Mega Drive / Genesis

Space Race [Cancelled Pitch – MegaDrive / Genesis]

Space Race was a game being pitched by Warren Spector to Origin for the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive either on cart form or for the Sega CD. According to pitch documents, Spector was looking for concept approval so they could then create the script. Space Race could have also been developed for PC as well and would have required 4 Megs of RAM and a 320 x 200 VGA. The PC version would have been based on Wing-3 technology and had the possibility of modem/network play.

The game is described as a 3D racing game with a difference and was likened to Road Rash and Super Monaco Grand Prix, but taking that intense racing action into outer space, with the player at the helm of a futuristic space-racing ship. The basic plot for the game would have been based in the distant future mankind has met a myriad of alien races in the solar system, and they together have created a championship of space racing that would pit the very best from each planet against each other.

Some of the design elements promised within the pitch document were that the ships would be customisable so depending on your race style or the course, you, the player would be able to make alterations to your ship to suit.

Some of the tracks are also described, there would be tracks that would have a road type surface, but more interestingly there were tracks that would be wide open and would have no horizontal or vertical constraints and as long as the player touched the appropriate checkpoints they would continue in the race. There would also be enclosed winding tunnels with walls made of energy that if the player touched them their ship would take damage but nothing is described as to what this would affect.

A few race types are mentioned, there could be straight up races where no contact between vehicles would be allowed, but there were also planned demolition derbies where it would be last vehicle standing. When the player wins or ranks in a race, they would earn points for their standing in the Space Race championship and money so they could upgrade their vehicle.

All of the items described may seem like it could be quite hard to implement on the Sega Genesis but Warren Spector said “Technologically, I don’t think there’s anything challenging in here, and the design would be a piece of cake, one of the simplest we’ve ever done.” The proposed budget for developing the game was $200,000 for the Sega Genesis but would have been higher for a PC version.

Also pitched was that the drivers and ships could be licensable allowing for more revenue to be made from the game if it was a success. Spector believed that the only game that was being developed at this time that was close to Space Race was CyberRace for the PC and that looked like it was going to be a hit. CyberRace can still be played using DOSBox emulation, but the game came out with middling reviews and was described as “Stylish but not very good”.

This could be one of the reasons that Space Race was not taken any further than this pitch, but as all of the information that can be found about this game is in this document, it is hard to obtain anymore details. If you do have any more details please feel free to contact us.

Many thanks to Joe Martin for the document.

Images: 

Frog Dude [Genesis / MegaDrive – Cancelled]

Frog Dude is a cancelled platformer that was in development by Twilight for Genesis / Mega Drive in 1993. The game was never officially announced but, in 2014, Gamesthatwerent contacted Andy Swann, the lead programmer of Frog Dude, which shared a short playable demo of the game.

The main character was a strange man who used a mace to attack and could transform himself into a long-tongued frog. There is nothing to interact with, no enemies to fight, and no sound effects or music. However, at least a nice cutscene welcomes players at the beginning of the prototype.

According to Gamesthatwerent, the project was shelved before it could even be touted at publishers:

Andy’s agent, John Cook, had come in and said that the Frog Dude title was “workman-like” and suggested they didn’t bother with finishing it.

Read more about this game and download the proto on Gamesthatwerent.

Images:

Video:

 

Peaky Blinder [MegaDrive / Genesis / SNES – Cancelled]

Peaky Blinder is a cancelled sidescrolling platform game that was in development in 1994 by Storm / Sales Curve Interactive (SCi Games) for SNES, MegaDrive / Genesis / Mega CD and GameGear. Our friend Ross Sillifant found a short article about this lost game in Mean Machines Sega Magazine Issue 15, while the title was also in a release list for SNES published in N-Force Magazine Issue 09. Not many info are available, here’s what Mean Machines wrote about the project:

A trashy terror of the raving underworld is making his debut on the Megadrive and Mega-CD pretty soon, courtesy of Storm. Peaky Blinder is apparently a cult hero on the rave scene and features on loads of t-shirts. Such is his popularity (although we’ve never heard of him) that Storm has built him an entire identity and a ritzy story line to accompany him.
Peaky was borne from a fusion of trash, mass media, toxic waste and dumped video carts – sounds pretty disgusting, which of course he is. But an inner Peaky yearns to break out of his foul exterior and live in a suburban house with frilly pink curtains and longs to be kind to animals. With this in mind, our whiffy hero sets out thought his dire world’s underground system and roams around the inner city slums where anything can happen – and usually does.
Peaky’s a bit unique in that he can change his physical form to suit and combat his hostile surroundings (there has to be some compensation for being a mutant scurf-ball from hell we guess). Not seen much on this yet but we’ll bring you the full gen in a future issue.

If you have more info about this lost game, please let us know in the comments below!

Images:

Peaky Blinder videogame cancelled 

Lufia & The Fortress of Doom [Genesis / Megadrive – Cancelled]

Lufia and the Fortress of Doom is a rpg developed by Neverland and released by Taito for SNES in 1993. A (north-american only?) port for Sega Genesis was supposed to be released in 1994, but it got delayed and Taito America eventually closed down in 1995.

However, in 2014, the western programmer that worked on the port leaked a tech demo, featuring just the title screen and a testing dungeon, of the Genesis version of Lufia on the internet. According to him, he had just six months to finish the project:

Well, one of the reasons it was cancelled was because they told me to complete the port in 6 months.. there was no way in hell I could have done it since all the original SNES code was fucking indecipherable and the Japan programmers weren’t any help..

lufia genesis

For more informations check the original opa-ages topic.

Images:

Videos:

 

Demon Dinosaurs / Dino Racer [Genesis / Mega Drive – Cancelled?]

Demon Dinosaurs, also known as Dino Racer, was a bizarre racing game similar to Outrun in development by Codemasters around 1994 for the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive. Bizarre I said because it was set in prehistorik age and the racers were cave men and dinosaurs. It is unknown why the game was never released.

Thanks to Youloute for the Mega Force article. Scan from Mega Console issue 6 and Mega Force issue 29.

Images: