“Xtreme Machine” was supposed to be a hovercraft racing game “Carmaggeddon” style for the PC. It was been developed by NMS and SCi in 1998. In this game you would drive in different scenarios such as water, fire and lava. It was been promoted as a video game with great graphic details, a suitable choice to test the new 3D video cards that were released in 1998. There is no info about why this game was cancelled.
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Soccer Nation was a soccer video game developed in 1996 by the British company Crush! a subsidiary of SunSoft. This game was supposed to be a mix between FIFA and Football Manager. The developers said that new players would have no difficulty getting around the game. You would also have the possibility to create your own stadiums. When Crush! The relationship with SunSoft ended, the game was eventually cancelled.
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To a man named Al Lowe, we owe the birth of such quest classics as Torin’s Passage, King’s Quest, Police Quest, and of course, the Leisure Suit Larry series. In 1995, while still working for the Sierra, he took on a project with the promising title of Capitol Punishment («Capital Punishment», meaning the death penalty). Outwardly, the game was made in the same style as Larry’s adventures, only this time Al swung at nothing less than American politics.
Bill and Hillary Clinton were the protagonists of the Capitol Punishment, and the well-known scandal was in the spotlight. Also, the objects of parody were the largest statesmen of the United States, the foreign policy of the White House and other slippery topics. A completely new, three-dimensional engine was created for the game. In addition to the quest itself, the Capitol Punishment was full of arcade mini-games – in the demo, for example, it was proposed to help the American president raft down the stormy river on a flimsy raft.
One can only guess what such a slippery theme with trademark humor in the style of Leisure Suit Larry would lead to. But Al’s comrades were let down by the vaunted engine, which did not stand up to field tests, and the Capitol Punishment was closed. Three years later, Lowe left the Sierra, and seven years later he founded his own studio, iBase Entertainment, and announced the creation of Sam Suede: Undercover Exposure, the first action-comedy game, which, unfortunately, also was cancelled.
What we can read from old interview:
V: A few years back, Sierra hyped a game by the name of Capitol Punishment that you were working on. Suddenly, it disappeared. What was the nature of its removal from the product schedule? How was along was it in production before being cancelled?
AL: It got far enough along for me to realize it was a better premise than game! There were some clever ideas in it, but at the time, it was a new game engine that ran beautiful with a test-size set of data. But when we actually loaded in enough characters, objects, graphics, sounds, etc to make a game…it bogged down terribly. Of course, with today’s Pentium-requirements it would run just fine. Hey! Maybe…just maybe….
Information is taken from «Игромания» magazine, 03 (114) 2007
The Mindwarp was an action video game that was been developed by Maxis for PC by 1997. It was the first non-simulation game made by Maxis. In this game you drive a space ship in an alien base that connects itself by tunnels. Your mission was to discover a secreat that could threat the whole human nation. In the development of the game they were using “new and innovative” programming and designing technology based on geometric calculations to achieve a never seem before 3D realistic experience.
Initially the game was been devoloped for PC with the possibility to be ported for other systems. According to some of the people that worked on the game, the development of The Mindwarp had issues from the beginning and the demo gameplay look a “bit buggy”. When Maxis was acquired by Electronic Arts it resulted in the cancellation of the game.
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Wehrwolf is a cancelled World War II First-Person Shooter developed from 2003 to approximately 2006 by Ukrainian studio Electronic Paradise and published by Discus Games, only for PC.
Wehrwolf was officialy announced in February 2004. By the time, here is what we could read on the old defunct website about the game:
Wehrwolf is a first person 3D action-adventure game. It has two modes: singleplayer and multiplayer game. The style of the game is similar to the styles of Call of Duty and Medal of Honor but with up-to-date graphics.
- Wehrwolf is creating on the basis of its own 3D engine having both indoor and outdoor. The main features of the engine are as follows: unlimited landscapes, realistic water, natural growth and other objects, dynamic light, soft shadows, animated clouds, interactive weapons.
- The scenario of the game bases on the real episodes of the Second World war. The action takes place in the outskirts and inside the German top-secret military facility Hitler’s field headquarters Wehrwolf.(note: Wehrwolf – armed wolf, Werwolf – werewolf) not far from Vinnitsa. Even today this facility is covered under the curtain of mystery, secrets and myths. Until now Wehrwolf is one of mysterious and undiscovered places in Europe.
- The player will have to act as a member of soviet special assignment squad “Victors”(this squad really existed during the Second World War), which was dropped deep beyond the enemy lines for diversions and to uncover the mystery of Wehrwolf…
- There are to be 15 singleplayer and 5 multiplayer levels, 25 kinds of infantry weapons, more than 10 different kinds of vehicles, 20 kind of heavy equipment.
- 3D models of Wehrwolf bunker, villages and Vinnitsa of the 1940’s are being specially recreated for the game. 3D model of the weapons are created using real infantry weapons of the Second World War, which were neutralized on the military factory. The weapons in the game are as follows: PPSh-41, PPS-43, MP-40, PD-27, RPD-44, MG-34, Mosin riffle, Tokarev riffle, TT and revolver. Real Soviet and German military equipment were bought to recreate real textures in the game: uniform, helmets, flasks and others.
Shortly after its reveal, GenGamers was able to get an interview with Electronic Paradise’s director Sergei Melikhov, describing more about the game:
GG: When did you start the development for your game Wehrwolf and how many people are working on it?
SM: We started the development in September 2003. Our team consists of 6 people.
GG: Have you been inspired by other games or movies?
SM: We were inspired by Medal Of Honor, Call Of Duty, I.G.I. 2 and Return To Castle Wolfenstein.
GG: Is Wehrwolf a typical shooter or will you implent interesting gameplay variations?
SM: Wehrwolf is not a typical shooter. We plan to add some adventure & stealth elements. The player will need to use his tactical skills to complete small missions, looking for the most suitable decisions. These tasks will have various salvations.
GG: How long will it take to finish the game?
SM: We plan to finish it by the middle of 2005.
GG: And what´s up with the mod community? Will they be able to create their own levels?
SM: We started the creation of the separate level editor. The players will be able to create their own levels and characters with its help.
GG: What kind of music will you include?
SM: We ordered musical compositions with war theme for the game. The composer is rather famous here in Ukraine and in England: Alexander Sparinskiy. We think there will be about 10 musical themes.
After that, the game occasionally showed up in the media through various screenshots as well as 2 gameplay videos, but wasn’t released in mid-2005. Thereafter, it seems that the project was put on hold and Electronic Paradise has instead developed what would be their only game: Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel, released in 2007 in Russia. We can assume that something didn’t work out as planned for Wehwrolf and its developer had to refocus on a more economically viable project. Electronic Paradise disappeared completely after that, as well as Discus Games, rather modest in its published games.
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