New Cancelled Games & Their Lost Media Added to the Archive

Microsoft, Others, PC / MAC, Xbox

Gumshoe [PC / XBOX – Cancelled]

monokoma
24-06-2010
No Comments

Gumshoe is an adventure game that was in development by Hiding Buffalo in 2002 / 2003 for the PC and the original XBOX. As we can read in the original press release:

The concept for the game along with a working prototype were created as Hiding Buffalo’s entry in the 2002 Dare to be Digital competition, which challenges groups of students to create a new and original piece of digital content. Entries are judged by a panel of industry experts on their originality and commercial potential. Gumshoe was chosen by a majority of the judges thanks to it’s unusual concept, naturalistic dialogue system and innovative gameplay and episodic approach.

In the end, they never found a publisher interested in the project and so Gumshoe was cancelled. It’s interesting to notice that Hiding Buffalo did released a flash version of the game in 2006, even if it looked much different from the PC and Xbox version.

Images:

Nintendo, Nintendo 64 & 64DD

SimCopter 64 [N64DD – Cancelled]

monokoma
23-06-2010
3 Comments

SimCopter 64 is a cancelled Nintendo 64DD remake of the original SimCopter developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts for PC in 1996. It’s unclear if this version for the 64DD was going to have some substantial differences from the PC one, as happened with SimCity 64. As we can read on IGN, SimCopter 64 was officially canned in 1999:

Sim Copter 64 was even previewed at a very early stage at the Tokyo Game Show. Onlookers were not impressed with its foggy, first-generation graphics and the game’s US release was soon cancelled in favor of a Japan-only release for the disk drive system.

Since then, Nintendo has again delayed the debut of the 64DD to later this year and Maxis, apparently losing faith in the viability of the title on the DD, has abandoned the project completely.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution! (Scans from Console Plus #79, Mega Console #44, Consolemania #77)

Images:

Video (Nintendo 64):

For comparison, a video from the PC version:

Microsoft, Others, PC / MAC, Playstation 2 (PS2), Sony, Xbox

Silent Space [XBOX/PS2/PC – Cancelled]

monokoma
22-06-2010
9 Comments

Silent Space (a.k.a. Space Force / Space Wars) is a cancelled Sci-fi RTS that was in development in 2001 by Crytek, originally created as a prototype for PC, but later planned for Xbox and Playstation 2 too.  This project was in the works along with Engalus (a cancelled FPS) and X-Isle (which evolved in Far Cry) in the early days of Crytek.  When the game was announced, Faruk Yerli (president of the studio) told to GameSpot that:

Currently we are in negotiation with some publishers. We know that the game would be fantastic, but you surely know that without funding no game could be finished. We believe that Silent Space could break the limits of other space games, and we will soon announce the future of all of our projects.

It seems that they never found a publisher interested in Silent Space, and the project was soon canned.

Images:

Saturn, Sega

Airs Adventure [SAT – Tech Demo]

monokoma
21-06-2010
1 Comment

Airs Adventure is a RPG developed by Game Studio in 1995 / 1996 for the Saturn. The game use a mix of pre-rendered characters and polygon backgrounds: even if the game is not that good, it has an interesting look at least. Celine was able to find an old news about this game (from Cd Consoles magazine #8), when it was still called “Sega Adventure”, in which they show a pre-rendered dragon that  probably looks much better than anything in the final game.

We can assume that this shot was took from a tech demo or a target render. You can compare the scan with the video below, from the final version of the game.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

Images:

Videos: