Nintendo, SNES + Super Famicom

Christopher Columbus [SNES – Cancelled]

monokoma
07-12-2010
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Christopher Columbus (aka Xpoferens Columbus) is a cancelled shoot ’em up that was in development by Misawa Entertainment for the Super Famicom / SNES in 1992 / 1993. The game was loosely based on the famous italian explorer, but with a fantasy twist: his ship was able to fly and to shoot energy bullets, to take down huge mammoths, weird sea creatures and ancient dragoons. It seems that Christopher Columbus was almost complete, it was even promoted in a catalog with other Misawa Entertainment’s titles from 1992 / 1993, but in the end the game was never released for unknown reasons.

Thanks to GhostSeed and MatthewCallis that posted the scans on the Assembler Forum! Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

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Unseen News

[New Staffer] DCodes7 joins the U64 Staff!

U64 Staff & Contributors
07-12-2010
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newstaffers.jpg

The U64 Staff is still growing somehow and more beta-lovers would like to help our little archive of games that we’ll never be able to play. Today we are happy to welcome DCodes7 in the U64 Staff! You probably already noticed many of his contributions and some of his articles, as the Left 4 Dead 2 Beta Analisys, Fallout: New Vegas [X360 PS3 PC – Beta] and  Resident Evil Portable [PSP – Cancelled?], now he’s officially one of us! 

Game Boy Advance (GBA), Nintendo

Dark Empire [GBA – Cancelled]

monokoma
06-12-2010
3 Comments

Dark Empire is an unreleased RPG that was in development by Marvelous Entertainment for the GameBoy Advance. This project was previusly unknown, untill an auction for its prototype was posted by Sample_Seller on Ebay in June 2009. As we can read from the item description:

DARK EMPIRE for the Gameboy Advance !!

RARE ORIGINAL SAMPLE/PROMO VERSION !!

FIRST ONE EVER FOUND !!

Will run on any US Gameboy Adance system. Original promo/sample game was never released or completed, game is playable but only around 30% complete. Very good graphics for Gameboy Advance, you have a world map, a castle you can go to and a village. Ingame text is Japanese, developer most probably Marvelous Entertainment.

It’s fun to notice how the developers used some real photos (as one of Mel Gibson from the Braveheart film) as placeholders for the characters avatars in the game, before the final ones were finished. The gameplay would have probably been like a traditional RPG / SRPG, and looking at one of the photos added in the auction it seems that there were some 3D scenes too (maybe for the combats?).

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Microsoft, Xbox

Infiltrator: Shadow Wars [XBOX – Cancelled]

monokoma
05-12-2010
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Infiltrator Shadow Wars is a cancelled Massive Multiplayer Online RPG that was in development by Orbital Frog Productions for the XBOX. As we can read in the original press release, the game was set in a futuristic online world of espionage: Orbital Frog promised that Infiltrator would had in-depth character development and an enveloping and interactive environment for the player to interact with. There was to also be an interactive online environment to pit the players to the task of creating their own teams, researching new weapons, and brand new technologies.

During the development something went wrong and Infiltrator: Shadow Wars had to be cancelled. Sadly only few concept arts remain from this lost project.

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Playstation, Sony

Grand Champion’s Rally [PSX – Cancelled]

U64 Staff & Contributors
04-12-2010
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Grand Champion’s Rally is a cancelled racing game that was in development by Aques. In mid nineties Squaresoft, known for its mastodontic RPGs, created Aques (Advanced QUality of Entertainment and Sports ), a label under which release game based on thoughts and sports. At the japanese PS Expo in late 1996 they announced the first three titles for the Aques brand: a baseball game named Super Live Stadium, a mahjong simulation and a racing game known as Grand Champions Rally, the latter of which would never been released for unknown reasons.

At the time a single screenshot (below) of the rally game was shown in various western magazines like for example Edge 40 and Player One 70. Article about Aques from EGM issue 90.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

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