Nintendo, Nintendo 64 & 64DD

Riqa [N64 – Cancelled]

yota
04-04-2008
5 Comments

Few details are know about the Riqa project, another famous unseen for the Nintendo 64. Developed by Bits Studios, it was presented for the first time at E3 1999 in playable form. Defined as the “N64 Tomb Rider” as stated by Nintendo, Riqa would have dealt Third-Person Shooter Action mixed with exploration, with Riqa (the woman character controlled by the player) up against both humans and monsters. With impressive graphics for its time, an immersive storyline, complicated  levels full of action, including shootings and puzzles to solve, Riqa was going to be a new killer application for the N64.

Unfortunately, the game has never seen light on the 64-bit, for the continuing delayed release dates, which led to the cancellation of the title. Many think that the general concept of Riqa, has then evolved in Rogue Ops, another game developed by Bits Studios and released in 2003, published by Kemko. The title was just a discrete Action Game, released on the Game Cube, Xbox and PS2.

English translation by 8PM

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Nintendo, Nintendo 64 & 64DD

F-Zero X [N64 – Beta]

monokoma
04-04-2008
3 Comments

fzero64logo.jpg

It seems that the few beta images of F-zero that we have aren’t that different from the final screenshots. But,after all, what could have changed in a game where the only graphical elements are virtually the spaceships and the track ? The hub, obviuously. The power bar was red, the map, the laps and the ranking data were still missing, the speed indicator was different, and there were some mysterious numbers in the down left side of screen.

Thanks to WarioNX for the contribution!

Beta Version:

fzeroxbeta04.jpg

Final Version:

fzerox15.jpg

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The beta movie was taken from the video seen at Nintendo SpaceWorld ’97. You can see a later beta version of F-Zero X.
It didn’t change soo much : the only things that are different from the final version are:

  • Some textures
  • Some tracks
  • The explosion of a ship
  • The hud (in the top shows like “30th” and not “30/30”)
  • The health bar

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Nintendo, Nintendo 64 & 64DD

Super Mario Kart R [N64 – Beta]

yota
04-04-2008
3 Comments

On the 24 November 1995, Nintendo finally presented the final version of the Ultra 64, (renamed “Nintendo 64” because of copyright problem) at the Shoshinkai Software Exhibition. Among the thirty titles shown in playable form or in video (including Star Fox and Wave Race) one of the most interesting was Super Mario Kart R, an early beta version of our favorite kart-game.

Compared to other games that were shown at the Shoshinkai that year, it could be said that Mario Kart R was almost complete, since there appears to be no particular changes in the track design, but the differences for the playable characters are interesting. You can notice that Kami Koopa (Magic Koopa) was a playable character in the game instead of Donkey Kong and the “Character Select” screen had different avatars. Also, the multiplayer split screen could have been set to horizontally or vertically, but this option was removed in the final version (but implemented in Double Dash). The “Item Boxes” were different too and various other little graphic details (like the HUD) were changed before the game was published,

Also, the Feather item from the original Super Mario Kart, was meant to be used in Mario Kart 64 too, as you can see from one of the screenshots in the gallery below (in the image with the 4 player mode, Toad has it in his item HUD). The Feather would have let the player to jump very high, to reach new shortcuts or to avoid obstacles.

Thanks to Princess Toadstool for the contribution!

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Nintendo, Nintendo 64 & 64DD

Viewpoint 2064 [N64 – Cancelled]

yota
04-04-2008
4 Comments

Viewpoint 2064 is a cancelled shoot ‘em up that was in development for the Nintendo 64. The original Viewpoint was also an isometric shmup with an incredible difficulty released in 1992 by SNK for the Neo-Geo arcade platform. After Sammy published a port of the original game for the Playstation and Saturn, in 1998 they started to work on a true sequel for the Nintendo 64, that looked somehow similar to StarFox 64 (Lylat Wars).

True to its title, Viewpoint 2064 was going to have multiple points of view, with the classic isometric view and a “behind the spaceship” view. The game had a really good graphic for its time and it had a lot of potential to be a fun shooter, but sadly Sammy had some development problems and Viewpoint 64 was cancelled only a year after his presentation at the Space World 1999.

A playable prototype was found and sold on ebay in September 2015, you can see a video below that shows about 7 minutes from the game. It seems that this version of Viewpoint 2064 was almost finished as you can play all the level trough the end. There are multiple secret paths to discover that unlock different levels: there is a total of 15 areas but to finish the game you have play trough 5 of them, somehow similar to StarFox 64.

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Nintendo, Nintendo 64 & 64DD

StarFox 64 – Lylat Wars [N64 – Beta]

MAIcrosoft
04-04-2008
2 Comments

starfox64logo.jpg

During the early stages of development, Starfox 64 (Lylat Wars in Europe) looked very different from the final version. The level design was much more meager, lots of details, from the textures to the polygonal backgrounds, were much simpler and more blurred. Some enemies were slightly different, the HUB on the screen (energy, radar, maps etc..) was changed  various times before reaching the final version.

italian_flag.jpg [spoiler /Clicca qui per la versione in Italiano/ /Nascondi la versione in Italiano/]Durante le prime fasi di sviluppo, StarFox 64 (Lylat Wars in Europa) appariva molto diverso dalla versione finale. Il level design era molto più scarno, tantissimi particolari, dalle textures alla costruzione poligonale, erano molto più semplici e approssimativi. Inizialmente gli sfondi erano inesistenti e come in diversi titoli dei primi anni del N64, una strana nebbia riempiva le zone più lontane. Anche alcuni nemici erano leggermente diversi, le icone a schermo (come quella dell’ energia dell’ accelerazione, il radar, le mappe ecc.) sono evolute in diverse fasi, prima di arrivare quella definitiva. [/spoiler]

[Thanks to D-vide for some of the images!]

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