Sega

Dreamcast, Others, PC / MAC, Sega

Alien Breed: Conflict [PC / Dreamcast – Cancelled]

monokoma
22-04-2010
2 Comments

Alien Breed: Conflict (aka Alien Breed Action, ABC, or ABA) is a cancelled FPS in the Alien Breed series that was in development by Team17 in 1999 / 2000 for PC and Dreamcast. It was meant to be a follow-up to Alien Breed 3D II: The Killing Grounds, published in 1996 by Ocean Software. Sadly the development was cancelled as the size of the project was a bit overwhelming at the time.

We can read a short preview of Alien Breed Conflict on Computer And Videogames, but sadly only few screens are available:

ABC is a darkly futuristic, real-time 3-D strategy game. The player takes control of a small band of special operations soldiers as they fight for the freedom of their people. These guerrillas carry out dangerous missions behind enemy lines using guile, cunning, stealth and strategic abilities. Missions, including assassinations, strategic destruction, information retrieval and prisoner rescue, will be attempted by the player as he develops his skills of tactical combat.

You’ll get to develop your own characters with the skills you desire, deploy your units with predefined orders, command multiple groups, define your own tactics and select your weapons of choice.

The singleplayer missions in the game are said to be vast. Team17 will also focus strongly on multiplay and will run dedicated servers to save player stats and rankings.

Thanks to Jason for the english corrections!

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32X / Mega CD, Saturn, Sega

Rocket Boy [32X/Mega CD Saturn – Cancelled]

monokoma
21-04-2010
4 Comments

Rocket Boy is a cancelled platform game that was in development by Rocket Science Games for the Sega Saturn in 1994 / 1995. Players were able to explore a full 3D world set in a weird / fantasy galaxy, with the goal of finding a way to return home before the parents of the main character were back for dinner. As written in an article in Wired 2.11 (page 108), Rocket Science decided to cancel this project because it was too similar to other platform games of its time:

The trend toward more literate games means that some projects well along the Rocket Science pipeline have had to be scrapped. “We saw some things at the Consumer Electronics Show very similar to our Rocket Boy and DarkRide, so we’ve put those on hold,” says Caldwell. “But we still have Wing Nuts, a World War I dogfight game, in the works.”

In 1997 Rocket Science had to close down due to financial problems and Rocket Boy vanished forever with them. Celine found a pic of the game in Cd Consoles magazine issue #5 and Rod_Wod found one more in another magazine! These images are likely concept artwork and not in-game.

Thanks to Jason for the english corrections!

UPDATE:

On Mega Force issue 36 there is an article about Rocket Boy. The project initially was planned for Sega Mega CD (and 32X combo) and featured pre-rendered graphics which were very popular at that time. The game was an action/platform with an isometric view similar to SegaSonic the Hedgehog. Added “real screen shots” images in the gallery with the scanned article.

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

Cybernauts (DNAction): The New Breed [SNES GEN MD – Cancelled]

U64 Staff & Contributors
17-04-2010
5 Comments

DNAction: The New Breed (AKA Cybernauts: The Next Breed) is a cancelled fighting game that was in development for the Super Nintendo and Genesis / Mega Drive that would have been published by Accolade, Inc. in 1994. Accolade made its name in the late 80’s and early 90s with franchise’s such as Test Drive, Hardball, and Bubsy but started losing steam around the mid 90’s which caused the company to want to shift focus and reinvent itself. It is possible that this change of direction in the mid 90’s was the cause for some games to be cancelled in development such as DNAction. Accolade was also purchased by Infrogames in 1999 so any hope of the game being revisited seems to have ended there.

Although The game was never released, some info about the project and various character renders were found in old gaming magazines as Games World #1, Banzzai #21 and GamePro #56,  plus some  in-game screens from an early prototype found in Player One #43. DNAction used pre-rendered sprites for characters and backgrounds, created with Silicon Graphics in the same way as Killer Instinct.

The game was to be placed in a future setting with scientists being able to genetically enhance humans to create their own superheroes. Some, however decide to use their powers for evil thus pitting a rivalry between those who received super powers. There were at least four planned playable characters: Pitbull and Hotshot who were members of Matrix Alpha, the superheroes trying to help society. Then the two members of the evil organization Overlord: Ground Zero and Tracer. An additional 4 characters were shown, Shockwave and Banzai (Overlord) then Recoil and IronClad (Matrix Alpha).

Thanks to Celine and Rod_Wod for the contributions!

Post by Ja’Ron Riley

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Mega Drive / Genesis, Sega

Zero Tolerance [Beta – Mega Drive / Genesis]

monokoma
16-04-2010
6 Comments

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!

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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: 

Dreamcast, Others, PC / MAC, Sega

MDK2 [PC Dreamcast – Beta / Concept]

monokoma
14-04-2010
2 Comments

MDK2 is an action game developed by BioWare, as a sequel to the original MDK developed by Shiny Entertainment and released in 1997 by Interplay. MDK2 was originally released for the Dreamcast and PC in 2000, but it was later revised and re-released for the PlayStation 2 as MDK2: Armageddon. [Info from Wikipedia]

Some of the early screenshots released for this project show a beta build 20% complete.  The character models seem to be the same, though the places in these pictures do not exist in the final product. Some of them are similar to an area at the start of the game , so maybe it was an early version of that stage.

The the lightning looks extremely weird especially on the character model. The HUD is also different.

Finally, the lack of any screenshots of the other two characters leads us to believe that they had either not been implemented yet or that the game wasn’t going to include them.

If you can notice more differences in these beta screens and artworks, please let us know!

Thanks to F2bnp for the contribution!

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