Playstation

Leaked, Playstation, Sony

Unreal P [PSX – Cancelled]

monokoma
03-06-2009
4 Comments

The original Unreal is a FPS developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes, released for PC by GT Interactive  in May 1998. A playstation port was in development by Pterodactyl Software with new exclusive levels and weapons, but it seems that  Infogrames decided to cancel the project for some reasons.

In may 2009  Leo from the Beyond Unreal community was able to get in contact with Kagle, a developer that worked on Unreal PSX:  Kangle  decided to share some unfinished maps from this unreleased game and Leo edited the original files to make them to work with Unreal PC. Those files can now be downloaded in here, to be preserved and played by the fans!

Here’s a little description of the 2 beta levels:

In the first level, you break into an archaeological excavation where they are digging out a giant alien ship that was buried millenia ago. In part 1, you run across to the ship and turn on its main generator. The generator activates a laser that was removed from the ship and lets you blast through to the elevator shaft to the lower level. In part 2, you have to activate an umbilical tube to connect to the ship, which lets you reach the bottom of the excavation, where you can get inside.

In part two, you enter the ship, which is an alien universe, to contact the alien (I think his name was J’Rath). In part 1, you find yourself in a 3D maze. You have to travel to the end of the maze by removing the barriers blocking you. Each barrier can be removed by going to one of the small pocket worlds and throwing a switch. In part 2, you have to reach the heart of the ship, a pulsing sphere. You follow a short path, fighting tiny monsters and turning switches, until you can get inside. Inside the heart is a series of chambers you have to swim through until you get to J’Rath’s chamber (he appears as a giant eye). The second set of levels is rougher than the first.

These two missions (broken into two pieces each) were set to be played at the end of the second of three acts in the game.  Since these levels were so late in the game, they were designed to be difficult for the player to complete.

Since these levels were designed for the PlayStation 1, the levels had to be scaled down to fit into the existing hardware.  The limitations placed on the levels were quite draconian and included: a maximum of 3000 polygons per level, low number of visible polygons per room (STAT FPS), a maximum of 3 monsters per room and fewer in rooms with high polygons.

With such restrictions in place, I agreed to create levels with a less combative and more puzzle-oriented approach.  In order to avoid large-scale combats, emphasis was placed on jumping puzzles.  Levels were organized so the player would have to return to the same locations repeatedly to save space and give the impression of longer gameplay.

Huge props to Leo and Kagle for preserving these lost levels and sharing them with the community!

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Playstation, Sony

Mutatis [PSX – Cancelled]

monokoma
28-05-2009
2 Comments

Mutatis was a game in development at Psygnosis (before they were bough by Sony and became SCE Studio Liverpool) for the original Playstation. Sadly we dont have any informations about its gameplay or story background. The project was later cancelled for unknown reasons and only some artworks remain.

It seems that Mutatis had some connection with Anathor, another cancelled PSX game by Psygnosis (could they have been the same project under different names?).

Thanks to Hey Hey for the contribution!

Images: 

Playstation, Sony

Xenogears [PSX – Beta / Unused]

monokoma
02-05-2009
1 Comment

Xenogears is a RPG developed and published by Square for the PlayStation on February 1998 in Japan and on October 1998 in North America. Originally, Squaresoft had intended to call the game “Project Noah”. The name was later changed to Xenogears for unknown reasons. It is the fifth part of a six-part story detailed in Xenogears Perfect Works; at the end of the game’s credits, “Episode V” appears on screen. [Infos from Wikipedia]

In April 2009 UltimateGraphics has translated the Xenogears Perfect Works in English, and it’s now possible to check many informations about parts of the plot that were left out of the games or changed before the release. The full translation can be found in here.

In the book we can find different design for the Omnigears and some unknown monsters. As Kid Fenris on the Lost Levels forum has pointed out, one playable party member, Margie / Marguerite / Maroeur, was reduced to a supporting role. Also, some characters illustrations that we can see in the book were not in the final game, but they were used as the character portraits during battles in the beta version.

Thanks to some articles on Xenogears: God & Mind, we can read about much more unused stuff still hidden in the game code, as various dialogue and text not actually present / or censored. “Point Bethlehem” is the name of an area that can be found in the text rip, but there’s no place with that name in the final game.

While the released Xenogears has 59 chapters (and a final epilogue) to play, we can find the name of 9 other chapters that were removed:

  • 03. House On a Hill
  • 05. Attack on Lahan
  • 08. Broken Silence
  • 09. Path to Aveh
  • 53. Fall of Solaris
  • 54. Shevat’s Move
  • 55. Broken Ties
  • 63. Waiting Death
  • 67. Xenogears Wakes

Also, it’s possible to gain access to a series of Debug Rooms, in which we can see many deleted scenes, “new” areas and hidden extra’s.

As they wrote on X:G&M: “due to budget problems, lack of time, or perhaps merely a desire to forego work on Xenogears in favor of other projects, production on Xenogears was ultimately cut short, and the creator’s original vision for the game was never truly realized”. You can check X:G&M for more informations about the removed scenes and dialogues.

As Robert Seddon has made us to notice, there’s a Xenogears FMV (Stars of Tears) that exists in the game’s files and can be acessed from the debug rooms, but reportedly it isn’t used anywhere in the actual game. The song was included on the official OST, so in a sense it did get used.

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Playstation, Sony

Project Overkill [PSX – Alpha / Beta]

U64 Staff & Contributors
23-04-2009
1 Comment

Project Overkill is a shoot ’em up game developed and published by Konami in 1996 for the original Playstation. The gameplay takes on a 3d-esque isometric view, in which the player chooses one of four mercenaries to lead through the levels. [Infos from Wikipedia]

My friend optiK sent me a link to this video (from Asuka120 youtube channel) and I thought it was neat:  it is in fact from a pre-alpha build and most of what we can see in this early footage was not in the final game.

Video (Alpha version):

Video from the final game: