Time Trax: The Mega Drive Cop Game That Was Reviewed but Never Sold
Some cancelled games vanish without a trace. Time Trax did not: it was announced, previewed and even reviewed by magazines, then pulled before it reached shops. It was a licensed game based on the 1993-94 TV series about a police captain chasing fugitives sent back through time. Malibu Interactive, a studio founded by Cinemaware co-founder Bob Jacob and staffed with former Ocean and Software Creations people, developed the project. The Super Nintendo version did come out, in April 1994 under the Malibu Games label, but the Sega version stayed on the shelf.
At a glance
- Based on: the TV series Time Trax (1993-94)
- Created by: Malibu Interactive
- Released: never in the 1990s; the prototype surfaced in July 2013
- Genre: Side-scrolling action platformer
- What sets it apart: a finished Mega Drive/Genesis build that magazines covered but players never owned
Timeline of a lost game
- The Genesis version was announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in 1993, with an early-1994 release planned and music by Tim Follin.
- Magazines previewed and reviewed it.
- The release was cancelled; the reason is not clearly documented.
- In 2013 a prototype ROM dumped from an EPROM cartridge by MrMark0673 was released through the SegaAge forum, with a release date of 8 July 2013 given by the Hidden Palace preservation wiki.
What the game is about
In the SNES version (the only retail release), Captain Lambert pursues criminals who have been sent back in time to help a villain change history, using a stun weapon to send them back to the future. Critics there praised the presentation, while the difficulty and lack of continues drew complaints. The Mega Drive prototype is a different build, so treat those details as the premise rather than a description of it.