Jim Power: The Arcade Game

Jim Power: The Arcade Game
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Publisher: Loriciel
Developer: Loriciel
Planned release date(s): 1993-11, 1994-02, 1994-04, Spring 1994
Genre: Action
Number of players: 1
Status of prototype(s): Prototype improperly dumped
Sound driver: A.U.D.I.O.S. Wave Slave MD

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Jim Power: The Arcade Game is an unreleased Sega Mega Drive platform game developed by Loriciel.

Gameplay

Despite its name, there was not an arcade release of Jim Power - it is in fact a re-tooled version of the 1993 Super NES/IBM PC game, Jim Power: The Lost Dimension in 3D (which itself is an update to the earlier 1992 release Jim Power In Mutant Planet for home computers).

The Arcade Game was planned to be essentially the same game as Lost Dimension in 3D, however the stages utilising the Super NES' "Mode 7" effects were replaced with simpler 2D shoot-'em-up stages. There have also been numerous tweaks to make the game easier, as Jim Power games are notoriously difficult.

The player controls Jim Power, where makes him shoot, makes him jump and can wipe out all enemies on screen, provided you have enough bombs. There are a number of weapon upgrades too.

The glaring omission from this Mega Drive port, and indeed most versions of the game, is the dropped support for anaglyph 3D glasses, allowing the Super NES version to obtain a pseudo-3D look (and hence gain the name "Lost Dimension in 3D"; a pair is even included in the SNES version's box). Advertising and media coverage suggests that the feature was planned to appear in the Mega Drive game in some form, but it is unknown whether any compatible builds were created.

History

Development

The game was cancelled in circa 1993-1994 due to Loriciel having financial troubles. However, a prototype surfaced on the internet, showing that Jim Power: The Arcade Game was very close to completion, despite the fact there is only one music track in the game, the one intended for stage 3, and the presence of placeholder Mega Turrican sound effects. All the levels can be played and the game can be beaten, but there is no proper ending sequence implemented in this build yet.

In 2014, Piko Interactive made a licensing deal with Jim Power creator, Fernando Velez, acquiring rights and assets for the game in order to create a NES version from scratch. In the process, they also got ahold of a fully finished build of the unreleased Mega Drive version, with further plans to releasing it in a physical cartridge along with the brand new NES version and subsequent re-releases of the game. But due to the demise of Fernando Velez in 2016, plans had to be halted until 2019, when Piko finally managed to completely purchase the Jim Power intellectual property. A Kickstarter campaign was then set up in early 2020 to fund the production of different re-releases of the game, including the long lost Mega Drive version, which was finally released as Jim Power: The Lost Dimension in 3-D in 2021.

In the US, the game was reportedly priced at $69.95.

Magazine articles

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score 1700 igr dlya Sega (RU) 40 Tricks 16 bit (RU) 62 VideoGames (US) NTSC-U 80

	61
Based on 3 reviews

Jim Power: The Arcade Game

Main article: Jim Power: The Arcade Game/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advert in Game Players (US) #0612: "Vol. 6 No. 12 December 1993" (1993-1x-xx)
also published in:

• GamePro (US) #54: "January 1994" (199x-xx-xx)

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
✘	CRC32 MD5 SHA-1 38adc1f792b06637e109d4b76fbfbf57623faf3b	1MB	1992-07		Has Street Smart header; apparently corrupt		(518 kB) (info)	Page

References

NEC Retro has more information related to Jim Power in "Mutant Planet"