Others

Others, PC / MAC

The Institute (Dimension Creative Designs) [PC – Cancelled]

monokoma
28-10-2021
No Comments

The Institute is a cancelled horror adventure with comical elements that was in development by Dimension Creative Designs (Synthetic Dimensions) around 1996 / 1997, planned to be released on PC. As with their other canned project “Federation” we cannot find any information about The Institute anywhere online, but thanks to Alex we saved a short preview that was published at the time in a Spanish magazine.

It seems gameplay would have been similar to Myst, with a story inspired by Kafka’s The Trial: a mysterious group of people within the establishment have planned to accuse the protagonist of a crime that he did not have committed. Players must escape from the police, finding a way to enter The Institute, searching for clues about what is happening and why they want to persecute the protagonist.

Dimension Creative Designs are mostly known for working on such titles as Corporation, Druid: Daemons of the Mind, Ed Hunter but as far as we know they never released anything similar to The Institute and it’s unclear what happened to this lost game. If you know someone who worked at DCD please let us know!

Thanks to Alex for the contribution! 

Others, PC Engine / PC FX

Geisha Warriors [PC Engine – Cancelled]

monokoma
28-10-2021
No Comments

Geisha Warriors ( 芸者ウォーリアーズ) is a cancelled parody action game that was in development by Taito around 1993, planned to be released on the PC Engine Super CD ROM. It seems this would have been a humorous take on The Ninja Warriors, in which players would fight enemies using a japanese geisha instead of a Ninja.

The game was shown in various japanese magazines and by looking at screenshots it seems it would have featured animated cutscenes and many parody characters, such as drunk old men, almost naked workers and tanks with legs. Geisha Warriors could have been quite the fun game for its time, but in the end Taito cancelled the project for unknown reasons.

Images: 

Others, PC / MAC

Command & Conquer Renegade 2: Battlegrounds [Cancelled – PC]

monokoma
27-10-2021
No Comments

Command & Conquer Renegade 2: Battlegrounds is the cancelled sequel to Westwood Studios’ action shooter, planned to be released on PC by Electronic Arts. Development of Renegade 2 started immediately after the release of the first game, and the story was supposed to be set between Command & Conquer and C&C Red Alert 2.

Players would have been able to choose between first person and third person view, with the same action-focused gameplay already seen in Renegade 1. The game was divided into different missions, in which you had to destroy objectives, eliminate enemy troops or find important items.

Unfortunately in 2003 Westwood Studios were closed by EA, the team merged into EA Los Angeles and Renegade 2 was canned due to the low popularity of the first game. At the same time EA also cancelled another C&C project, an online RPG titled Command & Conquer Continuum.

Thanks to Josef for the contribution!

Images:

Videos:

 

Microsoft, Others, PC / MAC, Xbox 360

Wild Summer (Novarama) [Cancelled – Xbox 360, PC]

monokoma
24-10-2021
No Comments

Wild Summer is a cancelled action adventure that was in development by Novarama around 2005 / 2006, planned to be released on Xbox 360 and PC. Gameplay would have been similar to Rockstar’s Bully, with a young protagonist exploring an open world city using parkour moves, resolving missions and… stealing panties?

Players could go out for drinks, flirt with girls and do other “youth leisure activities”, as covered in a 4Gamer preview (translated from Japanese):

“The range of activities is not limited to the city, but you can also travel to Sun City University and the neighboring town of El Serito. What you do in this space is entirely up to you. That’s why you go to parties and do bad things with local gangsters. […] one of the main objectives is to win Jessica over, the girl of your dreams.”

“[…] while jumping between buildings from roof to roof, I found a gang of young shaved heads in dragon shirts. […] At this point, the player was pressed against the binoculars and instructed to steal three panties that hang outside a window on the rooftop. This seems to be the initiation (rite of passage) for joining the gang.”

Today Novarama are mostly known for working on Reality Fighters and the Invizimals franchise. As we can read on their site:

“Novarama began working on PC titles, releasing Fallen Lords: Condemnation in 2005 all over Europe. We then moved on to Wild Summer, a PC / Xbox360 adventure title, which was cancelled and never saw the light of day.”

Thanks to David for the contribution!

Images:

Videos:

 

Others, PC / MAC

Federation (Dimension Creative Designs) [PC – Cancelled]

monokoma
21-10-2021
No Comments

Federation is a cancelled sci-fi action RPG / space exploration adventure that was in development by Dimension Creative Designs (Synthetic Dimensions) around 1996 / 1997, planned to be released on PC. We cannot find information about this project anywhere online, but thanks to Alex we saved a short preview that was published at the time in a Spanish magazine.

As many other canned space-adventures of the ‘90s the team conceived Federation as an overly ambitious 3D galaxy full of planets you could freely explore. We could imagine it as a mix between Mass Effect, Elite and Star Citizen: players would have been able to fly between planets, explore their continents, trade with their inhabitants and resolve various space-missions.

Dimension Creative Designs is mostly known for working on such titles as Corporation, Druid: Daemons of the Mind, Ed Hunter but as far as we know they never released anything similar to Federation and it’s unclear what happened to this lost game. If you know someone who worked at DCD please let us know!

Thanks to Alex for the contribution!