholder picture for the intro cutscene
  • There is no textbox when you start, unlike the final
  • There is a debug mode on, you cant die (You’ll revive back to 8 hearts) and up+a+b = teleport
  • All the menu commands save items and magic go to the weapon’s screen
  • You cant equip anything different, so they’re just there to show how the screen would look (maybe)
  • “Night Sord”
  • Bosses cant be killed, but they can kill you
  • The first boss doesnt wake up for some reason
  • Shops dont work
  • Most doors dont work outside of the two towns and some others

Thanks to Zero7 for the contribution!

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Fate [PC – Cancelled]

Fate is a game which was in development in 1996 by DogBone Software and was going to be published by Intracorp. The game was being made with the Build Engine, a first-person shooter engine created by Ken Silverman for 3D Realms (used for Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, Blood and Redneck Rampage).  Sadly Intracorp went bankrupt before the game could be completed. [Infos from Wikipedia]

A playable demo was released before the cancellation and you can download it  from the DOS Museum!

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

Video:

 

Hellgate (Dreamcast) preserved and leaked!

hellagate-dreamcast-download

Hellgate was a cancelled racing / third person shooter that was in development for the Dreamcast. As some of you already know, in March 2009 a playable built of this game was somehow recovered from a DC DEV-BOX unit and it was shared online for everyone. Now it can be played and preserved! Huge props to whoever was able to save this from being lost forever :)

You can download Hellgate in here and here (thanks to X-Cult for the mirror!). If you are just too lazy to try it, you can just take a look at this gameplay video from Dreamcastjunkyard youtube channel: