New Cancelled Games & Their Lost Media Added to the Archive

Game Boy Advance (GBA), Nintendo

Pokemon Emerald [GBA – Beta / Unused]

monokoma
08-09-2010
3 Comments

Pokémon Emerald is an updated version of Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, that was released in Japan in September 2004 and in America and Europe in 2005. Even if the game is just an “add-on” to Ruby and Sapphire, it’s possible to find some beta and unused content still hidden in its code. As noted by Bulbapedia:

  • There’s an unused map header into the ROM called “SPECIAL AREA”.It was probably used for the battle frontier back then.
  • All the music tracks found in FireRed and LeafGreen are present in Emerald too, but only few of them are used for special events.

Also, from an early Pokèmon Emerald screenshot by IGN you can clearly see that ROUTE 109 had glitched up tiles!)

In the ROM LucaPM found an unused Prof.B irch sprite, that was probably used for the beta intro sequence. HEX Offset : 557AF0 (varies between ROMS)

Unused sprite:

Final sprite:

Things to notice between the unused and the final sprite:

  • Different stance (of course)
  • Less outlined sprite
  • Shorter shirt
  • Different,bigger belt
  • Different designed and coloured pants
  • Different right leg
  • Slightly different haircut

As noted by Zero7, it’s possible that he was suppose to have his hands in his pockets, go into the now final sprite for throwing out the pokemon, then either stay in the final sprite or back to the unused sprite for the rest of the intro.

Leaked, M2 / 3DO, Others

IMSA Racing [M2 – Cancelled]

monokoma
07-09-2010
3 Comments

IMSA World Championship is a cancelled racing game that was in development by Studio 3DO for the unreleased 3DO / Panasonic / Matsushita M2 console. When 3DO sold their M2 hardware to Panasonic, IMSA was slowly postponed and then canned. The game had a great graphic engine for its time and it was one of the best “tech demos” to show the power of the M2. This project could have been lost forever, but on July 26th 2010 NikeX has released a playable beta version of IMSA Racing in the 3DO Zero Forums.

In the 3DOZ Forum we can also read more info about the game from one of its developers:

A while later, I started working on IMSA World Championship racing, which was 3DO’s main internally developed M2 game. The director of the game was Ed Rotberg, an industry veteran who was responsible for such classic arcade games as Battlezone and Star Wars Arcade. The lead programmer was Chuck Sommerville, who wrote the original Snakebyte (you know, that game where you drive a snake around and try not to crash into your own tail) as well as the cult favorite Chip’s Challenge. […]

The physics and driving engine for IMSA were licensed from the company that made the arcade game Hard Drivin’. The graphics engine was something called “Mercury” that an external developer had written and then sold back to 3DO, at which point it became our official graphics engine which we encouraged other developers to use. […]

Also, NikeX wrote a review of the IMSA beta, that you can read in here.

It’s 1996, IMSA game is shown to the people. No pixels, but texture correction. Something you don’t see on Playstation 1 or Sega Saturn. And, in this quality, not on N64. In fact, you’ve never seen so solid, vivid-plastic car models, when the camera comes close: The tires are round and they turn in the correct direction. Constant 30 frames per second, even with 10 cars on the track. My jaw tumbled when I saw the realtime presentation of the cars, tires, gears or rear spoilers. Great illuminating effects, readable words on car and parts. Even in the race itself. In 1996, 97 you would have thought: Am I watching a FMV?

Huge props to NikeX for sharing this lost game with the community! Thanks to Celine for the magazine scans!

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Unseen News

Earthbound 64 / Mother 3 video documentary (Part I)

U64 Staff & Contributors
06-09-2010
No Comments

As we all know, Earthbound 64 / Mother 3 for the Nintendo 64 DD is one of the most interesting games that were never released. It was an huge and ambitious project, that somehow was resurrected and ported (with many cuts) to the Gameboy Advance, with a long and troubled development cycle. OKeijiDragon has worked on a video documentary that tells the sad story behind Earthbound 64.

Part 1 of this documentart briefly details the conceptual stages of EarthBound 64 and it’s N64 unveiling at the Nintendo SpaceWorld 1996, with the early characters, objects and ideas. It also goes over the significance of music composer Shogo Sakai, who, according to Itoi, was an extremely valuable asset to the project. Last but not least is the last major unveiling of the game at Space World ’99.

Saturn, Sega

Aqua (Scavenger) [Saturn, PC – Cancelled]

monokoma
06-09-2010
3 Comments

Aqua is a cancelled action adventure that was in development by Scavenger for the Sega Saturn and PC. Players would have been able to explore a sunken Mayan city under the sea, looking at fishes and other aquatic fauna. The gameplay could have probably been similar to Everblue (PS2) / Endless Ocean (Wii) by Arika or the Aquanaut’s Holiday series by Artdink, but sadly Scavenger’s Aqua was never finished. In 1997 the company had to close down for bankruptcy.

Thanks to Rod_Wod for the scan!

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