Through the development of the game, the Heaven Smiles had an interesting evolution: in the original concept trailer they looked like “normal humans“.
Killer 7 Development & Beta Analysis
Killer 7 is an adventure game developed by Grasshopper Manufacture and published by Capcom for the GameCube and PlayStation 2. It was released in 2005 but it was first announced in 2002 as one of the original “Capcom 5” games. In 3 years of development the game changed a lot from its original concept trailer and when Killer 7 was finally released many parts of the story were removed.
Article written by monokoma
[Before reading this article, keep in mind that i’m italian and i’m not used to write so much in english. I’m sorry if there are errors and weird uses of the english language: if you have some corrections to make, you can send me an email and i’m going to fix the article. Thanks for your help!]
The game was written and directed by Goichi Suda, also known as Suda51, a man with his own peculiar way to create a dreaming and symbolic narrative, often associated to film directors like David Lynch and Alejandro Jodorowsky. Many people don’t get his style, but some gamers fell in love with his digital storytelling.
Unseen Interview: Mr. Mark & Hoppin Mad
In May 2008, mrmark0673 found a working prototype of Hoppin Mad, an unreleased NES game developed by Elite. The game was previously unknown to the public and when it was found, the NES community was really happy to check all the infos and screens that were freely shared online by its new owner. We had a little interview with Mr. Mark, to talk about Hoppin Mad, the preservation of unseen games, the delicate relationship between collectors / developers / gaming community, the future release of the game and some of his personal tastes.
U64: Thanks for your time Mark! Would you like to introduce yourself to our readers? :)
Mark: Thanks for having me, it’s great to be able to share info with such a great group of people. My name is Mark and I’m 24 years old. I live with my twin brother just outside of Boston and I currently work as a 7th grade Science teacher.
U64: Can you tell us a little bit about the Hoppin Mad prototype and how you found it?
Unseen Interview: Frank Gasking from Games That Weren’t
Continuing our trip through the various websites and communities related to beta & cancelled games, this time we had the chance to make some questions to Frank Gasking, main webmaster of Games That Weren’t. As always, in this new Unseen Interview we’ll try to better understand who are these lovely geeks that work under the site, to talk about the story of GTW, the unseen gaming world, digital preservation and to discover some of their personal tastes.
U64: Thanks for your time Frank! Would you like to introduce yourself and your site to our readers?
Frank: Hi there – I’m Frank Gasking – 27yrs old and from England. During the day i’m a web developer, and outside of work i’m a retro gaming enthusiast with a particular interest in the Vic 20 and C64 platforms, as well as games that never saw the light of day.
Our site “Games That Weren’t” is a project dedicated to documenting and finding lost/unreleased games which have been subject to mystery for many years across many platforms. Our main site covers news across all platforms, then breaks down into sister projects that focus primarily on a particular system (My own personal focus being the Commodore 64 platform). The current sister sites we have specifically cover the C64, Amiga, PC and 3DO platforms. This year the project is 10 years old, and started out originally as a C64 specific article for Commodore Zone fanzine.
U64: The GTW site organization is in sub-categories, each one with its own webmaster, it’s probably a great way to have more and better content for every section, as each editor can concentrate to work on his specific platform: how did this kind of organization start?
Unseen Changes: Disaster Report
<< More Changes
Disaster Report (known as SOS: The Final Escape in Europe, Zettai Zetsumei Toshi in Japan) is a survival action adventure game created by Irem. It was released in Japan for the PlayStation 2 in 2002 and in 2003 was released in North America and Europe. The game deals with the characters’ survival and escape from the slow collapse of an artificial island. While dodging falling buildings and debris from periodic earthquakes, the player must find a way off the island. In addition, the main character, a reporter, must investigate the reasons for the disaster. [Infos from Wikipedia]
When they ported the game for the US and PAL market, they decided to change the hair color for the main protagonists: from the natural dark brown hairs to a weird blonde / yellow tint. This was probably done to make the game to appeal more to the western audience, but we can only wonder if the game really did sell better just because of yellow hairs. Even other characters, as the Editor-in -chief journalist and the young girl, had some hair changes: the journalist had black hair / beard in the original version, but white in the USA / PAL one, while the girl have more “orange” hairs in the western release instead of brown.
Original Japanese Version:
