New Cancelled Games & Their Lost Media Added to the Archive

VX Vampire XDV-7 [N64 – Tech Demo]

VX Vampire (aka Vampire XDV-7 or Ultra Copter 64) is a flight simulator that was planned to be ported to the Nintendo 64 by Paradigm Simulation / Entertainment. Previously Paradigm worked on realistic flight simulation for space, military and aviation clients, but  in 1994 it was contacted by Nintendo to aid in the creation of one of the Nintendo 64’s launch titles, Pilotwings 64. It seems that VX Vampire was originally one of Paradigm’s military simulators, that they though to convert to a more “arcadish” game to enter in the mass-entertainment market.

In 1995 Nintendo / Paradigm send some screens of Vampire XDV-7 to magazines (that you can see preserved in the gallery below), claiming that the Ultra 64 would have been able to achieve similar level of graphic details. In reality, VX Vampire was running on the Silicon Graphics Onyx Reality Engine, the same engine used for the Magic Edge Hornet Simulator Hardware, a technology much more advanced (and expensive) than a normal Nintendo 64.

When Paradigm had to finish Pilotwings 64 in time for the release of the N64 in june 1996, they probably had to shift resources to Nintendo’s project and the VX Vampire XDV-7 port went on-hold. In the end Pilotwings 64 was a critical and commercial success for the developer, causing the simulation and entertainment divisions of Paradigm to separate and focus on their respective products. The newly independent Paradigm Entertainment continued to develop for Nintendo’s 64-bit console. [Info from Wikipedia]

Some years later, Paradigm Entertainment announced Harrier 2000 / 2001 for the Nintendo 64, a new flight game that sadly was never released. It’s possible that their plan to port VX Vampire XDV-7 changed when they understood that it would have been too difficult to convert an Onyx simulator to an N64, so the project evolved into a new, different title: Harrier 2000.

Thanks to jorcyd and Celine for the contribution! Scans from Cd Consoles #4, Console Plus #49 and Edge #29

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Videos (@ 04:10)

Painkiller: Resurrection [PC – Beta / Concept]

As we can read on Wikipedia, Painkiller: Resurrection is FPS developed by Homegrown Games and published by JoWooD. It is a stand-alone expansion to the 2004 Painkiller developed by People Can Fly, and runs on an updated version of the Painkiller engine. Resurrection was released for the PC on October 2009, with a planned Xbox 360 port that was never released.

As noted by Vicente, the main character had a different design in the beta version:

Beta:


Final:


Deep Rift [PS3 – Prototype]

Deep Rift was a prototype for an action adventure based in a flooded city, that was in development by Union Entertainment. Due to a lack of publishers’ interest, it seems that Union’s PlayStation 3 title did not go into full production. It’s currently unknown if this could have been related to their new Zero G project, a game that should be adapted as a film soon.

20th Century Fox has picked up the rights to Union Entertainment’s sci-fi thriller video game concept “Zero-G” says The Hollywood Reporter. The game, which is still in production and created by Daniel Jevons, revolves around a major U.S. city being attacked by a devastating, never-before-seen weapon.

Another game concept, titled Backlight,  should also be in development at Union (as reported by Variety) but it looks much different from Deep Rift.

Thanks to Mox for the contribution!

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Timmy Time [Sega 32X – Cancelled]

Timmy Time is a cancelled platform game / shooter that was in development by Domark for the 32X add-on for the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis (with a rumored Saturn conversion planned too). The main character was able to travel through time, so we can assume that the game had different levels based on various time-periods (as the old west and the space in the future). The game was canned for unknown reasons.

Some images of the project were found by Celine (scan from Supersonic magazine issue #25) and Ryo Suzuki (scan from Mean Machines Sega magazine issue #25).

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The Fast and the Furriest [XBOX 360 – Cancelled]

The Fast & the Furriest is a cancelled party game that was in development in 2006 by Rare for the Xbox 360 Xbox Live Arcade digital service. Other than the normal joypad, the game could have been played with the Xbox Live Vision camera, to track players’ movements in a similar way to the PS2 EYE Toy or Microsoft’s own Kinect. The Fast & the Furriest would have included many different mini-games, as 100 meter dash, bungee run, hurdles and tip-tup curling. As we can read on Joystick:

Each player will be able choose a character like Conker or Banjo which will actually be a “suit” (think mascot suits). Players will then be able to scan their face using the Vision camera to skin the face opening of the character suit.

A playable prototype was created by a team headed by Dale Murchie and composed of developers of Perfect Dark Zero. Still, the project was canned, maybe for quality reasons. Only a short video from The Fast & the Furriest proto was shown at the Develop 2010 Keynote, a revelation that is not usual for a studio as secretive as Rare.. huge props to them!

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

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Videos (@1:15):