New Cancelled Games & Their Lost Media Added to the Archive

Zelda: Oracle of Seasons [GBC – Beta]

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons was published by Nintendo and developed by Capcom’s Flagship Studio for the Gameboy Color. In the early screenshots released for the game we can notice many beta differences. In the gallery below you can see some of these beta screens:

  • The waggon that we see in the opening place (when Din is dancing near the fire) was once set near the first dungeon too. In the final game it’s never in there.
  • The sprites for the trees and flowers were different in the beta version
  • There are some circle green things near a signboard in one of the beta screens, that does not exist in the final game.
  • The entrance of the first dungeon was different and it did not had a keyhole.
  • Impa’s house was in a slightly different place.
  • There are also many areas in these beta screens that does not look like any other areas in the final game. It’s possible that in this early build they created a small playable demo in a placeholder world, just to shown how the Seasons System worked.

As the game have a complex password system that change some of the content, some of these differences could still be in the final version. If you have more info, please let us know!

Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons were originally going to be themed parts of the Triforce Trilogy along with Mystical Seed of Courage. Each of the three games originally had a piece of the Triforce and one of its qualities (Wisdom, Power or Courage) assigned to them. This idea was scrapped relatively late in the development process, and the games were re-branded to remove all mention of this Triforce theme.[Info from Zelda Wikia]

Thanks to the X-Cult Community for the contribution!

You can find more info about Zelda: Oracle of Seasons in the Zelda Wiki!

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Team Fortress 2 Alpha (Team GabeN’s) Leaked

Do you remember the post about the Team Fortress 2 Alpha “Invasion”? Well, a guy named 4emoman on BetaArchive seems to have leaked this build sometime ago, but his files went down later. Another user named Popbob has re-uploaded it on Rapidshare but on its release there are some unuseful files such as an MP3 in the TF2 folder that seems to have nothing to do with the release or Team GabeN’s tools for compiling maps.

LucaPM has uploaded a cleaner version of the Team Fortress 2 Alpha with batch files for opening the game with “advanced” options such as opening it with the control console. You can find this new leaked version at LucaPM’s blog or you can read more about this release at Team GabeN’s Wiki.

Below you can see a video of the alpha in action:

Mortal Kombat 8 [PS3/X360 – Cancelled]

As we can read on Kotaku, before Mortal Kombat VS DC another MK game was pitched, but it was never fully developed. You could say that Mortal Kombat 8 was released as MK VS DC, but the original concept for this  new chapter of the MK saga was much different from what we got in the end:

Once again, we pestered Mr. Boon about the scrapped version of Mortal Kombat 8, once described by the long-term Midway dev as being heavily inspired by the look of Gears of War. While that grittier, darker version of MK didn’t make it far beyond the technology development stages — Boon told us there was little in the way of concept art for the grimier spin on the series — […]

In november 2009 an article at Game Set Watch revealed some concept arts that are assumed to be from this cancelled version of Mortal Kombat 8. It’s currently unknown how the gameplay would have evolved from the traditional fighting game, but if it would have followed this “new” style, it could have been something like “Gears of War” with more open arenas than the usual MK ones.

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Ratchet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal [PS2 – Beta]

Ratchet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal is a platform / third person shooter developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony. It is the third installment in the Ratchet & Clank series and was released in November 2004. [Info from Wikipedia]

Bowsersenemy was able to notice various differences in the early beta screens and in some videos:

  • The upgraded version of the N60 storm, used the icon from the Lancer from RAC 2. The whole weapon status meter is from RAC 2!
  • In another beta screen the N60 had the icon of the second form Lancer, with LESS max ammo than before!
  • A beta screenshot of the multiplayer mode
  • Some removed enemies
  • A removed wrench weapon
  • Holostar studios mission was set in the evening, while the final version is in the day.
  • Qwark vid comics had beta timer, beta life bar, and beta Q token counter (bottom right corner)

Read more

Kingdom Hearts Re: CoM PS2 Prototype Fundraiser

Update: Fundraiser Completed! The game was released by Borman / Superior Version in January 2010, thanks to everyone!

Evilhamwizard has started a new Fundraising project for an interesting proto: Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories. As he wrote in the U64 Forum:

[…] a Kingdom Hearts Re:CoM (Chain of Memories) translation prototype for the PS2, dating 10/01/08 (and for the record, the final US release was compiled on 10/21/08). The actual DVD calls this a “Preview” build of the game, which was given to gaming companies to endure. You may be saying to yourself, “why would this be good?”. Well, actually, it’s a very cool prototype. And is definitely what I want my KH2 prototype to be like once I get a chance to check it out.

This prototype basically has the following:

– DEBUG MENUS GALOR (tons of them, covering every aspect of the game)
– Minor mistranslations and spelling mistakes
– Some videos and cutscenes lack English dialog

To obtain this prototype, a donation fundraiser is required to cover the costs of paying for the game. And fortunetly, isn’t too steep. The release comes to about $225. And the great part is that as soon as the goal has been met, the game will be released immediately via MegaUpload.

Here’s the current status of the fund raiser:

Completed! The game was released by Borman / Superior Version in January 2010, thanks to everyone!

If you still have doubts about the prototype itself, you can view all the video footage available at www.justin.tv/borman18 (4 hours of footage)

Special thanks to Borman from SuperiorVersion.com for purchasing the prototype and allowing the opportunity for a public release! And thanks to DreamTR for allowing us to buy prototypes at nice prices as well. :)