New Cancelled Games & Their Lost Media Added to the Archive

Microsoft, Others, PC / MAC, Playstation 3 (PS3), Sony, Xbox 360

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion [X360/PS3/PC – Beta]

monokoma
29-03-2009
2 Comments

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is an action RPG developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks and the Take-Two Interactive subsidiary 2K Games. [Infos from Wikipedia]

Ace.dark posted an interesting topic in our forum, in which he explain that thanks to the Elder Scrolls Construction Set and the use of the Developers Console (brought up by pressing ~ on your keyboard) it’s possible to find the removed Kvatch area that was shown at E3 2005, still hidden in the final game! It seems that there are even some unused items, areas and enemies that were forgotten in the code.

If you have the PC version of the game you can download this file that adds some of the spells and items not normally available to normal users. In the Imperial City in the market district, there is a shop keep that will sell the beta items in Merchants Inn, he is always there but does not always sell the same items.

Thanks a lot to Ace.dark for the contribution!

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Part of an interesting demonstration of the beta. This demonstrates the original intentions for Radiant AI. Radiant AI was cut back before release because it was difficult to keep the game world from falling apart.

Microsoft, Playstation 2 (PS2), Sony, Xbox

Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows [XBOX/PS2 – Proto / Beta]

monokoma
29-03-2009
No Comments

Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows was the latest game from the Gauntlet hack & slash / RPG series. It was developed by Midway’s San Diego, at the beginning with the help of John Romero and Josh Sawyer, but they were later removed from the project. The original prototype of this new Gauntlet had some big differences from the final version: even the original story mode was cut. The two characters created by Romero and Sawyer,Lancer and Tragedian , were completely dropped from the game.

Part of the original, M-rated storyline would had seen the Flesh-Eater’s leader, Veledia and their struggle against the Aesatae and Morbus, while Madoc (the Wizard), would had to find out that his captured daughter was tied to a stone, raped and then killed.

The initial Gauntlet proto had a random dungeons generator with various modular tile types and a final arena for the bosses, but in the end they decided to scrap it and use linear levels.

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Unseen News

Kartoon Kombat: text from the lost game

monokoma
28-03-2009
No Comments

kartoonfloppy

As we read in his Unseen Interview, Mr. Mark has recently acquired a copy (the last and only one?) of Kartoon Kombat, a cancelled fighting game that was in development for the Genesis. Sadly the ROM was damaged in such a way that it will most likely never be playable, but a friend of Mark (known as ZZap! on most forums) was able to extract some interesting text. This is what he was able to uncover: Read more

Others, PC / MAC

Black Isle’s Torn [PC – Cancelled]

monokoma
27-03-2009
No Comments

Black Isle’s Torn is a computer role-playing game developed for Windows by Black Isle Studios, announced on March 2001 and cancelled in July of that year. The game was to use a modified version of the SPECIAL role-playing system, which had been implemented in the Fallout series.

Developed on various editions of the Lithtech engine, Torn possessed features unseen in previous Black Isle Studios games, such as 3D graphics and real-time camera movement.

In July 2001, after circulation of rumors, Torn was officially cancelled.Following the incident, fifty-six members of Black Isle Studios’ staff were laid off. The ultimate reason for Torn’s cancellation was eventually revealed by Feargus Urquhart:

“I don’t know if we ever released an official reason on why [Torn] was canceled, but in a nutshell, the game was canceled because it was not going to be done in time to get Interplay the revenue the company needed to continue operations. That sounds like it was all Interplay’s fault, but that’s really not the case. The project was not going well and continued to be an ongoing challenge.”

The delays were caused by numerous engine upgrades and large problems with pathfinding, due to the team’s inexperience with 3D engines. [Infos from Wikipedia]

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

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