Others

Others, PC / MAC

MageLords (Kinesoft) [PC – Cancelled]

monokoma
09-09-2021
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MageLords is a cancelled strategy game that was in development by Kinesoft around 1999 – 2000, planned to be released on PC. Its main features would have been a mix of RTS and empire-building gameplay, boosting epic battles with a hundred of 3D characters on-screen, something quite impressive for its time.

More details on what MageLords could have offered can be found in previews published by IGN and Gamespot:

“The world of MageLords was first ruled by a civilization known as Arcan, which was made up of six distinct clans. Each clan had a representative in Arcan’s ruling council, which governed all aspects of society. Over time, the council focused its efforts on harnessing the power of the magic that permeated its world. Each member of the council selected one of the six magical disciplines to study: good, evil, order, chaos, nature, and the nexus. The council adopted the title of MageLords and soon became distrustful of one another.”

“You play as a MageLord who remotely governs an empire and magically controls armies from afar. On the empire level you’ll need to extend your control to new provinces and build cities to increase the mana, gold, and food levels so you can build more powerful armies and cast more impressive spells to indirectly affect tactical battles.”

“MageLord’s 3D battlefield can engage up to 100 individual figures, from medieval human troops to super-sized giants and nasty demons. Figures are mainly controlled in unit formations, which depending on the figure’s size and strength, can include from one to ten individuals.”

“The game features a wide variety of creatures, including dragons, minotaurs, zombies, basilisks, skeleton warriors, death knights, hellhounds, and wraiths. While many creatures belong to one of the six main races in the game, others are neutral. Neutral creatures can exist in the world due to the work of the ancient evil force, the Asthorra, or they can merely be random wandering monsters.”

Thanks to Kinsie for the contribution!

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Others, PC / MAC

Psychic Warriors [PC – Cancelled]

monokoma
04-09-2021
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Psychic Warriors is a cancelled squad-based, cooperative multiplayer action game that was in development around 1998 by Black Ops Entertainment and would have been published on PC by Electronic Arts. Players would have taken the role of DEA agents with special psychic powers, fighting against a supernatural group of drug lords who are selling a strange new drug on the market. It seems the team was able to create an early playable prototype before the project was canned by EA for unknown reasons.

While the plot sounds like from a low-budget movie, it could have been a fun adventure to play with friends. Psychic Warriors was never officially announced, but a former EA designer shared some memories about working on this lost game and two (tiny) screenshots. If you know someone who worked on Psychic Warriors, please let us know!

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Others, PC / MAC, Playstation, Saturn, Sega, Sony

Mythos (DigiFX Interactive) [Cancelled – Playstation, Saturn, PC]

monokoma
28-08-2021
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Mythos is a cancelled first person shooter set in ancient Greece that was in development by DigiFX Interactive around 1996 / 1997, planned to be released on PlayStation, Sega Saturn and PC. Players would take the role of an ancient Greek demigod who had to rescue the land from the clutches of Hecate, the evil goddess of the underworld.

As we can read in their original press-release:

  • 15 unique magical weapons to acquire by exploration and combat. Lightning bolts, Magical spears, Fireballs, and transformation spells all at your command!
  • Fully texture mapped 3D rendered world. Randomly changing environments of land, air and sea!
  • 12 unique levels in which to walk or fly around in real time. Each with an awesome boss monster with which to do battle!
  • Mission types include: Search and rescue, total demolition, escort and defend villages.
  • Unique DAY AND NIGHT missions add a totally new unique gaming environment! Real world time simulations start in the day and progress into night!

Unfortunately DigiFX Interactive closed down in late 1997 due to financial issues. When the team was disbanded they were also working on other canned titles such as Mission to Nexus Prime and Kaiju.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution! 

N-Gage, Others

Virtually Board Snowboarding 2 [N-Gage – Cancelled]

monokoma
28-08-2021
1 Comment

Virtually Board Snowboarding 2 is a cancelled snow-racing game that seems to have been in development by Fathammer for Nokia’s N-Gage. The title was listed among some of the early games announced for the console-phone hybrid, but it quietly vanished. Thanks to derSlammer we found out this was indeed a sequel of the original game released on Club Nokia.

Players would have been able to choose between 3 game modes (big air, half pipe and snowboard cross) with local multiplayer via Bluetooth. As far as we know SSX Out of Bounds remains the only snowboard game released for N-Gage.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

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Others, PC / MAC

Kaiju (DigiFX Interactive) [Cancelled – PC, Mac]

monokoma
21-08-2021
No Comments

Kaiju is a cancelled real-time strategy game that was in development by DigiFX Interactive around 1996 / 1997, planned to be released on PC and Mac. Players could choose between 2 factions: kaijus (those giant monsters from classic Japanese movies) and humans. Depending on which faction you would play as your objective would be to protect or destroy cities.

As we can read from their official press-release:

“The city is under attack! Giant monsters breathing fire are leveling every building in sight. It is up to you to mobilize your forces and develop new technologies in order to stop these giant creatures, or choose to command a cadre’ of crazed dinosaurs, giant lizards, sea monsters, radioactive space monsters, “King Congo” (the biggest ape you ever saw) and other huge destructive creatures whose sole purpose is to obliterate mankind! No this isn’t just a “kill the bad guy” strategy game…it’s total destruction!

KAIJU is a Windows 95 and Macintosh “real time” strategy game with an entirely new twist! KAIJU contains one of the most unique and highly playable battle and economic systems in existence. Players can choose either the humans or the monsters! As the humans, the player must defend the cities from the creatures by using all the resources available. As monsters, the player must crush, stomp and obliterate every human (and everything) in sight! We’re not kidding, this game allows total destruction of everything!”

Game features:

  • Over 40 new units unique to KAIJU, including aircraft carriers, super attack planes, phase cannons, plasma mines, and artificial lightning generators, and “special” characters such as the “PSI”, the “Hero”, the “Brainy guy”, and the “Military guy”,
  • Create special characters that affect ‘normal’ units and structures. Just one example includes a unique character called a “PSI” that uses a sixth sense to battle the monsters. If the “PSI” enters a Radar Station, it becomes a “Monster Control Tower”, with the ability to ‘take control’ of any monster for a period of time.

Unfortunately DigiFX Interactive closed down in late 1997 due to financial issues. When the team was disbanded they were also working on other canned titles such as DigiFX Mission to Nexus Prime and Mythos.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!