Savage Empire SNES: Another lost game?

[Jorpho]

Stumbled upon this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worlds_of_Ultima:_The_Savage_Empire) on Wikipedia today:

The game was localized and planned for a US release, but that was eventually canceled.
I guess this has yet to turn up somewhere?

[Daria]

Found this page:
http://www.notableultima.com/collectibles/Title_WOU.html

with this to say:

Ultima: The Savage Empire
for Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Platform: Super NES.
Publisher: FCI/Pony Canyon, © 1995.
After much hunting, this game DOES exist! ...An insider at Origin has now told me that they did complete an English version of this game for the SNES, but FCI decided after its completion not to release the game in the US. The Japanese version was released (in Japan, of course) in mid-1995. The English version of the game was reviewed in the January 1995 issue Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine (pp. 220-221), and described then as "95% complete". I'm still trying to contact someone at FCI to confirm that the English version was withheld from the market. If nothing else, since the code for the English version of this game exists, maybe someone could talk FCI or Origin into releasing it as freeware for play via an SNES emulator. If anyone knows more, please let me know.

[Ze_ro]

Interesting... What about Martian Dreams? False Prophet was released, and uses the same engine as these other two games, so it should have been a simple matter of porting it... The steampunk stylings of Martian Dreams always seemed more interesting to me than Savage Empire.

--Zero

[Ed Oscuro]

I never played Martian Dreams, but from what I understand it also seems somewhat similar in concept to a '70s version of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (having interesting fictional characters from the fin de siècle period), making it yet more interesting. I could be wrong about that.

Either way my interest is stoked.