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 from the released one (a simple port of the Arcade version).
For example the background of this boss from the magazine scan:
Looks different from the one in the final game:
Could those screens in the magazine be from a beta version, or a different / cancelled Joe & Mac? We have not finished the final game, so we are not sure. If you have finished Joe & Mac and recognize those images, please let us know!
Thanks to Rod_Wod for the contribution!
Images:
What do you think about this unseen game? Give your vote!
(5 votes, average: 4.20 out of 5)
Loading...Would you like to add more info, screens or videos to this page? Add a comment below!
monokoma
Editor in Chief, UX & SE Optimization at Unseen64
I'm an Italian gamer with not enough free time to play as much as i'd like to and sadly not enough time to write about cancelled and beta games. Founder of Unseen64 in 2001, i'd like to sleep more than 5 hours a day, but i have to pay the bills. I'm currently working for various italian & international websites for a better User Experience & Search Engine Optimization, you can add me on Twitter, Last FM or contact me by email.
Latest posts by monokoma (see all)
More awesome unseen games:
![Road Riot 4WD [MD/G – Cancelled]](https://www.unseen64.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/road-riot-4wd-genesis-150x150.jpg "Road Riot 4WD [MD/G – Cancelled]")
![Keeper of the Gates [G/MD – Cancelled]](https://www.unseen64.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/keeper-of-the-gates-01-150x150.jpg "Keeper of the Gates [G/MD – Cancelled]")
In the arcade, dinosaur’s neck (?) is like the one in the first shot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzezyucTIKo&feature=player_detailpage#t=448s
The problem is that doing the neck in that way needed a lot of memory expecially for Graphic. Probably it was too much for the consoles’ versions because they could not handle enough memory size in their’s cartridges.
About the background, IMO they wanted to enhance game’s graphic but it was too much again because of the rom’s size.
I strongly doubt they are Mega Drive shots. The colours and sprite size are easy tell points. Also, the Mega Drive would probably have flicker on that Dino’s neck if it was to use that many sprites in a row.
Yakumo
looking good :)
i think we are missing one pic its a tiny one from a sega pro i think its not worth adding really but i though i would just say..
good work mono :)
These screens are still a mistery then, maybe they are from a beta Arcade version? Probably we’ll never know :P
If it isn’t the arcade version, probably they are mock pictures showing what they actually wanted to do on MD and SNES.
When the beta version looks 10x better than the final version, you can say without a doubt those are mockup screenshot taken from another hardware version, definitively not MD (too many color depth & big sprites)
Also, just compare with other existing 8Megs games on the Mega Drive…
Here’s a comparison of the Joe & Mac ports: http://www.retro-sanctuary.com/compaisons%20-%20Joe%20and%20Mac.html
I think this image was from the Arcade Version. Compare with this image:
http://www.videojuegoblog.com/galleria/big/data-east-classics-01/1
and this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzezyucTIKo (seek to minute 7:30)
if not the same, at least very similar
in conclusion the genesis has a perfect processing but the snes doesnt and plus the sprite color is downgraded in genesis but in snes the sprite color is identical to the arcade version the beta version was better than the final one and did you know that the first joe and mac version was ported in nes
I suppose the magazine just took the liberty of using arcade screenshots to illustrate the upcoming mega drive game