New Cancelled Games & Their Lost Media Added to the Archive

Microsoft, Xbox 360

GoldenEye 007 Remake [Xbox 360 – Cancelled]

monokoma
07-02-2010
6 Comments

A remake of GoldenEye 007 (codenamed “Project Bean”) for Xbox Live Arcade was in development at Rare Ltd. during 2007 and 2008. Goldeneye 007 was a critically acclaimed FPS for the Nintendo 64, originally published by Nintendo in 1997 and still loved by many fans. Although Microsoft, Activision (current owners of the game rights to the James Bond franchise)and Nintendo were said to have agreed upon a licensing deal for the title initially, Nintendo Japan allegedly refused to grant their permission at last minute. Therefore the remake had to be canned only months before completion.

Much like the original Goldeneye for the N64, the developers who were involved in the making of this XBLA remake had their faces scanned and implemented into the game (as enemies / civilians / scientists / naval officers). In the game we would have been able to change the HD converted graphics to N64 graphics, an online multiplayer mode was planned, along with the traditional split screen mode. Goldeneye XBLA would had over 200 point’s worth of achievements and a time trial leader boards.

Some more info can be found at Mundo Rare:

[…] the game was developed in just one year by just 8 people; Dam, Depot and Frigate levels are selectable as multiplayer arenas (even the fabled Citadel was considered just “for the fan reaction”) and the N64 version isn’t technically a port, but a rather smart graphic filter use that makes the new game look the old-fashioned way.

It’s possible that the engine used for this Goldeneye remake was later reused for the Perfect Dark XBLA Remake. Some images in the gallery below are from XBOX Magazine. In August 2016 Rare Thief uploaded on Youtube more than 30 minutes of footage from this lost game, you can see the video below! Some more details were also shared on their website:

Throughout the video the player uses the rumored feature of switching the game’s graphics between the original Nintendo 64 textures and the remake textures on the fly. The switch between the two appears to take zero effort or time, and can be done whenever without having to pause the game.[…] After the tour of some select missions, the video presents a few of the multiplayer options. On top of the expected multiplayer levels are three news ones including Dam, Frigate and Depot. Something even more interesting than that is the option to set all character heights to be equal, meaning Jaws and Oddjob would no longer have their advantages.

Thanks to DCodes7 for the contribution!

Images:

Videos:

32X / Mega CD, Sega

Aftershock [Sega 32X – Cancelled]

monokoma
06-02-2010
No Comments

Aftershock is a cancelled shoot ’em up that was in development by Sega Midwest for the 32X. A short video (just a couple of seconds) of the game was seen in the episode #70 of the ROX TV Show, when they visited the SM studio. As we can read from a GDRI interview with Jim Reichert, former Sega Midwest designer, the project was canned because of economic problems:

JR: Aftershock got beyond the proof of concept stage, and we were developing the game when I left. I remember that Aftershock got rave reviews as a product pitch at SOA, but by that time, Sega Midwest had pissed away so much money (with little ROI [return on investment]) that nobody trusted them with SOA cash — and Sega itself was totally floundering (32X?!?). It was too bad because that game actually had some legs, and the whole studio was excited about it — and I was the lead designer. I still have all the videos and game assets associated with it — I even have a cartridge with the prototype on it. We had a professional cartooner design all the characters for the game, and the images were completely awesome.

[…]

JR: Essentially, it was Jungle Strike set in a post-apocalyptic world where you could fly, drive, and cycle around.

Images:

Unseen News

Denjin Makai [SNES – Not Cancelled?]

monokoma
05-02-2010
4 Comments

Denjin Makai is a series of beat ’em up developed by Banpresto and released for the Arcade from 1993 to 1995.  A Super Famicom / Super Nintendo version was planned too, but it seems that it was never released. It’s currently unknown if the SNES Denjin Makai was going to be a new game or a port of the first chapter already released in arcades.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution! (Scans from Super Power magazine issues #20 and #22)

Update: Celine later found out that this game was indeed released in japan under a different name:  Ghost Chaser Densei.

Images:

Leaked, Unseen News

Tommy Tallarico’s Play Me Sound Editor for the NES leaked!

monokoma
04-02-2010
No Comments

In January 2010 Kirakid from the Nintendo Age Forum was able to find a previusly unknow NES Sound Editor at a Swap Meet in Orange County California. It was later discovered that this cart is  a prototype music development tool created by Tommy Tallarico (the artist who wrote the music for more than 250 games, including the Earthworm Jim series, Messiah, MDK, Wild 9, Unreal, Cool Spot and Maximo) to write an NES Sound engine that he put on Color A Dinosaur.

After Kirakid sold this prototype to the NA community, Mr.Mark and BeaglePuss dumped and released it for everyone to enjoy. You can download Tommy Tallarico’s Play Me Sound Editor from the Nintendo Age Forum!

Also, Tommy commented this find on the Nintendo Age Forum (thanks to Frank Cifaldi):

“Holy shit! Yeah… those are my carts. And the “Tommy T.” label is my handwriting. The “Golf Power” was an old cartridge casing that I erased over… I was a game tester for Golf Power so when the game was completed I used the cart to put an NES sound engine on it for when I was working on Color A Dinosaur!

It’s actually a pretty historical cartridge because Color A Dinosaur is always heralded as the worst game I ever worked on… which drives the price of the actual NES cart up because so many people try to find it. I’ve signed a ton of those things. The complete NES Color A Dinosaur story can be found here.

There are a handful of videos on YouTube of the game

Also… that was right during the time when I went from a game tester to a composer (which is why I used my Greg Norman cart).

Pretty crazy!!

Make sure to pass on this info and the story with the cart. It’s a pretty interesting piece.”

Huge props to Kirakid, BeaglePuss and Mr.Mark for sharing this interesting piece of NES history with the community!

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

Dealer: Chronic, Pills & Coke [XBOX/PS2/PC – Cancelled]

monokoma
04-02-2010
No Comments

Dealer:  Chronic, Pills & Coke is a cancelled action game / third person shooter that was in development by Nagual Games in 2004, for Playstation 2, Xbox and PC. As we can read in the original press release, the game was set in a huge metropolis, with a lot of driving and shooting,  a gameplay similar to GTA, in which the player was able to take part in the bloody and amusing adventures of a drug dealer.

The main object of Dealer was to build up a prosperous, illegal distribution network with one of the four characters available: the player had to expand the business by buying a drug lab, a cellar to grow mushrooms or even a marijuana plantation. The extra money were used to buy extraordinary cars, weapons , whore houses and luxurious properties.

Some of the unseen features:

  • Drugs, weapons, and sex – unpredictable and explicit story + free game course;
  • Prevention – the game demonstrates the effects, traps and dangers of various drugs;
  • Adult content – Night clubs, junkie prostitutes and sexy women;
  • Completely lifelike, enormous and elaborate city (Ghetto, Harbor, Downtown, Beach, Suburbs, Hills, Luxury seashore etc.)
  • Different drugs – different effects (Depending on the type of drug and consumption and use: morphed tracks, +/- health, speeding up/slowing down time, +/- susceptibility to injuries, freshness/tiredness, bent walking, falling asleep, addiction etc. – even lethal overdose).
  • 60 different NPCs;
  • 40 different controllable vehicles, controlled by AI;
  • 20 complex missions from the storyline +10 hidden or optional missions;
  • Multi-play
  • 40+ hours game play

The game was developed on the BioGraphic Inc. Gamebryo engine, a 3d-game engine used for other titles as “Morrowind”, “Dark Age of Camelot” “Axis & Allies”, but sadly there are no in-game screenshots from Dealer:  Chronic, Pills & Coke preserved yet, only few artworks in the gallery below.

The game was cancelled for unknown reasons, but we could speculate that Nagual never found a publisher interested in the project.

Thanks to Userdante for the contribution!

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