Dyno Blaze [G/MD/3DO – Cancelled]

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32X / Mega CD, M2 / 3DO, Mega Drive / Genesis, Others, Sega

Dyno Blaze is a cancelled beat ’em up that was in development by Bonsai Entertainment for the Genesis / Mega Drive, Mega CD and 3DO in 1994 and it would have been published by Virgin. A playable prototype of the game was somehow leaked online in 2008, in which you can try a series of (almost empty) levels where to move your rollerblade-dinosaur to fight enemies with an hockey stick. The levels are incomplete and bugged but it’s possible to go trought them waiting for a bit at the end of the area and pressing the jump button.

The original press release for the game:

Today, Virgin Interactive Entertainment and Bonsai Entertainment Corporation signed a multi-SKU development contract for DYNOBLAZE®, an original game for SEGA CD and SEGA GENESIS.

Bonsai Entertainment will develop the original game based upon designs previously developed. “It’s a game about ‘Teenage Mutant Ninga Dinosaurs’, that play street hockey on the streets of New York”, said Joseph Moses, President of Bonsai Entertainment. He added, “Teaming up with Virgin, already a key player in this industry, is a major step for Bonsai. We intend to make them very proud.”

“DynoBlaze” is scheduled for Christmas 1995 release across multiple platforms.

A weird Dyno Blaze proto was seen at the Video Game History 2008 expo in Monza (Italy), organized by our friends at Games Collection. In the VGH2K8 proto you can just see a rolling demo of the game’s menu (without any gameplay) and a strange graph for a medicine know as “Lotensin” by CibaGeneva pharmaceuticals. We dont have any clue about what this all means, so if you have a good explanation feel free to share it!

The 3DO version was in development by Alexandria Inc but sadly after some months of work the lead background artist died from an illness and the game was soon canceled not long after. The 3DO port had better graphic (as you can see from the scans below, found by Celine in Game Fan #95 and Cd Consoles magazines) and animations, almost like a cartoon.

Thanks to Jean-François Thébé and Scott Rogers for the contributions!

Images:

Video:

Alexandria Inc Beat ’em up Bonsai Entertainment

Comments

13 responses to “Dyno Blaze [G/MD/3DO – Cancelled]”

August 6, 2009

Celine

The game was also in development for 3DO.
You have the GameFan’s scan for that version althought they named it Dinoblaze.

BTW is Video Game History expo a yearly event ?

Reply
1. August 28, 2009
  
  monokoma
  
  The VGH is organized by the people at Games Collection, if i remember it correctly they do it once a year.. so we can assume that there will be one in 2010 too! The last one was nice enough, and there were a few protos to play (thanks to Nicola).
  
  Reply
March 13, 2010

Scott Rogers

In 1994, I went to work for Alexandria Inc. in San Luis Obsipo. One of the titles they were working on was Dynoblaze for the 3D0. However, it looked a lot different than the version you have above.

From what I remember, they reanimated all of the characters from scratch (there were four playable dinosaurs) and redrew all the backgrounds in a painterly “Cool World” art style. The emphasis of the game play was a platformer but with hockey elements. It looked really good and but wasn’t that great to play.

About six months after I started (I was working on other projects) the lead background artist died from an illness and the game was soon canceled not long after.

Reply
March 13, 2010

Celine

It’s because the article isn’t updated with the 3DO version images.

Reply
March 13, 2010

monokoma

Thanks a lot for the info Scott, it’s really appreciated.

@Celine: i have added your scans with the 3DO screens now! 🙂

Reply
March 14, 2010

Celine

Great. It would be even better if you update the Cyber Clash article with the in-game screenshots 😀

Reply
1. March 14, 2010
  
  monokoma
  
  Now Cyber Clash is updated too 🙂
  
  Reply
September 4, 2010

Lance Boyle

Maybe the CibaGeneva, Lotensin and graph images were there as placeholder art?

Reply
June 7, 2012

Joseph Moses

Everyone, I am the developer from Bonsai Entertainment responsible for what you saw on the demo video from the Italy game show. The “Lotensin” by CibaGeneva stuff was added in 1995/1996 as we tried to convince CibaGeneva to use the SEGA Genesis HandHeld for TradeShow demos. CibaGeneva has nothing to do with the game. I sold and gave some old game equipment to a deaf-guy in Santa Clara in 2007 who promised to sell it and share the proceeds. Needless to say he never paid up. Virgin

Reply
1. June 8, 2012
  
  monokoma
  
  wow, thanks a lot for the explanation Joseph! I’m sorry to know that the guy never paid you, but it’s good to finally know more about this proto!
  
  Reply
March 14, 2013

SPirestar

I actually worked my first game artist gig on a Sega skew of the CD Rom version of this game in 1994 while at Tahoe Software Productions, painting backgrounds using Deluxe Paint II and slicing them in Tume. It would have been a fun game for it’s time.

Reply
1. April 5, 2013
  
  monokoma
  
  Thanks a lot for the info SPirestar! It’s always interesting to read more about cancelled games from who worked on them 🙂
  
  Reply
June 25, 2019

Jonathan

I don’t know if it’s of any use, but AniTunes (John Mitchell and Tom Keenlyside) says they composed the music for this game: http://anitunes.ca/credits.htm

Reply