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Unseen News

Widget [NES – Not Beta, but an arrow!]

U64 Staff & Contributors
09-11-2010
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Update: as noted by Ian and Yakumo, the “4” is an arrow!

Widget was developed by Atlus in 1992, for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was based off the short-lived cartoon series of the same name. Upon analyzing the game’s instruction manual, TheActionGameMaster spotted a minor difference in the password screen on the twelfth page, which discusses the game’s extended play features. In the manual, there are seven digits to be inputted. It reads “5,2,5,7,142”. In the final game, you may only input six digits on the password screen. This minor difference suggests that the photograph in the manual was taken from a later build of the game, or that it was some sort of tester’s code.

 

Nes / Famicom, Nintendo

Super Dog Booby: Akachan Daibouken no Maki [NES – Cancelled]

monokoma
05-11-2010
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Super Dog Booby: Akachan Daibouken no Maki (translated by mrdomino as Super Dog Booby: Baby Adventure Volume), is a cancelled platform / action game that was in development in 1990 / 1991 by Jaleco / Taito for the Famicom / NES. Some scans and info were posted in a japanese website, from which it seems that the game was also shown in a playable form at a gaming event in 1991 and it was also offered as a prize in a contest by a japanese magazine. In the end Super Dog Booby was never released for unknown reasons.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

Images: 

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

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

monokoma
11-10-2010
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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!

Images: 

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

The Mask [SNES – Beta]

monokoma
10-10-2010
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The Mask is a platform game (based on the film with the same name) developed by Black Pearl Software and published in 1995 by THQ for the Super Nintendo. Early in its development, the game was much different from the final version, as noticed by Mister Syd on the Lost Levels Forum:

Health meter is a series of facial expressions, while the health meter is numerical in actual game.

The Mask’s sprite is completely different in shape, color and design, almost as if this build was completely dismissed and recreated from the ground up.

Visually, I find this the most interesting because it looked like it was going to play more like a brawler than the platformer it turned out to be.

All of the screenshots’ backgrounds are not used anywhere in the final version of the game.

Unused abilities; The Mask has no low-kick, or a (strange-looking) gun that fires projectiles in the game and the mallet is a different color (and pose) but the tornado’s design might of been used in the game.

Some of the enemies in the screen shots I think are actually still in the game, but could be edited a bit in the release; the man with the gun by the bank vault is likely not in the final release though.

The Mask was also planned for the Genesis / Mega Drive, but this version was never released.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution! (scan from EGM #61)

Images: 

Game Boy (+ Color), Nintendo

Gremlins 2: The New Batch [GameBoy – Beta]

monokoma
08-10-2010
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Gremlins 2: The New Batch is a Game Boy side scrolling platform game based on the film with the same name and released in 1990 by Sunsoft. TheActionGameMaster noticed a small beta difference in an old screenshot, found in a magazine. You can see that the life counter is at 5 lives. This is not possible in the final version, because there are only two chances at extra men in the game, and Gizmo begins each continue with 2 men.

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