Aftershock is a cancelled shoot ’em up that was in development by Sega Midwest for the 32X. A short video (just a couple of seconds) of the game was seen in the episode #70 of the ROX TV Show, when they visited the SM studio. As we can read from a GDRI interview with Jim Reichert, former Sega Midwest designer, the project was canned because of economic problems:
JR: Aftershock got beyond the proof of concept stage, and we were developing the game when I left. I remember that Aftershock got rave reviews as a product pitch at SOA, but by that time, Sega Midwest had pissed away so much money (with little ROI [return on investment]) that nobody trusted them with SOA cash — and Sega itself was totally floundering (32X?!?). It was too bad because that game actually had some legs, and the whole studio was excited about it — and I was the lead designer. I still have all the videos and game assets associated with it — I even have a cartridge with the prototype on it. We had a professional cartooner design all the characters for the game, and the images were completely awesome.
[…]
JR: Essentially, it was Jungle Strike set in a post-apocalyptic world where you could fly, drive, and cycle around.
Nuclear Strike is a multi-directional shooter developed by Electronic Arts and released in 1997 for the PlayStation and PC. DCodes7 has noticed that there are some data files named “E3*” in the game’s disk, that are probably releated to a beta demo that could have been used in a past E3 to show Nuclear Strike to the press. Luckyly this beta demo can be freely played by typing the code “LIGHTNING” in.
The beta level is unfinished, the mission and its terrain is based off the second level of Nuclear Strike, but with lots of incomplete edits. More than half of the area is empty and has no live action FMV’s of its own. When completing all objectives you will hear a message saying “Thank you for flying strike air, we know that you have a choice of many games to play and we appreciate your time to play us.”
Also note that the “LIGHTNING” code for the beta level never appears in Nuclear Strikes campaign and the only way to know of its existence is to look up the code on the net. You can see this unfinished level in the videos below.
Thanks to DCodes7, we found out some interesting info about the development of Future Cop LAPD, a Playstation shooter that started as a new chapter in the “Strike” series. From 1991 – 1997 The strike series has been about Open world mid-air helicopter combat, developed by EA (Electronic Arts).
Nuclear Strike -released in 1997- was to be the last game to be released in the Strike series, but originally the developers who worked on the project were going to make another strike game called Future Strike. Apparently the game was going to be released in 1998; one year after Nuclear Strike’s Release.
When Nuclear Strike was released on the Playstation, a “Future Strike” trailer was hidden in the game. To view the trailer you have to play and beat all the game’s missions or use a cheat code.
Pixeljunk Shooter, is the fourth in a series of games made by Q games for the Sony Playstation 3. Your main goal in the game is to save the scientists that have been sent to investigate a planet, and solve puzzles while doing so.
In a prerelease video, we can see the difference between the unfinished game, and the final release.
To start with, the ship design. You can’t tell to well in the video, but it’s somewhat rounded. In the final version, it looks almost like a yellow fly.
Also, the scientists are colored more yellow in the final version. Here, they’re orange. The final version of the scientists are also more detailed.
Also, the temperature bar is VERY different from the final. The final is more segmented. For that matter, the entire HUD is beta here. There’s no display of how many gems you’ve found, it shows how many lives you have left when in the final there’s no way to tell, and the area that shows the scientists at the bottom right, shows how many are in the current area, and thier current status. Either saved, deceased, or still missing. Also, the final version of the HUD is sort of a yellow and gold mix, and is designed and arranged slightly differently in the final.
Also to be seen in the video, Are somewhat of a beta version of the bats. They barely look LIKE bats at all in the beta. And also, the doors that bar you from leaving the section you’re in are different in design.
Also beta here, is the “water bomb”. It’s rather large. The final version, is at least HALF the size. This is not to be confused with the sponge however. Water bombs explode with water all over the place upon being dropped. The sponge sucks up water it’s been dropped in, and then releases over time upon being picked up. However, on the subject of the sponge, in the beta, it releases one steady stream of water. in the final, it realeases the water steadily, yes, but in a 5 way spread.
In the beta, the “points” the enemies leave behind are yellow. In the final, they are a deep red orange.
Back to the men in destress again. In the beta, most have a flag. In the final, most don’t. In fact, only 1 per level does. On another note, upon being put under water, the men will begin to swim in the beta. In the final, they just continue to stand there.
And lastly, the enemy life meters are red and white. In the final, they are red with a yellow border. Also, when an enemy dies in the beta, they make the same sound that the standard flying enemies in Pixeljunk Monsters do when they die.
Project Touhou is a Japanese PC game series made by one man, ZUN (working under Team Shanghai Alice), and usually, nothing is left over from the beta’s. However, in Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, the sixth Touhou game, a character known as Rin Satsuki was originally meant to be a playable character, although was cut out of the final game. Her name still remains in the code, and there is only one official image of her, which originally appeared on ZUN’s website.
Update: as Susumu has make us to notice, this image did not appear on ZUN’s website. It is from the Comiket booklet that shows which doujin circles are appearing at that current event and where and when. It should also be mentioned that the picture has never been official confirmed as being her, but is widely assumed to be her, as she’s never appeared anywhere else.
Also Gabrielwoj, had found other two unused sprites in the game:
Probably, a beta sprite of Rin Satsuki. Strangely enough, it was found in Stage 1 Folder, which maybe Rin Satsuki was to be the Mid-Boss of Stage 1. Or, it is a beta sprite of Rumia (it has similar animations on her arms, but with some different details)
Those one has been found at the EXTRA stage folder, probably, Koakuma was to be another mid-boss for the stage (or maybe ZUN only recolored the same sprites of Patchouli’s Stage [Stage 4])
Notice from the 2 Images: The white colored sprite is probably for some glow, all the sprites in the game have this “effect”.
Thanks a lot to Takoto, Susumu and Gabrielwoj for the contributions!
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