Spearhead is a cancelled action / puzzle game that was in development by Scavenger for the Sega Saturn. There are not many info available on the project, but it seems that players would had take control of a “sphere suit” to explore 7 levels / mazes in the same vein as Marble Madness / Spindizzy Worlds / Super Monkey Ball. Sadly Scavenger had to close down in 1997 for economic issues and most of their games were never released.
Thanks to Rod_Wod for the scan!
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Ape Escape is an action game developed by Sony Japan Studio for the original PlayStation in 1999. Thanks to Devonjames10, we are able to take a look at a Pizza Hut Demo, that has some beta differences as noted in the video. If someone could find some other beta screens or videos, please let us know!
Thanks to Devonjames10 for the contribution
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Agent is a cancelled action / sandbox style game that was in development in 2003 by Rockstar San Diego / Angel Studios, for the Playstation 2 and Xbox. There are not many info available on the project, as it was never officially announced, but we can assume that it was going to be somehow similar to the GTA series. In the end the game was never finished for unknown reasons, but it’s possible that Rockstar San Diego had to shift resources to finish Red Dead Revolver. Only few screens and a video from an ealry prototype / tech demo are saved in the gallery below, to preserve its existence.
A new project also called Agent is now in development at Rockstar North for the Playstation 3, but we are not sure if the 2 games are somehow related. As we can read in Wikipedia, Agent by Rockstar Nord will be set in the world of the late 1970s and it will “take players on a paranoid journey into the world of counter-intelligence, espionage, and political assassinations”.
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Adventures of Pinocchio is a beta version of Ottifanten, an action puzzle game developed by Bit Managers and released in 1998 for the GameBoy, based on some german comics. While there is a released Pinocchio game for the Game Boy mono, “Adventures of…” is a completely different title and Bit Managers never listed this one on their homepage, only Ottifanten. A playable version of this beta was leaked online, and it’s often confused for an official released game. Trying out the game shows that you cannot lose any lifes – the counter won’t work. This is no final release and there is none because it’s an unreleased game.
As we can read in a Wikipedia entry, the game relies on 115 separate levels of puzzle action, played by viewing the playing field in isometric projection. Pinocchio’s main objective is to get to the arrow (the exit) on the screne in order to move onto the next level. If the player is able to navigate Pinocchio to the objective before the timer runs out, he gets a certain number of points equal to the time left. Once this number reaches 500, the Fairy will bestow Pinocchio with an extra life.
As noticed by BigFred, a closer look at the dump floating around will reveil a weird internal name “Infrey Quest”, so we can speculate that before Pinocchio and Ottifanten, Bit Managers tried to develope their own original IP. When they did not find any publisher interested in Infrey Quest, they changed the game in Pinocchio and later into Ottifanten, with their more recognized characters.
Ottifanten uses the same game concept as well and the same music as Adventure of Pinocchio. It even looks like the basic stage design is the same.
The released Pinocchio for GameBoy looks like this:
Thanks a lot to BigFred for the contribution!
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Halo Reach is Bungies fifth and final game in the Halo series. It is a prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved, it takes place during the final days of the human colony Reach before the Covenant glass the planet. The game follows the story of Noble Team, a 6 Spartan squad who try desperately and fail to save their planet. Due to the games mature subject matter it is said to be Bungies darkest game yet.
At Bungies 2010 PAX Presentation they went over the games development all the way from chicken scratch on a piece of looseleaf paper to the finished product we have today. In these following comparison screens you can see just how much a map can change over the course of 3 years. The 1st screen is the map in its early development stage, and the 2nd screen is the map as we know it today.
Early Development
Final
Early Development
Final
Early Development
Final
PAX 2010: Bungie Halo: Reach Panel
The Development of Noble Team
At the beginning of Halo Reaches development there were originally going to be 8 Spartans in Noble Team.
The original Noble 8
This was then cut down into a 7 member Noble Team.
Noble 7
Spartans Rosinda, and Thom didn’t make the final cut. Thom is still in the games story though in the form of he died and the player character is replacing him.
Character Changes
Hadlermaster from bungie.net forums was kind enough to create comparison shots of the different characters in the game showing their early video looks compared to the Live Action and Final Game models.
This one’s especially interesting because Jun’s completely different looking, and Emiles face is never shown in the final game
Bungie PAX Part 2
Cut Gameplay Prototypes
Videos
DLC Betas:
Following are pictures of an Anchor 9 DLC map beta with their released counterparts. Amongst just the map model there is also additional items on the map that were later removed such as a Moah Vehicle you can ride which was fully removed from the game.
