Prior to the now famous E3, video game companies would show off their new and upcoming products at the then twice-yearly (Summer and Winter) Consumer Electronics Show event. The CES event we will be focusing on is Winter CES 1994, which was held on January 6th to January 9th of that year, at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, and was attended by around 79,000 people. SEGA chose this event for the unveiling of their then in-production console “Saturn”. Of course, as we noted earlier, Clockwork Knight (known then by it’s working title “Action Game”) was one of several titles in production for the unfinished console, and SEGA took the oppurtunity to show off footage of it, alongside the other then in-production games. This would mark the first time anyone outside of SEGA would ever see what would go on to become Clockwork Knight.

Sadly, “Action Game” was not a playable title, as what was seen was simply pre-rendered footage that was created using SGI Workstations. That said, the pre-rendered 3D video was interesting, as it demonstrated several concepts, some of which would later appear in the final game, such as running, jumping and picking up/throwing objects. Also included was a sequence where Tongara pushes a stack of tins off the edge of a shelf, pushes a floor switch, and fights a jack-in-the-box with a small, red umbrella rather than his “key sword” in the final game. The fight is short, but is more involved than anything seen in the final product, with Tongara blocking attacks and even kicking, as opposed to the later one-hit or wind up explosion.

 

The first gaming publication to report on “Action Game” seems to have been Beep! MegaDrive (JP) in their “1994.03” issue (street dated 1994.02), where Tongara can be seen standing on a platform with a Grandfather Clock to his left, and a Cuckoo Clock to his right.
The next time “Action Game” would be seen was in the “1994.03” issue (street dated 1994.02) of Beep! MegaDrive (JP), and it contained what is probably the most well-known shot of “Action Game”, with Tongara standing to the right of a Jack-in-the-box in an attack stance. Also included in the issue was a picture of a screen from the Winter CES event showing a promo for the recently announced Saturn console surrounded by clips of games, including one of “Action Game” with Tongara shown in a mid-air jump.

Thankfully, that would not be the end of screenshots of “Action Game”, as 2 months later in Official Sega Magazine (UK)’s “1994.06” issue (street dated 1994.05), a whopping 21 still images of the video were posted, including the previously mentioned famous image of Tongara standing to the right of the Jack-in-the-box. While other magazines also printed some of the same shots around this time, this as far as I can tell is the first time that the general public outside of Japan were seeing shots of this, and it was far more than what had been shown in to Japan up to that point, making the issue very special. Again, the UK would have more to come in the way of “Action Game”.

The very next month in the “1994.07” issue (street dated 1994.06) of Official Sega Magazine (UK), another 12 brand new still images of the video were posted, each of which demonstrated Tongara in different parts of the room, performing different actions. This would be the last time any new materials of action game would be seen in the press, and the game would go on to become the Clockwork Knight we all know and love today. BUT, that wasn’t the end for “Action Game”, as something strange would happen around a year later…

 

For documentation purposes, all of the Clockwork Knight scenes (including the above mentioned “Action Game” clip) from the promotional VHS have been compiled into the above video.

That’s right, you get to see the origins of Clockwork Knight, but not only that, you actually get to see footage of “Action Game” that had up to this point only ever been shown in Magazines and at Winter CES 1994. Sadly, the video is compressed, and in a lower quality, and the colours appear duller than previously seen footage/images, but December 1995 marked the first point in time where everyone finally got to see “Action Game”, including some parts not seen in magazines!

Then, out of nowhere on 2019.10.13, a Japanese language video was uploaded that changed everything. The footage featured content from Winter CES 1994, including the same “Action Game” shots that we saw in Magazines! Sadly, the video was seemingly in pretty bad shape, and as such, the quality isn’t perfect, it still gives us an insight into what SEGA had internally at that time. The first 20 seconds of the above video are the “Action Game” content.

Usually, such a thing would be left in the past, but not in this case. You see, the Clock actually went on to appear in the retail game, too. The background of the Crazy TV miniboss in Clockwork Knight 2 (Gekan), as shown belown, clearly shows the EXACT same clock as in the “Action Game” video. The face of the Clock says “SEGA”, although it is a bit hard to see, and the same for the word “Saturn” on the golden pendulum. The cogs inside the clock also match the same ones found in the “Action Game” video that would later fall out. In addition to this, the top of the Clock has the exact same shape as the one seen in the “Action Game” video. Honestly, it’s really nice to see that they didn’t just forget about this Clock, and even made sure to include it in the final game.

As the fight in Clockwork Knight 1 (Joukan) against the Crazy TV Boss and the start of Clockwork Knight 2 (Genak) are set in the Study Room, when you finally return to that area, the overworld map not only shows the area of books where the boss fight happened, but also the book shelves in the background, and even the very same Clock that we saw in “Action Game”.

As a small note, the face of this Clock also strangely makes an appearance in the background for Boss of Betsy’s Room “Dandy Bob” in Clockwork Knight 1 (Joukan):

A VERY common misconception is that Clockwork Knight and several other Saturn games were initially developed for the 32X before moving to the Saturn. This simply isn’t the case, and the reason for this mistake is due to Gaming Magazines of the era incorrectly identifying Winter CES 1994 Saturn promotional images as 32X game images (then known as Mars). Why they thought this isn’t clear. Clockwork Knight was one of several games including Panzer Dragoon and Daytona USA that were said to be coming to the 32X, but there is absolutely no evidence for such things ever existing. It wasn’t too uncommon for magazines to make mistakes by misinterprating the information they recieved back then, and at other times it wasn’t unheard of for them to just make things up. I believe the above magazine scans (and especially the first) were the reason this rumour has persisted for such a long time. We know for a fact at this point as mentioned at the top of this page, that these games were created by teams made from SEGA AM6 subdivisions, with their task being to make content for the then in production Sega Saturn console. Hopefully with the creation of this page, the issue will now be cleared up.