Disney's Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Quest (Sega Genesis)

Disney's Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Quest was released in 1993 by Sunsoft for the Sega Genesis. This was one of a relative few games of the time that was targeted toward the young girl demographic. Unfortunately, as is common with many licensed games, this one is not so great.

Disney licesnes are often the exception to the rule when it comes to judging such games. However, Belle's Quest is more in line with expectations. Still, even though it isn't a great game, it is probably better than about 90% of other games based on licensed properties and reviewers had mixed opinions.

Belle's Quest is a fairly typical side-scrolling platform game. The graphics are quite good and some of the in between level mini-games are mildly entertaining but beyond that, there isn't much to say. The music is not great and the objectives tend to be not very interesting. I would think young kids would get frustrated pretty quickly by having to constantly dodge passing animals or die. There are some great Disney games from the 16-bit era (like Mickey's Castle of Illusion) but this isn't one of them.

Unless you are trying to complete your Genesis collection or are a hard core Disney collector, I would steer clear of this one. If you do want to play it, you will have to track down an original or give it a try via emulation (the better choice in this case). You can get it pretty cheap on eBay though.

The ad above is from the January 1994 issue of GameFan.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (Atari 2600)

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Platform: Atari 2600 The Atari 2600 had a very long life that started all the way back in 1977. The last commercial games for that system were not released until 1991 (1992 in Europe). As a consequence, there were a large number of games that production started on but for one reason or another were never finished. Many prototypes have been found throughout the years, some quite playable and others not so much. One Such prototype is Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

Apparently, Atari went so far as to license Snow White from Disney (or maybe it was part of some other larger licensing deal?) but managerial indecision about what kind of game it should ultimately be led to delays that eventually led to cancellation. It was thought that no coding was ever done until a prototype showed up on eBay in 2000.

It turns out there were two prototypes (that anyone knows about so far anyway). The first is dated November 9th, 1982 and is about 50% complete and has parts that are somewhat playable though it doesn't make for a very enjoyable game. The second, dated December 9th 1983 is a somewhat different game that is simpler but less complete. Screen shots above are from the more complete version.

Tomorrowland at Night

Tomorrowland at Night - people in line for the Astro Orbiter with the People Mover in the background. For higher resolution pics, see https://supload.com/HJ0bRs2cN

Disney World - Peter Pan

Peter Pan float at a Disney World Magic Kingdom parade with Peter Pan, Wendy and Captain Hook. For more pics at higher resolution, see https://supload.com/SyT6CEiq4. #disneyworld #MagicKingdom #share2steem #smartphonephotography #disney

Disney World Parade - Merida from Brave

Merida from Brave at a Disney World Magic Kingdom parade. #disneyworld #magickingdom #smartphonephotography #share2steem #disney
For a higher resolution version and more images, see https://supload.com/Synv-IvqV

Maleficent's Dragon

A more up close view of Maleficent's dragon at a Disney World Magic Kingdom parade. For more and higher resolution pics, see link below.

https://supload.com/Hky7-Grc4

Last Task After Layoff at Disney: Train Foreign Replacements

Last Task After Layoff at Disney: Train Foreign Replacements

The employees who kept the data systems humming in the vast Walt Disney fantasy fief did not suspect trouble when they were suddenly summoned to meetings with their boss.

While families rode the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and searched for Nemo on clamobiles in the theme parks, these workers monitored computers in industrial buildings nearby, making sure millions of Walt Disney World ticket sales, store purchases and hotel reservations went through without a hitch. Some were performing so well that they thought they had been called in for bonuses.

Instead, about 250 Disney employees were told in late October that they would be laid off. Many of their jobs were transferred to immigrants on temporary visas for highly skilled technical workers, who were brought in by an outsourcing firm based in India. Over the next three months, some Disney employees were required to train their replacements to do the jobs they had lost.

“I just couldn’t believe they could fly people in to sit at our desks and take over our jobs exactly,” said one former worker, an American in his 40s who remains unemployed since his last day at Disney on Jan. 30. “It was so humiliating to train somebody else to take over your job. I still can’t grasp it.”

The layoffs at Disney and at other companies, including the Southern California Edison power utility, are raising new questions about how businesses and outsourcing companies are using the temporary visas, known as H-1B, to place immigrants in technology jobs in the United States. These visas are at the center of a fierce debate in Congress over whether they complement American workers or displace them.

According to federal guidelines, the visas are intended for foreigners with advanced science or computer skills to fill discrete positions when American workers with those skills cannot be found. Their use, the guidelines say, should not “adversely affect the wages and working conditions” of Americans. Because of legal loopholes, however, in practice companies do not have to recruit American workers first or guarantee that Americans will not be displaced.

Too often, critics say, the visas are being used to import immigrants to do the work of Americans for less money, with laid-off American workers having to train their replacements.

Disney-owned ABC want Star Wars TV show!

Lucasfilm has previously developed 50 scripts for a live action Star Wars TV series that was to be based around the criminal underworld of the bounty hunters and was said by ex-Lucasfilm producer Rick McCallum to be akin to "Deadwood in space". According to previous reports, Lucasfilm were waiting for special effects technology to develop before the live action TV series would be affordable. Elements of that planned series are reputed to have been used in forthcoming bounty hunter Star Wars videogame 1313.

via megalextoria.com

Disney's Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Quest for the Sega Genesis

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Advertisement for Disney's Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Quest by SunSoft for the Sega Genesis from the January 1994 issue of GameFan