Golden Axe (MD-Genesis) alpha or beta screenshot

this is from EGM Number 5, December 1989
(The 1990's Buyer's Guide + Best & Worst of 1989)


in first level of Golden Axe (in the released game) in the forest, you never see the skeletons at all. also, those 2 large hammer dudes are not in that part of the level, they're only at the end of the level as the first boss.

as a kid, when I borrowed a friend's copy of Golden Axe in summer 1990, I tried to get to "that part" seen in the above screenshot, never knowing how "get there", lol. of course, I had no idea, back then, that there were such things as alphas or betas, early versions of a game, that differ from the released version

 

On a similar note, I remember owning a Sonic 2 player's guide which had glossy screenshots of Hidden Palace zone and Wood zone. Drove me mad trying to find out how to get to them - no internet to help, back in the day. It wasn't until I found Simon Wai's page on the Sonic 2 beta that was found that I finally understood. That beta blew me away like nothing since.

 

Weren't the first boss hammer dudes blue as well? Cool game and they certainly fixed the controls

 

This sort of thing was common back in 1989 reviews and advertising. Check out some of the NEs and Genesis ads from that era...Ninja Gaiden had completely different sprites than the shipping version, Genesis ads had photos with the system not even powered on, etc.

That Golden Axe screenshot looks to be a debug or mockup that the developers simply used to give the consumer a sense by pasting in the various sprites whereever they wanted on the screen.

 

early versions of Super Mario64 with a different HUD can be found on the back of the original SM64 box as well

 

Cool, nice find!

 

Sega were fond of mocking up pictures for Magazines back in the day. This is probably one of those.

Nice to see old magazine scans though.

 

eew, i can remember some of those old mock up pics vaugely. I can remember as a kid getting salty about the games not looking like the pictures (can you say the extra sonic levels). and much love for the old scans, i really miss this stuff.

 

speaking of other games, and I had a thread about this some time ago, with someone (PhantasyStar) posting a picture at my request, I was dumbfounded as to why Rambo III on Genesis looked SO good in the print ads and in the earliest EGM preview.

the scene of Rambo III shown in the Sega ad, and the EGM preview, was extremely kewl cooling IMO, but cannot (seemingly) be found in the actual game.

this was more perplexing, more aggravating, by far, than most other discrepancies between alpha/beta and final released game.


the Genesis Rambo III scene in question:

from EGM Number 4, November 1989, page 20





from Sega print ad

 

Sonic 2 had a lot of rumours spring up thanks to some mock-ups that were supposedly screenshots taken from lost levels from an alpha version of the game. The NES console box had a few mock-ups on the cover too, if I remember correctly, especially one for Super Mario Bros 3 and weird flying beetle things!

 

The Egm reviewer said they played the game, maybe the pic is from the cart they were playing? Or of course, they could being lying...

 

Screenshots were very difficult to take back then, so while reviewers would often play the game in question the screens were supplied by the company.

Even today, the vast majority of the preview screens that you see in print and on the web are provided by the game companies and not taken by the previewer/reviewer.

-hl718

 

The Sonic 2 beta was all over as it was pirated like mad. You can easily get ahold of it and do the Sonic 1 stage select code to access Wood Zone and Hidden Palace Zone. If you really cared enough about it, enough is known about those games that you could edit and build those zones to actually be complete.

 

Not quite Mottzilla, as there's no bosses for either zone and no one is quite sure what would happen (if anything special for example) would occur at the end of Hidden Palace, nice music though.

 

damn - I remember that Rambo III preview. the game ended up being excellent IMO though.

 

Really? Thanks for the info ;-)

 

I was kinda disappointed with the Rambo III game that was released. I mean it was okay, but not as good as I was expecting. probably the exclusion of that area in the preview & ad, was a factor in my mild disappointment.

btw, Rambo III on the Master System, a completely different game, which is very much like Operation Wolf, was pretty damn good, IMO.

 

that sure looks like the arcade version of golden axe though.if i was sega and was giving a screenshot to a magazine to get people excited about a home port i certainly would just cheaply use an arcade screen shot hoping to dupe people.

 

Sega did do that, at times. i could be mistaken but the print ads for Genesis
Super Monaco GP might have used a picture of the arcade version.


that picture of Golden Axe from the EGM preview is almost definitally not the arcade version though.

arcade version



EGM preview


finished MD-Genesis version


the large thick detailed tree, and the thinner trees in the EGM preview closely resemble the trees in the Genesis screenshot here. the arcade's large thick tree is more detailed. also the shrubs/bushes and especially the rocks in the genesis version resemble the EGM preview screen.

yes i realize this is not a exact location comparison. the EGM preview screen is from a point in the first level a little bit before the genesis and arcade screens.

edit: got another genesis screen, closer to the same point of the EGM preview


EGM preview



arcade



the way the rocks look in the EGM preview clearly make it look like an alpha or beta of the MD-Gen version. notice the small rock just below the roots of the large tree in the both the finished MD-Gen version, and the EGM preview. there's no small rock below the roots of the large tree in the arcade

Also, in that part of the level, there are no green shrubs in the arcade version, but instead, fog. and although you cannot see it in still pictures, the arcade has parallax scrolling where the MD-Genesis does not.

admitedly, the graphics of the final MD-Gen version look SLIGHTLY more simplified than the EGM preview. but the EGM preview does not look like the arcade version
going by the rocks and shrubs. Rhe branch-stub of the large tree is longer in the EGM preview compared to the final MD-Gen game, but not like the arcade.

 

On these case, the porting team starts with the art of the arcade version, right?