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Mindscape

Marvel 2099: One Nation Under Doom is a cancelled 2D sidescroller action game that was in development by Saffire for the original Playstation and the PC. The project would have been published by Mindscape in 1996, but the company decided to stop publishing some of their console titles and One Nation Under Doom was one of them. After Marvel 2099 was canned, Saffire started to develop Bio F.R.E.A.K.S. and Rampage World Tour for the Nintendo 64. It was based on the imprint of the same name.

As we can read on Wikipedia, by May 1996 CD-ROM and VHS video demos of Marvel 2099 were being shipped to game magazines for pre-release reviews, along with a one-page color brochure. The first public demo was shown at the E3 1996 show, and featured a playable single level of the Punisher 2099 fighting SHIELD troops, and also opening menus and some cut scenes. Electronic Gaming Monthly had two quarter-page previews of the game, showing grainy shots of actual gameplay, and a group shot of the player characters. At the 1996 San Diego Comicon, the Mindscape booth handed out brochures, and raffled off One Nation Under Doom pins, shirts, and posters. Some attendees were even allowed to play the demo at the booth, although no copies of the demo were distributed.

Years after its cancellation, Executive Producer Mark Flitman shared some details about the game in an interview:

D.2099: How did Mindscape first become involved with producing/developing a game based on Marvel’s 2099 characters?
M.F.: Prior to working at Mindscape, I was a Producer at Acclaim Entertainment in New York. At Acclaim, I was responsible for multiple titles including all the Marvel titles. I developed a great relationship with Marvel so when I went to Mindscape I kept in touch with them. I knew that Acclaim had a contract with Marvel that tied up every Marvel property for video games. In those days, they didn’t separate the characters into individual properties. I really wanted to work on another Marvel title and asked if they had anything that was not included in the Acclaim contract. Their first response was no, but then they found Marvel 2099. They told me it was available and sent me some of the comic books to check it out. I could not believe my luck! A Marvel property that included dozens of Marvel characters, it was in the future and the characters looked different, but it was full of recognizable Marvel characters (some looked ever cooler in the future!) and the main villain, Dr. Doom was awesome.
I convinced Mindscape that this was too good to pass up and I worked with Marvel and Mindscape management to negotiate a deal. The deal was more than reasonable and included the rights to do the game on PC CD-ROM, Playstation, Sega Saturn and 3DO.
D.2099: Do you recall at what stage the game was at when it was cancelled? 50% done? More? Less?
M.F.: Less than 50%
D.2099: Do you think….had the game been finished…that it would have been a good game?
M.F.: Absolutely!! We knew from the start that there was concern that the game was a side-scroller, but so was Mario! With our development schedule and budget we decided it was the best use of our time and talent to create characters and animation that looked better than any other comic book title, but it was too much of an undertaking to do all the characters in a fully free 3D environment. We wanted the character art to blow you away, so instead of doing a less than stellar job in a 3D environment, we decided to do a superior job in a 2D environment. We did plan to have some levels moving vertically and not horizontally. We also wanted to make sure that there were “branches” in the game play where the player had to choose which path to go down. This would allow replay-ability because you could complete the game without going everywhere. AND we were creating some incredible cinematic sequences to introduce characters or as visual rewards for completing levels. One cinematic sequence that was completed was Hulk 2099 coming down a ladder into an underground sewer system and running through a large pipe towards the player.

We can only hope that one of these playable demos could be found and shared with the community in the future.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

Article updated by Daniel Nicaise

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Nintendo, Nintendo 64 & 64DD

Monster Dunk [Cancelled – N64]

monokoma

29-07-2014

3 Comments

Monster Dunk is a cancelled arcade basketball game that was in development by Mindscape Inc for the Nintendo 64, as a part of Nintendo’s “dream team” of developers that were working on titles for their “Project Reality”. It seems that the game was announced at E3 1995 but the developers never shared any official screenshot, even if the project could have been at least in a concept / prototype form, maybe if we are lucky some images could resurface some day.

In the original press release we can read:

The game takes a unique and humorous twist on the basketball game genre, featuring famous monsters playing two-on-two basketball. “Monster Dunk” will take advantage of Nintendo Ultra 64’s unique capabilities, such as providing players with dozens of stunning special-effects moves (for example, one character becoming a cloud of smoke, morphing into a bat, flying above the basket and dropping the ball through), creating dozens of random court hazards (hands periodically reaching up from the floor and grabbing players’ legs), and including humorous game- and season-ending winning team sequences (the winning team throwing the losing team out of the stadium).

In 1996 Mindscape was in huge economic problems, with expected loss of 46 millions GBP following a loss of 6.9 millions GBP in 1995, and they decided to stop the development of Monster Dunk for the N64.

Thanks to Celine for the second scan!

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Video from E3 1995 (no footage of Monster Dunk sadly):

Others, PC / MAC

Warhammer: Dark Crusaders [PC – Cancelled]

monokoma

25-04-2010

8 Comments

Warhammer: Dark Crusaders is a cancelled FPS that was in development for PC by Mindscape in 1995 / 1996. This project is not related to the RTS “Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Dark Crusade” expansion pack that was released in 2006. The 1996 Dark Crusaders was going to be one of the few first person shooters based on the Warhammer world, but the gameplay was not that much fun and in the end Mindscape decided to never publish the game, even though it was almost complete.

PC Gamer Online even reviewed a review-copy, with a 65% score:

Initially, the gameplay bears a strong resemblance to another squad-based shooter — Terra Nova — but unlike the sleek, efficient commands and diverse missions in TN, Dark Crusaders doesn’t let you make the most of your squad, and the missions don’t really require you to either.
During each of the 15 missions, which range from kill-’em-all scenarios to more specific reconnaissance missions, there are commands to order your troops to explore, follow, and teleport to and fro. But regardless of which command you choose, the results seem to be the same as if you left your brethren at home.
When ordered to explore, troops merely bump around walls shooting any enemies they encounter, then bump around some more often getting stuck in tight passages or wandering about aimlessly, leaving any and all mission-related work for you.
The weak command interface is so disappointing that during most missions it hardly seems worth the effort to even add units to the roster, since you’ll end up doing all the work yourself.

It seems that the FMV sequences used in Warhammer: Dark Crusaders were later recycled for Warhammer: Final Liberation, a turn-based tactics game published for PCs in 1997.

Derboo found a screenshot of the game in an old Korean magazine, if someone has saved more images or videos from old magazines or websites, please let us know!

Thanks to Jason for the english corrections! Thanks to Michal Fridrich and Tragos2d for the scans!

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