Miss Honeybee was going to be a platform game for the Amiga: it was in development by Kaiko, but they never finished the project for some reasons. Some of the sprites, like the chikens, were used even in Timet / Mr. Nutz.
Thanks to Celine for the contribution!
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Creation was a cancelled project from Bullfrog Production that started as a concept for the Amiga in 1992, then it became a PC aquatic-theme action / strategy game in 1995. For various marketing problems, the project was never finished.
Some scans with old previews can be found at Amiga Magazine Rack!
Thanks to Robert Seddon and Celine for the contribution!
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Unreal is a FPS developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes and published by GT Interactive in 1998. Originally, Unreal was going to be a Quake-style shooter: earlier screens showed a large status bar and centered weapons, similar to Doom and Quake. The main character was also going to be a woman, however in the final version the main character’s gender is selectable in the game’s “player setup” screen, though the default is a female character named Gina. One of the weapons shown in early screenshots was the “Quadshot”, a four-barreled shotgun. The model remains in-game, while there is no code for the weapon to function. Another weapon shown was a different pistol, however this may have just been an early version of the Automag. At one point the rifle could fire three shots at once, which is wrongly stated as the alternate fire in the Unreal manual that comes with the Unreal Anthology.
As development progressed, various levels were cut from development. A few of these levels reappeared in the Return to Na Pali expansion pack. A number of enemies from early versions are present in the released software but with variations and improvements to their look. One monster that didn’t make the cut was a dragon. [Info from Wikipedia]
Various Unreal beta builds were leaked online and thanks to Leo some of those files were fixed to play them better. You can download these files in here. Some other early demos can be find at Unreal Services:
Unreal TechDemo 1995 (Size: 2.27 MB)
A unique piece of Unreal’s history: A playable technology demo from 1995. The demo contains 5 never seen before maps with textures and music that did not make it into the final game.
Unreal Beta 1997/98 (Size: 141 MB)
Big Unreal demo from 1997, leaked in 1998. An entire beta Unreal version including UnrealED. With many working levels and some levels that are not working or not completed yet. It’s really nice to see how some levels have been improved from this beta on and sad to see that some very good levels have been scrapped later. It also included levels of Return to NaPali, but at that time it was still one game.
Also, if you have some free time you can check this long thread at the Beyond Unreal Forum, in which there are many info on the various beta versions.
Thanks to Leo for the contribution!
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Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver is a third-person adventure game developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Eidos. It was released for the PlayStation and PC in 1999 and for the Sega Dreamcast in 2000. Soul Reaver entered development alongside Blood Omen 2: Legacy of Kain in 1997 and focused on puzzle solving instead of Blood Omen 2’s action.
Initially, the game was set to be released October 1998. The secondary release date was then made January 1999. Due to the game still remaining unfinished. It was granted a final delay of approximately 7 months which then, the game went gold in July 1999 and subsequently got released August 1999.
Unfortunately, these delays occurred because the game wasn’t progressing quickly enough in terms of asset creation to fulfill their original vision for Soul Reaver. Several interviews suggested the designers noticed they had an overly designed game thus had no option but to remove certain areas of the game.
Some removed areas are known as:
Amy Hennig stated that the development team split the original, much larger plans in two after realizing that they had “over-designed the game”. This decision explains Soul Reaver’s cliffhanger ending and the appearance of originally planned material in later games. Despite the split, Hennig explained that the team left unused components in Soul Reaver’s game engine to avoid unforeseen glitches that might have arisen from their removal. [Infos from Wikipedia] This is why certain reavers are accessible even though they are not actually obtainable on the retail version.
As we can read in this interesting article from The Lost Worlds, many items, weapons and areas were removed / not used in the final game, as the Amplified Force Projectile & Possession abilities, The Amplified Reaver and The Ariel Reaver weapons, Five additional Reaver upgrades and the The Mountain Retreat area. You should check the Lost Worlds article for more informations, it’s really well done!
Thanks to John Doom for the contribution!
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Alpha: July 1998
Alpha: January 1999
Beta: 12th May 1999
Beta: 28th June 1999
Blood Bowl is a cancelled sport / action game that was in development by Psygnosis for the original Playstation and PC in 1998. The gameplay could have been something like Speedball or Mutant League Football. The project was stopped when the company went into financial troubles, before being bought out by Sony. It’s interesting to notice that Psygnosis’ Blood Bowl was probably based on the board game of the same name and two other Blood Bowl games were released by other companies in 1995 and 2009.
Thanks to Celine for the contribution!
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