Virus is a cancelled survival horror game that was in development by Sony Interactive Studios America for the original Playstation. Players had to repel an alien virus that invaded a military ship, messing up with human tecnologies, transforming inanimate objects into dangerous enemies (as a big spider-copter hybrid). Virus by SISA should not be confused with Alien Virus, another game that was planned for the PSX by International Computer Entertainment /Vic Tokai (and only released for PC).
Virus was never released for unkown reasons. If you know someone that worked on this game, please let us know!
Here’s the original press-release:
Sony Imagesoft proudly announces the upcoming release of the first computer bug you’ll want to buy, Virus. The PC game version of Virus will debut today at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) hel d in Los Angeles.
Based on the coin-op version of the game — which will be released by Betson Entertainment Technologies later this year — Virus is a first-person arcade-style shooter game that takes place on a hi-tech and heavily armed battleship.
“We’re excited to bring Virus to the PC and PlayStation soon after its arcade release,” said Kelly Flock, president, Sony Imagesoft. “As Virus is originally an arcade game, we’re striving to have tons of fast-paced action with some bizar re creatures lurking around every corner; it will definitely be a kill or be killed game.”
The story line of Virus takes place after the ship’s telecommunication system picks up an alien virus which infects not just the crew and the electronics, but the entire vessel. The virus physically fuses and combines everything it infects into flesh an d metal monsters. Apache helicopters grow spidery legs; crewmen meld with their instruments of death; giant wasps grow machine guns; and, the entire ship is turned into a massive living, thinking war-zone with the player trapped inside.
In Virus, the player will have to fight his way through six sections of the ship, confronting a wide variety of grotesque mutants along the way. For added action, Virus will also have a two-player cooperative mode. The PC version of Virus will ship on two CD-ROMs for IBM-compatible computers and is slated for a Christmas release. A Sony PlayStation version is scheduled to be released in the first quarter of 1996.
Celine was able to find some images in CD Consoles #8 and Top Consoles #5 magazines.
Images:
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U64 is an archive with articles, screens and videos for cancelled, beta & unseen videogames. Every change & cut creates a different gaming experience: we would like to save some documents about this evolution for curiosity, historic and artistic preservation.
9 Responses to Virus [PSX - Cancelled]
Matt
July 28th, 2010 at 9:02 am
Strange. There was a game called Virus released by Cryo Interactive in 1998 based on the Universal Studios film. The plot from this game sounds similar to the plot of the movie maybe that’s why it was cancelled.
Even the fact there were loads of spiders in the Cryo game aswell.
monokoma
July 28th, 2010 at 1:11 pm
Interesting, here’s a video from Virus: It Is Aware (by Cryo): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3t2EXWwXog the settings seems more “SciFi” than Virus by SISA
Robert Seddon
July 28th, 2010 at 3:08 pm
‘Repeal’ should be ‘repel’, right? (Technically ‘repeal’ used to overlap with ‘repel’ in the 1500s, but the O.E.D. calls that sense obsolete.)
Yet another Virus (released) is the port of Zarch that had a sequel called V2000/Virus 2000.
Anonymous
July 28th, 2010 at 3:46 pm
I saw the game on sale in a shop in germany in 2000
monokoma
July 29th, 2010 at 1:04 pm
I fixed “repeal” with “repel” ;)
ToAks
April 17th, 2011 at 9:02 am
This game was renamed, i am unsure about the new name but i know i have played it and i recall the enemies and how you had to take them down etc.
Back then i used alot of BBS’s and IRC and news + snailmail so it might have been a beta or whatever that i played.
Sadly , in 2001 i sold the whole ps1 collection on QXL auction site (orginals,pirated stuff and so on)
it was on the definitly on the PS1.
there was atleast 3 games called Virus (+ something) on ps1 but this one wasn’t one of them.
amigaguru.kicks-ass.net
monokoma
April 19th, 2011 at 2:50 pm
It would be great to find out if it was released under a different name, let us know if you’ll remember the title! :)
Celine
November 5th, 2011 at 3:07 pm
http://www.vidgames.com/ps/software/virus.html
http://www.vidgames.com/ps/press/virus.html
monokoma
November 6th, 2011 at 10:35 pm
Nice find :) It seems that the Arcade version was never released neither… http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/company/75308.html