Another interesting link from Robert Seddon: on Wikipedia we can read that “Ant Attack is a ZX Spectrum computer game by Sandy White. It was published in 1983 by Quicksilva, and converted to the Commodore 64 in 1984. The code for the ZX Spectrum version of Ant Attack contains graphics depicting a plane although these were not used in the final game.” We can see this unused plane in the screenshot below on the bottom-left!
The original Return Fire is a 1995 video game developed by Silent Software, Inc. for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer and later ported to Windows personal computers, PlayStation and Sega Saturn in 1996. It was preceded by Fire Power (1987) and followed by Return Fire 2 (1998). The game is a vehicular shooter in which the player’s goal is to capture the enemy flag and return with it to their base. [Infos from Wikipedia]
It seems that a third chapter was in development at Infogrames / Atari for the Playstation 2, but it was later cancelled for unknow reasons and only few concepts / 3D models remain from the project.
Thanks to Hey Hey for the contribution!
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In 2002 Nintendo sent various developers a GameCube interactive tech demo in order to show them the graphical capabilities of their new console. In this tech demo you can move an arrow through Peach’s Casle and in every room you can see a different graphic effect. It was never released to the public and could have been lost forever, but luckily sometime ago the Peach’s Castle Tech Demo was leaked online and it can now be preserved.
Update: it seems that this demo was used in the 5-22-01 GameCube SDK. The official Nintendo description says: “There are eight rooms (stages) available for introducing various features and effects. In addition, there are two demo modes available for giving effective demos: normal demo mode and auto demo mode. In normal demo mode, users move from room to room using an arrow, and each feature is introduced. In auto demo mode, the camera moves automatically from room to room and each feature of each room is introduced. The total time required for all rooms is 4 minutes 30 seconds.”
Thanks to Jay for the english corrections!
[spoiler /Click here for the tech-demo info/ /Hide the tech-demo info/]Stage Number: 1
Stage Name: ENTRANCE
Total Polygons: 50640
Total texture size: 2260 KB
Total modeling data size: 1027 KB
Stage Number: 2
Stage Name: DOME
Total Polygons: 17571
Total texture size: 5930 KB
Total modeling data size: 324 KB
Feature shown: large textures, mipmaps
Stage Number: 3
Stage Name: SPIRAL STAIRCASE
Total Polygons: 29754
Total texture size: 1120 KB
Total modeling data size: 639 KB
Feature shown: bump maps, specular maps, shadow maps
Stage Number: 4
Stage Name: HANGAR
Total Polygons: 34111
Total texture size: 2157 KB
Total modeling data size: 591 KB
Feature shown: antialiasing
Stage Number: 5
Stage Name: CAVE
Total Polygons: 30051
Total texture size: 1241 KB
Total modeling data size: 478 KB
Feature shown: local lights
Stage Number: 6
Stage Name: CINEMA THEATER
Total Polygons: 15253
Total texture size: 2673 KB
Total modeling data size: 250 KB
Feature shown: texture projection
Stage Number: 7
Stage Name: METAL MARIO!
Total Polygons: 5330
Total texture size: 1859 KB
Total modeling data size: 149 KB
Feature shown: environment map
Stage Number: 8
Stage Name: How Many COINS?
Total Polygons: 92160 (768 objects * 120) + 504
Total texture size: 159 KB
Total modeling data size: 26 KB
Feature shown: maximum polygons[/spoiler]
Thanks a lot to Marco / Grotesque and 50CALBR for the contributions!
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Videos:
Titan was a concept for a game that was in development at StormFront Studios (the original creators of Neverwinter Nights) before it was closed down on March 31, 2008. From the look of the few artworks available, it seems that the game was going to be an action adventure / third person shooter, with an huge robot to use as support in the battles. Sadly Titan was cancelled with the death of StormFront.
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A new RS Links chapter: Robert Seddon sent to us a link to an interview at IGN with a couple of Baldur’s Gate developers, in wich we can read some interesting informations about the creation of the game and its characters:
Imoen’s popularity was a surprise, mostly because she didn’t exist. What’s that mean? Her character was a late addition to fill a non-psychotic-thief gap in the early levels. We had no recording budget left, so I assembled her lines by editing voice-over left from a scrapped demo. The original character was a guard named Pique. That’s why she has no standalone confrontations / interactions with other party members, which makes her relationship to the player seem closer, and led to making her a half-sister in BG II.
I was hired by BioWare just before Christmas in 1996, but didn’t actually start until May of 1997 when I actually completed my Computer Science degree. Between those two dates, our original concept for a game called Battleground: Infinity had begun to transform into Baldur’s Gate.