Nintendo 64 & 64DD

Rat Attack [N64/PSX – Beta]

Rat Attack! is a puzzle / action game developed by Pure Entertainment that was released in 1999 on PlayStation and in 2000 on Nintendo 64. The object of the game is to clear each level of a certain total of rats, without getting hit enough times to lose a life, or ensuring the room wasn’t destroyed, which would also kill you. [Info from Wikipedia]

LavaWave has found some beta Rat Attack screenshot with removed levels , high quality models (instead of the low quality ones in the final game) and a boss stage with the scorpion king totally revamped (probably a target render). Also, the official site of the game surprisingly is still alive since 1998 or so, in which we can read an interesting “the making of rat attack” section.

Thanks a lot to LavaWave for the contribution!

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Quest 64 II (2) [N64 – Cancelled]

Quest 2 is the unreleased sequel of one of the few Nintendo 64 RPGs, that was in development at Imagineer in 1998 / 1999. The game was going to be set 100 years after the original Quest 64 and this time the player would have been able to choose between 2 different characters: Leohn, a magician, and Sophia, a swordswoman. Both characters would also had a sidekick known as “the Guardian” to use it as a vehicle or to help in battle (we can speculate that it was going to be something like a Chocobo from the Final Fantasy series). Sadly Imagineer went into financial troubles and they had to cancel Quest 2 and another project that they had in the works for the 64DD,  Desert Island 64. Only a few artworks remains from this game.

quest-64-2-artwork-cancelled

Thanks to Pantalytron we have a translation of the Nintendo Fun Vision article:

SOME LINES OF TEXT ARE MISSING FROM THE JPEG, marked with […]. Guess it can’t be that much, maybe one or two lines of each stanza.
This translation tries to be as literal as possible, so some formulations are clumsy – but I can tell you that the German original text isn’t that skillful in telling the story in a pseudo-medieval style to begin with. Translated on 10.01.2017
Swift Follow-up
Imagineer is already working on Holy Magic Century 2
IMAGINEER. Holy Magic Century isn’t out yet in Germany and already there is information about the follow-up! Imagineer bets on a big success of the first part of its role playing game – and it can’t be bad to start the development of the follow-up! In our newsletter you exclusively find out about the story of (and interesting details about) Holy Magic Century 2. [It is] likely that you can put this game in 1999 on your Christmas wish list.
Everything goes back to the grim and distant past, when people depended on the mercy of nature and forces of nature and wild animals still were impregnable foes. But […] were responsible and learned to benefit from the goods of nature. Many centuries live went by this way. Then appeared creatures that were able to control the magic powers of nature. The greatest and most important of these “spirit slayers” was Brian.
The story begins one hundred years after the legendary Brian has lived… spirits only exist in uncharted forests, on secluded lakes, atop high mountains or in desolate deserts. The legends of spirit slayers that ignated torches or made it rain with their magic spells are considered as fairy tales. In a big kingdom in the west of the island Celtland reigned a ruler called Tibelius who was very popular amongst his subjects. But after his death the realm was threatened to be overrun by barbarians – if there had not been Julius, who knew how to prevent that.
The people thanked him by crowning him as their ruler and transferred the reign over the realm. But the celebrated hero turned into a tyrant, let people be incarcerated who opposed obeying him and even did not shy away from murder. After a while the despot began to build the “black temple“. The people suffered but had no other choice than obey Julius. That is the situation in which the two heroes of the story, Leohn and Sophia, grow up!
Leohn is a ten year old boy who lives with his stepfather on the island Lodeal. The islanders consider him as a bit strange, but he is popular [nonetheless] because of his innocence and his good nature. One day his stepfather Shmeon disappears who belongt to the spirit slayers. According to a legend the boy, who has the ability to speak with spirits, departs on a quest for an almighty spirit. He finds Brian and receives […] Julius receives information about […]-abilites and he commands to bring the boy and other spirit slayers to him by ship.
Upon exactly this ship Leohn meets Sophia, a twelve-year old girl. Her big, magical-appearing talent in wielding the sword lead her to be in Julius’s services; her stepfather Patricius, too, works as a custodian of the city Larwena for the king. In [her] fight with an hermit who incites the people she comes in contact with Brian and receives magical powers from him; the girl receives the ordert to go on board of the ship where Leohn is.
The adventure begins when the ship overturns in a storm. The two heroes are separated, but their goal will be the same soon [after]: To stop Julius! The city prospers by the power of the captured spirit slayers, but in the countryside the people suffer more than ever. In the black temple Leohn and Sophia meet […] So much for the [story] of the role playing game which will be designed for one play and shall offer fun for at least thirty hours. The first part already gets praised for it’s graphic, [but] the follow-up shall be even better. Furthermore [is it planned] in the second part to choose between two characters, namely Leohn and Sophia. Each of the two has his own abilities, of course – but not exactly in the “classical” [way of] type casting!
Leohn uses mainly his magical power to reach his goals. Tactical considerations are more his deal than physical fight, magic spells are more his weapon than swords. Things are different considering Sophia: She is a duel ace and does not shy away from confrontations. With her enormous power she can knock out multiple enemies in one blow.
Both heroes have a patron who follows them through the whole world of the game. He guides them, gives them advice when they enter battle and (from a certain point in the game on) he can carry the hero on his back! Money will play an important role: Who slays monsters can collect their belongings and fill his purse. That way, nothing stands in the way of a bulk purchase.
The world of the game was inspired by the Byzantine empire of the early middle ages, it is residing around the Mediterran Sea and the Aegean, Greece, Turkey, Rome and Egypt up to North Europe. The clothing of the citizens comes from another peroid of time; it approximately matches the style of the eleventh to 14th century.

Well, did you become curious? Then play the first part at first and keep Holy Magic Century 2 in mind for the long winterdays of […]

Thanks to Celine for the contribution! Thanks to Mario for Nintendo Fun Vision News scans (issue 8 1998)!

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WWF War Zone [N64/PSX – Beta]

WWF War Zone was the first 3D WWF title to be released, developed by Acclaim Studios Salt Lake and published by Acclaim Entertainment in 1998 for the PlayStation and Nintendo 64. As Andrew has noticed, there were some beta screenshots in an issue of  Game Informer (?) with Star Wars: Masters of Teräs Käsi on the cover. At the time, the game was simply referred to as WWF ’98.  This beta version has no health bars yet, the ropes are red, white, and blue instead of just red, and the arena has American flags. There was a beta video on Youtube but it seems to have disappeared.

Thanks to Andrew McMahon for the contribution!

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Chameleon Twist [N64 – Tech Demo]

Chameleon Twist is a platformer developed by Japan System Supply and published for the Nintendo 64 in 1997 by Sunsoft. In these screenshots below we can see an early Tech Demo / Target Render, from the early days of the project. The graphic was much more definited than the final version, while the scenario was empty and created just to show the “feel” of the game.

Thanks to Celine and Gilgalegrouik for the contribution!

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Thornado [N64 – Prototype]

thronadologo64

Also know as “Turrican 64”, Thornado was an action game / third person shooter that was in development at Factor 5 as a spiritual successor to the Turrican series, but with some inspiration from Metroid. This project was originally announced for the Nintendo 64, but it seems that only an early prototype / tech demo was created before it was put on hold, probably because Factor 5 was too busy to work on Star Wars: Rogue Squadron.

Originally they wanted to call the game “Turrican 64” but they could not settle on an agreement with the rights owner of the “Turrican” franchise, Rainbow Arts / Softgold. Eggebrecht said that it was internally referred to as “Thornado”, a mixture of “Thor” and “Tornado”.

The game would had featured eight levels with shooting and puzzles elements. Additionally, the game had two protagonists, a male and a female  The music would have been done by Chris Huelsbeck again and a sample is still available to download from the official F5 website.

As we can see from the few screens below, F5 realized a nice Target Render for Thornado 64, that was used to show how the game would have looked on the Nintendo console. The scene shows a scenario from the end of time, in which you had to jump over cars, shots to enemies and then fight an huge final boss. That’s only a tech demo though and probably they never created a playable one.

After some time and many delays, Thornado was cancelled for the N64 and Factor 5 tried to move it to the new “Dolphin” hardware (later know as the GameCube). As we know, even Thornado GameCube was cancelled and after so many years the project vanished forever from the gaming world.

Thanks a lot to Celine for the contribution!

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