New Cancelled Games & Their Lost Media Added to the Archive

Mega Drive / Genesis, Sega

Zero Tolerance [Beta – Mega Drive / Genesis]

monokoma
16-04-2010
1 Comment

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!

Images:

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:

Playstation, Sony

Dragon Quest 7 (VII) [PSX – Beta]

yota
15-04-2010
No Comments

Dragon Quest VII (Dragon Warrior 7 in USA) was originally announced for the 64DD in 1996, but one year later the development switched to Playstation and the game was finally released in 2000. Unfortunately, we don’t know much about the beta versions of DQ7, but thanks to a video from the V Jump festival in 1998  (check below), uploaded by Carnivol in his YT Channel, we can see that originally Keifer (the blonde character) had a different dress.

Also, in the V Jump 1999 Festival video the monsters (especially their animations), seem to look better than their counterparts in the final version. What do you think?

Videos:

Compare the beta battles to the final ones (video below @ 3:36)

Microsoft, Playstation 2 (PS2), Sony, Xbox

Campfire [PS2/XBOX – Cancelled]

monokoma
15-04-2010
1 Comment

Campfire: Become Your Nightmare is a cancelled “reverse survival horror” that was in development in 2003 by Daydream Software, for the original Xbox and Playstation 2. The project was going to be an open ended action game, in which the player would had take the role of a serial killer, to massacre tourists and youngsters during their holydays in the woods. As we can read in the official press release:

What if you were the hunter instead of the hunted? What if your sole purpose in life was to cause misery, death, and pain to anyone and anything you encountered? Now you have your chance. So begins Daydream Software’s brutal “reverse survival horror” game, Campfire. Based on contemporary slasher flicks, Campfire allows players to choose from four different serial killers (Vincent Voucher, Mac Douglas, Louis Winterstorm, and Mannie the Clown) so that they may use them to wreck havoc on the unsuspecting populace of an out of the way campground.

Campfire vanished without any official announcement, but it’s possible that Daydream never found a publisher interested in the project.

Images:

Video:

Dreamcast, Others, PC / MAC, Sega

MDK2 [PC Dreamcast – Beta / Concept]

monokoma
14-04-2010
No 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!

Images:

M2 / 3DO, Others, Playstation, Saturn, Sega, Sony

Allegiance (Team 17) [Cancelled – Playstation, Saturn, 3DO]

monokoma
14-04-2010
5 Comments

Allegiance is a cancelled FPS / action game that was in development by Team17 in 1995 / 1996, rumored to be planned for the Playstation, Saturn and 3DO.  According to Spong, it seems that the game was to feature a female lead character, Kay Brogan. Despite several level meshes being completed the game was canned due to the failure of the 3D engine to be developed in time.

In the aftermath of Tomb Raider some Team 17 staff tried to convert Allegiance into a Tomb Raider style game, but as the team had a reputation of original games, they decided not to follow this derivative route.

Thanks to Dream17 we can read a comment  about Allegiance that Martyn Brown (Team17 co-founder) posted on his blog on March 30th, 2007.

A spy thriller that got not much further than some crackers budget FMV when again the company was knee deep in Worms focus elsewhere. I shudder to think how it all happened, really. The idea was sound, it just suffered from a total disregard of planning, design and implementation.

Celine was able to find a screenshot of this game in Cd Consoles magazine issue #7, and another scan is from Play Magazine issue #2. Thanks to Unclejun for the help with the video! Thanks to Andrew for the other scans  Play Issue #1 (UK magazine)!

Images:

Videos: