Jim Power: The Arcade Game

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