At E3 1996, Nichimen Graphics shown a tech demo with a beat ’em up for the Nintendo 64, Saturn and Playstation. As we can read in an old press release, their N-World 3 engine included N-Geometry (polygonal modeler), N-Dynamics (scripting), Skeletal Animation System (motion capture editing tools and animation tools, plus skeletal posing using both IK and traditional methods), N-Render (photorealistic ray tracing renderer), N-Paint & N-Paint 3D (2D and 3D paint systems) and Game Express (for artists to preview data directly on a 3D game platform). Currently we dont know if this engine was ever used for a realeased beat ’em up / fighting game.
In one of the photos published in Edge magazine from June 1996 you can notice that over the TV with the N64 tech demo, there was also a Ultra 64 prototype pad.
Update: as wrote by a former Argonaut Games developer “Hi All… just to let you know this article is false. Croc 3 was never in development at Argonaut (beyond a 2 page proposal I put together) and there was no Spyro demo.“
Original post:
In 2001 during development of Croc 3: Stone Of The Gobbos, Argonaut Games developed a tech demo for an unnamed Spyro The Dragon game. The game was not intended to be released, however it was playable and had a homeworld. The game prototype was done to expand on the engine both Croc 3 and Malice used. It was a tech demo developed for Playstation 2. Nothing else is known.
Thanks to a former Argonaut Games employee for the information.
Croc Legend Of The Gobboswas a platformer game released in 1997 by Defunct game developer, Argonaut Games. Using the BRender engine, which was a state of the art engine capable of powering games released between generations (PS1 and PS2 gens), it took full advantage of the consoles it released on and pushed the game engine to its limits.
Recently, a beta and tech demo was uncovered by a few fans of the game on a now defunct forum, “Croc Fan Forums” , and released to a very few people. A newely formed YouTube channel called “Video Game Beta Book“, posted videos from both builds that leaked a few weeks ago.
These videos show many things that were changed or cut. In the tech demo, croc appears to be voiced by an entirely different voice actor opposed to His voice actor in Croc and Croc 2. Next, many level designs are different, and some levels are even entirely unseen in the final game. The main island also looks severely different.
The tech demo that leaked was dated November 1996, and appears to be a very early alpha of the game engine, that was likely released to internal testers to test physics. In the Prototype dated March 1997, it features slightly different animations, has cut levels, and even has something not at all in the final game: Results Screen. The results screen is similar to the ending of levels on the Spyro The Dragon Trilogy games released by Insomniac Games from 1998-2000, where it shows your gems you picked up and score.
Additionally, in the tech demo Croc is more lighter than He appears in the March 1997 Proto and the final game.
Videos of the tech demo and prototype can be seen below:
This tech demo created by Sony was shown in one of the early announcements of the “new” playstation hardware, to demonstrate the 3D graphic capacities of their 32 bit console. While today the graphic of this “fighting demo” looks simple, it was probably a great achievement in 1994. Celine was able to find the screenshots below in Edge #11 and PlayerOne magazine # 44.
Project Delta is a cancelled FPS that was in development in 2005 by PlayLogic for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. The game was announced when the “next gen consoles” were still not released, but it soon vanished without any official statement. It’s possible that Delta was originally in development for the PS2 and XBOX, with the code name “Project Snap”, another cancelled FPS that Playlogic was working on in 2004.
Project Delta’s gameplay was going to be more tactical than the usual first-person shooter: while shooting with our main character, we would had to command a team of soldiers and comfort or threaten them during the battles. The game was set in different time periods, as the story dealt with time travels from the future back to the dark ages.
Project Delta was cancelled for unknown reasons, but we can speculate that the team had some development or quality problems. Only few concept arts and models remain from the project, preserved in the gallery below.
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