Mega Drive / Genesis

Road Riot 4WD [MD/G – Cancelled]

A Genesis / Mega Drive version of Road Riot 4WD was in development at Tengen in 1993, but it was later cancelled. The game is an arcade racing game somehow similar to Mario Kart. A SNES (1992) and an Arcade (1991) versions do exist, but while the SNES version doesnt look that good, the Genesis one seems to have been graphically more similar to the Arcade game. It’s currently unknown if the canned game would have had new tracks. Some images were found in Joypad magazine #7, EGM # 40 and # 41!

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

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Interplanetary Lizards [MD/G – Cancelled]

Interplanetary Lizards is an action game that was in development by Tengen for the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive. In may 2009, Rod_Wod from the Assembler Forum shared various scans from old gaming magazines, and in one of these images we can see a screenshot from IL. The game was cancelled for unknown reasons.

Second screenshot from GameFan 2-3. Thanks to RetroGameFan9000 for the contribution!

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Mortal Kombat 3 [Arcade – Beta]

Mortal Kombat 3 is the third game in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series, released in arcades in 1995. It was updated into Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 in arcade and home consoles, and later Mortal Kombat Trilogy home consoles only. Mortal Kombat 3 has been released for DOS, Game Boy, Game Gear, Genesis, Master System, PlayStation, Super NES and Windows. [Info from Wikipedia]

From the Mortal Kombat Secrets website we can read about many differences in the beta builds of the game, such as early character select screen, a removed red carpet in “The Bank” stage and a removed sub-boss with two big hammers. Sektor’s original name was “ketchup”, Cyrax’s original names were “mustard” and even “Robocop” at one point, Sindel was known as “Muchacha” and Kabal’s working name was “Sandman”.

Kurtis Stryker was supposed to appear in MK1 but it was removed, then in MK2 but it was changed into Jax. Only in MK3 Kurtis Stryker made its final appearance in the series. You can find out more about the MK3 beta at Mortal Kombat Secrets!

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Mortal Kombat 2 (II) [Arcade – Beta]

Mortal Kombat II is a 1993 arcade game and the second title in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. Due to memory limitations for the title two characters from the original Mortal Kombat, Sonya Blade and Kano were excluded, reasoned by Boon as them being the least-picked characters in the original game, and the development team’s desire to introduce more new characters into the game. [Info from Wikipedia]

On the Mortal Kombat Secrets website there are many interesting concept arts and screenshots from the early development of the game, in wich we can notice some removed characters as Kintaro and a female kick-boxer. Also a couple of beta images for Jax, Johnny Cage and Baraka shown their original designs and we found out that a Blade Spin Special Move was removed from Baraka, because it was too powerful. You can check the original article on MKS for more info!

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Beyond Zero Tolerance [MD/G – Cancelled]

Beyond Zero Tolerance (or Zero Tolerance 2) is a FPS developed by Technopop for the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis. It was meant to be a sequel to Zero Tolerance, but it was never finished. Both games have been deemed by the (now defunct) developer to be publicly distributable as freeware. [Info from Wikipedia] You can download the playable beta of the game at Technopop memorial site. Huge props to the developers for sharing this piece of gaming history with the community!

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

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