News on Cancelled Video Games & Lost Media

Prowler (also know as Storm Troop and Prawler) is a cancelled sci-fi action game with mechs, that was in development at Origin Systems (the team behind the Wing Commander series) in 1994. Initially the project was meant to be released for the 3DO, as their Super Wing Commander remake, but with the failure of the console the game was soon moved to the Playstation. As we can read in an interesting article written by Sean Murphy (former Origin Systems designer) on the Wing Commander News website, the project had many problems right from the start:

Team communication was poor. Leadership was iffy. There was almost no dialog between the art staff and the programming staff. I remember one day, months into the project, sitting in a meeting and hearing the programmers drooling about how cool the game was going to be, how “dark…and gritty…and dirty, and oily and all mechanical and functional and stuff!” Clearly they had not gotten the memo about our grand notions of Neo Victorian design…
And some time later – as little as three months, possibly as long as six months – sure enough, EA pulled the plug on Prowler and let most of the team go.

You can read the full article from Sean Murphy in here. Some early concept videos from the game were preserved by the Origin Museum in 2008, and they will be shared with the community sooner or later. For now you can see some concept arts in the gallery below.

Celine was also able to find an in-game screenshot of Prowler, from TopConsoles #4 and CD Consoles #4 magazine (the same screen was in the 2 magazines). Anatoly Shashkin found even more promotional screenshots in July 2018!

Thanks to OMJoe for the contribution!

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Microsoft, Playstation 3 (PS3), Sony, Xbox 360

The Crucible: Evil Within (The Box/The Ritualyst) [Cancelled – PS3/Xbox 360]

U64 Staff & Contributors

01-12-2009

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The Crucible: Evil Within, AKA “The Box” or “The Ritualyst” originally was a Silicon Knights-developed (developer of Eternal Darkness and Too Human) open-world horror pitch for PS3 started in 2004, which was accepted for full production by Sega in March 2005.

“Silicon Knights has a rich history of developing great games that push hardware technology, so we expect this relationship will result in a powerful, new, and highly commercial franchise.”
Simon Jeffery, President and COO, SEGA of America

In 2006, Sega revealed some game details in an online survey. Until then, the game was internally known as “The Box”. The survey however led to “The Crucible: Evil Within”. Later, however, it was renamed to “The Ritualist” instead.

“An open free-roaming action horror game where the player undertakes a terrorizing journey of suspense, fear, power and discovery, and where every decision has multiple consequences… Uncover an ancient chest with unimaginable power that seduces you into evil, sin and corruption.”

Court documents from Silicon Knights’ legal battle with Epic Games reveal that The Box was initially planned to be finished by February 27th, 2007. It was later amended to extend the delivery date to November 4th, 2008. In August 2008, Sega decided to cancel various external projects, including Aliens RPG: Crucible, Aliens: Colonial Marines (later restarted), Cipher Complex, and The Box. However, Silicon Knights was able to find a new publisher with THQ, which also dropped the project in early 2009. As a kind of compensation, team members of The Box were asked to help on Vigil Games’/THQ’s Darksiders.

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Projects, Unseen News

Merry Xmas: Super Mario World Beta Remake released!

U64 Staff & Contributors

30-11-2009

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Did you enjoy all those differences that can be noticed in the Super Mario World beta screenshots? What if Nintendo had stuck with some of their original material while creating the Super Mario World we know and love today? Well, this SMW hack will let you play the game how it may have been in its beta version!

Yoshi Master (AKA Randy from the U64 Staff) has finally released his beta remake of Super Mario World. This hack is based and inspired by all of the pre-release screenshots, unused materials, ancient interviews, and some minor assumptions revolving around SMW, and it’s creation.

You can check more screens from the real beta in the Super Mario World Beta page.

Most of the GFX were made by Randy, as well as the levels themselves. The bosses also each have something “beta” about them. Search the Super Mario World Beta Remake Hack (Lunar IPS File) on Google

How to patch the game to activate the Super Mario World Beta Remake? It’s easy:

1) Get SNESTooL
2) Select ‘Use IPS’ (Press Enter)
3) Select the Super Mario World Beta IPS file
4) Select the Super Mario World (USA) ROM (you’ll have to find this one by yourself)
5) Play it in your favourite SNES emu

Have fun! This is the best christmas gift for every Super Mario World Beta lover and it’s free. Play it, share it with friends.

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Videos:

Microsoft, Others, PC / MAC, Xbox 360

Agent [X360/PC – Cancelled]

monokoma

30-11-2009

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Agent is a cancelled action adventure that was in development at Ensemble Studios before their closure, probably in the works for the Xbox 360 and PC. The project was revealed in an article about the “last visit” at the studios by Gamasutra, in which they were able to check some of Ensemble’s lost projects. Agent had an art style inspired by Pixar’s The Incredibles and it seems that the gameplay could have been similar to Tomb Raider. On September 9, 2008, it was officially announced that Ensemble would be closing after the release of Halo Wars and Agent vanished forever with them.

Images:

Playstation, Saturn, Sega, Sony

Mega Man X4 [PSX/Saturn – Beta / Unused Sprites]

monokoma

29-11-2009

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Mega Man X4 (aka Rockman X4 in Japan) is the fourth game in the Mega Man X series, released for the Sega Saturn and PlayStation in July 1997. Kei was able to find an old preview/trailer of the game from an equally old April 1997 Multiple Option CFC (Capcom Friendly Club) Style videotape from Japan. As Kei has wrote in the U64 Forum:

While this preview may not include much immediate beta/pre-release differences, there is one particularly noticeable element that can be heard in this video. For one, X sounds completely different as you see him jump and shooting out charged buster shots in the video; we’re talking about a pre-release video of the Japanese version here. Apparently, he had a different voice actor, as he sounds like a girl, much like he does in the English final version of RMX4. Zero also sounds slightly different as well, his Saber slashes are odd too.

Also, Bowserenemy and Protodude noticed some more differences in the same beta trailer:

Enemies are in different spots; Zero’s missing a few frames in his mid-air slar, and the hit detection is a bit off here and there. […] it’s the same as the third slash in his 3 hit combo, so just compare the two.

Hidden in the game’s code, Ace Spark from The Mechanical Maniacs has found some unused animation frames for Double, that could be from removed dialogue sequences [UPDATE: The running animation for Double is actually used in the game, but you only see it for a split second after you select a stage in the game. Thanks to OKei!]. An unused mugshot is in there too.

Some beta screenshots are available too, in which we can notice that the intro stage had a drill enemy in the beta, that was removed from the final game. When the place starts blowing up there are even more drill enemies. You can read more info on the beta at The Mechanical Maniacs!

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