Nintendo 64 & 64DD

Nichimen Graphics Beat ’em Up [N64 PSX SAT – Tech Demo]

At E3 1996, Nichimen Graphics shown a tech demo with a beat ’em up for the Nintendo 64, Saturn and Playstation. As we can read in an old press release, their N-World 3 engine included N-Geometry (polygonal modeler), N-Dynamics (scripting), Skeletal Animation System (motion capture editing tools and animation tools, plus skeletal posing using both IK and traditional methods), N-Render (photorealistic ray tracing renderer), N-Paint & N-Paint 3D (2D and 3D paint systems) and Game Express (for artists to preview data directly on a 3D game platform). Currently we dont know if this engine was ever used for a realeased beat ’em up / fighting game.

In one of the photos published in Edge magazine from June 1996 you can notice that over the TV with the N64 tech demo, there was also a Ultra 64 prototype pad.

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Cruis’n Exotica [Beta – N64 / Arcade]

As we can read on Wikipedia, Cruis’n Exotica is the 1999 sequel to Cruis’n World and the third entry in the Cruis’n series by Midway Games. The levels take place in exotic locations in the universe, such as Las Vegas, Thailand, and even the surface of Mars. The game also allows a player to choose a driver visible onscreen during races, including a martian, a baby, a clown, and a cowboy. The game was ported by Gratuitous Games and released on the Nintendo 64 in 2000.

Butterhands found some beta screenshots, that you can see below. There are 2 cars that are missing from the final version, and the car with the 2 girls is the Modbuggy, but is not faithful to the final versions. Also in the Ireland track there were cows are in the street! You could certainly have been able to hit them.

If you know someone that worked on this game or if you have a prototype with these differences, please let us know!

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cruis'n exotica beta
cruis'n exotica beta
cruis'n exotica beta
cruis'n exotica beta
cruis'n exotica beta 

Spiderman (2000) [Beta – PSX / N64]

As we can read on Wikipedia, Spider-Man is an action game based upon the Marvel Comics character of the same name. It is loosely based on the 1990s Spider-Man and Spider-Man Unlimited cartoon series. The game was developed by Neversoft and published by Activision for the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 in 2000.  In the videos below we can see some beta differences, as the Web Counter (different textures), some beta levels were bigger than the final, some  monsters looks different and they were in other areas than the final ones.

Thanks to solidsnake11 for the contribution and Megaroxas12 for the videos!

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Blues Brothers 2000 [N64 – Beta]

Blues Brothers 2000 was a platformer developed by Player 1 and released on November 17th 2000 for the Nintendo 64. Titus Interactive acquired the license to a Blues Brothers 2000 video game at around the time of the BB2K movie release. They began their search for a developer to take on the project and had an estimated release date Q2 1999. The game ended up suffering many delays being pushed back to December 1999 and then again to early 2000. These delays may have been due to the poor reception at the time of Carmageddon 64 and Superman. It was in August 2000 that Blues Brothers 2000 got a rental release at Blockbuster. Gamers had to wait till November 2000 before they could finally purchase Blues Brothers 2000 at a retail store.

 

Vampire Circus [N64 – Prototype]

Vampire Circus was a Gauntlet-like type of game full of vampires and zombies planned for Nintendo 64 by Zed Two who started working on it in 1996. The game was designed so that you controlled just a single character out of the five in the party, and the others would be under AI control, although you could switch which of the five you were controlling. Each had different skills and abilities, so there was good reason to swap your control between different characters, and it was also possible to lose members of your party to the vampire hoard, so you could only control members of the party that remained alive.

Zed Two got quite far with a playable prototype but when Infogrames took over Ocean, who originally struck a two games deal with the developer (the other one was Wetrix), they forced the team to work with Warner Bros properties they just bought at a great expense. The promising project was thus morphed into the less ambitious Taz Express.

All information and artworks are courtesy of Pickford Bros official website.

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