Mr. Nutz: Hoppin' Mad (Genesis)

Unreleased Mr. Nutz: Hoppin' Mad is an unreleased Mega Drive port of the Amiga game of the same name. It was originally a game completely unrelated to the first Mr. Nutz game, and this port would have been released in Europe in 1995, but business smarts decided otherwise.

The final version was to have been titled Mr. Nutz 2, though this prototype retains the original name. The game's source code was leaked in 2009, and it wasn't until 2012 that a Russian emu coder MetalliC managed to compile it into a working ROM.

Early Large Mr. Nutz Graphics
Two versions of the large Mr. Nutz graphic that appears after the title screen exist in the ROM: an early 320-pixel wide version with a 1993 copyright, and the final 256-pixel wide version with a 1994 copyright. The early version is based directly on the Amiga version, while the final version has a few graphical improvements.

It's worth noting that the original Amiga game was released in 1994, and the Mega Drive port was to have been released in 1995, making the earlier 1993 copyright a bit of a mystery.

Similarly, there are early graphics for the titular character appearance in the credit roll. These unused graphics (right) are not used in the Amiga version, and are lacking the level of shading used in the final game (left).



Unused Flying Sprites
The Amiga version had some pseudo-Mode 7 sequences that were either replaced in the Mega Drive port (like the final boss) or completely deleted. One of the deleted sequences consists of Mr. Nutz flying erratically between rotating green planes, yet his special sprites for this part are still in the ROM.