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New Cancelled Games & Their Lost Media Added to the Archive

Dragonflight: Chronicles of Pern is an action adventure based on the Dragonriders of Pern book series by Anne McCaffrey, that was in development in 1998 / 1999 by Grolier Interactive for PC and Playstation. Initially the game was going to have a style similar to Diablo, but after a couple of years of development, Dragonflight became an action game with a 3rd person view camera. In june 2000, Grolier Interactive stopped releasing videogames when they were bought by Scholastic.

Grolier Interactive’s game could have been doomed, but it seems that Ubisoft bought their assets, cancelled the Playstation version and moved the Dragonflight to Dreamcast and PC. In 2001, they finally released this project as Dragon Riders: Chronicles of Pern.

An old interview with Grolier Interactive can still be read at RPG Vault:

Can you provide some details on development progress that has been made over this time?
Oliver Sykes: What people may remember from the previous incarnation of the game is a very isometric viewpoint, a bit like Diablo. One of the major changes in the game is the camera system. We can now script the camera to act very cinematically. It can track with the player, spin round him, drop from above to below. Any number of camera shots can linked to describe a location and the characters in it as well as adding a great deal of fluidity.
Could you explain the level of depth and interaction we can expect from NPCs? What kind of a conversation system is there?
Oliver Sykes: The conversation system is fairly linear in most places. This choice was employed as we have such a vast number of characters to converse with, the conversation choices would have gave our scripters headaches. However, at key moments during the game you can make choices and these choices will effect the outcome of events. One choice could give you bonuses and unlock new locations and characters, whereas another may lead you down an entirely different path with different consequences.

Thanks to Celine for the scans!

Images:

Videos:

Videos from the final version:

Nintendo, SNES + Super Famicom

Cluster Buster [SNES- Cancelled]

Celine

01-11-2011

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Written by Jonathan Smith (known programmer for his Spectrum works) when he was first hired at Rage Software, the game was a shoot ’em up scheduled for Super Nintendo around 1993. Sadly Cluster Buster never found a publisher. Here is what Joffa Smith recalled about the project in an interview with World of Spectrum:

With new offices in Bootle, I started work on an original game called Cluster Buster on the SNES. This was an eight-way scrolling defender style shoot’em up, with huge exploding planets and moons. Unfortunately no-one was interested in publishing it (Sonic the Hedgehog was all the rage) so it was abandoned.

Scan from Nintendo Magazine System issue 10.

Images:

Mega Drive / Genesis, Nintendo, Sega, SNES + Super Famicom

Boo! [SNES/MD – Cancelled]

monokoma

28-10-2011

3 Comments

Boo! is a cancelled platform game that was in development by Micropose for the Super Nintendo, Genesis / Mega Drive and Amiga in 1994. As we can read on the website of Boo!’s producer Stuart Whyte:

Designed by Richard Lemarchand, Boo! was a side on platformer inspired by Sonic and Mario, we wanted to create a universe with the central character being a cool ghost called Boo who’s default method of attack was to shout “Boo!” at an enemy to scare him away. Working with Keith Scoble (from Cosgrove Hall and creator of Jamie and the Magic Torch and Dangermouse) we built a great game… but unfortunately, due to rocky financial times at Microprose, we never had the money to release – so the game has been lost in time

You can find more info and screens in this article by SNES Central!

Images:

Playstation, Sony

Tomorrow Never Dies [Beta – Playstation]

U64 Staff & Contributors

26-10-2011

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Tomorrow Never Dies was developed by Black Ops and then published in 1999 by Electronic Arts. On release, it was immediately compared to Goldeneye on the N64. One of the main criticisms was the lack of multiplayer, with only 10 single player missions making up the game. Yet, in the game’s content, there is an image of the beta multiplayer loading screen, so there were plans for it at some point, but abandoned before release.

One of the loading screens also shows a level set on the HMS Devonshire, which was in the movie but cut from the game.

There is speculation that other unused beta content may have survived from an earlier, cancelled game called Tomorrow Never Dies: The Mission Continues:

The original VHS release of Tomorrow Never Dies featured a brief trailer with Desmond Llewelyn which highlighted a game that would “start where the film ends.” Footage shows bond skiing, scuba diving and driving in third person and on a first person shooting mission. The game was to come out on Playstation and PC in the fall of 1998 and was being made by MGM Interactive, not EA; EA was not involved in Bond until November of that year.
A Tomorrow Never Dies game was finally released on November 16th 1999, distributed by EA, but with notably differences from the 1998 attempt. The game was a third person shooter with the scuba diving level nowhere to be found. But perhaps the most glaring difference was the fact that the story now followed the plot of the film, not the continuation that had been promised.
A level in the game sees Bond skiing down a mountain and killing a Japanese terrorist named Sotoshi Isagura (who had featured very briefly in the film), while on another stage Bond has a driving mission in Switzerland. These were not from the film and may have survived from the ‘continuation’ story.

Article by Edward Kirk, source: Wikipedia

Playstation 2 (PS2), PSP, Sony

Shaolin Streets [PS2 / PSP – Cancelled]

monokoma

24-10-2011

1 Comment

Shaolin Streets is a cancelled beat ’em up that was in development in 2005 by Jailed Games for the Playstation 2 and PSP, before it was canned and reworked for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. A playable beta version of Shaolin Streets was somehow leaked online, so you can have a look at the videos below, to have a better idea about how the game would have been played. Sadly, even the Xbox 360 / PS3 versions of Shaolin Streets were cancelled and it seems that Jailed Games had to close down for economic issues.

Videos by MaximumRD: