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Playstation

Propaganda is a cancelled mission-based racing game that was in development at Burst for Sega Saturn and the original Playstation in 1996 / 1997 and it would have been published by Virgin Interactive. The gameplay was going to be somehow similar to the Driver series, in which the player could have been able to explore the city with a car to complete various tasks. It’s currently unknown why the project was canned and only few screens were found in GamePro #92.

We can read more about the game in its original press release:

The world of Propaganda is perfect for the standard game story. In an alternate universe where Eastern Europe never really lost power, you play an ex-military loner, Jack Heller, who has been pulled into a rebellion against an evil government.
The film clips depicting this tale contain sets, costumes and acting (including an impressive performance by Yancy Butler of Drop Zone fame) that are worthy of a feature length film. Special effects have also been produced in a more traditional fashion – when the script called for a huge explosion tearing through a warehouse, the crew set up an actual explosion with a 20 foot jet of flame rather than use computer modeling which would have been easier, but looked less realistic.
And what about the game? After all, no amount of video, no matter how impressive, will keep players entertained if the actual play is terrible. Here also, Propaganda seems to shine. Although it’s far too early to make a final call, even at this stage of development, the game looks great. Finished stages revolve around player piloting armed cars through a 3-D world in which they have complete freedom.
Enemy cars loaded to the brim with amazing retro-tech weapons like wheeled torpedoes and side mounted guns are everywhere. Each of the game’s cities offers different challenges and more confusing pathways that the player will need to sort out in order to survive. Even better, the design team has gone to amazing lengths to blend the video footage with the game, creating a unified look that will be absolutely absorbing.

Thanks to Alex and Celine for the contribution!

Images:

Videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAWxUugTRSc

Playstation, Sony

Prowler [PSX – Cancelled]

monokoma

02-12-2009

5 Comments

Prowler (also know as Storm Troop and Prawler) is a cancelled sci-fi action game with mechs, that was in development at Origin Systems (the team behind the Wing Commander series) in 1994. Initially the project was meant to be released for the 3DO, as their Super Wing Commander remake, but with the failure of the console the game was soon moved to the Playstation. As we can read in an interesting article written by Sean Murphy (former Origin Systems designer) on the Wing Commander News website, the project had many problems right from the start:

Team communication was poor. Leadership was iffy. There was almost no dialog between the art staff and the programming staff. I remember one day, months into the project, sitting in a meeting and hearing the programmers drooling about how cool the game was going to be, how “dark…and gritty…and dirty, and oily and all mechanical and functional and stuff!” Clearly they had not gotten the memo about our grand notions of Neo Victorian design…
And some time later – as little as three months, possibly as long as six months – sure enough, EA pulled the plug on Prowler and let most of the team go.

You can read the full article from Sean Murphy in here. Some early concept videos from the game were preserved by the Origin Museum in 2008, and they will be shared with the community sooner or later. For now you can see some concept arts in the gallery below.

Celine was also able to find an in-game screenshot of Prowler, from TopConsoles #4 and CD Consoles #4 magazine (the same screen was in the 2 magazines). Anatoly Shashkin found even more promotional screenshots in July 2018!

Thanks to OMJoe for the contribution!

Images:

Playstation, Saturn, Sega, Sony

Mega Man X4 [PSX/Saturn – Beta / Unused Sprites]

monokoma

29-11-2009

No Comments

Mega Man X4 (aka Rockman X4 in Japan) is the fourth game in the Mega Man X series, released for the Sega Saturn and PlayStation in July 1997. Kei was able to find an old preview/trailer of the game from an equally old April 1997 Multiple Option CFC (Capcom Friendly Club) Style videotape from Japan. As Kei has wrote in the U64 Forum:

While this preview may not include much immediate beta/pre-release differences, there is one particularly noticeable element that can be heard in this video. For one, X sounds completely different as you see him jump and shooting out charged buster shots in the video; we’re talking about a pre-release video of the Japanese version here. Apparently, he had a different voice actor, as he sounds like a girl, much like he does in the English final version of RMX4. Zero also sounds slightly different as well, his Saber slashes are odd too.

Also, Bowserenemy and Protodude noticed some more differences in the same beta trailer:

Enemies are in different spots; Zero’s missing a few frames in his mid-air slar, and the hit detection is a bit off here and there. […] it’s the same as the third slash in his 3 hit combo, so just compare the two.

Hidden in the game’s code, Ace Spark from The Mechanical Maniacs has found some unused animation frames for Double, that could be from removed dialogue sequences [UPDATE: The running animation for Double is actually used in the game, but you only see it for a split second after you select a stage in the game. Thanks to OKei!]. An unused mugshot is in there too.

Some beta screenshots are available too, in which we can notice that the intro stage had a drill enemy in the beta, that was removed from the final game. When the place starts blowing up there are even more drill enemies. You can read more info on the beta at The Mechanical Maniacs!

Images:

Video:

An even later beta build than the one above with many more differences can be seen below:

Nintendo, Nintendo 64 & 64DD, Playstation, Sony

WWF War Zone [N64/PSX – Beta]

monokoma

22-11-2009

6 Comments

WWF War Zone was the first 3D WWF title to be released, developed by Acclaim Studios Salt Lake and published by Acclaim Entertainment in 1998 for the PlayStation and Nintendo 64. As Andrew has noticed, there were some beta screenshots in an issue of Game Informer (?) with Star Wars: Masters of Teräs Käsi on the cover. At the time, the game was simply referred to as WWF ’98. This beta version has no health bars yet, the ropes are red, white, and blue instead of just red, and the arena has American flags. There was a beta video on Youtube but it seems to have disappeared.

Thanks to Andrew McMahon for the contribution!

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Playstation, Sony

Barnstormers [PSX – Cancelled]

monokoma

14-11-2009

No Comments

Barnstormers is an arcade racing game in the vein of Mario Kart (but with flying aircraft), that was in development by 989 Studios in 1998, for the original Playstation. The project was later cancelled for unknown reasons, but you can still check some target renders in the gallery below.

Thanks to Hey Hey for the contribution! Some more concept art for racing tracks were archived from Concept Art Org

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