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New Cancelled Games & Their Lost Media Added to the Archive

Dark Cloud is an Action RPG developed for the Playstation 2 by Level-5 and published by Sony Computer Entertainment in 2000 and 2001 for Japan and American/PAL regions respectively. As we can read in Wikipedia, Dark Cloud was the first game of the Japanese developer Level-5, headed by designer Akihiro Hino. When the PlayStation 2 was announced on March 2, 1999, Sony president and CEO Ken Kutaragi used a demo of Dark Cloud to showcase the capabilities of the platform. However, many elements of the demo were not used in the release version of the game.

In 1999, Sony had an early playable version of Dark Cloud at the Tokyo Game Show. This version focused on a character who needed to return a floating piece of land back to where it originally came from but its location had been replaced with an evil kingdom. The world building parts where demonstrated in this version. At the Tokyo Game Show in 2000 a more complete demo was available far more similar to the final version.

CallingCard noticed various differences in the early video:

The main character, Toan, had a fair redesign between this demo and the final release.
The magic carpet never appears in game as far as I’m aware.
The ability to jump in and out of the water as seen around the 1:00 mark was removed.
The world map is pretty much the same, can’t see anything new aside from the floating island town area which I don’t recall being in the game. Given that it’s just a large blank area, it might’ve been used for demonstration purposes only.
Georama system looks almost identical in-game as it does in beta, though the volcanoes never made it in to the final product.

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Nintendo, Playstation 2 (PS2), Sony, Wii

Okami [Beta – PS2 / Wii]

U64 Staff & Contributors

19-04-2008

2 Comments

Okami in its beta version was much different from the final one. The game was originally planned to be rendered in a more photorealistic 3D style. However, Clover Studios determined that the more colorful sumi-e style allowed them to better convey Amaterasu’s association with nature and the task of restoring it. This change did not increase the game’s performance. You can play a video clip of Amaterasu in her original realistic style after beating the game. – [info from Wikipedia]

Also, on 1UP we can read an interview with Kamiya that talks about the early prototype of Okami:

“When I first started talking about it with [producer Atsushi] Inaba, the only starting point we had for Okami was a game that depicted a lot of nature,” he said. “I couldn’t say ‘I don’t know if this’ll be fun or not’ because than nobody on the dev team would be enthusiastic about it, so instead I was like ‘This is gonna be great! I know it will!’ So eventually the discussion shifted to a wolf running around, and we made this minute-long video depicting a wolf running through a field and trees sprouting up behind him and I told the team ‘See, isn’t that neat?'”

Eventually Okami made it to the prototyping stage, but Kamiya’s problems didn’t end there. “Our first test run was incredibly boring to play,” he recalled. “I was grinding my teeth at night, I was so worried. At one point, we were so far off-track that it had turned into a simulation game — you had hexes and trees sprouted on them. It was total garbage. A couple of devs said to me afterwards ‘Something was definitely wrong with you around that time, Kamiya!'”

Thanks to Robert Seddon for the contribution!

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Playstation 2 (PS2), Sony

PS2 Tech Demos

U64 Staff & Contributors

19-04-2008

No Comments

The PlayStation 2 was first revealed in 1999. Many beloved game developer that released their games for the original Sony PlayStation 1 such as SquareSoft, Namco, or even SCE themshelve, shown a series on interesting tech demos for the PS2. Namco tech demo was the leather tech demo, then the Ridge Racer tech demo shows the facial animation CGI in-game, Tekken tech demo also shown too, it show the texture smooth feature, both Ridge Racer and Tekken was released for PS2 except for leather tech demo never found in any game, and it presumed to be unreleased.

SquareSoft shown a fighting tech demo that could later known as “The Bouncer“, also a face of a old man character from a FF series with the same as Ridge Racer purpose, a dancing scene from FFVI also get it debut, showing the power of PS2, in-engine CGI animation without a pre-rendered animation video cutscene. Sony was shown a Gran Turismo tech demo that showing a Reflection effect, also ducky with water demo.

Thanks to Thomas for the contribution!

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PS2 Original Tech Demo Presentation

Unseen News

Scans of Games Master Magazines from the ’90!

monokoma

19-04-2008

No Comments

I have just found out that GamesMasterLive have got permission to upload all the magazines scans of the old Game Master Magazine, starting with the first number, dated January 1993. You know what this mean? Lots of pages too search through for beta screenshots! I did not find any interesting beta image in it, but maybe you are luckier (or just know those games better than me). You can download the scans from here: www.gamesmasterlive.co.uk Only the first number for now, but we’ll wait for the next ones!

“Issue 1 launched with a bang weighing in at a hefty 148 pages, considerably more than many of its rivals on the market at the time, also GamesMaster Magazine was packed to the brim of that oh so magical 90s gaming with reviews of Sonic 2, Desert Strike, Lemmings and many more top titles, the whole magazine was flawless and captured the heart of the TV show to a treat, the layouts were impressive to especially the reviews section it had the TV shows review booth written all over it and as each new series of GamesMaster would air the theme of the magazine used to change to what ever the show was boosting out at the time.”

www.gamesmasterlive.co.uk/reviews/issueone.php

There should be some videos too on the website.. i’m trying to find them right now, maybe there is something beta-good in there :)

Microsoft, Others, PC / MAC, Playstation 2 (PS2), Sony, Xbox

Psychonauts [XBOX/PS2 – Beta / Concept]

U64 Staff & Contributors

19-04-2008

No Comments

Originally, the main character was an ostrich suffering from mental imbalance and multiple personalities. Tim Schafer killed the idea because he strongly believes in games being “wish fulfillments,” guessing that not many people fantasize about being an insane ostrich. Raz was originally named Dart and it had many different design before the final one. Even the Censors were different, with a more “green monsters” look. The HUD, the Menù, the Psi Challenge Markers and the Telekinesis style were changed too. Some “brains” were in different positions in the beta version, as the one at the top of the wall in front of the asylum. The Milla’s Lab does not exist in the final game.

Tim Schafer first conceived the idea for Psychonauts while working on Full Throttle, which originally was to have an interactive peyote trip sequence. The idea was deemed unsuitable for a family-friendly game, but it led to Schafer’s desire to do a game featuring psychological trips or interactive dream sequences. – [Info from Wikipedia]

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