Mega Drive / Genesis

Warlock: The Game [SNES MD GEN – Beta]

Warlock: The Game was released in 1994 on the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis / Mega Drive. Developed by Trimark Interactive and published by Acclaim Entertainment, an advertisement for the game found on the VHS of Warlock: The Armageddon (which the game takes most of the story elements from) shows slower game play and a smoother animated player sprite. There are some beta versions on internet.

Article by James Reed

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Rocket Rescue [SNES MD GEN – Cancelled]

Rocket Rescue is a cancelled action game that was in development for the Super Nintendo, Mega Drive / Genesis and Amiga in 1994. Players would had to save people on different planets, exploring the space with a rocket in more than 100 levels. The project would have been published by Hot Shot Entertainments, but we dont know which development team was behind it.

In the end Rocket Rescue was never released and there are basically no more info available about the game or what happened to its publisher. If you know someone that worked on this project, please let us know!

Thanks to Rod_Wod for the scans!

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Dinosaurs for Hire [MD GEN – Beta]

As we can read in Wikipedia, Dinosaurs For Hire is a run and gun / beat ’em up game published by Sega and developed by Malibu Interactive for the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive. The game is based on an american comic and features Archie, Lorenzo and Reese as the main playable characters while Cyrano (a pterodactyl) shows up from time to time to give mission briefings but is not playable. In the beta version Cyrano was available as a playable character, as seen in old preview screenshots, but for some reasons they decided to remove this option.

Thanks to Rod_Wod for the scan!

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Matrix Runner [Sega VR – Cancelled]

Matrix Runner is a cancelled action adventure game that was in development in 1992 / 1993 by ZCT Systems Group for the Sega VR add-on based on the Mega Drive / Genesis. Players had to explore the cyberspace and to resolve various puzzles to try to capture a murderer. The concept (and the title) of the game is really similar to Free Runner, a cancelled adventure for the Saturn, but as far as we know, the developers are different. It could be just an huge coincidence, or maybe someone from ZTC Systems went to work to Rebellion and resurrected their old project.

Only a single screenshot of Matrix Runner was found by Rod_Wod and Celine in some old magazines. If you know someone that worked on this game, please let us know!

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Aero The Acro-Bat [SNES GEN MD – Beta / Concept]

Aero the Acro-Bat is a platform game developed by Iguana Entertainment and published by Sunsoft in 1993. Super for the Super Nintendo and Mega Drive / Genesis. At Kombo we can read an interesting article about the game, in which they even shared the original design doc, created by David Siller in 1992. Some of the major differences that we can notice from looking at the design doc are:

in-level missions such as hopping over quicksand and landing in a lion’s mouth that did not make it to the final version of the game.

Not all of these items are in the final version either. The barrel, for instance, appears in a single stage and is presented as a mode of transportation instead of an item worth points.

Unused enemies

The original mission objective screen showed Aero in action as an example on what the player needs to do. While this idea was not included in the original 1993 release, the 2002 Game Boy Advance re-release added a variation of this concept back into the game.

Thanks to Robert Seddon for the contribution!

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