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SimMars was a strategy game in development at Maxis around the same time as the release of the wildly popular Maxis game, The Sims. A trailer for the game was included on the SimCity 3000 CD. From the trailer, the premise of the game seemed to be a manned mission to the planet Mars, followed by a terraforming and colonization scenario, typical of the Maxis world-building game style. The game presumed to be an integration of previous Maxis titles presented in 3D, possibly including elements of SimEarth, SimLife, and SimCity.

In The Sims: Vacation, there was an arcade game titled SimMars and it had a detailed description about the game. This may or may not have been the real premise of the game:

“Direct mankind’s first mission to the red planet! Launch rockets and deploy robot probes! Deploy teams to search for alien resources! Establish and run a network of specialized colonies to create a self-sufficient civilization! Provide your colony with food, shelter, and power! Fast, furious, adrenaline-pumping action!”

As of May 12, 2000, Maxis has stated that “SimMars is on hold and we do not have staff at Maxis currently working on the game. With the phenomenal success of The Sims, we’ve decided to move resources to support that franchise as well as other titles that we haven’t even announced yet.”

Some elements of SimMars are used in the upcoming Maxis game Spore. – [Info from Wikipedia]

[Thanks to Solidshake for the contribute!]

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Others, PC / MAC

Sims Ville [PC – Unreleased]

U64 Staff & Contributors

07-04-2008

4 Comments

SimsVille was a cancelled computer game from Maxis that was to be a cross between The Sims and SimCity. It was announced before 2000, but cancelled in September 2001. The game was to offer the user control of a multitude of houses in a neighborhood in a fashion similar to The Sims. The cancellation came as Maxis decided to apply more of its staff to development of The Sims products. Many aspects of the game, such as a communal “downtown” area, were incorporated into the third expansion pack for The Sims, Hot Date. Also, several elements of Simsville, such as obtaining feedback from citizens, were used in Maxis’s next city simulation game, SimCity 4. Also, the fully 3D neighborhood view format was also used in The Sims 2.

The trailer can be seen on the SimCity 3000 Unlimited installation CD as well as The Sims: Livin’ Large expansion pack. – [Info from Wikipedia]

[Thanks to Solidshake for these images!]

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Others, PC / MAC

Technosaur [PC – Cancelled]

U64 Staff & Contributors

07-04-2008

1 Comment

TECHNOSAUR was a cancelled computer game development project that started at Jim’s Restaurant late one night, when four game designers from Origin Systems got together to bitch about work over a cheap (and greasy) dinner. Amid ancient, hacking waitresses, soggy blueberry pancakes, and teenage vamps out way past their bedtimes, the idea of a conflict between the most elite military forces of the modern world and a culture of cybernetic, almost alien humans from Earth’s own future began to take form.

Real-time strategy from an overhead vantage, set in a simulated natural environment where rain would fall at random intervals, day would fade to night, fires would spread through fields and forests, and packs of cybernetically augmented velociraptors would shred anything standing in their way…it all sounded like fun. Exciting ideas made even better by an air of subversion.

Over the next 12 months, the project advanced and the team grew. However, things at the parent company “didn’t work out as planned” and the project was eventually cancelled.

[Contribute by Harvey Smith]

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Source: www.planetdeusex.com/witchboy/personalsite/tsaur.htm

Others, PC / MAC

Starcraft [PC – Prototype / Beta]

U64 Staff & Contributors

07-04-2008

8 Comments

The pre-alpha version of StarCraft was still very similar to Warcraft II in terms of user interface and style. After receiving much criticism on the 1996 E3 for this lack of technological improvement, Blizzard started to rework the game engine. This included changing the interface from the distinctive Warcraft II-sidebar to the now common bottom bar. Further improvements included pre-rendered sprites and backgrounds using 3D Studio Max. An isometric view was used, unlike Warcraft II’s top down perspective. – [info from wikipedia]

Thanks to MicroChirp for the contribution!

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[images from www.sclegacy.com]

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Others, PC / MAC

Prospero [Cancelled Valve MMORPG]

monokoma

07-04-2008

1 Comment

Prospero is a cancelled PC game that was in development by Valve while they were working on Half Life / Quiver. Initially the game was meant to be an action adventure, with an “science fantasy epic” storyline, lots of exploration and a complex combat system with psionic powers, but after a while the project became a MMORPG in which Valve wanted to let users to create their own worlds to have an ever-expanding universe. Prospero was canned in 1997 when Valve decided to move their effort to Half Life. Key features that were planned for Prospero were later integrated in other Valve projects, as Steam and Portal 2.

As we can read on Half Life Wikia:

In the Half-Life sound files folder (Steam version), the music files commonly known as “Dimensionless Deepness”, “Steam in the Pipes”, “Threatening (Short)”, “Traveling Through Limbo” and “Vague Voices” are named “prospero01” to “prospero05”, which could imply that the tracks were initially made for Prospero.

Thanks to an interview with Marc Laidlaw by François Aymes for Jeuxvideo.com, we can read some more details on the project:

The Prospero development was halted in 1998, was it because of Half-Life ?
It was halted because some of us went to game shows and saw things that looked like Prospero, and felt that we weren’t doing anything that was going to make us stand out in the crowd. The project was flailing, struggling for identity, and there wasn’t a sense of great confidence. It was a natural thing to move more of our attention to Half-Life. Prospero was dead in the water well before Half-Life 2 came along.
Was Prospero supposed to feature a single player adventure ? Can you give us an idea of the plot ?
It straddled the line between single player and MMO, which was not something we could have pulled off back then. There were all sorts of possible plots, but we never got far enough to have to decide which one would work for what we were building.

Thanks to Valve Time we are able to know more about this interesting project, check the video below!

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