Unseen News

A new link from Robert Seddon, that lead us to an article on Kotaku that talks about some removed Jedi Powers from the latest Star Wars game:

We implemented more force powers than we shipped with […] we removed some because of consumer feed back. There were too many in the game and (the force) started getting watered down.

We had this plague power where you could infect enemies and they would get sick and lose health over time,” he said. The plague power, which showed up in a different form in the final game as a crystal power-up for the light saber, also spread. When an infected enemy got near their cohorts they would catch the killing disease too. […] The Force Unleashed is such a visceral, fast-paced time, that it wasn’t that effective.

Well… this cut makes sense i presume.. but we can only wonder which other Powers were removed.. 

Thanks to GlitterBerri and her translations, we can read a series of interesting interviews about the development of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, with informations on some of the changes that were made. You can check the full interviews in here. Huge props to Glitterberry as always! Here are some highlights:

At the beginning, there was only Hyrule Castle.

In the beginning we put in so many trees, but they were becoming obstacles so we gradually removed them and in the end the wilderness disappeared.

For a long time Hyrule Field had nothing, it was terribly uninteresting. Of course, while you were trudging along in that wide empty plain we had planned to introduce effects such as wind, temperature, and atmosphere.

Absolutely, there were people suggesting “playing the ocarina is too tiresome, let’s make it automatic.” I was undecided as well, but when I went to examine the situation, I found the complainers were happily playing the ocarina too.

It’s also possible to call the horse with the ocarina.
In the beginning you used a reed pipe, but it was too much trouble so we eventually changed it to the ocarina.

I changed the ranch girl Malon into a songstress, so the horses were attracted to her because of her song. However, this didn’t really suit her dialogue at the time. Originally we had her singing alone in the middle of the ranch, but halfway through we changed it so she went to the castle, but then she didn’t sing anymore.

The story in Ocarina of time isn’t actually original, it deals with the Sages’ Imprisoning War from the Super Famicom’s ALttP.

Beyond that, at first it wasn’t a window Zelda was looking through, but rather a peephole. But then someone asked “why would there be a peephole in a castle courtyard?” Sadly, when we asked the the mappers to change the peephole to a window, I think we made one cry…

We also put material from one dungeon in others, no sense wasting what can be used again. It was easy to forget which devices were made for which dungeons.

We tried to put in lots of rupee-filled treasure chests at first, but people ended up getting annoyed wondering why there were so many rupees in a place where they were totally useless.

I, personally, really like the Forest Temple. It was the very first dungeon we designed in Ocarina of Time

We’d been fussing over how Link should open a treasure chest for 3 years. [..] We actually had some better ideas for the treasure chest, but we couldn’t fit it in this time. Maybe in the near future…?

Another list of interesting links from Robert Seddon, this time about cancelled ports and early versions of Little Big Adventure, one of the most fascinating adventure games that was released for PC and Playstation.

From an interview with Frédérick Raynal on the Magicball Network, we can read about the unreleased GBA port of LBA:

Assassin: a couple of years ago there were plans of porting LBA1 (and 2?) to the GBA. Have you been thinking about maybe porting them to one of the new systems?

Frederick Raynal: Didier did a good work on LBA GBA, it’s a shame
it’s never released. I would love to see ports on portable consoles,
if LBA3 starts there are good chances…

it seems that LBA for the Gameboy Advanced was finished, or at least in a playable form.. really a shame. Maybe on DS?

On Wikipedia there are a couple of notes on the development of LBA (but lacking citations):

It was initially planned as a SNES game, making use of the Super FX chip for real-time 3D game components.

In early previews, it was said that the player could drive vehicles in the game. This wasn’t implemented in the final version because of lack of time and the idea was kept for the game’s sequel, Little Big Adventure 2.

Another list of various versions of LBA:

Beta Version August 1994: This version is unique, in that it had encrypted texts, and a slightly different scene format than the final version. Also notable for having separate external .DIA, and .ORD, files (encrypted for some reason), instead of a single TEXT.HQR file. Available for download from the Magicball Network.

It’s also interesting to notice that Frederick Raynal worked on 2 other cancelled games, Agartha (Dreamcast) and Trium Planeta (GameCube/PC). Raynal even helped with the production of Soul Bubbles, one of the best DS games ever. He offered “spiritual and game design guidance” to the game’s creators. You can find our article on the beta of Soul Bubbles in here.

Thanks as always to Robert Seddon for these links!

In Grooveraider‘s Youtube Channel we can see a couple of videos from the E3 1996 Nintendo 64 USA debut, in an awesome quality and with some previusly unseen (or at least rare) beta scenes!

“After the E3 Press conferrence the Press was given this B-ROLL for newstations and media alike.”

Huge props to Grooveraider!

Video 1:  (Mario 64, Star Wars, Pilot Wings)

Mario 64 beta:

• Different M64 title
• Early M64 HUD
• Beta spiders in the Hazy maze Cave (with eyebrows? ahah WTF?)
• Beta Pokey in Sand Land
• Beta Big Boo

Video 2: (KI Gold, Wave Race, Mario Kart, Blast Corps, Kirby’s Air Ride, Star Fox)

Wave Race beta:

• Beta hud
• unknown level
• 4 subcheckpoints
• 5 drivers

Super Mario Kart R beta:

• Beta HUD
• Beta item-boxes
• Beta Character icons
• Kamek!

Blast Corps beta:

• Beta “Nuclear-Truck”