A long-lost epic Sega Saturn game has been unearthed; Sacred Pools was in development by the American studio SegaSoft, and was one of the first FMV titles to accumulate in the early days of CD-ROM technology.

The appropriately named Gaming Alexandria website managed to obtain several CD-ROMs of this unreleased project from former Sega Soft employee David Gray. Alpha builds for the Saturn, PC, and, surprisingly, the Sony PlayStation have now been uploaded online.

The PlayStation port may be due to Sega's bad luck with the Saturn. When Sony came on the scene, Sega was constantly pitted against the Saturn, and when the PlayStation was announced at E3 in 1995 at a retail price of $299 ($100 less than the Saturn), it was a fatal underdog.

SegaSoft was founded in 1996 with an eye toward the future as a PC-focused developer oriented toward more adult products. This relatively liberal stance allowed them to develop for the PlayStation.

"Sacred Pools" is set on the island of Amazonia, where a variety of puzzles and several scantily clad women await. Also known as "Rebellion" and "Amazonia," it required a huge budget of $2-3 million at the time, mainly because it required a lot of live-action footage. The player character would travel around the island, explore the maze, collect crystals, and talk to various NPCs. There are also some interestingly awful jump scares.

The game's selling point was supposed to be the suggestion of erotic pleasure rather than overt sexuality. There was no nudity," said cameraman Ross Judd in 2000 (open in new tab). This was a tactic that worked brilliantly with "Night Trap," which became a tabloid target because of its raunchy elements and sold ridiculously well because of it.

Unfortunately for "Sacred Pools," the FMV craze was slowing down and Sega's internal team thought the game was not very well done; despite a big showing at E3, the game did not make it to its release date and subsequently disappeared from Sega's release It disappeared from the schedule. Shortly thereafter, Sega ended active Saturn development with a view to moving to Dreamcast, and Sacred Pools was forgotten.

Until now. A few minutes of footage of the game can be seen above, and Gaming Alexandria has a long and detailed account of the game's development.