Unseen News

Explodemon [PS3/Wii/PC – Prototype]

Explodemon! is an upcoming 2.5D side scrolling platform game in development by Curve Studios for PlayStation Network, Microsoft Windows and WiiWare. The project is described as “what Treasure would create if they mixed Yoshi’s Island with Half-Life 2”, and is inspired by elements from games as diverse as Street Fighter II, Halo, Super Metroid and Bangai-O.

In the personal blog of Jonathan Biddle, Design Director at Curve Studios, we can read an interesting series of articles about the development of Explodemon!, with images and videos from its early prototypes.  From his blog Jonatahn also released the December 2005 Explodemon proto, that you can download from here. Huge props!

There were always new games concepts bouncing around at Blue, and Jamie had a few, one of which was Exploding Robot 12. Jamie’s concept went something along the lines of humanity’s last hope – a robot that couldn’t stop himself exploding – being sent out to destroy the alien menace that was threatening all of mankind. From what I remember, it wasn’t so much a platform game, as an action puzzler, where you had to navigate sections that you didn’t want to destroy, as well as blow up the enemy spacecraft and whatnot. I always liked the idea, and my recent explosion-based thoughts lead me to wonder if it would translate well to a platform game. I mentioned it to Jamie and he was up for me carrying the idea on. The early builds even had the codename ‘R12’.

For more info on the Explodemondevelopment, check One Bit Beyond!

Videos:

For comparison, here’s the trailer from the final game:

 

Laguna Cool [PSX – Not Cancelled]

Update: thanks to Susumu and Matt we found out that this obscure RPG was really published in Japan with the name “Lagnacure” by a company called Artdink. You can find more screens of the released version at Snesorama!

Laguna Cool is a cancelled (?) RPG that was in development by Sony Music Entertainment in 1996/1997 for the original Playstation. The game was available at the Tokyo Game Show 1997 but we dont know if there was any playable demo or it was just a video. A single screenshot of this RPG was found by Celine in PSM magazine #3. There are pratically no info on the project, at least with the Laguna Cool title: could this game have been released with another name in Japan? If you recognize this screen, please let us know!

Thanks to Celine for the scan!

Image:

Laguna-Cool-PS1-PSM3-TGS-97 

Jurassic Park: Trespasser [PC – Beta]

Jurassic Park: Trespasser is a FPS developed by DreamWorks Interactive, which was released in 1998 for Microsoft Windows after much hype and anticipation. The game had a development period of more than three years. Money was the biggest hurdle in the development of Trespasser.

The game severely went over-budget several times throughout its development. Second only to money was time, as the game had to be ready to meet the release of the The Lost World: Jurassic Park film. Originally the game was to be released in the fall of 1997. However due to a number of problems the project was delayed by a year. The rush to release the game caused many features to be either cut, or left unfinished and unpolished.

Due to difficulties coding the behaviour of both arms together developers had to ditch the left arm entirely. A late shift in development effectively changed the game from survival horror to action shooter, and contributed to the many complaints the game received. Lack of experienced management and the use of artists who were unfamiliar with basic game development processes and 3D modeling has also been identified as a cause of problems. Developers struggled for more than two years on some problems and in the end released a game that is set within a very large, attractive, open, outdoor environment. [Info from Wikipedia]

In december 2009, ASSEMbler from the Assembler Games Community, was able to preserve and share an early beta of the game, in which it’s possible to explore the removed Pine Valley level, a Test area and see many other differences. The beta is available to download at the Assembler Forum.

As we can read in the videos descriptions:

This beta show the original far more sexy female character, who has a cut off tank top on, complete with sideboob and cleavage you can look between. The game’s life bar (tattoo) is moved, the breasts more detailed than the final version. The game has less physical objects in it, and runs much faster than the final version.

Videos:

 

U64 Winter Break Time! See you in 2010!

Is it snowing outside? Are you waiting for xmas presents? Well, the Unseen 64 Staff is going in vacation, too! From tomorrow, 21th of December, this site will be in “Winter Break Mode”, we are going to relax somewhere around the world and dream about beta games while we are playing  near the fireplace or skiing down the mountains.

Don’t worry! We’ll be back the 7 of January with all the updates and news from the unseen videogames world. In the meantime, there are still lots of things to do while we are away:

– Look and read: Check our archive of beta and cancelled games and read our articles.

– Contribute: Would you like to help the U64 Archive? Read how you can help us to preserve more beta screens, videos and info!

– Interact: Join the U64 Forum to discuss about unseen games with other geeks! We’ll post some updates and unseen-news in the forum while the site will be in winter break mode.

– Share: Do you have a website or a blog? Spread the unseen! Add www.unseen64.net to your blogroll or in your links page, write a post about lost games, talk about U64 with your friends, and share your beta-geekness. If more people know about this site, we could have more contributions and the archive can grow with more screens, videos, and info!

– Play more: it’s xmas time, probably you got some new games or money to spend into new games. Great! If you buy them from Play.com, from Zavvi, from The Hut, from Sendit or from Playasia using our links and banners, they give us some spare money! For you it’s free, for us it helps paying for the U64 server. Thank you guys :)

– Play the Super Mario World Beta Remake: Did you enjoy all those differences that can be noticed in the Super Mario World beta screenshots? With the SMW Beta Remake created by Randy, you will be able to enjoy the game how it may have been in its beta version! This is the best xmas gift for every Super Mario World Beta lover and it’s free.

– Donate: Your best gift for this xmas? Another year of  unseen games preservation! Donate a bit of your love to U64, to help us to pay for the server that will keep up the site for the next year.

[donateplus]

Thanks to everyone that supports U64 with love. See you all very soon!

The Unseen 64 Staff –