Xybots is an old third person shooter developed by Atari released for the arcades and many home computers in in the 80’s. A porting for the NES by Tengen was supposed to be released in 1990, but it was canceled even if the game was almost completed. The prototype was somehow leaked online and it can be easily found with a Google search.
Thanks a lot to NES World for the scan!
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Sonic’s Edusoft is a game for Master System developed by Tiertex and published by U.S. Gold for the Sega Master System. No one knew anything about this game until an anonymous person created a Wikipedia page with information on the license, this individual turned out to be one of the programmers. Later, with the nickname “the programmer” gave some information about the game in the forums SMSPower.
Development started in 1991, soon after the release of the first Sonic game nd before the beginning of the programming of the second. This game is considered the first title not developed by Sonic Team not absolute and the first featuring the blue hedgehog to be published. The game was tested in a primary school and was really well received (it was designed for children under 5 years).
Sega was aware of this title, but the use of Sonic was not approved and the game was not published. It is established that is not a fake, the program said that sooner or later will create a website that explain everything in the game, but not right now for personal reasons. The ROM of Sonic’s Edusoft was leaked in April 2008.
Thanks to minichapman for the translation!
[spoiler /Clicca qui per la versione in Italiano/ /Nascondi la versione in Italiano/]Sonic’s Edusoft è un gioco per Master System sviluppato da Tiertex e pubblicato da U.S Gold per il Sega Master System. Non si sapeva niente di questo gioco fino a quando un anonimo creò una pagina su Wikipedia con informazioni sul titolo; questo individuo si rivelò poi essere uno dei programmatori. In seguito, con il nick “the programmer” diede qualche informazione sul gioco nel forum di SMSPower.
Lo sviluppo è cominciato nel 1991, subito dopo il rilascio del primo Sonic e l’inizio della programmazione del secondo. Questo gioco è considerato il primo titolo di Sonic in assoluto non sviluppato dal SonicTeam ed il primo con protagonista il riccio blu a non essere pubblicato. Il gioco venne testato in una scuola elementare e venne effettivamente ben accolto (era progettato per bambini di 5 anni).
Sega era a conoscenza di questo titolo, ma l’uso di Sonic non venne approvato e il gioco non venne pubblicato. È accertato che non sia un fake; il programmatore ha affermato che prima o poi creerà uno spazio web in cui spiegare tutto del gioco, ma non adesso per motivi personali. Ancora non si sa se la ROM verrà rilasciata al pubblico.[/spoiler]
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DinoBasher was a platform game being developed for the Sega Master System by Optimus Software and was due to be published by Codemasters in 1993. The game was a port of Big Nose the Caveman that had been released on the NES in 1991.
The game had a very cartoon like art style and the aim of the game was to club dinosaurs for Big Noses dinner. There was going to be four large islands for the player to explore and you would navigate between them using your club as a helicopter, to become the “first flying man”. You would also collect bones and rocks that you would be able to trade with the natives of the islands.
DinoBasher differs from most cancelled games though as it was actually completely finished and box art had been completed, the game had also been sent out to publications for review. Sega Power magazine gave it a terrible 42% and called it “Prehistoric Poo Poo” the review also said that it was a very generic platformer and the pacing was very slow.
The poor reviews seem to be one of the main reasons that this game was never actually released, this and the fact that it was due to be released towards the end of the Master Systems lifecycle. It could be that Codemasters wanted to concentrate on other games for the new 16bit platform such as the hugely popular Micro Machines for the Sega Megadrive. Codemasters at this time as well had started to cut down on releasing budget games and wanted to concentrate on full-price titles.
Even though the game was cancelled as it was completely finished DinoBasher can now be played as it was leaked online. There are tons of YouTube videos of the game and a rom can be downloaded and you can even play it in your browser.
Optimus Software was eventually bought out by Iguana UK in 1993, who were then acquired by Acclaim Entertainment and renamed Acclaim Studios Teesside. This studio was then also closed in 2002 and the majority of the staff were relocated to Acclaim Studio Cheltenham whose last game was RC Revenge released in 2013.
Codemasters continues to work on games today and primarily works on the F1 series of games from their Birmingham offices and also the Race Driver Grid games from the Kuala Lumpur office founded in 2006.
Thanks a lot to SMS Power for the contribute!
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Creature Shock is a FPS that was meant to be released worlwide for the Playstation and Saturn, but in the end it was just released in Japan. Thanks a lot to Ceno for the info!
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Source: www.playstationmuseum.com
Our reader Ceno has helped us to identify some previusly supposed cancelled games, that where released under different names: the FPS “Hybrid” was released, although not in America. A japanese Version was released in 1997 and a PAL release followed several years later, in 2002, albeit only as a budget price release. Cover art and screenshots from the japanese version can be found here. Thanks a lot to Ceno for these infos!
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Source: www.playstationmuseum.com