New Cancelled Games & Their Lost Media Added to the Archive

Nintendo, SNES + Super Famicom

Plok [SNES – Beta / Concept / Unused Stuff]

monokoma
01-10-2009
1 Comment

Plok was a Super Nintendo game developed by Software Creations and published by Tradewest Games in 1993 in the United States, and later by Nintendo in Europe and Activision in Japan. The game is a traditional platform game starring a character named “Plok.” [Info from Wikipedia]

At the Pickford Bros’s website they have an interesting archive with many info and concept arts from the development of the game, in which we can see some unused costumes and characters. The Plok project started out as another game called “Fleapit” a coin-op developed while Pickford Bros worked at Zippo Games, for Rare’s custom hardware ‘Razz’ board. The game was fully playable and about half complete when it was put on hold and eventually canned by the closure of the studio.

Retrogamer96 has let us known about three unused / test levels that were found in the game code. If you use an action replay you can acces to some glitched up stages called “Bedream Fens”, “Bredanni Bog” and more “Test Drive” levels. One interesting level includes all of Plok’s costumes including the ones used in the Fleapit stages.

Thanks to Adrien Baptis we found out more info about these removed levels (check the video below!). For the Test Drives, only the first one is playable and let you test all the vehicules and costumes of the game (the code is 7E084A28). The others Test Drives will drop you in an invisible water.

For the three beta/secret levels, they are “Brendammi bog” (the codes is 7E084A1D), “Badream fens” (the codes is 7E084A1E) and “Breezy beach”(the codes is 7E084A1F). Actually, we can see where those levels are on the map. All you have to do is to go in a regular level without the code, put the code on when you’re in the level, then die. With that, Plok will not return in the level but will be on the map : he acts like he just beat Rockyfella and wants to go in the fleas’ hole. But instead of jumping in, he walks forward and stops on the bogs. That’s where the level “Brendammi bog” is. With the other two levels, Plok walks through the bog and go to the south beach.

Thanks to Retrogamer96 and Adrien Baptis for the contributions!

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Microsoft, Xbox 360

Halo 3: ODST [X360 – Beta]

U64 Staff & Contributors
30-09-2009
5 Comments

Bungie initially conceived ODST as a small side project to produce in the lull between Halo 3‘s completion and Halo:Reach. Instead of featuring recognizable characters such as the Master Chief from previous games, the developers focused on the ODSTs. Story director Joseph Staten penned a detective story utilizing film noir settings, design, and characters. Composer Martin O’Donnell abandoned his previous Halo themes to create a quieter, jazz-influenced sound. During development, the game grew in scope to that of a full-sized game. [info from Wikipedia]

When Bungie decided to make a new Halo game after 3, they tossed around alot of ideas and concepts, such as another game where you play as Master chief, or one focusing on the Arbiter. Eventually they came across the idea for a game where you play as an ODST, they went through several concepts of what it would be about, some early concepts for the ODST idea were a game where you’d play as a ODST squad that would follow alongside a Spartan. Another one was about going back to Waypoint. They reused alot of cut ideas from Halo 1,2, and 3 in ODST such as these cut Pelican models cut from Halo 3: Read more

Others, PC / MAC

Far Cry (X-Isle) [PC – Alpha & Tech Demo]

U64 Staff & Contributors
29-09-2009
6 Comments

Far Cry is a FPS developed by Crytek Studios from Germany and published by Ubisoft in 2004 for Microsoft Windows. The codename of the project was “X-Isle”, a tech demo with dinosaurs on a jungle island. Crytek history starts with the ECTS 2000. It was there that they impressed all the big publishers with their tech demos at the NVIDIA booth. They continued releasing various tech demos over the years and the X-Isle one evolved into Far Cry.

From the original X-Isle: Dinosaur Island the plot of the game was changed many times before the final one, and once there were aliens too. As we can read from an old Gamespot preview:

In the game, players will be pitted against an ancient alien life-form closely related to the dinosaurs. The aliens have re-created a colony of dinosaurs in an attempt to take back control of the globe. The player must overcome the advanced alien technology in addition to the brute strength and power of the dinosaurs in order to succeed.

In the pre-alpha version of the game, there were some differences as noticed by Slayermaggot81:

  • Different Hud/Health Bar
  • Different and unfinished levels (low textures)
  • More sunny lightning and clear transparent water (ain’t blue-ish like in the final game)
  • Enemies does look different than in the final game
  • Effects like explosions, smoke and blood were looking different

A Far Cry demo from E3 2002 was found and preserved online, you can read more on the “BRP: Beta Restoration Project” ModDB page!

Thanks to Slayermaggot81 for the contribution!

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Microsoft, Others, PC / MAC, Playstation 3 (PS3), Sony, Xbox 360

Necessary Force [Cancelled – Xbox 360/PS3/PC]

Liam Robertson
29-09-2009
2 Comments

Necessary Force is a cancelled action game that was in development at Midway Newcastle. The game was supposed to be open-ended, with the player that would have been able to choose how to approach the mission. Unfortunately, Midway Newcastle shut down in august 2009 and the project had to be shelved. A preview of an early playable demo can be found on the EDGE website and, as we can read, the game sounded promising:

[…] the developer’s demo room is the result of only three months’ work, yet there is plenty to see, and in remarkably stable, consistent form. […]

As a police officer assigned to this beat, you’re looking at a clean-up operation, which due to the game’s construction will play out literally. As you eliminate criminal activity to make these streets safer, we’re told, they will transform. The ubiquitous graffiti will be scrubbed away. Boards will be removed from windows. Entire buildings will be replaced with shiny new constructions, putting a shop, say, were once there was a tumbling-down tenement.

Thanks a lot to Sam Chester for the help in preserving some screens of the models that he created for the game!

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