[SUPER NINTENDO] Hilo oficial.

One of the only known games that was known to be in development for the Snes CD, The 7th Guest would have been a demostration of the 3D and FMV capabilities of the add-on.

Scans courtesy of RetroMags.



There is a lot of mystery behind the canceled SNES CD add-on. There are many questions as to how far along the hardware was, and what games were in active development for the system. In the April 1992 issue of Nintendo Power, there is an article on Nintendo's partnership with Philips to create a CD system. One of the featured games in the article is "Guest", which was likely the working title for The 7th Guest.

Rene Boutin, who worked at Virgin Games, says that a fully working demo of 7th Guest existed for the SNES, including FMV (full motion video).
The 7th Guest was apparently shown behind closed doors at the CES in 1992.



Bibliography:

· rec.video.games - discussion on CES 1992 (link)
· Nintendo Power, Super NES Technology Update - CD-ROM, Publication date: April 1992, Volume: 35, Pages: 70-71
· Nintendo Power - Super Power Club Extra, Future Technologies, Future Games (Talks about The 7th Guest in terms of it being a good example of a CD-ROM game, though it doesn't state it is in development for the SNES CD), Publication date: January 1993, Volume: 44, Pages: 14-15

Airborne Ranger is a cancelled action game / third person shooter that was in development by Microprose for the Super Nintendo. The game was a sequel / remake of the original Airborne Ranger released in 1987 / 1988 for Amiga and various PCs. As the original version, we would have play as a sole airborne military to infiltrate enemy territory to complete various objectives. It’s currently unknown if the SNES version was going to use the same level system as the original game, that created maps and objective locations randomly so missions were never the same.

Some screens of the game were found in magazines Banzzai #14 and Super Power #12

Rod_Wod from the Assembler Forum has posted various scans from the cancelled Akira games (based on the manga / anime with the same name) that were meant to be released by THQ for the Genesis / Mega Drive, Super Nintendo, Mega CD and Game Gear. Probably the screens published in the magazines were all from the same version, as the graphic looks almost the same for all the various consoles. It’s currently unknow why these games were never released or if they were somehow finishes. Some more screens were found by Celine in Player One #44, Console Plus #44 and #35.

Images:

Albert Odyssey Gaiden (known in USA as Legend of Eldean) is RPG developed by Sunsoft and released for the Saturn in 1996, but it was originally meant to be published for the Super Famicom / Super Nintendo. The SNES version was soon cancelled and the project was ported to the new SEGA console, with many differences. Obviously the graphic was boosted for the Saturn, but even the SNES version looked really good for a 16 bit system.

As in 1994 / 1995 many japanese gamers were going to buy one of the new 32 bit consoles to replace the Super Famicom / Mega Drive, probably Sunsoft thought that Albert Odyssey Gaiden would have sold better on the Saturn.

It’s currently unknown how much the SNES version was completed before its cancellation.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution! (Scans from Super Power magazine #20 and #22)

Images:

Well, I received an email yesterday from Dave Allwein, and he said that he had in his possession an unreleased game. He said that it might be only source code, and I kind of winced as I was unsure whether or not I would be able to compile a snes game with the tools that are available. Anyway, he sent it today, and it was a binary! The game is called Apocalypse II, and SNES Central is proud to debut it for the masses! (note, this article was originally published on September 25, 2003)

Thanks to Simon Nicol (the developer) for making this ROM image available!



This game is probably complete (although the checksum is bad), and it was already licensed by Nintendo. The game was being made for Psygnosis, written by Simon Nicol, graphics by Herman Serrano, and music by Mike Clarke. It was to be released in April 1995 (though the copyright screen says 1994). The game is multitap compatible.

Appcalypse II was covered in print media in early 1995. In fact, it was reviewed in Nintendo Power, where they complained that it was standard shooter fare, though they liked the graphics and the challenge. The following scans come from Nintendo Power (courtesy of Retromags):


Preview in the January 1995 issue of Nintendo Power


Review in the April 1995 issue of Nintendo Power





This game is a shooter in the vein of Asteroids. You pilot a space ship that shoots laser shots at moons of varying sizes. Hitting the moons gains you points for each hit, and destroying them at various sizes gives you more points. Before each stage begins, there are various power ups that fall across the screen. The power ups include:

· Speed Up (makes your ship faster)
· Rotate (allows you to rotate the ship 360 degrees)
· Missile (gives you one missile)
· Shield (makes you temporarily invincible)
· 1up (gives you an extra ship)

The control scheme is as follows:

· A/B: Shoots laser
· L: Rotate counterclockwise
· R: Rotate clockwise
· X: Shield
· Y: Missile

The goal of the game is to destroy the moons and gain points. Getting 10,000 points gains you a life. As you continue to shoot the moons, they begin to glow.
image
Destroyed one!

However, this game is basically impossible to pass further than level 3 or so. Once the moons begin to glow, they start to move very rapidly (even faster than your ship), and quite often follow you until you eventually die. I suppose the trick to the game is to destroy the moons when they first come on the screen so that you can destroy them easily, as when they are large, they take a lot of hits to destroy. And even with missiles, the purple and blue moons still take far too many hits to die.

So, to remedy this situation, I created an infinite ships cheat:

7E1118 05

Using this cheat kind of defeats the purpose of the game as the moons are instantly destroyed if your ship hits them (though you get no points for this), but I decided to play with it on for a while.



As I am unsure if this game is 100% complete, however, I will sum up the various aspects.

Graphics

Nothing spectacular here. The ship isn't spectacularly designed, and the moons seem designed based on actual planets in the solar system. The planetary meltdowns look cool for the 3 seconds you have before it destroys you. The backgrounds are essentially just a starscape, but it rotates around which is pretty neat.

Sound

The sounds are typical of many space shooters, like Gradius III. However, the voice samples are very muffled (the best example is at the Psygnosis title). Overall, the sound sounds muted. Plus it sucks that there is only one song throughout the game. It is pretty good for a snes game, but after a while it gets old.

Controls

The controls work fairly well in this game, although rotating your ship doesn't always work well enough when a moon is chasing you around. The controls are pretty solid and shooter fans shouldn't have much problems getting into it.

Well, there you have it. It was cool to be able to sample the game, but it wasn't exactly my cup of tea. If you are into old style arcade games, give it a shot, as I am not very good at them. I'm sure most people will have the frustrations with the rapid death that I did as well.





Published Review Scores:


Bibliography:

· Nintendo Power, Pak Watch (mentions it is development by Psygnosis), Publication date: January 1995, Volume: 68, Pages: 112
· Nintendo Power, Now Playing (review), Publication date: April 1995, Volume: 71, Pages: 100,105

Arcus Odyssey was one of several unreleased games by Renovation. There exists an English beta of the game under the Japanese title, Arcus Spirits.

· Publisher: Renovation Products
· Developer: Sammy
· Game ID: SNS-A5-USA
· Players: 1-2
· Release: Scheduled for 1993
· Genre: Action RPG
· Released: Japan (as Arcus Spirits)

Arcus Spirits is an overhead adventure game, somewhat similar to The Legend of Zelda. You can choose between 4 characters and it had a Greecian theme to it. A beta version of the game was discovered, with the original Japanese name "Arcus Spirits" still on the title. The beta had the Wolf Team logo on it, suggesting they were preparing it for release. Renovation was purchased by Sega, so that is likely why the game never came out.


Screenshot in the September 1993 issue of Nintendo power (scan by Retromags)


Information courtesy of Sakura Matsumoto:

A beta was leaked, however... it fails to credit Renovation (the company that translated it and was to publish it) or, in fact, any company except Wolfteam who made it and is still under the original title of Arcus Spirits, but seems to be otherwise completely translated. (An oddity: the Sammy logo has been removed from the game, as Sammy had nothing to do with American publication, but was replaced with the Wolfteam logo instead of the Renovation logo.)



box found on half.com



Screenshot in the October 1993 issue of Nintendo Power (scan by Retromags)



Review in the November 1993 issue of Nintendo Power (scan by Retromags)


More Screenshots:








Bibliography:

· Nintendo Power, Pak Watch - Summer CES (as Arcus Odyssey), Publication date: August 1993, Volume: 51, Pages: 112
· Nintendo Power, Pak Watch Update, Publication date: September 1993, Volume: 52, Pages: 112
· Nintendo Power, Pak Watch Update, Publication date: October 1993, Volume: 53, Pages: 112-113
· Nintendo Power, Now Playing (review; Graphics and Sound: 3.3/5; Play Control: 2.9/5; Challenge: 3.3/5; Theme and Fun: 3.3/5), Publication date: November 1993, Volume: 54, Pages: 105,107

Asterix was a platform game developed by Infogrames and was intended for release in late 1993 by Electro Brain. It was based on the popular French cartoon.




This game was released in Europe, but had no US release. I played the game for a few minutes, and it seems like a decent platform/action game with good graphics. But at the time, there were lots of platform games being released, and likely this one was lost in the shuffle. In the October 1993 issue of Nintendo Power, they stated it was intended for a Fall 1993 release.

Additional information provided by TRM

I believe the reason that Asterix was unreleased on the SNES was as follows. There was also an Asterix game on the NES, as well as a few Smurfs titles. Both of these cartoon characters are much more popular in Europe, and the games never made it over to the US. There are still Asterix games coming out for GBA, which aren't being released in the US. Once again, probably due to popularity and so forth.

Serial Code: SNS-XE-USA


Box from Half.com


Bibliography

· Nintendo Power, Pak Watch - Summer CES, Publication date: August 1993, Volume: 51, Pages: 111
· Nintendo Power, Pak Watch, Publication date: October 1993, Volume: 53, Pages: 110,113
· Nintendo Power, Super Nintendo Entertainment System Power Index (release list), Publication date: January 1994, Volume: 56, Pages: 1

This unnamed prototype of Batman, also known as "Real Shitty Batman!", was a game in production by Software Creations. As its nickname suggests, it is very lacklustre. This beta game haves only two levels, and no sound.



I'll admit, for the longest time I thought that Batman: Revenge of the Joker (another unreleased Batman game for the SNES) was the game known as "Real Shitty Batman!". I believe this was the case because the former owner of the Revenge of the Joker prototype told me it was. However, members at the Lost Levels forums informed me there was a Batman prototype which makes Revenge of the Joker look like a masterpiece.

Software Creation's Batman received its name for good reason, this (obviously alpha) early prototype is terrible. Whoever originally released the ROM image to the masses hacked it so that the name was "Real Shitty Batman!". I am unsure who owns the prototype now, but it was sold by Castlevania4Ever sometime last year when he was getting out of the prototype market. Just to keep things clean, the ROM image that I am including in this article has been modified back to have the original header name (though if you really must have Real Shitty Batman!, the ROM image is out there).



Someone wasn't happy with this game

The Prototype

Unfortunately, I do not have a picture of the prototype cart that this ROM image originally came from. In fact, for all I know, the source of the ROM image is not a prototype cart at all! Like many of the ROM images of unreleased games out there, it is very possible that this was leaked out back in the 1990s when Usenet was all the rage.

The game itself is in a very incomplete state, probably alpha. The game consists of two stages, plus an introductory screen that is the same for both levels. The gameplay is largely in the style of Final Fight, though the look and feel is much different from Software Creations' other superhero beat-em-ups, Maximum Carnage and The Tick. The sprites are very large, but aside from Batman, very undetailed and incomplete. The Joker makes an appearance at the end of the first stage, but the attack and damage sprites are identical to the other enemies of the game, albeit in a glitched form (see images below). The background of stage one is actually not too bad, though stage two, the enemy sprites kind of blend in with the background. The game has no sound, and the controls are rudimentary (the enemies do not get knocked back when hit, making it simple for them to gang up on you). At the very least, if you run out of health, you do not die.









Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfQ1mgIS ... r_embedded

The ROM

On the whole, this prototype is interesting in that Software Creations tackled other comic book properties, but never released anything by DC Comics. I'm sure this prototype was created as a mock-up for pitching the idea. Instead, we got the excellent (if you like beat-em-ups, unlike myself) Batman Returns by Konami, and the downright dreadful Batman Forever by Acclaim. I have included the ROM image, should anyone feel the need to play this.

Batman: Revenge of the Joker was going to be released by Sunsoft in 1992. The company that developed it was Icom Simulations. It was commercially released on the NES (as Return of the Joker) and Genesis, but not the SNES, even though appears to be finished. Warning, this review contains many spoilers!



Batman: Revenge of the Joker is one of those completed games that have been floating around since the dawn of the Internet, with little or no information on its origin or why it never came to be released. A prototype board of this game does exist, which is shown on the right. This board was owned by udisi, and sold on Ebay around February-March 2004. He mistakenly believed this was the game known as "Real Shitty Batman!", however the screenshots that he took of the game clearly show it is Batman: Revenge of the Joker. Direct comparison with screenshots from the ROM image show that this prototype is identical. The game was developed by Icom Simulations in 1992 for Sunsoft. That company's most notable games include Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective, Deja Vu, Shadowgate and Road Runner: Death Valley Rally.


The Game

This game appears to be complete, though it becomes evident very quickly as to why it was likely not released. Probably the best comparison of the gameplay would be Total Recall, though that might be a bit unfair as it is probably beatable. The game is a platform shooter, with a couple of side-scrolling shooter levels thrown in. The extreme difficulty and poor level design hampers what could have been a worthy upgrade of the original NES game.



Stage 1

The first stage begins with enemies that shoot at you relentlessly, and spike balls that drop from unseen parts of the ceiling, both things that are unavoidable. Getting weapons upgrades makes life easier, but your are still forced to contend with hidden traps. The worst part is in the later part of the level, where you confront these statues that shoot lightning at you. In order to hit them, they first have to be in attack mode, which pretty much guarantees you get hit. If you don't have four health points (you fight three of them in a row), then you are out of luck. The level is very short, but because of the dangers, it took me many deaths to pass. I guess they expect memorization!.



Stage 2 (password: DNCN)

The second level features a blimp that continually brings up enemies. They are not as relentless as the enemies in the first level, but they keep coming. The level automatically scrolls, meaning if you get caught behind a barrier or an inescapable hole (see right), you die. One of the big problems is if you get a gun powerup that is one shot at a time, you can be vulnerable to attack (in particular, the spread gun). The level itself is actually a bit easier than the first level, mainly due to the lack of hidden dangers.

At the end of the level, there is a boss battle. The rules of the battle boss are rather unique: rather than having a health gauge, the boss and Batman have a score gauge that decreases every time a hit registers. Of course, the catch here is that it is nearly impossible to avoid the enemy's shots unless it he is shooting on the far opposite side of the screen. Complicating things is the fact that the robots descending take off points off your health, and the boss' shots take off 300 points, while your default gun takes off only 100 points. I ended up configuring the fire button on turbo. Luckily if you die, you start over at the boss rather than the start of the level.



Stage 3 (password: MCHT)

This is a short stage, but not without its insane difficulty. There are barrels that defy laws of physics and start to fly towards you if you shoot them. The enemies that jump around and shoot endlessly are back. In one part, there is a platform you need to use that goes up and down that bounded by two flames that are nearly impossible to avoid. Later on, the barrels are flying relentlessly through this corridor. Again, it is very difficult to avoid damage.



Stage 4 (password: DDPP)

Stage 4 changes it up by becoming a side-scrolling shooter. Unfortunately, it is a bad side-scrolling shooter. Your character is so large, that it is pretty much impossible to actually avoid shots, which is the main skill of shooters. Most of the enemies, save the blue characters will shoot at you before you can kill them. The three boss robots take a lot of hits to kill, and will follow your every move, making the completion of this level very difficult. The background has some neat-ish Mode 7 graphics.



Stage 5 (password: LDRN)

Stage 5 is composed largely of snowman heads flying through the air (damaging you only if they hit you on their way down), snowmen with bombs that go off when you pass by, and these strange cloaked things that shoot off whirlwinds that take off half your health. It is a difficult stage, for sure. If you want a real challenge, try to beat it with the crappy one-shot-at-a-time spread gun. It will leave you cursing.



Stage 6 (password: KLTT)

Also known as the missile train, your best bet is to find the wave weapon and let the train do the scrolling for you. The missiles only harm you if they explode, so provided that you destroy them before they are automatically do, you should have the upper hand, in theory. In reality, the missiles come unendingly and some will get past your shooting range. To top it off, near the end of the train you also have to contend with these electric shadow monsters. There is little point trying to kill the enemies shooting off the missiles, nor is there any point trying to pass the level with the spread gun.



Stage 7 (password: CRLB)

This stage wasn't nearly as bad as it seemed when I first started going through it. First off, get the wave spread gun, anything else is useless. The level scrolls automatically, but provided that you have the wave gun, the minor robot enemies aren't a problem. What is a problem is this flying machine that drops exploding bombs. What I learned is the best defence is a good offence. Start firing at them and don't stop and they will be destroyed before you die. This is the second stage with an end boss. Like level 2, you have to drain the enemy's health points before it does the same to you. When you first get to it, it seems downright ludicrous for a boss. The floor has holes that mean instant death. Fire comes up from the floor everywhere, and missiles come non-stop. Also, the blue beam the boss emits drains your health very rapidly. I eventually found that no matter how much damage you take from the fire and missiles, if you stay on the left side and shoot whenever the boss passes by, you should be able to take off more damage than you take. It takes a ridiculous amount of time to beat the boss this way, though. I threw on some turbo on the fire button, and it seemed to make it go a bit faster.



Stage 8 (password: LKCM)

Quite possibly the easiest level in the game. I passed it second try, and I'll admit that the first try I fell into a pit. The level takes place in a sewer system, where the only obstacles are bombs falling out of pipes and crazy jumping scuba divers that shoot lasers. Really, you can pass this level without any concern for your health by ignoring the enemies.



Stage 9 (password: DVWH)

Another shooting stage, similar to Stage 4. The background is a bit different, but otherwise it is the same except with more enemies. Not even worth a screenshot.

Stage 10 (password: TTKR)

This stage would be pretty easy (the barrels that bounce around are relatively easy to avoid), but there is a section where these white beams come down and extinguish your health. Later in the level, there are platforms that fall very quickly after you land on them. All the while, the level auto-scrolls.



Stage 11 (password: BTMR)

This is a strange, but straight-forward level. You must follow along this tank, while this trail of fire follows behind. The fire is instant death, so you must stay ahead of it. Spike balls fall at regular intervals, and a man throwing firebombs comes out of the tank regularly. This is a level of endurance, and should be beatable after a few tries.



Stage 12 (password: VNGF)

This is the final stage. The main level is rather easy, the only thing to watch out for are these parabolic line of bombs flying at you unexpectedly. Simple.




The Joker comes in as two bosses. The first boss starts off with these fire trails that can be easily avoided with practise. You will need every bit of health possible to fight The Joker, as he throws a ton of bombs at you, and it is not possible to avoid them. I turned on turbo and just ignored the bombs, and even with full health I barely got through. The second boss is one of those decreasing score bosses. This boss is ridiculously hard, taking 1000 hits with the default gun to beat. The only way to beat the boss is to lure it to one side (without getting hit by the rockets on the robot's boots), jump up on the platforms so that the laser shield stops blocking from the bottom, and jumping back down between the robot's legs. All the while, you have to watch for fireballs coming down at you from the robot's mouth. Even with turbo on the shooting button, this is a tedious process, and would likely take at least 20 minutes. If you even get hit by a couple of times every few cycles, you are likely to lose. I got fed up after many tries and just created a cheat so I didn't die. Seriously, who designed this boss?.

Summary of the game

First, I would like to discuss the graphics and sound. Sound effects are pretty non-existent, except for your gun and the death throws of the enemy. Speaking of that, the cries of agony when you defeat human foes has to be one of the most chilling death sounds in any video game. The music sounds like it is straight out of an NES game. The graphics are not terrible, but the stages are largely very bland. The Batman sprite isn't bad, but the enemies lack detail. The mode 7 backgrounds in shooter levels look nice, and even with a lot of sprites in the screen, there is no slowdown.

On the whole, this game would have served as an example of how not to do an action shooter. The stages are relatively short, but for the most part can only passed through sheer memorization. The boss battles are tedious and have no strategy to avoid damage, essentially forcing you to beat the enemy by brute force. Several of the weapon "powerups" (in particular the spread gun and ricochet gun) are pretty much useless because they don't allow you to fire more than one shot at a time. The jump button is quite often unresponsive, causing death in situations where quick jumping is required. There is a special move (when you press A) that causes you to spew dozens of your weapon shots around you, but considering that the most troublesome enemies are airborne, it is quite useless. Many of the obstacles (in particular the tornadoes emitted by the enemies in level 5) take off far too much of your health. The two shooter stages seem tacked on and offer none of the strategy you would find in games like Gradius III. This game is very difficult, mostly due to gameplay design flaws. After playing through, it seems pretty evident why this game was not released.

Comparison with the NES and Genesis versions

One interesting thing to note about this game is that it is actually a remake of the NES game, Return of the Joker. It was supposed to be a sequel of sorts to the 1989 Batman movie. The NES version of the game is regarded as one of the most graphically impressive games for the system (getting a 4.2/5 in Nintendo Power). On the whole, the NES version of this game is better in every respect to the unreleased SNES version. The controls are more responsive, the weapon upgrades don't cripple you, even the graphics are arguably more detailed. The music is pretty much the same between the two games.





The Genesis version of Revenge of the Joker was programmed by a completely different group than the SNES version. The game is more similar to the NES version than the SNES version, both graphically and gameplay-wise. However, out of the three, the Genesis version has to be the worst. At least in the SNES version, I could pass the levels with enough tries. With the Genesis version, I got to the second level (with the blimp) and nearly threw my controller in frustration. In that particular level, the bombs thrown from the blimp come down two at a time, and they drop so quickly that it becomes a matter of luck to avoid them. The controls seem more awkward than the NES version. For a 16-bit game, the graphics are pretty poor too. Really, if I was to recommend one version of this game, I would definitely go with the NES version, which is actually a really good game.




Bibliography

· Nintendo Power, Information on the NES version of the game, Publication date: December 1991, Volume: 31, Pages: 8-17,87
· Nintendo Power, Summer CES Special, Publication date: August 1992, Volume: 39, Pages: 58-61
· Review on VGMuseum (link)
· Review of the Genesis version on Sega-16 (link)

Beast Ball was listed in the November 1993 issue of Nintendo Power in a coming soon list of sports games. Beyond that, I have no information on it, as it doesn't even list the publisher. I can only speculate if the game was released as another title.

Bibliography

· Nintendo Power, The Sports Scene (upcoming releases list), Publication date: November 1993, Volume: 54, Pages: 18

Blaster Master 2 was reported as being in development for the Super NES in the March 1992 issue of Nintendo Power. The game was also mentioned in August 1992 issue of Nintendo Power, but they stated that it was not close to completion. The game was released on the Genesis, and was reportedly very lackluster, so it is just as well it didn't come out.

Rene Boutin, a game producer at Sunsoft states that Blaster Master 2 was never in development for the Snes.

Bibliography

· Nintendo Power, Pak Watch - CES Special, Publication date: March 1992, Volume: 34, Pages: 112-113
· Nintendo Power, Summer CES Special, Publication date: August 1992, Volume: 39, Pages: 58-61

This game is still under debate whether it was released or not. The game was competed, there is no doubt about it, and the rom image was dumped. The game was being released by a company called Hi Tech. It was being planned for release in early 1995.

This game is based on the Howie Mandell cartoon of the same name. The story is that Bobby has to clean his room, and he has daydreams when he starts cleaning certain parts of his room. I decided to play this game until I got bored, and I ended up passing it, so here is a full review.

Graphics: 6/10

The graphics are ok, nothing that hasn't been seen on other snes games. The characters probably could have had more frames of animation, but there is a wide range of stages and enemies.

Sound: 5/10

Pretty bland. The music won't drive you crazy, but it is nothing special. The sound effects are also pretty plain, just appropriate, nothing more.

Controls: 4/10

The controls aren't that great. Bobby moves very slowly, and doesn't automatically respond to button presses. However, this game is easy enough that it isn't that big of a deal, until you get to this point:



At this spot, you must swing from these three logs. This is the hardest part of the game, only because of the controls. I died maybe 3 times in this game, except for this point, where I died around 20 times (luckily I got pissed off after the first few deaths and used savestates). Nothing is more evil that deaths caused by poor controls.

Overall Score: 4/10

I played this game for about 40 minutes and I passed it. If it weren't for that stupid spot aforementioned above, this game offers little challenge. Part of the problem is that there were life power ups usually placed just in the spot where you are near death. It is nice that there is a bit of variety (every third stage or so it changes from a side scroller to a shooter type of game), but it was certainly made with children in mind. There were 3 bosses, but they were easily vanquished by staying in the top corner where they couldn't hit you (they all moved in the same pattern). I don't know if this would even satisfy fans of the show (if they exist). But any game that lasts only 40 minutes with no replay value doesn't really warrant release, and in this case, it seems that it didn't.

Serial Code:

SNS-ABWE-USA

Here is a box shot found at half.com:




More pictures:

Boo! was a unreleased game that was planned for release on the SNES, Genesis and Amiga computers. It was a Mario/Sonic-style platform game.



Boo! was in development by Micropose, a British company known for such games as Civilization and Railroad Tycoon. During the waning stages of the 16-bit era, Micropose had financial problems, which led to the cancellation of several titles, including Boo! The Amiga and Genesis versions were to be released only after the SNES version was complete. The game was designed by Richard Lemarchand.

Stuart Whyte, who was the producer of Boo!, created a webpage with information on the game. The game was far enough along that it was previewed and was the cover feature of the February 1995 issue of European Amiga gaming magazine, One Amiga. I emailed Stuart Whyte years ago (yes, this has been in the backburner for a while):



"Status: 80% complete. Developed by the Conversion Company (based in Whitby) and with art from Keith Scoble (creator of Danger Mouse, Jamie and the Magic Torch and one of the key members of Cosgrove Hall) Boo was a game about a teenage kid who dies and becomes a ghost who’s method of attack is to shout Boo! at the enemies."

According to the Amiga article, the main protagonists are the titular character Boo, a ghost boy with a baseball hat, and his friend Stupendo the Fabtastic, a wizard. The two characters lived happily until the enemy from the planet Pasturyzd invades, using Stupendo's house as an entry point. The main enmies are "Moo-tants", a race of evil cows. Stages took place in various parts of the house, including a hall, kitchen, study, bathroom, gardens. The final two stages are Limbo and the planet Pasturyz. For the most part, the gameplay was a standard side-scrolling platform game, though you were periodically allowed to take control of some other characters, such as a Frankenstein monster and a vampire. An apparent influence on this game was Zelda II.



According to a development document for the Amiga version, Micropose intended for the game to be completed for August 1994 and strived for a high quality game (review scores greater than 85%). The graphics for the SNES version of the game were by Keith Scoble (who did the initial graphics scetches) and the Conversion Company. Keith Scoble was one of the primary animators for the show Danger Mouse (a show that I'll admit frightened me as a child). The music and sound were done by Alistair Brimble (who worked on another unreleased Micropose SNES game, Impossible Mission). Interestingly, they state in the document that they needed sales of about 16,500 to break even on the game, though there goal was 111,000.



On Stuart Whyte's webpage on the game, there is a collection of images from the game. Most of these were in an archaic format for Electronic Arts' Deluxe Paint. The images themselves seem to be from early versions of the game, and the article in the Amiga One magazine shows that the game was much further along and had gameplay already implemented. I managed to convert these files into PNG and animated GIF files. Enjoy!

Sprites:








Various cinemas:










Converted animated files - note that many have no actual animation.









Bibliography

· Amiga One, Preview of the game (also was on the cover of the magazine), Publication date: February 1995, Volume: -, Pages: 20-22
· Stuart Whyte's CV (link)
· Stuart Whyte's page on Boo! (link)
· Orchestral Media, a company that is co-owned by Allister Brimble, who did the sound for Boo! (link)

Bulls Vs. Lakers was shown at the Winter CES in 1992 by Electronic Arts. The game came out on the Genesis, but development must have been too slow, and it was canned in favour of focusing on the next instalment of the series. Embarrassingly for Nintendo, they were going to give away this game as a prize in the November 1991 issue of Nintendo Power.

Bibliography:

· Nintendo Power, Player's Poll Contest (given away as a prize), Publication date: November 1991, Volume: 30, Pages: 82-83
· Nintendo Power, Pak Watch - CES Special, Publication date: March 1992, Volume: 34, Pages: 112-113

College Football was being developed by HAL America, according to the August 1992 issue of Nintendo Power. However, they also mentioned that the game would not see the light until 1993, and probably was left unreleased due to the competition in football games. In all likelyhood, the game would have used the same Mode 7 based engine that was used in NCAA Basketball.

Bibliography:

· Nintendo Power, Summer CES Special, Publication date: August 1992, Volume: 39, Pages: 58-61

Comanche is one of the more infamous unreleased games. It was one of the games that Nintendo was using to combat the growing threads of next generation systems like the Jaguar and 3DO. The game was to feature intense helicopter fighting action. Comanche took advantage of the Super FX chip, and was being developed by Novalogic. Unfortunately, it seems that it was scrapped because of graphics and speed problems (source: Gamepro).

Scan courtesy of hydr0x (from Nintendo Fun Vision, vol 13):

Congo - The Secret of Zinj is an unreleased Super NES game based on the hit 1995 movie. The game was cancelled after a short development turnover and playtests indicating that the game was not good enough for release. Also contributing was the fact that the movie was a bit of a flop. A ROM image of this game exists, released by Martin at NESWorld.



I remember watching the movie Congo in theatres when I was a kid. I recall it was a silly movie about this group of treasure hunters searching for this lost city of Solomon, which had giant diamonds. I do not remember all the details, but it featured these giant apes attacking the protagonists, while at the end, the apes perished by jumping into erupting lava. It certainly was not a great movie, but it had quite a bit of hype.

Long before knowledge of the Super NES Congo came to my attention, I was well aware of the first person shooter Congo game that was released by Sega in 1996. The Super NES version was developed by Visual Concepts and was to be published by Viacom New Media in 1995, and was completely unrelated to the Saturn game (a Genesis version was also developed at the same time as the SNES version). It remained in obscurity until a former Viacom employee made a post in an unreleased SNES games topic on Digital Press:

furor: That list brought back some horrible memories. I almost forgot that a SNES version of Congo even existed. I worked over at Viacom and actually got to play it some. The game sucked so bad that we cancelled it. So, I know for a fact that it was never released.

hydr0x: Hey furor that's GREAT info, thanks a lot, do you know if there are any protos left? Any screenshots? any Viacom-papers about it?Oh and tell me more about it, what kind of game was it?

furor: No protos, screen shots, or info on the game that I know of. All I can tell you about the game is that is was a pretty bad rip off of Donkey Kong Country. It was a side scroller where you controlled a poorly animated gorilla picking up diamonds instead of banana's.

I decided to dig into this a bit further, and I found this post on USENET, dating to December 5, 1995 by a poster known as The Flapper, who was a developer at Viacom:

I'm just asking this out of curiosity, not because I actually want the
game. I was just curious because Visual Concepts was programming SNES
and Genesis Congo for us at Viacom, and it sucked hard. Worst game I
have ever played. The whole testing department complained so much that
the big guys finally listened and cancelled it. I haven't heard anything
about the Saturn version lately...I'm wondering if Visual Concepts was
doing Saturn Congo also...and it sucked and got scrapped...anyone have
any info to satisfy my curiosity? Thanks!

And another post by the same person on April 4, 1996:

No, it's not like the PC version...I haven't played the Saturn one, but
Viacom New Media released Congo for PC...Sega has some other developer
that did Congo Saturn for them. I might note that Congo Saturn looks
VERY similar to the scrapped SNES and Genesis Congos, which I wouldn't
take as a good sign...believe me, the 16-bit Congo was a travesty!

Prototype found

That might have been the last we heard about the game, were it not for a moment of serendipity by Martin of NESWorld. While looking for information on the unreleased NES game, Congo's Caper, he stumbled onto a webpage by one of the developers of Congo for the SNES. Martin asked him if he had worked on Congo's Caper, but instead found that the developer had worked on another unreleased game, based on the movie Congo. After some conversations, the developer sent a prototype of the game to Martin, and wrote a lengthy article on the development of the game.

During the final two weeks, we were exhausted. Viacom had begun to QC the product in preparation for Nintendo’s and Sega’s more rigorous testing processes. They came back with fewer and fewer bugs. August 7, Final Day, rolled around. The customer expected the binary uploaded to their server by Midnight. That evening, my boss asked me if I needed anything from him. I told him I was fine. He confided to me that he thought Congo was in the top 20% of games out there quality-wise. Most of those games had a year or more of development time; ours had five months. I performed a few last-minute, minor changes, added the signature bytes, and created a build, which we then uploaded. We were done, just waiting for their QC process.

And waiting… And waiting yet more.... Another day passed, and on the second day after the upload, we got a call saying their QC had found a bug and that we would not get our bonus. The bug was a shift in palette colors that happened if the user moved from the title screen to the game menu, back to the title screen, and back to the game menu. It was a legitimate bug, a bug they may have, in fact, caught earlier and not informed us, knowing they could take our bonus in this way… This is only a theory.

However, despite this, Congo was finished, on time and on budget, and the team felt absolutely great. Most left for much needed two-week vacations after that. They returned to find that Viacom, acting on data in the film industry reflecting poorly on the movie Congo, had cancelled the project.

The foundations of our beings shook. We had just been told that immeasurable labor, passion, sacrifice, and stress, in short, fourteen months of our lives had been wasted. For some of us, this was the most devastating day in our careers.

In essence, the development of Congo lasted for 14 months, though the initial nine months of work was scrapped after deadlines and comments from Viacom forced the restart. The story of the development of Congo was rather tragic, and certainly sapped the energy of the developer who wrote the article for NESWorld. Still, the results in the five months of development are quite impressive. However, I have to disagree with the assessment that this game would be in the "top 20% of games out there quality-wise".




The Game

Congo is an interesting game, because it is split into five different types of gameplay. The main levels include a light-gun style shooter, a raft level that is sort of a "avoid the edges" maze game, a slide level where the character must jump to avoid spikes and other obstacles, an on-the-rails platform level, and an overhead 2.5D level. There is a lot of variety in this game, and some of the levels work. A lot of the flaws probably could have been ironed out with additional development time. The main issue with this game, in particular in the non-shooter levels, is that your character dies in one hit. This makes the game rather frustrating in parts. I will go into this later in the article. Controlling light-gun style shooters with the D-pad is always awkward, but those particular levels are not too hard anyways. The other levels feature collect-o-thon gameplay, though it is downright impossible to collect all the diamonds in the level because of forced scrolling.

In some of the levels, the graphics and sound are top-notch. The raft levels in particular really show off some great water effects. The 2.5D platform level is also excellent, and I cannot recall any game for the SNES that was able to implement this particular viewpoint. The graphics in the slide level are not as impressive, and there are problems with clipping. The shooting levels are typical of light gun games such as Lethal Enforcers, with decent animation for the gorilla enemies. As for the other levels, aside from some boulders and hippos, there are not any enemies to deal with. The developer who wrote the article was not lying when he said the lava that follows you on the last platforming level was thrown in at the last minute - it looks terrible and follows the screen rather than the level obstacles. Between levels, there are some decent digitized stills of events in the movie. The music in the game involves jungle-beats, and are very appropriate for the game. There aren't many sound effects except for when you die and when you pick up diamonds.


Level 1 - River Ride Rafting

The first real stage in the game features your character (Captain Munro Kelly?) rafting down a river. The stage is split into two levels plus a bonus level between them. The controls for this stage are fairly dicey, though you can generally slow your raft down to a crawl by pressing the opposite way of your motion. One of the most frustrating parts is the fact that you cannot go backwards, meaning if you missed a secret passage, it is impossible to go back and get it. Speaking of secret passages (generally marked with five rotating diamonds), if you fail to find them, it makes the stage much more difficult. Much of the latter parts of the first level are narrow passages lined with spikes or trees. One bad move and your life is over. If your character had three or four health points, this stage would likely be very easy. Due to the one-hit deaths, this stage is quite awkward and downright frustrating at times. The second level features hippos that are fairly well hidden until you get near them (you can tell where they are because the water is darker). Most of the hippos are fairly easy to avoid, but some of them come after you near the end of the level. The floating logs serve as the largest obstacle in the stage, and can be pretty dicey to avoid in narrow areas. With practise, the stage is very beatable, though.




Levels 0, 2, 4, 6 - shooting

There are several light-gun style shooting levels in this game. For the most part, they involve shooting at gorillas that throw giant rocks at you, or these strange urn-like things that shoot these energy balls at you. For weapons, you are given a collection of 20 grenades and a black orb gun, which has a rechargeable energy bar that controls how fast the gun shoots. The levels are not that difficult, provided that you collect all the health powerups (by shooting at the yellow containers) and destroy all the projectiles thrown your way. The action on the screen is quite hectic. These stages are the only levels with a health bar, which makes passing these levels much easier than the other stages in the game. I passed all three levels in my first or second try.




Level 3 - Amy the Gorilla's mudslide

Without a doubt, the gorilla slide level is the hardest and most frustrating level in the game. I was never able to even reach the first checkpoint in this level. The problem arises from the fact that the ape slides down the chutes at a fast rate, and it is difficult to react to obstacles quickly enough. Though you can jump over spikes and boulders, there is no way to slow yourself down to track which paths to take. Again, with one hit deaths, the level becomes very difficult. There are some clipping issues in this level, and sometimes the gorilla can veer way off the actual course.




Level 5 - Karen's cave run


The developer who wrote the article on NESWorld stated that this level was supposed to have the character (Karen) riding some sort of skateboard-like platform. And really, the gameplay of this level is pretty much the same as the first mine cart level in Donkey Kong Country. In this level, the primary gameplay mechanism is simply to press the jump button at the right time, and occasionally using the whip to cross gaps. Much like the mudslide level, there is no way to slow down your character, and sometime it almost feels like pure luck to avoid smacking right into a pillar or missing a gap. Still, with practise (and a bit of memorization), this level (again split up into two sub-levels and a bonus level between) is beatable. This level might be fun for twitch gamers, but the on-the-rails component makes it rather dull.




Level 7 - Escape from Zinj

When the former Viacom employee mentioned that the game was a "rip off of Donkey Kong Country", he must have been referring to this level. However, aside from the similarities in the graphics and animation of the gorilla character, there aren't too many similarities. This level has an interesting point of view with an angled overhead camera angle. In some ways it might be comparable to the gameplay in Sonic 3D Blast. The lava that was added in as an afterthought looks terrible and tacked on. As far as controls, they work well, though the platforming requires a lot of precision, and it is not always easy to anticipate the pools of lava or falling statues before you make a jump. Perhaps the biggest flaw I came across in this level is due to the forced scrolling. You often have to make pinpoint accurate jumps on these pillars to get over a large wall. However, because the screen scrolls too fast, you only have one chance to do this. Even worse, there is a part of the first stage where you have to hit three tiles in the correct order, but the forced scrolling often cuts off the second tile you hit before you get a chance to step on it. Again, there are issues with one-hit deaths. Because of these issues, it is highly unlikely most people will have the patience to actually beat the level.




Codes

If you really want to delve into some of the more frustrating stages, enter the following code at the title screen: L, R, X, L, R, X. This code gives you twenty lives and five continues when you start the game, and also mirrors the lives counter. Of course, continues are rather pointless in this game, because if you lose your lives and continue, you restart from the very beginning of the level, making it no different than re-entering the level passwords. To reset the game while playing, simultaneously press L+R+Start+Select


If the code is entered correctly, the lives number is mirrored.


Level passwords are as follows:


Level 2: First shooting level


Level 3: Amy the Gorilla's mudslide


Level 4: Second shooting level


Level 5: Karen's cave run


Level 6: Third shooting level


Level 7: Escape from Zinj


Summary

Congo is an impressive game if you consider that it was developed in five months. However, despite the fact this game is bug-free, it lacks the polish of a completed game. Extensive playtesting probably would have revealed the need for a life bar on the raft and mudslide levels, the need of a method to slow down in the mudslide and cave run levels, and to slow down the forced scrolling in the final platform level. The graphics in many of the levels are great, while bland in others. Collecting diamonds is a downplayed gameplay aspect compared to most collect-o-thons, mostly due to the fact you cannot retrace your steps. Congo could have been a great game, but in its final state it is not polished enough to justify the claim that it was a top tier SNES game.






Bibliography

· Article on Congo on NESWorld (link)
· Thread on Digital Press with comments from a former Viacom staff member who played the game (link)
· Usenet post dated on December 5, 1995 stating the reason the game was cancelled (link)
· Another USENET post regarding the game (link)
· Information on the Sega Saturn game on Game Rave (link)
· Webpage of Greg Hedger, who worked on the game. (link)
· Page on Congo on Unseen64 (link)
· Internet Movie Database entry on Congo (link)

Cooly Skunk (also known as “Punky Skunk” in USA) is a platform game that was originally in development by Visit for the Super Famicom / Super Nintendo. The game was never released for the Nintendo console, but the title was somehow resurrected (by Ukiyotei?) with some graphical changes for the Playstation and later published in Japan by Visit and in America by Jaleco.

In Cooly Skunk the player takes the role of an anthropomorphic skunk and the game plays much like other side-scrolling action games, featuring a set of special tools including a skunk spray, parasail, a pogo stick, inline skates, digging claws, and a snowboard.

The project was probably canned for the 16 bit system because of the new Playstation and Saturn consoles, that “killed” the SNES / Mega Drive (Genesis) market. Although released for the Playstation, it seems that the game was “not finished to completion” (at least from what we can read on Wikipedia, does anyone know more about this?). Cooly Skunk remains a collectors curiosity due to the generally unfinished nature of the game and its Super Famicom origins.

Celine was able to find some screenshots of the Super Famicom / Super Nintendo version on Super Power magazine issue 41.

Screeshots:

Corn Buster is an unreleased Super Nintendo game developed by Engine Software. The game is the story of a dragon named Globey, who sets out to defeat the person who’s stolen all the cornflakes in the world. The gameplay is an interesting mix of an Arkanoid-Style ball-and-paddle game and a vertical scrolling shooter. The game quietly began development around 1994, and was canceled soon after interest in the Super Nintendo waned in light of the release of Sony’s Playstation. Some time ago, Engine Software released a ROM of the game for free download on their website. The download page has since been removed, but the ROM is still easily obtainable. The game was 70-80% completed before it was canceled.

Screenshots:

Darius 3 was listed on a release list suplemental in the January 1994 issue of Nintendo Power. In all likelyhood, it was going to be the US release of Darius Force, which was released in Japan.

Bibliography

· Nintendo Power, Super Nintendo Entertainment System Power Index (release list), Publication date: January 1994, Volume: 56, Pages: 2

Daze Before Christmas was a platform game by Sunsoft set to be released in 1994. This game was released in full in Europe by Sunsoft but was cancelled in the US due to the company going bankrupt.



Daze Before Christmas is a decent platform game featuring Santa. You fight various wintery and toy enemies while collecting presents and saving elves and reindeer. You can also tranform into a more evil looking "devil Santa" that uses the toy sack as a weapon. The colourful graphics would have made this a good release, though apparently Sunsoft USA went bankrupt before it could be released.

Information courtesy of Jonny

From Carl-Henrik Skårstedt:

"Daze took about 1 year in total, but the problem was I didn't start until 6 months into the project so I had a lot of art and the code from A Dinosaur's Tale to combine, the SNES version was converting the same code that was already on Genesis so it took me about 6 months (I was on the Genesis version and there was one programmer on the SNES version). Unfortunately Sunsoft USA ran out of money and went bankrupt about the same day the SNES version was finished."

Codes:

Level select code - At the title screen enter the code: B, A, Down, Left, A

Genesis level select code - at the title screen enter the code B, A, Right, Right, A

ccording to the main Genesis programmer Carl-Henrik Skårstedt, the Daze codes mean two different things: Barra is swedish for a Christmas tree dropping its needles, Badla is one of the musician's nickname (Geir Tjelta, he'd walk around constantly saying 'Badla' over and over).




Preview in the May 1994 issue of EGM (courtesy of KingMike)



Preview in the May 1994 issue of EGM
(Click to enlarge)




Bibliography

· Electronic Gaming Monthly, Previews, Publication date: May 1994, Volume: 58, Pages: 128

G2 was shown at the 1993 Summer CES by Kemco. The game was released as G2 - Gencide 2 in Japan. It is a Ninja Gaiden style side-scroller, except with giant robots. It was pretty mediocre, which may have contributed to its cancellation.

Bibliography:

· Nintendo Power, Pak Watch - Summer CES, Publication date: August 1993, Volume: 51, Pages: 113

DNAction: The New Breed is a cancelled fighting game that was in development for the Super Nintendo and Genesis / Mega Drive, that would have been published by Accolade in 1994. The game was never released in the end and there are just few info about the project, with some character renders found in Banzzai magazine #21 and in GamePro #56, plus some in-game screens from an early prototype found in Player One #43. DNAction used pre-rendered sprites for characters and backgrounds, created with Silicon Graphics in the same way as Killer Instinct.

Screenshots:

This game was scheduled to be released by ASCII for the PC, Genesis, and of course, the SNES. It was apparently going to be some sort of strategy game. A rom image of the Genesis version is available, but as far as I can tell, it was never officially released in any form. Jonny got a hold of one of the people who worked on the game, Tim Ryan:

I worked at ASCII, the publisher. It was being developed externally by Visual Concepts on the SNES and PC. I was their producer. I was also the project leader on the Sega port done in house. There were a number of titles I worked on that got cancelled when ASCII imploded (ran out of cash) and fired everybody. Visual Concepts bought the rights back and published the PC version, possibly a Sega version. The SNES version stopped making progress well before the implosion though. Visual Concepts also became a Sega studio. That's probably why a SNES version was never published.

Dominus was shown at the Winter 1993 CES. Nintendo Power states that it allowed you to control up to 500 different monsters.

Screenshot from the March 1993 issue of Nintendo Power (scanned by Retromags)




Bibliography:

· Nintendo Power, Pak Watch, Publication date: March 1993, Volume: 46, Pages: 114

Dorque & Imp is a cancelled platform that was in development by Norse (a swedish gaming studio) for the Super Nintendo. Akumu from the Lost Levels Forum translated a swedish preview in which we can read some more info on the project:

2 of the worlds are completed. When Power Player catches up with the team of programmers, they are already hard at work to finish up the demo that will be shown in England. Peter shows us how far they are come. He has 100 000 command lines which helps him to quickly change the enviroment on the screen. He is programming in assembler, and can in principal cut and paste artifacts and backgrounds from the pictures that Jim has created in a image software program.

We could assume that Norse did not find a publisher interested in Dorque & Imp, and after the studio released Legend of Myra (for PC), it seems that they had to close down.

Super Nintendo games are now being developed in Sweden!

We are used to thinking that Nintendo games are being developed in Japan, USA or England. Maybe sometimes a stumbler from France or Germany, but the fact that söta bror (=kind brother, Norwegian nickname for Sweden) would make a game for Nintendo is something few would dream of. But right now, the first Swedish SNES game is being developed in this basement location in Stockholm.

Dorque & Imp will be an elegant platformer with 4 worlds, a plethora of items and countless enemies. The clever Dorque is an apparentice of a rather sketchy wizard, and a showdown between the two is inevitable.
-The end will be fair, says Peter Wahler, who is responsible for the programming.
-To begin with we just thought we should get used to the computer and the technique that goes into making video games, but we caught on so quickly that we decided we dared start making our own game, says Jim Studt, the person responsible for the graphics.

Together with the Tv-Spill Börsen (=Video Game Stockmarket), who today funds their project, they are in the midst of founding their own company, Norse, which marks the beginning of a new softwarehouse. They contacted overseas companies for production and marketing of the game at this spring's convention in England

Cheated by Pc Games
-It's gonna be different now, compared to the PC games i have worked on. We who were involved with Legend of Myra were fooled completely. The publisher, Grand Slam has yet to pay us a single dime, Jim says. Dorque and Imp consists of 4 worlds, where Dorque sets out to find as many items as the wizard needs to become allmighty.

2 of the worlds are completed. When Power Player catches up with the team of programmers, they are already hard at work to finish up the demo that will be shown in England. Peter shows us how far they are come. He has 100 000 command lines which helps him to quickly change the envoirment on the screen. He is programming in assembler, and can in principal cut and paste artifacts and backgrounds from the pictures that Jim has created in a image software program.

Two other guys are part of the team, one of them for the music. It looks so simple and fun to make a video game. -The truth is that most of the work up till now has been hard. And also you can't see it - only if it's not working, Peter explains. - The hardest part is making colored pictures that can be used in as many places as possible. We always have to remember that the game can't take up too much memory, memory is expensive, Jim explains.

Not that many colors afterall.
Why are you making a game for Nintendo and not Sega?

-Nintendo's 256 colors versus Sega's 64, Jim answers quickly, but he does admit he is dissapointed he has to settle with less colors because of memory and time issues.
- There is 2 high thresholds you have to overcome before you start creating games. First you have to obtain Nintendo's programming manuals, which explains how you get started. These manuals are only available at "certified" game developers, and you have to know one of these.

Just as big of a problem is the software that automates the coding. This is business secrets on the highest level, and it's there Peter with his math and info education has done everything from bottom up. These tools can be used over again for future games...

Stockholm-game?
The advantage of starting out on your own is that you learn from your mistakes, find your own and maybe groundbreaking solutions and most of all get new ideas from the development. For Dorque & Imp's graphical world Jim has been inspired by Tolkien's fantasy world, and spiced it with a few nordic elements.

-It may have gotten some viking inspiration. We had the idea of including Odin to one of the worlds, even though Nintendo only allows the use of Greek gods to be used in games on their systems. But we can always rename him.
-We have begun thinking about doing a sequel. It would be fun to make something that has it's story lifted from Stockholm, where you could go our shop here and say hello to us, Peter laughs.

Screenshots:









Preview:
(Click in the images to enlarge)

Dragon Warrior V was to be the first DW game released on the SNES. For whatever reason, Enix never released it outside of Japan.



Dragon Quest is an incredibly popular franchise in Japan, and all four of the series released on the Famicom came out on the NES in the US. The assumption was that the fifth game in the series would make it out in the US as Dragon Warrior V, but it was never released.




Bibliography:

· Nintendo Power, Only In Japan - Games That Never Made it to America, Publication date: January 1994, Volume: 56, Pages: 66

Publisher: Renovation Products
Developer: Riot
Game ID: DP
Players: 1
Release: Scheduled for 1993
Genre: Action
Released: Japan (as Psycho Dream)

Dream Probe was planned for release sometime in 1993-1994. This was another Telenet game that was being planned for release in the US. This game is a side-scrolling action game featuring a main character with a sword-like weapon. Like other Renovation games, it was likely not released due to the fact that Renovation was bought by Sega. The February 1993 issue of Nintendo Power mentioned this game. The January 1994 issue of Nintendo Power lists it as having a release during September 1993, though obviously this is incorrect.

Box scan from half.com:




Bibliography:

· Nintendo Power, Pak Watch Update, Publication date: February 1993, Volume: 45, Pages: 112
· Nintendo Power, Super Nintendo Entertainment System Power Index (release list), Publication date: January 1994, Volume: 56, Pages: 2

Eurit is an action game that was being developed by Radical Entertainment. It eventually was retooled and released on various 32 bit platforms as Grid Runner. A prototype rom has been dumped, and I will look at this casualty of the end of the 16-bit era

Thanks to Ballz, rbudrick, and Gideon Zhi for dumping these roms, and to Skrybe for sending them my way.



Eurit is an action game that was being developed by Radical. The game is basically a souped up version of childhood games of Tag and Capture the Flag. The game features a split-screen and is an ideal two player game. A near complete beta of this game was discovered by DreamTR, and it is probably one of the best unreleased games for the snes.

The story behind the game is that the ruler of the galaxy decides that he will retire. In order to find a suitable replacement, he sets up a tournament where wizards and warriors compete to determine who shall be ruler. Throughout the game, you travel to many worlds across the galaxy to prove your might.

There are four characters to chose from at the start of the game. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses, based on their speed, spellcasting agility, and magic capacity. Through my playthrough, I used the average character.



The gameplay is very addictive, and relatively easy to get into. Basically, one of the characters starts off being "it". The person who is it cannot capture flags, so they must chase down the other character and touch them. Once you are not it, you can collect flags necessary to win the stage.
Complicating the game is the obstacles you face. To proceed through the level, you basically have to build platforms. There are many levels with enemy creatures that usually require a number of blasts with your gun to kill. Speed tiles send you running really quickly, which can either make you quickly escape your foe, or send you far away from him.



Probably the most compelling gameplay feature for experts is the magic system. Before each level, you learn a new magic spell. Some spells are mundane, like destroying a platform, but others can devistate your opponent, like the spell that causes all the creatures in the level to attack your opponent. Powerup balls throughout the level allow you to charge your magic meter.

The music is pretty typical "sci-fi game" fare, comparible to games like Blackthorne, B.O.B., and The Lost Vikings. The sound effects are somewhat muted, though the voice that tells you "player 1 is now it" is really well done. The graphics aren't anything too special, but they do the job.

On the whole, I liked this game. Had it been released, it would be an instant 2-player classic. The controls are a bit touchy, though not terrible. I really liked the thrill of chasing your opponent down and make him "it".

One caveat about this prototype is when you die. Although there is a password system, the game tends to crash after the death scene. I guess that is why they call it a prototype. Or perhaps it is just a problem with the emulator.

I asked Darren Schebek, a programmer who worked on the game about why it was never released:

"Radical tried very hard to find a publisher for Eurit (it was an original project being developed in-house), but in the end decided that the SNES market was kaput and canned the project very close to the end of development in order to cut their losses. Instead, they adapted the game for the newer platforms. The new, pseudo-3D version became Grid Runner on the PS1, Saturn, and PC. They later created another game

DreamTR owns a prototype of this game, and has taken some shots of it. Oddly enough, the prototype cart says "property of Electronic Arts", suggesting that they may have been interested in publishing it.






More images:

ExoSquad was released on the Genesis by Playmates. It is a futuristic action game based on a cartoon. This shot was taken from the German magazine Nintendo Fun Vision (issue 7). It appears that a snes version was planned, but subsequently axed.

Scan courtesy of hydr0x: