32X / Mega CD

32X / Mega CD, Leaked, Sega

X-Men [32X – Cancelled]

monokoma
23-04-2009
7 Comments

X-Men: Mind Games is a cancelled action game that was in development by Scavenger and it would have been published by SEGA in 1995 / 1996 for the 32X. The game was shown at the E3 1995 and a playable demo was found and leaked by the SEGASaturno community in August 2009! This version is playable only trough real hardware (edit: now supported by Kega Fusion) and it’s an  early prototype with a couple of levels. A mirror of the leaked beta can be downloaded on Hidden Palace. (edit: not available)

Thanks to Celine for the contribution and props to SEGASaturno!

Images:

MEAN MACHINES SEGA 37, november 1995.

Videos:

 

32X / Mega CD, Sega

Penn & Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors [Sega CD – Cancelled]

U64 Staff & Contributors
13-10-2008
4 Comments

cd_pen

Penn & Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors is an unreleased video game planned for release initially on the Sega CD in April 1995 and to be followed by PC, 3DO versions later that year. The game starred the comedy-magician duo Penn & Teller. The developer Absolute Entertainment went out of business before they could release the game, yet the game was featured and previewed in various gaming publications such as Electronic Gaming Monthly. 

32X / Mega CD, Sega

Sonic Mars [32X – Concept/Cancelled]

U64 Staff & Contributors
04-09-2008
10 Comments

sonicmarslogo.jpg

Sonic Mars was being developed by Sega Technical Institute (STI), a U.S.-based developer that had worked on games such as Sonic 2, Sonic 3 , Sonic Spinball, The Ooze and Comix Zone. In its earliest conception, the game was set to be released on the Sega Genesis and later on the 32X, under the name Sonic Mars (based on the codename for the 32X, Sega Mars). Sonic Mars would also have featured Sally Acorn and the other Freedom Fighters from the Saturday morning animated series, Sonic the Hedgehog. Part of the project staff included Chris Senn, who designed demo animations in order to persuade executives, and Michael Kosaka, who was the staff leader and the game’s producer. 

32X / Mega CD, Mega Drive / Genesis, Nintendo, Sega, SNES + Super Famicom

Earthworm Jim [SNES/MD – Beta / Concept]

U64 Staff & Contributors
30-07-2008
4 Comments

cd_jim

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 has been edited together means that picking apart all the differences between the early version shown and the final game is very difficult, but some parts are clearer than others.

Some of the highlights include:

  • 1:13 – Completely scrapped level, with a suitless Jim wandering around on spikey platforms.
  • 3:40 – Concept art, including a scrapped Psycrow encounter
  • 5:05 – 5:30 – Shows a slightly different HUD (different Atom icon), different opening segment from New Junk City, and different looking segment from  What the Heck level
  • 6:09 – 6:30 – Glitchy segment of Who Turned Out the Lights (you can see a giant 10 for some reason) and another completely scrapped level- first shown with Jim alone, then with him fighting Psycrow

Video:

From some beta screenshots that were published in Nintendo Power, we can notice various differences. On the new junk city images the background art design looks different and there’s also a moose head in everyone of them, but those are normally only used to swing from. The wheel monster has a completely different design in the final game. On the screenshots for What The Heck the design looks different and the backgrounds are different in at least one of the screenshots. On the screenshot of For Petes Sake everything about that level is different in the final game: the asteroids, the background, and the ground. Jim’s models also seems to be different maybe even better looking than in the final game. Also, in the last screenshot we can notice a weird looking enemy to the left of Jim which isn’t in the final game.

Also, thanks to Rocketworm.com we can see many concept arts from the development of the game, showing an early design for Intestinal Distress (the falling columns of fat aren’t in the final game, and the idea for the villi was later used in Earthworm Jim 2), early concept art for Buttville and New Junk City (with some gameplay ideas that would’ve probaly been impossible to pull of on a 16 bit console), a concept of a level based off of Bob the Goldfishes world which didn’t make it into the final game and various character designs.

Thanks to Earthwormjim, Lemm and retroguy205 for the contribution!

Images:

More beta Videos: