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New Cancelled Games & Their Lost Media Added to the Archive

Starsky & Hutch 2 is a cancelled mission-based driving game based on the TV series with the same name, that was in development by Mind’s Eye for the original Xbox and Playstation 2. The project was announced in 2003 when Empire Interactive signed an exclusive licensing agreement with Sony Pictures to publish a sequel to their first Starsky & Hutch game.

As wrote by IGN, Starsky & Hutch 2 was shown behind closed doors at Empire Interactive’s booth during E3 2004, featuring the same drive and shoot gameplay as the original, and an on-rails Virtua Cop-esque mode up to 2 players. In 2005 Mind’s Eye Productions was acquired by Disney Interactive and their Starsky & Hutch 2 project was canned. The few images preserved in the gallery below are probably from a target render and not in-game.

Thanks to Cyrax151 for the contribution!

Images:

Game Boy (+ Color), Nintendo

Moon (Renegade Kid) [GBC – Cancelled]

monokoma

30-01-2010

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Moon is a FPS developed by Renegade Kid and released in 2009 for the Nintendo DS, but originally the project was born as a 2D side-scrolling action adventure for the GameBoy Color. Moon GBC was revealed by Jools Watsham, game director at Renegade Kid, in a video from his Youtube Channel.

The GameBoy Color version of Moon was never released, but the scenario and the characters were later reused to create the DS version. Moon looked like an interesting adventure, similar to Metroid II, and it’s sad that it did not had its chance on the GameBoy Color.

Props to Jools Watsham for sharing these screens from the prototype!

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

Images:

Videos (he talks about Moon GBC @ 3:30):

For comparison, here’s the DS version:

Nintendo, Nintendo 64 & 64DD

Wildwaters (Extreme Kayak) [N64 – Cancelled]

monokoma

29-01-2010

10 Comments

Wildwaters (also know as “Extreme Kayak” and “X-Stream”) is a cancelled racing game that was in development by Looking Glass Studios for the Nintendo 64 in 1998 / 1999. The project was announced at E3 1999 by Ubisoft (that was interested as a publisher) while the studio was working on Destruction Derby 64 (published in the same year), but sadly it was never finished.

Wildwaters 64 was very promising as Looking Glass were able to create an engine with real physics running for the waterflow through the river on an N64, but it needed more time and love which eventually ran out. Five different gameplay modes, including Arcade, Time Trial, Championship, Finals and Versus Battle were planned for the game.

Some months later, on May 2000, Looking Glass Studios went out of business during a financial crisis related to their publisher at the time, Eidos Interactive. Wildwaters / Extreme Kayak vanished forever, along with their other promising N64 racing game, Mini Racers.

There was another cancelled water racing game titled “Wild Water World Championships” that was planned for the Nintendo 64, but it should not be confused with this one as WWWC was developed by Promethean Designs.

Thanks a lot to Les Betterley for the help in preserving some images from this lost project!

Images (in-game):

Images (models):

Videos:

Unseen News

[New Unseen Interview] Raven Software’s Manveer Heir

U64 Staff & Contributors

28-01-2010

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The issue we face most in our archiving is the lack of information that is given to the public about what happens to their favorite series, so many stories left untold so to speak. The most we ever get are early demonstrations, as security today on what gets left behind is much stricter than that of the 80’s. We had the chance to chat with Manveer Heir from Raven Software and asked him some questions about games’ development! >> Read the full interview

Unseen Features, Unseen Interviews

Unseen Interview: Raven Software’s Manveer Heir

[Interview by Rowedahelicon]

U64: How much of a game actually is left out? Comparing to movies where things are written into the script but are later left out due to budget? Time constraints?

Manveer Heir: It’s hard to say honestly. Every game is different and every dev comes to realization about scope and schedules at different times. Ideas, concepts, and levels are almost always cut, but that’s not necessarily bad. Often, to put them in would have hurt the overall product, since they may not be at the quality levels from before. I’ve heard of cases where you see a car chase in a cinematic, but originally you would have played that car chase. In cases like this, you aren’t missing any story, you are just losing out on some gameplay.

As devs, we try to cut smart and in ways that don’t affect the entire product. Other times, you make cuts early and save that work for later (DLC or expansion, when you know you have time to do it right). I worked on a RTS game for a short period of time where we knew we weren’t going to be able to make all the sides you can play cool and balanced and so one side was cut, to be saved for the expansion pack. In that case an entire storyline was lost, but it didn’t impact the rest of the game too greatly.

U64: In terms of what is left behind, what actually happens to things you cannot use? Resources, scripts etc, there are cases where things are left in the game files but never used but what about the majority of it? Does it get saved somewhere for reference? Deleted? So on?