Beta + Cancelled flight simulation Video Games

“The Chopper Game” was a working title for upcoming 3D flight sim from DiD. They planned it as a next big game after success of TFX and Inferno. For “Chopper” DiD planned using updated version of 3D engine that was used for above mentioned TFX and Inferno. This time the game was planned as more story driven and focused on complex plot that was still in a storyboard phase at that time.

According to article in PC Games 12/1994 game was still in very early development phase, but was looking very good and movement was very smooth. Because of the engine modifications landscape was more complex and fully textured.

Developers promised many missions as a test pilot in environments ranging from valleys, dense tree lines of forests, ice planes. Promises were made about 3D engine that is nearly 3 times better than engine used in TFX.

Also models of aircrafts was planned to be on next level of details especially due to the near future setting of the game.

“Although it’s set in future,it’s still going to have and accurate helicopter model.”
Quote from Ian Boardman, head of 3D graphics department at DiD.

Game missions was planned differently as in TFX, where player for doing missions for UN. In “Chopper” player was going to fly mission and not knowing for long time what is going on or what is the background, because the squad that player will be flying for is known as Black Force.

Another difference was that in times between missions player can climb out of its machine and wander across base and talk to people. Also characters was planned as fully 3d modelled with realistic (for it’s time) face textures. This was essential part of game where player put pieces of story together. Developers wanted also to avoid pre-rendered cutscenes and everything was planned to be in-engine.

DiD in time of preview of “Chopper” game was putting most of its effort and time into “TFX 2” (later known as EF 2000). According to info from mentioned article in PC Games magazine after TFX 2 all resources will go into “Chopper” game. It was scheduled for release in May 1995, but no other mention of this game could be found and it, I think vanished or was later tranformed into Iron Angel.

GameCube, Microsoft, Nintendo, Playstation 2 (PS2), Sony, Xbox

Ace Squadron [Cancelled – GameCube / XBOX / PS2]

monokoma

17-09-2013

No Comments

Ace Squadron is a cancelled flying shooter that was in development by Atomic Planet for the Playstation 2, GameCube and Xbox. The game was set in World War II and offered various arcade air-combat missions to play and as we can read from the official press release “gamers will be given the opportunity to shout ‘Tally Ho!’ and dive their trusty Spitfire into a dogfight with swarms of Nazi aircraft. There are scores of missions to play, from the heady days of the Battle of Britain to dangerous raids on secret weapons factories in the last days of the war, and dozens of different and powerful warplanes to fly, such as the majestic Spitfire, the nimble Mosquito and the sturdy Lancaster”. The project was never released for unknown reasons and we don’t even know if the game was finished or not as the few screenshots available look like target renders and not actual gameplay.

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Game Boy (+ Color), Mega Drive / Genesis, Nintendo, Sega, SNES + Super Famicom

Elite [SNES MD GB – Cancelled]

U64 Staff & Contributors

09-09-2010

8 Comments

As we can read on Wikipedia, Elite is a space shooter / trading game written and developed by David Braben and Ian Bell, originally published by Acornsoft in 1984 for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron computers. The game’s title derives from one of the player’s goals of raising their combat rating to the exalted heights of “Elite”. Elite was one of the first home computer games to use wireframe 3D graphics with hidden line removal. Another novelty was the inclusion of The Dark Wheel, a novella by Robert Holdstock which influenced new players with insight into the moral and legal codes to which they might aspire.

Despite being ported to virtually every home computer of that time, there is just one version available for a console and that’s Imagineer NES port, released only in Europe in 1991 ( the NES port is considered the best 8-bit version by the authors). However there were various attempts in early nineties to bring this milestone title to other Sega and Nintendo systems.

In fact Nintendo Magazine System issue 9 revealed how Hybrid Technology (developer of the Archimedes version) was developing the ultimate version of Elite using the Super FX chip. However , as Stern correctly noticed, the screenshots in the article were probably taken from the Amiga version. In the next issue ( #10 ) NMS unveiled ( this time for real ) the first official pics for Super Nintendo. Contrary to what they wrote in the previous issue, Elite for SNES wouldn’t utilize the SFX chip and despite that the game was said to have smooth framerate and Mode 6 ( SNES hi-res mode ). Super NES Elite had additions compared to the original title like a “planet buster” bomb and a more console-friendly interface that use icons ( like the NES version ) .

Those two article made clear how Hybrid Technology had yet to found a publisher for their project at the time so that’s likely the reason why it never come out.

Later on , in 1994, Hybrid Technology created two small tech demos as a pitch to port Elite to Genesis / Mega Drive and Game Boy however nothing came out from them. The two tech demos are available on Ian Bell ( Elite co-author ) ‘s website (backup at elitehomepage.org). You can watch two short videos about them below.

Article writteb by Celine, thanks to Steven for the contribution!

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Elite [Game Boy Tech Demo]

Elite [ Genesis/Mega Drive Tech Demo ]

Nintendo, SNES + Super Famicom

Solo Flight [SNES – Cancelled]

monokoma

05-04-2010

4 Comments

Solo Flight is a cancelled flight simulator that was in development by Microprose for the Super Nintendo. The game was probably based on the original Solo Flight published in 1983 for the Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit family. The mission of the game was to fly solo over several states, delivering bags of mail. The SNES version was going to use mode 7 graphic, similar to Pilotwings, but in the end the project was canned for unknown reasons.

Celine was able to find some screenshots of the game in Banzzai magazine #14 and Super Power #12. Another scan was provided by Gavin

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Microsoft, Xbox

Crimson Skies [XBOX – Beta]

monokoma

04-04-2010

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Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge is a flight-shooter game developed from 2001 to 2003 by FASA Studio (part of Microsoft Game Studios) for the original Xbox. Series creator Jordan Weisman noted that the game had a “difficult development,” and went through many different creative directions.

When development of Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge was first assumed by FASA Studio, it was conceived that the game be made into an “interactive movie,” a concept that would have involved an elaborate storyline and a large number of cutscenes. This process would have needed a linear mission design, potentially restricting gameplay.

Consequently, developers pushed back the game’s release date by a year in favor of increased development time. At this point, both playtest feedback and inspiration from games that offered more gameplay options helped shape the game’s development. The game’s “interactive movie” concept was scrapped, the storyline simplified, and the original linear mission design was reworked to promote more choice-driven gameplay.

When the game was first announced in 2002, features for the game included destructible environments which could be used to eliminate enemies, hidden areas containing bonus weapons, and “danger zones” similar in function to those featured in the previous Crimson Skies for the PC. Sadly many of these features were scrapped from the final version of the game. [Info from Wikipedia]

As noticed by Xenomrph on the Something Awful Forum, in the original Crimson Skies trailer (embedded below) we can see some removed levels:

Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge on the Xbox was going to have a bunch of other levels, and a completely different tutorial level that centered around robbing a flying casino over the ocean off the coast of Louisiana. You can see remnants of it (and other content) in the early trailer. It would have included destructible terrain, different cutscenes, and a bunch of other stuff…. but no online multiplayer.
Crimson Skies became a launch title for Xbox Live, and that involved totally overhauling the game to include Xbox Live multiplayer and cutting a lot of content to make room on the disc.
There’s still some remnants of the old content, though – the game’s dialogue includes references to the casino heist, the music from the above trailer was included on the game’s soundtrack CD (although the music never plays in the game itself), and the game’s tie-in novel ends at the casino heist (which, at the time of the book’s writing, wasn’t cut from the game yet).

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