Nintendo

Earthworm Jim 3D [N64/PC – Beta]

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During its drawn-out three year development cycle, Earthworm Jim 3D changed publishers several times. This caused some problems as the game was based on the Earthworm Jim TV series which by the time of release, had been off the air for over 3 years. Also many locations displayed in early versions of the game are nowhere to be found in the released copy (such as a level set in a house, where Jim is ant-sized), and locations that were kept from early screenshots changed drastically before release.

In some cases, entire characters were changed – originally, Evil the Cat was to be the boss of Fear, but was changed to Professor Monkey-For-A-Head at the last moment, although his face can be seen on the records and record needles in the level “Boogie Nights of the Living Dead”. Additionally, Evil Jim, Earthworm Jim’s evil twin from the TV series, was reportedly a part of the game. Early screenshots also display Jim riding his Pocket Rocket. The characters of Earthworm Jim had to be redesigned for the shift to 3D. When the game was almost three quarters done, it suffered from framerate problems and poor animation. [Info from Wikipedia]

Also Makubeku noticed that the eye window its squared on the beta instead of how it was on the final! A beta demo was found by Nes World (as you can see in the video below), but we are not sure how many differences are in there.

Thanks to Lucas Araujo for the contribution!

Images:

Videos:

 

Time Splitters 2 [XBOX/PS2/GC – Beta]

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TimeSplitters 2 is a first-person shooter available for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube. The game was published by Eidos and developed by Free Radical Design, a company founded by some ex-Rare members. In February of 1999, 20 months before the release of Perfect Dark, several members of Rare who had worked on GoldenEye 007, including Steve Ellis, Karl Hilton, Graeme Norgate, and David Doak, left to form their own company called Free Radical Design. After they developed the first TimeSplitters, Free Radical Design began work on TimeSplitters 2, with the goal of creating a more fulfilling story mode alongside the Arcade and MapMaker modes. [Info from Wikipedia] In the beta version of the game, there was a different HUD and different design for some of the weapons. You can see a comparison below:

Thanks to Danny33 for the contributions & to Jay for the english corrections!

Beta Electro Tool:

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Final Electro Tool (beta HUD):

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Beta Laser Gun:

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Final Laser Gun (beta HUD):

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Beta Plasma Autorifle?:

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Final Plasma Autorifle (beta HUD):

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Beta Tactical 12-Gauge:

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Final Tactical 12-Gauge (beta HUD):

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Beta Soviet S47:

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Final Soviet S47 (with beta HUD):

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More beta images: 

Wii Drums [Wii – Tech Demo]

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Wii drums was a tech demo which was playable at the E3 2006. It was titled then as another part of Wii Music, aside the orchestra game but at E3 2006 was the last time it has been seen since. Wii drums featured a two player jam sessions like mechanic in which players hold two wii remotes each and have to move the wii remote to bash the onscreen drums whilst simoultaneously having to hold different buttons to switch between them to create a different sounding beat. Satori Iwata speculated after E3 2006 to Official Nintendo Magazine that Wii Drums was at the time a tech demo made to show off one of the many things the wii remote could simulate. He added to that “That was not only to give the public a better understanding of the new technology but to show third-party developers what opportunities there are”. With that said, it makes me think this is perhaps what inspired Sega to bring back Samba de Amigo on the wii as it uses a similar gameplay mechanic.

Below is one of the few videos you can find of wii drums in action: