An archive with screens, info and videos for cancelled, beta and unseen videogames for the SONY consoles. Check U64 to understand what it means to preserve lost games.
Cold Winter is a FPS developed by Swordfish Studios and published by Vivendi Universal Games in 2005 for the Playstation 2. The game uses the Karma physics engine, allowing for interactivity with items in the game world and for ragdoll effects. Using a small inventory menu, some weapons and tools can be constructed, such as Molotov cocktails and lock picks. Originally the item creation system was more complex, but they had to scale it down for time and development issues. A previously announced Xbox version was later cancelled. [Info from Wikipedia]
Destructor1890 noticed some differences in the early 2003 screenshots:
Mega Man X Command Mission (Rock Man X Command Mission in Japan) was released only a few months before Mega Man X8, yet it takes place arround 100 years AFTER the events of X8. Also of note, is that it’s the first Mega Man X Game NOT to follow the standard style, due to the fact of it being an RPG adventure. Below, you will see what appears to be a prototype build, and two beta builds, along with a few videos.
Demo Videos
There’s some unused dialoge between the characters, namely what Cinnamon says to you… that, and the fact that she’s even where she is doesn’t make much sense. The fight with Wild Jango starts VERY differently in the final, and although the battle area is right, how you get there, is WAY off.
Also, you go into battle with X, Zero, and Axl. In the final version, all you have at your side is Spider, but then, in this demo, almost everything is out of order, so I just assume it’s a demo from E3 or something, which would make sense. In the final, the voices and text are in english, instead of like in the videos. Also, these were uploaded to IGN on august 6th i think, at least a month before american release, and just after japanese release.
Here are a couple of Trailers of the game. One of which shows X using a slightly altered version of his Action Trigger, Charge Shot. The screen goes black upon firing, and the camera is behind the enemy. In the final, the charge shot attacks more than just one enemy, doesn’t go behind enemy/enemies, and the screen DOESN’T go dark.
Pictures
Prototype (?) version
In these, the most notable difference is that X is in his standard form. No special colors, just standard X. In the final, he looks MUCH different. And to those that have played the game themselves, notice the vendor for the shop just to the right of X? Vendor my eye, that’s an enemy!Also, the attack seen in the In Battle picture, is currently unknown. It appears to be a Final Strike. Also of note, the Battle HUD is different from next version’s, and also different from the final. And, take notice and compare the Battle HUD in this version, the the one in the next version. Something odd going on here.
Version 2 (beta)
Here can be seen a few differences from the final. Dialoge is different, battle HUD is different, and so is the map.
NOTICE THESE!
I wanted to do a special point out for the above pictures. Character mugshots are in the “turn” lineup, that aren’t even in the battle at the moment. Also, I could be wrong, but, I don’t think you can switch characters mid battle, and even if you could, how could it predict something that hasn’t been set yet?
My personal guess is that there was more to the battle system planned at this stage of development. Also of note, is that the Battle HUD is the EXACT SAME in all three pics, so at this point, it’s just as possible that the HUD is just an overlaying image. Look at the numbers used for the character stats even. they go in almost perfect sequence. I mean, X’s life energy and weapon energy put together, read 1234567, then zero’s reads 7890234, axl’s reads 3456456.
Version 3 (near final)
There’s not alot here that’s different from the final, but still of note, is the fact that the beta map is still in use. The final map, isn’t too much different than the beta map in either version, but one very noticable difference is the white lines on the right and bottom sides are gone in the final.
Now then. Like I said, if there’s something I missed, please let me know, or if there’s something i’m calling beta and isn’t, let me know that too.
Dragon Quest VII (Dragon Warrior 7 in USA) was originally announced for the 64DD in 1996, but one year later the development switched to Playstation and the game was finally released in 2000. Unfortunately, we don’t know much about the beta versions of DQ7, but thanks to a video from the V Jump festival in 1998 (check below), uploaded by Carnivol in his YT Channel, we can see that originally Keifer (the blonde character) had a different dress.
Also, in the V Jump 1999 Festival video the monsters (especially their animations), seem to look better than their counterparts in the final version. What do you think?
Videos:
Compare the beta battles to the final ones (video below @ 3:36)
Campfire: Become Your Nightmare is a cancelled “reverse survival horror” that was in development in 2003 by Daydream Software, for the original Xbox and Playstation 2. The project was going to be an open ended action game, in which the player would had take the role of a serial killer, to massacre tourists and youngsters during their holydays in the woods. As we can read in the official press release:
What if you were the hunter instead of the hunted? What if your sole purpose in life was to cause misery, death, and pain to anyone and anything you encountered? Now you have your chance. So begins Daydream Software’s brutal “reverse survival horror” game, Campfire. Based on contemporary slasher flicks, Campfire allows players to choose from four different serial killers (Vincent Voucher, Mac Douglas, Louis Winterstorm, and Mannie the Clown) so that they may use them to wreck havoc on the unsuspecting populace of an out of the way campground.
Campfire vanished without any official announcement, but it’s possible that Daydream never found a publisher interested in the project.
Allegiance is a cancelled FPS / action game that was in development by Team17 in 1995 / 1996, rumored to be planned for the Playstation, Saturn and 3DO. According to Spong, it seems that the game was to feature a female lead character, Kay Brogan. Despite several level meshes being completed the game was canned due to the failure of the 3D engine to be developed in time.
In the aftermath of Tomb Raider some Team 17 staff tried to convert Allegiance into a Tomb Raider style game, but as the team had a reputation of original games, they decided not to follow this derivative route.
Thanks to Dream17 we can read a comment about Allegiance that Martyn Brown (Team17 co-founder) posted on his blog on March 30th, 2007.
A spy thriller that got not much further than some crackers budget FMV when again the company was knee deep in Worms focus elsewhere. I shudder to think how it all happened, really. The idea was sound, it just suffered from a total disregard of planning, design and implementation.
Celine was able to find a screenshot of this game in Cd Consoles magazine issue #7, and another scan is from Play Magazine issue #2. Thanks to Unclejun for the help with the video! Thanks to Andrew for the other scans Play Issue #1 (UK magazine)!
The Bard’s Tale is an action adventure developed by InXile Entertainment, and released in 2004 for the Playstation 2, Xbox and PC. DCodes7 found a way to activate the debug menu in the PS2 port. Most of the debug functions are disabled and the only working functions are the level/area select and level load option. Thanks to the debug menu it’s possible to reach three unused yet complete areas that can be played. Some names of removed (?) test maps were also found:
Wild Justice is a cancelled FPS set in an “horror western” scenario, that was in development in 2002 / 2003 by Primythive Studio for the Playstation 2 and Xbox. A playable prototype was created to pitch it to various publishers, but in the end Wild Justice had to be cancelled. If it would have been finished, the game could have been similar to Darkwatch, an horror wild west FPS developed by High Moon Studios and published in 2005.
Wild Justice was one of 4 prototypes that were created by Primythive, but it seems that the studio never found a publisher interested in their projects and sadly they had to close down without finishing any game. Only few screenshots and a teaser are saved in the gallery below, to preserve its existence.
Neo Geo Battle Coliseum is a 2 on 2 tag team fighting game developed by SNK Plyamore and released in 2005 for the Atomiswave arcade board, with a Playstation 2 port in the same year. Mikel noticed some beta differences in a trailer from the JAMMA/TGS 2004:
At 0:20, you’ll see Mai do her trademark Super Deadly Ninja Bees move, you may notice that when she starts the move, you will see that the Desperation Move Sparks are The King of Fighters XI, the Desperation Move sparks in the final version of Neo Geo Battle Coliseum are different, and the Desperation Move sparks you see later made it to The King of Fighters XI.
At 0:24, you’ll see Asura (From Samurai Shodown 64-2 (The 64 doesn’t mean that it’s for Nintendo 64, it’s for an old, abandoned Arcade Board by SNK named the “Hyper Neo Geo 64”)) preform a Double Assault, the Double Assault spark was later reused for the Leader Despeation move spark in The King of Fighters XI, and the Double Assault background is somewhat absent.
At 0:31, you’ll see Yuki doing a strange pose while K’ does some Light Kicks then K’ later taunts, the sprites for the pose Yuki was doing were absent in the final game.
At 0:33, you’ll see Fuuma doing a weird taunt that has him spinning his head around holding a folding fan, then he opens the folding fan (i.e. Mai Shiranui) at the end, I am not too sure if that taunt is in the final.
At 0:41, you’ll see that Hanzo’s stance is different, that stance was replaced with a new stance in the final game.
At 0:42, you’ll see that when Ai walks backwards, only one sprite shows up, she gets sprites when she walks backwards in the final game, and Ai’s taunt is also different.
At 0:47, you’ll see K’ preform his double assault with Tung Fu Rue, you’ll see that the background is black.
At 1:21, you’ll see Asura preform one of his moves, you will also see that the background doesn’t fade to black when he does the move (I forgot the name of the move, if you know the name, tell me right away).
Hell On Wheels is a prototype for an action game / beat ’em up that was in development by Skylab Entertainment in 2003 / 2004. Even if the name and the settings could make you to relate this game to Full Throttle: Hell on Wheels, this one was a different project, not related to the LucasArts series. The Skylab Entertainment studio was launched in March 2003 and it was based in Austin, Texas: it included original team members from Ritual Entertainment and Gathering of Developers. Hell On Wheels was their first original project, but it seems that they never found a publisher interested in it and in the end Skylab closed in down in 2005 without any released game.
South Park (originally titled South Park: Deeply Impacted during development) is a FPS based on the first few seasons of the popular TV series of the same name. The game is powered by the Turok 2 game engine and was released in 1998 by Acclaim for the PC, Nintendo 64 and PlayStation. Acclaim had announced a sequel to be released sometime in 2000, however this project never surfaced. [Info from Wikipedia]
As noticed by BattleBattleBattle, the game’s plot was initially different from what we got in the final version:
The close proximity of the blasted piece of space debris causes the local turkeys to revolt. It’s now up to you to stop those gobbling overgrown chickens who paint half of their faces blue, trying desparately to infringe on American lifestyle by refusing to get eaten. Oh, and Cartman’s mom was kidnapped by aliens, too. To add insult to injury, Skuzzlebutt’s also out of control, making it imperative that Kyle, Cartman, Stan, and Kenny step in, armed with a host of gadgets ranging from cow launchers to fart dolls.
We never see Skuzzlebutt out of control.
The beta multiplayer had 5 different modes to play with, as “Capture the Flag”, a “Grudge Match” and “Kick the Baby”, but in the end only the classic deathmatch mode was finished. The radar in multiplayer was different too (there was only 1 radar for everyone) and in an early screen we notice a level that could have been removed.
Also, Acclaim originally had planned two different styles of games, with the PlayStation version theoretically appearing in a Lost Viking-style of gameplay instead to be a FPS like the N64 and PC versions. A South Park game for the GameBoy Color was also in development, but never released.
If you can notice more differences in the beta screens, please let us know!
Thanks to BattleBattleBattle, MamaLuigiBarrelRolland Nat for the contributions!
