PSP, Sony

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker [Beta – PSP]

monokoma
20-05-2011
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Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker was developed by Konami and Kojima Productions, released in 2010 for the PSP. Few info about the beta version are available thanks to Ravi Singh of The Snake Soup:

Around April 8, 2010 Kinsoku Jiko from The Snake Soup forums used the program CodePR to dig data from the Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker TGS 2009 demo. While weapons and items that would be seen in the final game were found such as Pepsi and Huey’s Letter, left-over artifacts from Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus were found such as the Heart of Justice item.

Recently Ravi Singh has found material posted by Kojima Productions on their blog that is from a build of Peace Walker made prior to the first demo release. Of interest are the different HUDs (including one that is exactly the same as Portable Ops Plus), a different graphic damage meter and what looks like either an item or gameplay feature that allows the player to see the enemy more clearly. There is also a mock-up of what the beta graphic damage meter looked like in action as an animated gif image.

Blog posts are http://ameblo.jp/kp-blogcast/entry-10598028071.html and http://ameblo.jp/kp-blogcast/entry-10591306201.html

Thanks to Ravi Singh of The Snake Soup for the contribution!

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Nintendo, Nintendo 64 & 64DD

Blades of Passage [N64 DD – Cancelled]

Celine
18-05-2011
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Blades of Passage, codenamed Project Edge ( also known as Thu Lu Khan ) was a cancelled Action-RPG planned for the Nintendo 64-DD Drive. It was originally intended to be part of the North America launch line-up for the peripheral, and was built to be a sort of 3D homage and expansion to the ideas that Secret of Mana had brought years earlier.

We can read what Richard Knight , developer at Pixelplay Interactive during the latter part of game development, recalls about the project on his site moogle.net :

By the time I arrived at the studio, the project was in a state of flux. Nintendo first postponed and then cancelled the USA launch of the 64-DD, and then not too long after 64MB cartridges became a feasible reality, the marching orders were given for all projects to go to the GameCube instead if possible.

I was hired very late into development as a 3D Modeller, with the eye to move over to Design when it made sense. I started to contribute some models and level environments, but slowdowns in the project forced me to switch to campaign and story design during the final months. (Tools in the days of N64 were tremendously primitive compared to today, so I suppose this wasn’t surprising.)

Project Edge was nowhere near finished, but as the founding and sole project of the studio, there was a lot of hope behind it until the end. Pixelplay had a tremendous sense of start-up pride, and working directly with Nintendo (on an RPG no less!) was a dream for many developers – myself included – and there were people on this project before me for 3 years or more! Losing the project changed the fabric of the company more or less on the spot.

Shortly after Project Edge was shelved, the studio was reformed into Orbital Media, and N64 hardware was changed in for early Game Boy Advance development kits.

Huge props to Richard Knight for sharing some info on such an interesting lost project!

Update: Gilgamesh found some more pics!

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Video (@2:10):

 

Others, PC / MAC

Dragon Hoard [PC – Cancelled]

U64 Staff & Contributors
15-05-2011
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Dragon Hoard was a kind of a “dragon simulator” by Blue Fang Games, slated to be released in Q2 2000. The user would start as a young dragon in a fantasy land, which was claimed to be a fully simulated world where he should build his relations with humanoid races (humans, elves and “the Vrak”), terrorizing or helping them in exchange for knowledge, prestige or gold (there’s also a “vanity” stat mentioned). Fighting rival dragons would also be a necessity. Between missions, or “stages”, the dragon would enter a long sleep (not played in real time, of course), during which the creature would grow bigger and stronger, and can be upgraded, learning new spells and attacks. The outside world would change, too.

It’s interesting to know that in 2011 a game called Hoard by Big Sandwich Games was released, impementing many ideas of Dragon Hoard on a smaller scale. There was also an earlier attempt by Primal Software called The I of the Dragon.

More info: archived version of a preview on GA-Source.

Article by Chentzilla

Images:

Probably how the Vrak should have looked:

Some more concept art:

 

Microsoft, Xbox

The Big Comfy Couch [XBOX – Cancelled]

U64 Staff & Contributors
15-05-2011
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Today’s article will be very short, as it is about an unreleased game for the Xbox that, for whatever reason, doesn’t appear to have been documented at all. Considering its subject, this isn’t entirely surprising. Maybe the developers decided it was better that no traces of this game were ever made public!

The game is called The Big Comfy Couch, and was based on the Canadian childrens’ TV show of the same name. The show, featuring Loonette the Clown and her doll, Molly, is all about teaching ethical, and educational, lessons. The two characters solve a different everyday issue in each episode, on their Big Comfy Couch.

Although almost no information can be found on this game (even other main games journalism sites don’t have it listed), we can assume that it would have followed a similar plot to the TV show, tasking children with the solving of various dilemmas. Here at Unseen 64, we have been lucky enough to have three pre-release screenshots of the game shared with us by one of the developers of the game, and these provide some insight into the game’s interface and style. They show that it was a 3D platformer game, with a vibrant game environment and a few different meters visible to the player. One of these was, presumably, health, as one of the screenshots shows a fight between Loonette and several over-sized dustbunnies (perhaps trying to intimidate the key demographic into cleaning up after themselves?).

The picture of the original title screen shows that multiple systems could be linked up, perhaps allowing co-operative or competitive multiplayer modes. With goals like “Pop all the balloons and pinatas!” (visible in one of the screenshots), one can imagine what a blast that could have been.

It is unknown how close this game was to completion, although “not very” is the assumption, due to the lack of information on the game.

Check The Lost Media Wiki’s research topic for more details!

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