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Saturn

Battletech: Gray Death Legion is a cancelled mech game that was in development for the Saturn and Sega Mega CD at Absolute Entertainment in 1995, before the closure of the company. The project was based on a fictional mercenary company that exists within the fictional BattleTech Universe and probably the gameplay was going to be similar to other mech games, with mission-based levels and first person shooter view.

It’s currently unknown if the Saturn version was similar to the Sega Mega CD one or if they were 2 different games. A playable beta demo of the Sega Mega CD version was leaked somehow and it’s available at Good Deal Games. As we can read from the description:

The Gray Death Legion is a mercenary regiment within the Battletech universe. This game demo does not have audio, but is very playable and a blast at that! The game plays very similar to the excellent AH-3 Thunderstrike. Battletech: Gray Death Legion makes use of the Sega CD’s scaling and rotation hardware to create an impressive 3D environment with a smooth frame rate. Features a very long 3D animated Battletech intro that is also very impressive.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution (scan from GamePro #79)!

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Playstation, Saturn, Sega, Sony

Pandemonium [PSX / Saturn / PC]

Gh0stBlade

09-09-2009

4 Comments

Pandemonium is a 2.5D side scrolling platform game, developed by Toys For Bob and published by Crystal Dynamics, originally for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn. Celine has found some beta screenshots (20% complete?) of the game in GamePro #83 in which we can notice the early graphic and some possible other differences (sadly i don’t remember the game that well, if you find more changes, please let us know!).

It’s interesting to notice that Pandemonium was released in Japan by Bandai under the title Magical Hoppers, with story, cutscenes and characters completely changed with a more “japanese” style. [Info from Wikipedia]

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

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Alpha Stage – July 1996
Platform: PSX

This version contains some rather interesting differences. You can switch the characters whilst in-game unlike the final verison which doesn’t allow this. Most of the levels are there but they appear to be incomplete towards the end. The world map/level selection is also incomplete and very basic. The HUD is different from the final game and so are the collectibles which seem to be red gems of some sort.

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August/Early September 1996 Beta Trailer

A trailer which shows footage of an unknown build of the game. My estimate is between August/Early September 1996. There are numerous differences, especially the HUD which has a picture of the character itself. I actually prefer it like this.

32X / Mega CD, M2 / 3DO, Others, Saturn, Sega

Darkside / Dark Ride [Saturn 3DO – Cancelled]

U64 Staff & Contributors

07-09-2009

1 Comment

Darkside (sometimes written as Dark Ride or Darkride) was one of many titles being devloped by Rocket Science Games before being cancelled. It was to be a psychodellic tunnel-based game with bizarre graphics, and was briefly previewed in the December 1994 issue of Games World: The Magazine, which stated that ‘the team behind the game are perfecting the smooth scrolling of the ride… before the gameplay’.

Rocket Science Games themselves are probably more interesting than the games they made- funded by Sega Enterprises and promising more than they could deliver on, they mostly made Sega-CD and PC-based FMV based titles such as Cadillacs & Dinosaurs: The Second Cataclysm and Obsidian. However, their titles never sold well, and Sega themselves cancelled half of the company’s titles around 1994/95 to keep costs down- it seems Dark Side / Dark Ride was one of the victims of this. They eventually went out of business in 1997.

The preview in Games world: The Magazine states that the game was being developed for the 3DO, although almost all other RSG games were being developed for either the Sega CD or the PC- whether this is a mistake on the magazine’s part is unknown.

In a short article published in French magazine CD Consoles issue #4 we can read that “Darkside” was in development for the Saturn and the game would have took the player into an imaginary world, to explore it aboard a cart on rails (as in a rollercoaster). Could this have been an on-rails shooter? We are not sure.

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 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.”

If you have some more info on this game, please let us know!

Thanks to Celine for the scan! Thanks to Jason for the english corrections!

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Playstation, Saturn, Sega, Sony

Midland [PSX/Saturn – Cancelled?]

monokoma

04-09-2009

2 Comments

Saga Darvulia has found an old magazine with an article about a misterious action RPG called “Midland”, that was in development by “Future Soft” (??) sometime in 1996. From the look of the only screen available, the game should have probably been for the Playstation or Saturn. There are basically no other info on this project, so we can assume that it was cancelled, but it could also be possible that it was relased under a different name in Japan. If someone recognize this game, please let us know!

Thanks to Saga Darvulia for the contribution!

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Saturn, Sega

NiGHTS into Dreams [Saturn – Beta]

U64 Staff & Contributors

04-05-2009

4 Comments

Thanks to the Nights Into Dreams website we are able to see an early video of the game, when the beta had different graphic details and different level layout in Spring Valley. A more recent beta was shown at E3 1996 with some different sound effects and item placement. In january 2009 the E3 beta version (that is the same build of the Japanese NiGHTS Special Sample disc) was somehow leaked online and you can donwload it from the X-Cult mirror! Thanks to MalanTp that has created some videos to compare the beta to the final game, we are able to check all those differences. You can download some hi-quality videos from the beta disc from Segagaga Domain.

Also, OKeijiDragon found some more beta videos from an episode of Sega Video Magazine and it features the initial unveiling of NiGHTS at the Japanese Tokyo Prince Hotel way back in March 26, 1996; followed by an old, rare interview with Yuji Naka, Naoto Oshima, and Takashi Iizuka:

Included in the segment are footage of the game’s early stages of development, including a different stage layout for Spring Valley. Many of the sound effects heard are also very different, and even the music sounds unrefined! Such elements are highlighted in the video though annotations. There has been no translation for the interview, yet.

Thanks to Yakumo for the contribution!

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