New Cancelled Games & Their Lost Media Added to the Archive

Metal Gear Solid 4 [PS3 – Beta]

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Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is a stealth action video game. Directed by Hideo Kojima, Shuyo Murata and Yoji Shinkawa, Guns of the Patriots was developed by Kojima Productions exclusively for the PlayStation 3 video game console. It is the seventh title in the Metal Gear series and the first in its fourth generation. The game, designed around the motto, “No Place to Hide!”, is the last Metal Gear game developed by Hideo Kojima, and the last game in the series starring the protagonist Solid Snake. [Info from Wikipedia]

Looking at some old screens from the game, it seems that there are some scenes that i don’t remember to be in the final version, or that are a little different. Also in some screenshots, Snake’s face looks weird. Thanks to Segagaga Domain we can also check an old tech demo that was presented at the Tokyo Game Show 2005, in which Konami shown various real time effects and details from its 3D engine.

Thanks to Jamie for the contribution!

Thanks a lot to Yakumo / Segagaga Domain for the MGS4 Tech Demo!

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An interesting beta-version comparison between new and old MGS4 trailers was already made by people at Kotaku some time ago, where we can see some little differences in the cutscenes of the game, like different colors for the 3d models.. As they said: “Kojima Productions went through and made various changes, alterations to assets that appeared in earlier trailers. But what kind of changes? Are they changes for the better? Or not? Below, is a comparison. On the left is footage from an older, yellowish MGS4 trailer, while on the right there’s brand new footage.”

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Corn Buster [SNES – Cancelled]

Corn Buster is an unreleased Super Nintendo game developed by Engine Software. The game is the story of a dragon named Globey, who sets out to defeat the person who’s stolen all the cornflakes in the world. The gameplay is an interesting mix of an Arkanoid-Style ball-and-paddle game and a vertical scrolling shooter. The game quietly began development around 1994, and was canceled soon after interest in the Super Nintendo waned in light of the release of Sony’s Playstation. Some time ago, Engine Software released a ROM of the game for free download on their website. The download page has since been removed, but the ROM is still easily obtainable. The game was 70-80% completed before it was canceled.

Thanks a lot to Marshall Leslie for all these information and screens! If you are a collector, you can buy an official cart of Corn Buster for SNES thanks to Piko Interactive.

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World of Warcraft [PC – Beta]

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Early in the development of World of Warcraft, when battlegrounds were made, there was a battleground called Azshara Crater. Azshara Crater would’ve been in – you guessed right – Azshara. It was intented to work in a similar fashion to Alterac Valley. A funny detail is that the entrances was already made when the battleground got cancelled, and is still in the final game. The entrance for the Alliance is south of the Forlorn Ridge and the entrance for Horde is north of Forlorn Ridge. Go check it out if you’re bored.

Even if the battleground wasn’t implented in the game, it’s still in the games files. Read more

Unseen Interviews: Ruud Van De Moosdijk and Corn Busters

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I have recently played the incomplete release of Corn Buster, which according to my sources was originally available for download at the Engine Software website. There is very little information available about the game, and few people know of its existence. I feel that it would be beneficial to the unreleased game community, as well as the gaming community as a whole, if more information were made available regarding this game.

I have sent a mail to Engine Software to ask if someone who was involved in the development of Corn Buster would be willing to provide more information concerning the game’s development history, any planned elements for the game, and the reason for its cancellation. Ruud van de Moosdijk was nice enough to answer some of my questions!

 [Interview by Marshall Leslie]

Marshall Leslie: Who came up with the original idea for the game, and when did development start?

Ruud: The game was designed by Ivo Wubbels and myself (both founders of the company and still in function) and was furthermore designed in detail by Arjen van Haren (no longer working here) and Marco Willemsen (Senior Artist). Development started around 1994 I guess…before we were officially a company and got Nintendo Licensed. It was our first professional game, and I remember we even wrote our own assembler for SNES on PC (SNASM) because we had no official tools.

Marshall Leslie: How many people worked on the game?
Read more

Crash Bandicoot [PSX – Beta]

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Crash Bandicoot is a platform game published by Sony Computer Entertainment and developed by Naughty Dog for the PlayStation. Crash was released in North America in 1996, but the development started in August 1994 with the title character, Crash, being designed by Charles Zembillas and Joe Pearson. The development of this game took place entirely in Los Angeles, California, after the entire staff had moved there from Boston, Massachusetts. Crash Bandicoot was the main focus of the Naughty Dog team during its development, so much so that ideas for another game, Al O. Saurus and Dinestein, were thrown out. Sony officially became publisher of the game during March 1995. In April that year the game went Alpha and was officially unveiled to the public in May of 1996 at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, where it was well received. [Info from Wikipedia]

From these old screens we can see some changes in the development, like a different boss bar or different colors for the characters and the background. Crash usually only picks up the same type of fruit in the game (they’re called Wumpas, and look a bit like apples), but in those beta screenshots there are a lot of different fruits. There’s a pineapple, a strawberry and a green fruit which is hard to recognize. The Aku Aku mask in the pineapple screenshot is different too. It seems like a 2D sprite, actually. And Papu Papu (the large man with the club) has a yellow hair ornament, instead of a blue one. For more informations you can check the Crash Mania website, that has donated these images for the U64 Archive!

In June 2009, Psx-Collector shared with Crash Mania some screens and info from an early playable demo that he found. In this beta there’s no music or gems, the Brio boss fight is unbeatable, Tawna’s colour scheme is different, the “TNT Crates” are  “POW Crates”, there’s a different Cortex Power Entrance, a couple of removed robot enemies, an harder design of Sunset Vista and Different Crate Placement! Thanks a lot to HPZr :)

Also, an unused level was found hidden in the game’s code: as we can see from a video in GarlandTheGreat’s Youtube channel, that area is completely playable:

I must say this is the hardest and quite possibly the best Crash Bandicoot level ever. It’s a shame they left it out of the game, as it only would have made an already excellent game better. Yeah, it’s hard, but it’s not that hard to beat normally. After all, there are three checkpoints here, contrary to Slippery Climb, which only has one. Getting the gem, however, is a nightmare, and I needed close to 50 attempts.

There are three invisible tokens (probably Tawna) on this level, but the bonus stage it unlocks doesn’t exist, so getting all three will crash the game. You can see it in jbreckmckye’s video. So, in order to get the gem, you have to avoid getting one of these. Location of tokens: 0:27, 3:21 and 4:48. I didn’t get the first one.

Some more info on the Stormy Ascent unused level were shared to us by Luis: the ‘invisible’ icons is actually Cortex. Because when pressing triangle, the pixels shows in the bottom right corner like the Cortex icons. It shows that Stormy Ascent is supposed to be the home of the 2nd Cortex bonus round. These were moved to Jaws of Darkness, which is why these pixels are left behind.

Thanks to kieranmay for the contribution!

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