Those bosses didn't end up in the final version of Curse released in 1990.
Perhaps these screenshots are actually from a different game and not actually Curse?
Anyway, that statue boss in the first screenshot is really freaking cool.
The third screenshot shows some wicked looking Tatsujin/Truxton-like multi lightning laser firepower.
Edit:
Compare that to the preview in Mega Drive Fan November 1989, of what for sure is the Micronet game Curse.
Last edited by OldSkoolShmuper on Sat Jan 24, 2026 6:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
I think someone once asked the same question about Curse screen shots from an old issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly. My guess is they were showing a bigger build at trade shows, and either the publisher saw less advance interest from retail chain purchasers than they were hoping, or chip prices jumped messing with projected margins. Either way safe bet is they had a reason to cut the ROM size before they shipped.
Sengoku Strider wrote: ↑Thu Jan 22, 2026 8:45 pm
I think someone once asked the same question about Curse screen shots from an old issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly. My guess is they were showing a bigger build at trade shows, and either the publisher saw less advance interest from retail chain purchasers than they were hoping, or chip prices jumped messing with projected margins. Either way safe bet is they had a reason to cut the ROM size before they shipped.
Any idea what month or year in EGM this was asked? Now I'm kinda curious to to read it.
OldSkoolShmuper wrote: ↑Thu Jan 22, 2026 9:12 pm
Any idea what month or year in EGM this was asked? Now I'm kinda curious to to read it.
Oh, I meant someone on this forum asked about the EGM issue at some point. they reviewed Curse in issue #12 (for some reason, a domestic release must have been announced/promised at some point), but I don't see it flipping through PDFs of prior issues, so it's possible I'm misremembering.
OldSkoolShmuper wrote: ↑Thu Jan 22, 2026 9:12 pm
Any idea what month or year in EGM this was asked? Now I'm kinda curious to to read it.
Oh, I meant someone on this forum asked about the EGM issue at some point. they reviewed Curse in issue #12 (for some reason, a domestic release must have been announced/promised at some point), but I don't see it flipping through PDFs of prior issues, so it's possible I'm misremembering.
the roboman is definitely not an in-game image, though amusingly that sort of lightning effect was seen without any real issue on the truxton port (albeit far less intensive, but that's a good thing for actual gameplay).
the statue is far more believable, and also logical as a thing to remove - a statue is not an interesting boss at all. the former, meanwhile, was likely replaced by the current final boss, judging by the level setpieces - that boss remains an excellent piece of art even if the fight and literal graphical effects suck ass. I believe it was the right call.
Sengoku Strider wrote: ↑Thu Jan 22, 2026 8:45 pm
I think someone once asked the same question about Curse screen shots from an old issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly. My guess is they were showing a bigger build at trade shows, and either the publisher saw less advance interest from retail chain purchasers than they were hoping, or chip prices jumped messing with projected margins. Either way safe bet is they had a reason to cut the ROM size before they shipped.
Back in 1989-1990, there was a "chip shortage" which affected the production of both arcade jamma pcbs & home gaming console cartridges (hence why the Atari Games Klax jamma pcb doesn't have any BGM tunes whatsoever whereas with the 1991 Atari Games' release of "Off the Wall" jamma pcb, it does have proper BGM tunes in place). It does make perfect sense in retrospect nowadays.
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Tengen USA was working on the prototype TurboGrafx-16 port of "Off the Wall" back in 1992 but sadly, it was never officially released commercially in it's current state of "final beta" development -- the prototype TG-16 TurboChip of "OtW" finally resurfaced for auction at the April 2003 auction event (open to the general public) held at the former Atari Games HQ in Milpitas, CA and was subsequently sold to the highest bidder (it was finally rom-dumped a few years back and is playable with some "trade-offs/caveats" via the KriKzz Turbo Everdrive or Turbo Everdrive Pro flashcart setups nowadays). Better later than never, right?
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First sentence: "Curse is a side scrolling stg with really beautiful graphics." So I don't think these are just production sketches.
PerishedFraud ឵឵ wrote: ↑Sat Jan 24, 2026 3:41 am
the roboman is definitely not an in-game image, though amusingly that sort of lightning effect was seen without any real issue on the truxton port (albeit far less intensive, but that's a good thing for actual gameplay).
the statue is far more believable, and also logical as a thing to remove - a statue is not an interesting boss at all. the former, meanwhile, was likely replaced by the current final boss, judging by the level setpieces - that boss remains an excellent piece of art even if the fight and literal graphical effects suck ass. I believe it was the right call.
Looking closely at the text on the image in the OP, the arrow points to the sphinxy dragon thing and says "Notice the finely drawn graphics." Skele-boss only says "Battle the boss with the thunder beam." On the far left it does say images are from a product still in development. If it seems like a lot for a 1989 MD game, IIRC it only runs at 30fps.
PC Engine Fan X! wrote: ↑Sun Jan 25, 2026 5:27 pmBack in 1989-1990, there was a "chip shortage" which affected the production of both arcade jamma pcbs & home gaming console cartridges (hence why the Atari Games Klax jamma pcb doesn't have any BGM tunes whatsoever
that's actually really interesting. I was really taken by Klax at the time, and its unusual sparse echoing soundscape with those chime-like soundeffects and applause was a big part of its appeal. It was like some bizarre extradimensional episode of the Price is Right.
Maybe it didn't because the scrolling what kinda choppy.
I wouldn't have let it get that Sega "Seal of Quality" label
Intv corp only published one game that wasn't for Intellivision, Monster Truck Rally for NES. They filed for bankruptcy protection in 1990 and closed in 1991.
It's interesting that INTV picked it up. This was part of the old Intellivision division (under Mattel). Sega Retro sez:
Curse was set to be released in North America by INTV Corporation, which had broken away from Mattel following the North American video game crash, and held the rights to the earlier Intellivision console. The game was one of the first non-Intellivision projects to be undertaken by the company (NES and Game Boy projects were also in development) and was announced in 1990. Despite being advertised, dated (for June 1990[4]) and even reviewed, the North American version did not materialise, probably due to the poor quality of the original Japanese release.
I'd never gone through these early MD Fans before, they're actually a good read and a gold mine for stuff like this. Sega never had any platform-focused media this good in North America. Here in the follow-up issue is the smoking gun in the first paragraph:
The highly anticipated side-scrolling STG Curse. We introduced it in the previous issue, but it's undergone significant changes most notably in terms of graphics.
So maybe they sent dev shots from an X68000 and later realized they didn't have the engine to pull it off on actual MD hardware, or as I suggested earlier it may have come down to cutting large sprites for ROM purposes. Boss sprites take up a big chunk of memory, but you get very limited use out of them. It's part of why you see boss rushes in so many older games, it justifies assigning that much ROM in the planning phase.
EDIT: Ah, I see OldSkool had added this to the OP. So yeah, there you go with a translation (the rest is just generic game description). Also I'm glad I'm not crazy for thinking that EGM did previews of it.
PC Engine Fan X! wrote: ↑Mon Jan 26, 2026 8:07 pm
On page 46 & 47 talks about doing a homebrew MD 21-pin RGB cable with all the necessary parts -- how cool is that?
And on page 62, the article about the MD Curse stg.
Fascinating stuff. Are there more cool "Mega Drive Fan" magazine scans to gloss over?
PC Engine Fan X! ^_~
Sega Retro has archives of every Sega publication they can get their hands on from around the world. This is the main MD Fan page: https://segaretro.org/Mega_Drive_Fan
I think there was a thread on this very same subject a few years ago. Anyway, I had this back in the day, still got it somewhere though I haven't had a MegaDrive to play it on for years. On the last stage you'd get sent back to the start of the stage if you died.
