Unseen News

ps3punk7890 has found another interesting beta leftover in Jet Force Gemini (relased in 1999): a racing track from Diddy Kong Racing (relased in 1997)! This level is the Greenwood Village and it looks almost the same as the one in DKR, apart from some missing trees and a differend sky. This hidden track could have a simple explanation: Jet Force Gemini was build on a enhanced version of the DKR 3D engine, so this track was left behind when the code was ported and probably it was even used by the RARE beta testers as a test-level for the racing mini-games that are in JFG. Below you can see the leftover map in JFG (first video until 0:37) and the original one in DKR (second video):

Update: it seems that the DKR track is really in JFG! As Andi has made us to notice: “This ISN´T any beta-stuff! I have this game and I´ve unlocked this Diddy Kong Racing-Track absolutly normal! You must collect all Tribals and other stuff and you will unlock this easter egg! Nothing BETA! ;-)”

Robert Seddon continues his great series of unseen-links, with a couple of pages about the beta content of Saga Frontier. As he says “Information on the removed bits is supposed to be in a Japanese book called ‘The Essence of SaGa Frontier’, but I can only find *incomplete* transcriptions:

www.gamefaqs.com/console/psx/file/198537/22099

Interesting note about the FFVII-style Love Meter. (‘Red’s quest was supposed to have a unique spin to it– he was supposed to have a  love parameter that would determine how close Red and Yuria are. Depending on how Red responded to her, they would either end up together or not. However, due to a lack of memory, this project was scrapped, and it is the general consensus that they end up together.’) Otherwise, it’s too unfinished: ‘This FAQ is far from complete and will expand only when people start asking more questions, since the question-and-answer session makes it easier for our esteemed sources to figure out what people want to know.’ (Nobody asked, I suppose…)

But… here there are some translation information, and http://pics.livejournal.com/blue_rouge has scans. But… they’re both incomplete as of now, and seem to have been
dormant for months, although they may not be dead yet.”

If someone has more informations about the “Essence of SaGa Frontier” book or a complete translation of the removed game-content, please let us know! 

As we know and as they say in Wikipedia, very early into the development of Rayman 2, it was a 2-D game for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn. This was later scrapped for the 3D game that Rayman 2 became. Pictures of the 2D version and concept art (a green villain with a chainsaw) and mentions of powers such as the platform fist were published in gaming magazines such as EGM. Now we can take a look at a new video that shows some concepts and models for this proto:

You can check more screens and videos from the 2D version of Rayman 2 in our archive page 

We are happy to welcome GiantPooka to the Unseen 64 crew! In the U64 Staff there are so many beta geeks, but as you know, beta geeks are usually lazy, so more we are and more power we have to fight our laziness and continue to research for the truth in the mysterious world of unseen videogames! If this makes sense to you, then you are one of us too. Go go go! 

Thanks to Chris Covell on the Assembler Forum, we finally have some more informations about the assumed BS-X remake of Zelda 2. As we can read on Wikipedia, the Satellaview (also know as BS-X) was a satellite modem add-on for Nintendo’s Super Famicom system, released in Japan in 1995. The system required a subscription to the St. GIGA satellite radio station, and during a limited time (between 4:00 and 7:00 PM), users could download games and receive news about the gaming world (as well as see some ads), and save it on a memory card that plugged into the Satellaview.