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Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure [Beta – SNES)

As we can read on Wikipedia, Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure is a 1994 videogame developed and published by Activision in partnership with Redline Games. It was first released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Mega Drive (Sega Genesis) and Mega-CD (Sega CD) in 1994, followed by releases for the Sega 32X, Atari Jaguar, and PC the following year. Hallfiry on Betaarchive forums found some images from a beta version, if you want to write a list of all the differences, leave a message below! :D

Thanks to Stephen Reed for the contribution

 

Spyro PS2 Tech Demo (2001) [Fake]

Update: as wrote by a former Argonaut Games developer “Hi All… just to let you know this article is false. Croc 3 was never in development at Argonaut (beyond a 2 page proposal I put together) and there was no Spyro demo.

Original post:

In 2001 during development of Croc 3: Stone Of The Gobbos, Argonaut Games developed a tech demo for an unnamed Spyro The Dragon game. The game was not intended to be released, however it was playable and had a homeworld. The game prototype was done to expand on the engine both Croc 3 and Malice used. It was a tech demo developed for Playstation 2. Nothing else is known.

Thanks to a former Argonaut Games employee for the information. 

Croc: Legend of the gobbos (1997) [Beta / Prototype – PSX / Saturn / PC]

Croc Legend Of The Gobbos was a platformer game released in 1997 by Defunct game developer, Argonaut Games. Using the BRender engine, which was a state of the art engine capable of powering games released between generations (PS1 and PS2 gens), it took full advantage of the consoles it released on and pushed the game engine to its limits.

Recently, a beta and tech demo was uncovered by a few fans of the game on a now defunct forum, “Croc Fan Forums” , and released to a very few people. A newely formed YouTube channel called Video Game Beta Book, posted videos from both builds that leaked a few weeks ago.

These videos show many things that were changed or cut. In the tech demo, croc appears to be voiced by an entirely different voice actor opposed to His voice actor in Croc and Croc 2. Next, many level designs are different, and some levels are even entirely unseen in the final game. The main island also looks severely different.

The tech demo that leaked was dated November 1996, and appears to be a very early alpha of the game engine, that was likely released to internal testers to test physics.  In the Prototype dated March 1997, it features slightly different animations, has cut levels, and even has something not at all in the final game: Results Screen. The results screen is similar to the ending of levels on the Spyro The Dragon Trilogy games released by Insomniac Games from 1998-2000, where it shows your gems you picked up and score.

Additionally, in the tech demo Croc is more lighter than He appears in the March 1997 Proto and the final game.

Videos of the tech demo and prototype can be seen below:

 

Indiana Jag [Jaguar – Cancelled]

Indiana Jag is a cancelled mascot platform game in development by french Virtual Xperience around 1994/1995. Five different kind of areas were expected like jungle, Old West, Egypt and Space. As Rodolphe Czuba, Virtual Xperience developer at the time, recalled “only some graphics were done for Indy Jag, a concept like a humorous Indiana Jones with a jaguar figure”.

Information and scans from Joypad issue 34, additional images courtesy of justclaws.atari.org

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Super Ninja Goku [PSX – Cancelled]

Super Ninja Goku is a 2D side-scrolling platform / action game, based on the ancient chinese legend of Saiyuki, that was in development (or to be published?) by Santos for the original Playstation. The studio released only 2 shoot ’em up and a puzzle game for the PSX, Super Ninja Goku seems to have been canned for unknown reasons. In 1997 Santos had to close down.

The game was later published by Aicom 2 as “Fuuun Gokuu Ninden

Thanks to Celine for the contribution! Scan from GameFan 4-4

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