Playstation

Mega Drive / Genesis, Nintendo, Playstation, Saturn, Sega, SNES + Super Famicom, Sony

Converse Hardcore Hoops [Cancelled]

monokoma
19-06-2010
4 Comments

Converse Hardcore Hoops  (also know as Converse City Ball Tour) is a cancelled basketball game that was in development by Virgin Interactive Entertainment for the Genesis / Mega Drive, Super Nintendo, Playstation and Saturn. It was based on street basketball and there were 10 cities in which to play in 3vs3 half court matches. Converse Hardcore Hoops was shown at E3 1995 but after a while it vanished from release lists and it was never released on any console.

It’s unknown if the project was somehow connected to the Converse brand of shoes or  why the game was cancelled. Celine was able to find some screens from magazines GamePro #72 and CD Consoles #8.

Images: 

Playstation, Saturn, Sega, Sony

Mega Man 8 [PSX SAT – Beta / Unused Stuff]

monokoma
10-06-2010
No Comments

Mega Man 8, known as Rockman 8: Metal Heroes in Japan, is the eighth installment in original Capcom’s Mega Man series, and was originally released in Japan on the Sony PlayStation on December 1996. The following year, Mega Man 8 saw a release on the Sega Saturn and was localized for both consoles in North America and the PlayStation in PAL regions. Director Hayato Kaji revealed that he initially designed Duo as robot created by the Mega Man 4 character Dr. Cossack. When it was decided that Duo would instead come from outerspace, his appearance changed but still retained remnants of Russian traits, such as his headware. [Info from Wikipedia]

Thanks to Proto1, we found out that MegaphilX uploaded an interesting video from a Mega Man 8 beta in his Youtube Channel.

Everything is practically unused in the footage. The background, the effects, no bolt item, Mega Man’s got a strange running animation and towards the end of the video, you can see early footage of the stage select screen. The bosses have not been made yet, so their Metools act as their temporary icons. Also, a sprite of Duo appears here as well, something that isn’t in the final at all.

– Completely unused BGM
– The background for the stage is unused and unfinished.
– Mega Man has an odd running animation. He’s very stiff in comparison to his final running animation
– His color when using the MegaBall is Green and Yellow instead of Pink and purple.
– Enemies appear at places they don’t usually in the final.
– Big yellow blocks have a blue streak through them. In final, they’re solid yellow.
– at one point in these videos, there’s an elevator lift moving downwards. In the final, elevators never go down, only up.
– No enemies in elevator portions.
– No hit detection with Whale Airship enemies.
– Bolt items weren’t implemented yet
– Beginning at 5:04 in this video, you can catch a quick glimpse at a work-in-progress stage select. Mettools represent stages under construction, and the Duo character is shown as the boss for the Island stage. Duo isn’t a boss in the Island stage, so perhaps he was in this particular build.
– Also at the stage select, Tengu Man’s mugshot appears on the top right column where Frost Man should be. In the final, he’s on the top left.

Thanks to Proto1 for the contribution!

Videos:

For comparision, here’s the final frost man stage:

Here’s an update showing the beta in more detail by DeGamer (aka Henger83)

Two more additional stages in this version seen above are covered here by JosephCollins

An even later beta build with many more differences can be seen in action here:
 

Playstation, Sony

Test Drive Cycles [PSX – Cancelled]

monokoma
08-06-2010
5 Comments

Test Drive Cycles is a cancelled motorcycle racing game that was in development in 1998 / 1999 by Accolade’s San Jose studios, the same studio responsible for Test Drive Off-Road 2 and 3.  Infogrames wanted to expand their Test Drive series (Test Drive, Test Drive Off-Road, Test Drive Rally and Test Drive Le Mans) to focus solely on motorcycles with licensed manufacturers such as Harley Davidson, BMW, Moto Guzzi, and Bimota, but in the end the project was never released.

As we can read on IGN:

Up to two players can go head-to-head on 12 tracks from locations all over the world, including the streets of Washington DC, the beaches of Bali, the canyons of Utah, the Alps, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, the French Riviera and even the historic site of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.

Players choose from three game modes: Quick Race, Championship and Head-to-Head (two players). In addition to five opponents racing to win the cup, players must also deal with traffic, oil slicks and unpredictable weather conditions. Smashing through certain obstacles will open up new track paths and shortcuts, while trophies, new bikes and upgrades are won along the way. Infogrames even went the extra mile to get the licenses for real manufacturer upgrades, giving each bike its own upgrade pack.

As we can read on the Playstation Museum:

According to some sources within the studio, a major setback occurred when the lead programmer left the team. Coupled with Infogrames’ desire to close the studio, TDC was forever cancelled.

A Dreamcast version of Test Drive Cycles was cancelled too, while GameBoy Color and PC versions  were released in 2000.

Thanks to Father PSX for the contribution!

Images:

Videos:
 

Playstation, Sony

Chrono Cross [PSX – Beta]

monokoma
04-06-2010
No Comments

Chrono Cross is a RPG developed and published in 1999 by Squaresoft for the original PlayStation. As we can read on Wikipedia, Square began planning Chrono Cross immediately after the release of Xenogears in 1998. Chrono Trigger’s scenario director Masato Kato had brainstormed ideas for a sequel as early as 1996, following the release of Radical Dreamers.

Developers brainstormed traits and archetypes during the character-creation process, originally planning 64 characters with unique endings that could vary in three different ways per character. As production continued, the length of Cross increased, leading the event team to reduce the number of characters to 45 and scrap most of the alternate endings.

More info about the Chrono Cross beta can be found in the Chrono Compendium:

Before the official release of Chrono Cross, Square Enix marketed a PlayStation release of Chrono Trigger and attached a demo of the game to it and Legend of Mana.[…] This demo has allowed a short look into the late stages of the development of Chrono Cross, offering a few prizes such as a scrapped facial portrait of Kid and missing playable characters.

Serge’s Swallow is tinted green and looks like the Mastermune.

Once the Fort Dragonia sequence is concluded, Serge wakes up in Arni and is instructed to find Leena as usual. Una has no portrait, hampering the suggestion that she was once planned to be a playable character.

The most glaring difference is the presence of a seemingly new character in Pierre’s slot. Since Pierre’s dialogue icon was already in its final state, it’s probable that this was an earlier design for Pierre.

There’s a different Viper Manor Study window.

There’s a different Lucca drawing.

Yasuyuki Honne is the artist of the Chrono series, and made some background art that was never used in the final game.

There’s also an incomplete debug room in the beta demo and some unused characters can be seen in the Chrono Cross artbook.

Also, GlitterBerri translated the Chrono Cross Ultimania interview in which we can read about some ideas that were never used in the final game. You can read the full interview at BerriBlue or in the Chrono Compendium.

Thanks to ace.dark and Megalol for the contributions!

Images:
 

Playstation, Saturn, Sega, Sony

Opposite Lock (Wreckin Crew) [PSX Saturn – Beta]

monokoma
01-06-2010
4 Comments

Update: thanks to GalacticeMage, we found out that Opposite Lock was an early beta version of Wreckin Crew! The graphic style remained the same, but the screenshot in the gallery below is probably from a target render (also the HUD is different). Check the video from the final game for a comparison.

Opposite Lock is a cancelled racing game that was in development by QUICKDRAW DEVELOPMENT / Telstar for the Playstation, Saturn and PC. Celine found a screenshot of this project in PlayMag magazine issue #4: it seems that Opposite Lock was going to be an arcade with colorful graphic and stylized vehicles based on real-life cars (as Chevrolet and Ford). It’s currently unkown why the game was canned.

Here’s the original press release:

Based around a blisteringly fast game engine, Opposite Lock is an arcade style, 3D hot rod racing game that also includes combat and stunt driving aspects. With most driving games nowadays concentrating on showing off the polygon engine rather than presenting a fast and furious racing game, Opposite Lock sets out to redress this balance by putting the FUN back into the genre. Modern racing games tend towards the simulation end of the driving spectrum and ignore the qualities that made Hard Driving, Power Drift and Mario Kart so popular. Opposite Lock offers you the chance to drive a whole host of stylised and customised vehicles from 1957 Chevrolets to Ford pickups, each with their own individual attack moves. There are stunt tracks, cup competitions and head to head modes,  not to mention a demolition derby competition and a complete action replay and video editing suite to play back and save your favourite moments.

– Multi-player option that allows up to 32 players on a network.
In-game pickups and upgrades, including weapons, nitros and repair kits.

– Over 100 different road side objects which interact with the players car. Hit a tyre stack and the tyres bounce all over the track!

– Full screen VGA and SVGA modes ensure that you are in the thick of the action at all times.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

Images:

Video (from the final version):