Garfield: The Lost Levels

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Garfield: The Lost Levels
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega InterActive
Genre: Action
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code US ▼ (Sega Channel) 1996-02-01 SUBsub

Garfield: The Lost Levels is a special version of Garfield: Caught in the Act that was made available exclusively through the Sega Channel service in North America.

History

The Lost Levels is much the same game as Caught in the Act, but features extra levels. On the Mega Drive, Caught in the Act shipped with five levels, but more were originally planned, slowly being scrapped due to time restraints. Two of these, a snowy viking-theme stage called "Bonehead the Barbarian" and a Robin Hood-style level called "Slobbin Hood", made it into the Sega Game Gear version, while "Alien Landscape" was finished for the PC port. However, all three plus a stage set in ancient Rome were at one point destined for the Mega Drive release.

In addition, a missing train segment in Catsablanca was also scrapped late in development (so much so that a screenshot of it appears on the back of the US box). Magazine previews and a special promotional T-shirt hinted at some of these stages existing, but developers have gone on record to state that they were never fully finished in time for the original cartridge release of the game.

The Lost Levels, having been handled by a different team, is thought to have brought some of these levels back, however the details of its contents are sketchy. The Bonehead the Barbarian stage is thought to have been included, as was the missing train segment in Catsablanca, but the status of the rest is not known (although the plural, "levels" would suggest at least one more stage was added).

Details of Garfield: The Lost Levels are scarce because the game was only distributed through the US Sega Channel service for a limited period of time during the mid-1990s. For nearly three decades, no dumps of the game existed, with the only physical evidence of its existence lying in promotional material for the Sega Channel service. However, in September 2024, Frank Cifaldi announced that the Video Game History Foundation had acquired the game, with it being playable at Portland Retro Gaming Expo 2024. Reportedly, there are plans to publicly preserve the acquired ROM.

Magazine articles

Main article: Garfield: The Lost Levels/Magazine articles.

Technical information

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) 60 Tricks Gold (RU) 79

	70
Based on 2 reviews

Garfield: The Lost Levels

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
?	CRC32 MD5 SHA-1			Sega Channel

References

Garfield games for Sega systems
	Caught in the Act (1995) | The Lost Levels (1996)
	Caught in the Act (1995)
	Garfield in TV land! (unreleased)
	Garfield in TV land! (1997) | Sonic & Garfield Pack (1999)