10 Lost Video Games That Were Discovered Years Later
2. Drac's Night Out
Drac's Night Out is a good-humoured little adventure game for the NES where the player assists Dracula in leaving his tower and navigating the town below. Drac must avoid or trap villagers and suck their blood whilst searching for his bride Mina. It's simple, charming fun... that never actually released.
The game was expected to drop in 1991 but, despite being almost ready, it never made it to store shelves. This is particularly odd as it was also tied up in a licensing agreement.
Midway through development, the producer - Parker Brothers - had struck a deal with Reebok. As such, the game became a tie-in for Reebok Pumps, which Drac can pick up on his travels for extra speed (and, of course, early 90s style).
What's remarkable about this story is how the game was preserved.
It just so happened that Parker Brothers developer Rex Bradford lived on the same street as NES fan Gideon Zhi who would borrow the near-final version of the game's cartridge as a kid and wound up keeping it. As he grew up and got into video game emulation and preservation, Zhi realised that he had something special in his collection and made sure the game got online nearly a decade after it was supposed to be released.