Dreamcast-talk user sreak posted that they unearthed a tech demo of a
Simpsons game called
The Simpsons: Bug Squad! The build is playable and was contained on a broken dev kit for the Sega Dreamcast.
The filenames contained on the kit’s hard drive are BlowUp, roach, Bugsquad, Quake2, Simpsons, ttb410, RoachWorld, ttb5, and Source Code. Because of these filenames, a user on the forums mentioned that the dev kit might have been owned by someone other than an “original DC developer.”
Eventually a video of the playable demo was produced. Its title screen has a message that reads, “confidential and proprietary: copyright 2000 Red Lemon Studios LTD All Rights Reserved.” Red Lemon Studios was the developer behind
Farscape: The Game and
Braveheart, which, like
Bug Squad! are video game adaptations of other properties. They were also working on a lightgun game called
Take the Bullet. Take the Bullet was also included on this hard drive in the form of a beta.
The gameplay video for
The Simpsons: Bug Squad! depicts a player-controlled bug navigating the Simpsons home. Meanwhile, Homer Simpson walks about aimlessly.
The thread went on as users worked together to uncover more mysteries about the game, many expressing excitement over the never-before-seen glimpse at the title. As of posting, the thread is on its twelfth page and users are still uncovering new information.
One of the people who worked on the game,
Dr. Andy Campbell, has also spoken up about the dive into the dev kit. He claims that the tech demo was designed for a pitch to Fox, as he “knew Fox pretty well.”
It is hard to know how many Dreamcast games never saw the light of day. Fortunately, there are
some ways to experience the bygone era on
modern platforms. You
can also use modern controllers on the old console, if that’s your thing.
www.siliconera.com
