PC-Engine: Jan.-Mar. 1990

Time Cruise #1, the Unreleased Prequel

Now this might be a little confusing, but Face announced Time Cruise (see right) on the PC-Engine in February 1990 but never released it.  They went straight to work on the sequel Time Cruise II anyway, releasing that in late 1991.  The US Turbografx game Time Cruise was the sequel, just with the "II" removed.

The unreleased prequel had really great graphics, with eras represented including a tech-noir future, classic Americana and Japonica.  Shame it wasn't released.

Blade Land: an unreleased RPG

Nothing too seemingly special, as it's yet another RPG that didn't get released, but at least it seemed to have a modern-Tokyo setting, similar in tone to Mother/Earthbound?

Aoi Blink Beta Pics

The January 1990 issue of Gekkan PC-Engine had several classic PCE games on show for the first time, including Aoi Blink, touted here as a "Super Mario 3" style game.

The screenshots to the right show some differences to the released version of the game, including different graphics, dialogue, and level design. Nothing major, but it's possible some levels were added or taken out, judging from the different map layout.
Beta
Final

Top: The beta version's "ROUND 1" text is far more attractive than the final's. As you can also see, some houses used to be bus stops; and a final, minor thing, the tower in the house in the centre used to be grey. In the final, it has been changed to orange.

Above: The narrow tower has been made wider in the final version. Also, the beta version had odd brick buildings in the same stage, which were changed to normal houses in the final.

Below, we can see a background that was removed entirely from the final version. I don't think the mountain backdrop of the beta appears at all in the final.

Bottom: This caped man's hint to the team is slightly different. In the final, he says "The key is above the ceiling." In the beta, he's more cryptic: "I've heard it's in an unseen place."
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