Mega Drive / Genesis

Mega Drive / Genesis, Nintendo, Sega, SNES + Super Famicom

Environmental Detective [SNES GEN MD – Cancelled]

monokoma
03-05-2010
2 Comments

Environmental Detective is a cancelled platform / adventure game that was in development by Magicom for the Super Nintendo and Mega Drive / Genesis. There is scant information about the project, save for a short description in an old Mean Machine magazine, found by Rod_Wod. Players would have taken the role of “Ozone Kid” to solve various green-related puzzles.

The character was meant to be an environmental do-gooder who picks up trash in his home town, “Recycle City” and always takes his refuse to the recycling centre. His other numerous antics include stopping spray cans from making holes in the ozone layer and preventing the rainforest from being cut down by evil crocodiles (WTF?). The general idea of the game was to inform children of environmental problems… but something went wrong during the development and Environmental Detective was never released.

Thanks to Rod_Wod the contribution! Thanks to Jason for the english corrections!

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Mega Drive / Genesis, Sega

Jester [MD/G – Cancelled]

monokoma
25-04-2010
No Comments

Jester is a cancelled platform game that was in development by Sega of America for the Genesis / Mega Drive. There is not much info on its gameplay and only few levels backgrounds are preserved in the gallery below. Jester was canned after a problematic development and it is unknown how much was completed before the cancellation.

Thanks to Alan for the help in preserving some media from this lost project!

Thanks to Jason for the english corrections!

Images:
 

Mega Drive / Genesis, Sega

Zero Tolerance [Beta – Mega Drive / Genesis]

monokoma
16-04-2010
1 Comment

Zero Tolerance is a FPS developed in 1993 / 1994 by Technopop and published by Accolade in 1994 for the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis. Zero Tolerance was a unique game in that there weren’t many FPS console games back then. Just like other Accolade games, Zero Tolerance came in a unique Accolade game cartridge. Zero Tolerance also supports a link cable where two Genesis systems can connect and play in the same game.

Let’s begin with a look at this image:

Sero Tolerance Beta

Here we have two beta / prototype cartridges, and a final copy of Zero Tolerance. I’ve gone through the early prototype and compiled as much beta material as I could find.

Differences between the final and beta / prototype versions are:

  • -There’s no music in the prototype. Sound effects are still present.
  • -Nearly all the logo’s at startup have been slightly changed.
  • -The options menu in the prototype has significantly less options.
  • -The characters between games are completely different.
  • -In the proto, you do not start with a weapon.
  • -There’s no text at the top of the screen when the map is displayed.
  • -The counter on the left, which tells you how many enemies remain on the level, is not functioning in the prototype.
  • -The name of each weapon and it’s number of bullets remaining, have swaped places.
  • -Some of the text on the wall is a different colour.
  • -The image on some doors is different.
  • -The robots on the High Rise Roof make a different sound.
  • -In the proto, when picking up a weapon it just says “WEAPON COLLECTED…” instead of the weapons name.

Technopop has released Zero Tolerance as freeware. This means you can download the Zero Tolerance Genesis rom legally and for free. A sequel, Beyond Zero Tolerance (or Zero Tolerance 2) was also in development by Technopop, but it was never finished.

Article, video and images by Cheaterdragon!

Images:

Videos:

Megalol noticed that in Sega Power magazine from september 1994 the screenshots in the game’s review are actually from a beta version. Infact, you can notice a couple of small differences in the HUD (name of the weapons in different place, ID card) and Level textures.

Beta Version:


Final Version:


Beta Version:


Final Version:

Images: 

Mega Drive / Genesis, Sega

Pulseman [MD GEN – Beta]

monokoma
10-04-2010
No Comments

Pulseman is a side-scrolling action platform game developed by Game Freak and published by Sega for the Mega Drive / Genesis in 1994. The game was released in cartridge format only in Japan, with the North American version being released via the Sega Channel as an “exclusive”. When first announced, Pulseman was originally named Spark.

Derboo found a screen of the beta Spark  from the Korean gaming magazine, Game World #5 (1994). The on-screen display changed, and the screenshot shows a boss from the game with a slightly different sprite in a totally different situation.

The palette is also different, but the article also shows artworks with the characters colored just like in the final game, so it was probably just the prototype palette for the underwater effect.

Thanks to derboo for the contribution!

Beta:


Final Version:

Images: 

Mega Drive / Genesis, Sega

Smaartvark [GEN MD – Cancelled]

monokoma
03-04-2010
4 Comments

Smaartvark (also know as “Arnie the Aardvark” and “Miniature Aardvark TV Repairmen”) is a cancelled platform / action game that was in development by Codemasters for the Genesis / Mega Drive. The title is a wordplay between “aardwark”, a medium-sized mammal native to Africa, and “smart”: infact the main protagonist of the game was an aardwark TV technician, as we can see from its sprite in the screens below.

There are not much info about this project and we dont know why it was never released. It seems that the player had to repair a TV by entering in its channels and defeating the bugs that cause the problem.

Thanks to Rod_Wod and Celine for the scans!

Images: