platform

PSP, Sony

Earthworm Jim [PSP – Cancelled]

U64 Staff & Contributors
08-04-2008
1 Comment

A new Earthworm Jim game was in development for the PSP, but sadly the project was soon cancelled. As we can read on Wikipedia in 2006 Atari announced that they had the rights to bring Earthworm Jim to a portable video game system, with many new elements to be introduced, such as the ability to stop gameplay at any time and dance. On 18 June 2007, PSPFanboy stated on their website that they had contacted Atari and that it had been said that the game had been put on hold, probably due to Atari’s financial difficulties and the sale of the games developer Shiny Entertainment.

From Gamezone there are some more info on the development problem with the Earthworm Jim license:

You see, David Perry, one of the original founders of Shiny Entertainment, was ready to get everything off the ground and revive the lovable worm, but there’s one underlying problem that caused it to reach its inevitable cancellation: royalties.

Earthworm Jim was originally published by Interplay, the often money-troubled company that sold off the entire Fallout franchise to Bethesda Softworks to help combat their debt problems. Back in 2006 though, before the sale of the entire Fallout intellectual property, it was reported that they needed $75 million to complete their Fallout MMO project and just by chance, this Earthworm Jim project was set to start around the same time frame.

So as luck would have it, Interplay was in dire need of money and had no way of paying off owed royalties from years past to Shiny Entertainment that included the television show, toys and much more that sent the worm into the stratosphere of superstardom.

Thus, Interplay, Atari and Shiny Entertainment went to bat and struck out.

Thanks to Gabrielwoj for the contribution!

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Nintendo, Nintendo DS

A Boy and His Blob [DS – Unreleased]

U64 Staff & Contributors
08-04-2008
3 Comments

boyblobdslogo.jpg

A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia is a video game developed in 1989 for the Nintendo Entertainment System by David Crane. The game is a side-scrolling platformer in which the character and his friend Blob (full name Blobert) travel together on earth and on Blobert’s home planet Blobolonia in a quest to defeat the evil emperor. Blobert can change into several different items when he is fed jelly beans. A licorice jelly bean, for instance, will change Blobert into a ladder, while a honey jelly bean will turn him into a hummingbird. Most of these transformations can be remembered mnemonically due to a correlation between the flavor of the jelly bean and the item that results.

Fifteen years after the original NES game was released, Majesco announced another installment to the series which was developed by Skyworks Technologies. The game was to take place 6 years after the events ofthe first game. Despite being completed and scheduled for a release in autumn 2005, the title remained unreleased due to financial issues Majesco had. The game was set to feature 15 differently colored jellybeans and 15 levels. The touchscreen feature of the DS would have featured a map and helped manage jellybean inventory. [Some infos from Wikipedia]

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Nintendo, Nintendo DS

Balloon Trip / Yoshi Touch & Go [DS – Proto]

U64 Staff & Contributors
08-04-2008
2 Comments

Yoshi Touch & Go is a platform / puzzle game developed and published in 2005 by Nintendo for the DS. According to Nintendo assistants Hiroyuki Kimura and Keizo Ohta, Yoshi Touch & Go was originally planned to be designed for the Nintendo GameCube as “Balloon Trip”. A demo of the game, already ported to the DS, was first exhibited during the E2 of 2004 and gained positive response. Thereupon, the executives of Nintendo green lighted the final project. [Info from Wikipedia]

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Nintendo, Nintendo DS

Super Princess Peach [DS – Beta / Unused Sprites]

U64 Staff & Contributors
08-04-2008
No Comments

Super Princess Peach is a platform game developed by Nintendo SPD and TOSE and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS in 2005 / 2006. In the gallery below you can see an early version of the Princess Peach, when it almost looked like a GBA game. It’s possible that the project started on the GBA, but it was later ported to the “new” console.

The Koopalings were originally going to be in the game, but were taken out for unknown reasons. All of the Koopalings’ lost sprites have been discovered by now. Oddly enough, Morton’s sprites were spread around the internet long before those of his siblings. Also, Roy was given a green shell instead of a pink shell. This may have been either a design change or a mistake.

Lost sprites of Glad and Calm Goombas have also recently been discovered. In the game, only Mad and Sad variants appeared. The Glad Goomba (which was a bronze or yellow color), based on its sprite, could be able to bounce or dance around (as the glossary says most Glad Enemies do), and the Calm one (which was green and rather sickly-looking), based on the Calm Enemies, it would probably be sleeping and act like a normal Goomba when Peach is too fast.

A very early screenshot shows the “Peach’s face” screen, which ended up on the bottom screen, to be on the top screen and totally devoid of Heart Panels and also having a bright green, solid background and a different design for Peach. The fact that the Heart Panels, which were used to change Vibes in the final game, are lacking from this screenshot suggests that Super Princess Peach was once planned to not use Vibes and be a more average side-scroller. [Info from Mario Wiki]

Ragey from RandomHooHaas.com managed to make a cheat to warp to some test levels, but it would only work using an emulator with Cheat Engine, an external hacking program, attached to it. Goomther managed to get there using the same method, and even provided video footage of the levels in action.

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Nintendo, Others, Philips CDI

Mario’s Wacky Worlds [CDI – Cancelled]

U64 Staff & Contributors
07-04-2008
9 Comments

mariowackylogo.jpg

Super Mario’s Wacky Worlds was a cancelled video game planned for the Phillips CD-i, and was in development by NovaLogic. The game attempted to duplicate the gameplay of Super Mario World for the SNES. Due to the limitations of the CD-i, several features could not be included in the game, such as large numbers of sprites on the screen, Mode 7, and many visual effects. Though the game sprites are based on Super Mario World, the level design is based on Earth locations rather than the Mushroom Kingdom or Mushroom World. – [Info from wikipedia]

Thanks to Remy Van Vugt we can see the whole Mario Wacky Worlds levels in the gallery below:

[…] here are all cd-i mario wacky worlds levels in .png format. This list shows which level files are referenced in the binary cdi file:

  • GREEK1.JBR
  • GREEK2.JBR
  • ATLANTIS.JBR
  • EGYPT1.JBR
  • EGYPT2.JBR
  • EGYPT3.JBR
  • AZTEC1.JBR
  • AZTEC2.JBR
  • CASTLE1.JBR
  • CASTLE2.JBR
  • SHIP1.JBR
  • SHIP2.JBR
  • SHIP3.JBR
  • HOUSE.JBR
  • CAVE1.JBR
  • CAVE2.JBR
  • CAVE3.JBR
  • SWAMP1.JBR
  • SWAMP2.JBR
  • SWAMP3.JBR
  • SWAMP4.JBR
  • SWAMP5.JBR
  • SWAMP6.JBR
  • VILLAGE.JBR
  • HUT1.JBR
  • HUT2.JBR
  • HUT3.JBR
  • HUT4.JBR
  • HUT5.JBR
  • ICEBERG1.JBR
  • ICEBERG2.JBR
  • IGLOO.JBR
  • ICEMTN.JBR
  • NEONCITY.JBR
  • GEOMETRO.JBR
  • PLAID.JBR
  • PIPEWRKS.JBR
  • SEWER.JBR
  • CHEMLAB.JBR
  • MENU.JBR
  • TITLE.JBR

they probably wanted to make all those levels but the actual prototype did only include 30 files. those 30 files i have converted to viewable .png files. Background ‘animation’ is done by cycling pallette colors. this is not included in the exported png files. but it’s interesting to see all the levels

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