"Lost" games/gaming

[zzz]

I recently posted a topic about the fifteen never finished levels that were left in Mario 3 that were playable via a rom hack. I was curious if anybody was aware of any other examples of playable gaming produced by the video industry that were never officially released. This could mean things left in a game playable via a rom hack, like in Mario 3, or it could mean games that were never released that are available via piracy or bootlegs, like Star Fox 2 for example. Anything at all. It does not have to be good or interesting or anything. If it is playable I am interested in it.

Just out of curiousity, would something like this be acceptable for a HG101 entry? I am just curious. I have no interest or willingness to do something like that myself. It just seems like a good idea for a site like this.

[YourAverageJoe]

There was that one game, Rockboard for the NES, it's known on the Sprites.INC forums as having the most sprites never used in the game. Well, it was, untill someone decided to rummage around Megaman Power Battle, and it appears they were going to add things like stairs and Protoman's shield would be usable, and appearantly some super attacks.

[kal]

Sonic 2 is pretty legendary in relation to this (Sonic 2 beta), Legacy of Kain (the entire series but especially Soul Reaver Original) suffered from massive cuts and had heaps of unused Reavers, areas and vocals left in the game.

I'm supposed to know others but they elude me atm.

[Revolver Ocelot]

Final Fantasy VII had a horde of unfinished areas, as the game was seriously rushed towards the end of its production. A lot of these areas can be visited via the debug room available only through a Gameshark code.

The original Metroid has quite well-known unfinished areas accessible through a glitch that involves passing through doors vertically. But really, almost all NES games had areas like this of some sort. NES games were very rough due to the fact that the standards for quality were lower back then (very few games were playtested), and partly because an NES game's programming is so inherently simple, it's easy to glitch out a game.

It's not an area, but the original arcade Mortal Kombat had a red ninja character named Ermac, who would later be encorperated into the game proper, but was never an intended character. His name is short for Error Macro, a system notification indicating a programming compromisation. He can be played now by hacking into a MAME rom of certain versions of MK.

Some examples of unfinished games that is now playable as a rom would be California Raisans for NES and Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest, which was planned for N64 DD upgrade that never saw light.

[zzz]

I just remembered something. Isn't there a never finished Sonic the Hedgehog game for Genesis called Sonic Cookies or something like that?

Found it. Sonic Crackers.

[ninjarygar]

Metal Slug 5 has a load of interesting unused sprites, including a giant boss and a whole a new character we never see!

[Discoalucard]

There's already a whole website devoted to it:

www.lostlevels.org/

It's an awesome site too.

[Deleted]

admin said:

There's already a whole website devoted to it:

www.lostlevels.org/

It's an awesome site too.

W... W... W... W-W-W-W-WHHHHAAAAAATTTTTTTT??!??!?!?!?? A G-G-G-G-GAME BASED ON STAR TREK V??!!?

... well, I can see why it failed... it was based on Star Trek V, that's why. *ba-dum-PSSSHHH*

[zzz]

My question, to reiterate, was about things that are playable. Everything that has been posted has been interesting, though. So it's all cool.

It found a Jaleco shmup called Chimera Beast.

And Hit the Ice.

Wiki claims that the greatest miniature golf game ever, Mini Putt, was never released. I doubt this is true. Do yourself a favor and download that game.

And Secret Ties, at Lost Levels.

Any other good ones?

Oh, and has anybody else played Star Fox 2? Good, if you like the original.

[YourAverageJoe]

I got a buggy ROM, and it scared me off.

[zzz]

If you mean Star Fox 2, try AGTP's bux fix translation.