Playstation

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

Dragonflight: Chronicles of Pern [PC PSX Dreamcast – Beta]

monokoma
05-11-2011
2 Comments

Dragonflight: Chronicles of Pern is an action adventure based on the Dragonriders of Pern book series by Anne McCaffrey, that was in development in 1998 / 1999 by Grolier Interactive for PC and Playstation. Initially the game was going to have a style similar to Diablo, but after a couple of years of development, Dragonflight became an action game with a 3rd person view camera. In june 2000, Grolier Interactive stopped releasing videogames when they were bought by Scholastic.

Grolier Interactive’s game could have been doomed, but it seems that Ubisoft bought their assets, cancelled the Playstation version and moved the Dragonflight to Dreamcast and PC.  In 2001, they finally released this project as Dragon Riders: Chronicles of Pern.

An old interview with Grolier Interactive can still be read at RPG Vault:

Can you provide some details on development progress that has been made over this time?

Oliver Sykes: What people may remember from the previous incarnation of the game is a very isometric viewpoint, a bit like Diablo. One of the major changes in the game is the camera system. We can now script the camera to act very cinematically. It can track with the player, spin round him, drop from above to below. Any number of camera shots can linked to describe a location and the characters in it as well as adding a great deal of fluidity.

Could you explain the level of depth and interaction we can expect from NPCs? What kind of a conversation system is there?

Oliver Sykes: The conversation system is fairly linear in most places. This choice was employed as we have such a vast number of characters to converse with, the conversation choices would have gave our scripters headaches. However, at key moments during the game you can make choices and these choices will effect the outcome of events. One choice could give you bonuses and unlock new locations and characters, whereas another may lead you down an entirely different path with different consequences.

Thanks to Celine for the scans!

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Playstation, Sony

Tomorrow Never Dies [Beta – Playstation]

U64 Staff & Contributors
26-10-2011
No Comments

Tomorrow Never Dies was developed by Black Ops and then published in 1999 by Electronic Arts. On release, it was immediately compared to Goldeneye on the N64. One of the main criticisms was the lack of multiplayer, with only 10 single player missions making up the game. Yet, in the game’s content, there is an image of the beta multiplayer loading screen, so there were plans for it at some point, but abandoned before release.

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One of the loading screens also shows a level set on the HMS Devonshire, which was in the movie but cut from the game.

There is speculation that other unused beta content may have survived from an earlier, cancelled game called Tomorrow Never Dies: The Mission Continues:

The original VHS release of Tomorrow Never Dies featured a brief trailer with Desmond Llewelyn which highlighted a game that would “start where the film ends.” Footage shows bond skiing, scuba diving and driving in third person and on a first person shooting mission. The game was to come out on Playstation and PC in the fall of 1998 and was being made by MGM Interactive, not EA; EA was not involved in Bond until November of that year.

A Tomorrow Never Dies game was finally released on November 16th 1999, distributed by EA, but with notably differences from the 1998 attempt. The game was a third person shooter with the scuba diving level nowhere to be found. But perhaps the most glaring difference was the fact that the story now followed the plot of the film, not the continuation that had been promised.

A level in the game sees Bond skiing down a mountain and killing a Japanese terrorist named Sotoshi Isagura (who had featured very briefly in the film), while on another stage Bond has a driving mission in Switzerland. These were not from the film and may have survived from the ‘continuation’ story.

Article by Edward Kirk, source: Wikipedia 

Nintendo, Nintendo 64 & 64DD, Playstation, Sony

Warspirits [N64 PSX – Cancelled]

monokoma
20-09-2011
No Comments

Warspirits is a cancelled action game that was in development by Candle Light Studios for the Playstation and Nintendo 64. There are basically no official info about this project and sadly only few screenshots are archived in the gallery below, to preserve its existence. We can speculate that the game was cancelled because they were not able to find a publisher interested in it. If you have more info on this game, please let us know!

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

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Playstation, Sony

TwinBee Miracle [PSX – Cancelled]

yota
01-09-2011
4 Comments

TwinBee Miracle is a cancelled RPG that was in development for the original Playstation. TwinBee Miracle was supposed to be the first “next-gen” iteration of the well-known, at least in Japan, Konami shoot’em up series. Unfortunately, we don’t know much about the game apart that is was a 2d turn-based jrpg and that it was scheduled to be released on Psx in 1996 for the 10th year anniversary of TwinBee. A TwinBee RPG got out in japan in 1998, but it was a completely different game.

A video of Twinbee Miracle appeared in a 1995 V-jump tape and Arron was able to get a copy of it and to upload the footage on Youtube!

Thanks to Defunct Games for a bigger scan of  the”Nov 1995 Die Hard Game Fan” magazine and to Youloute for “Consoles+ 49 – December 1995” magazine scan!

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