point & click adventure

Alien vs Predator: Nightmare on Ryushi [PC – Cancelled?]

Alien vs Predator: Nightmare on Ryushi is a point & click adventure game based on the Aliens VS Predator series, that was going to be published for MS-DOS PCs by Activision in 1993, but in the end it seems that the project got cancelled. As we can read from the AVP Galaxy Forum, even fans of the series are not sure about the release of this title, but as not one knew about it before finding an old Activision catalog, it’s almost sure that Nightmare on Ryushi was canned:

When I was done obsessing over the intricacies of the labyrinth of Zork, I noticed a small catalog of Activision titles to be released in 1993 among which was the drool-inducing “Alien vs Predator:Nightmare on Ryushi” (and yes it is Alien, not Aliens).

It appears to be a point and click first person adventure title for MS-DOS with excellent graphics. It also looks like the first AvP game to allow the user to play as all three species in independent campaigns!!

After an intense an stressful search of the InterWebs, I came up with absolutely no trace of this game ever having existed!! It is even absent from AvPGalaxy’s list of cancelled titles!

If you know someone that worked on this game or could have more info about its development and cancellation, please let us know!

Thanks to Unclejun for the contribution!

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Zoiks! (Pandemonium) [PC – Cancelled]

Zoiks! (aka Pandemonium) is a cancelled point and click adventure that was in development by Ocean Software’s Tribe team, featuring a cast of classic Hanna Barbera cartoon characters,  including Scooby Doo, Shaggy, Fred Flintstone, Penelope Pitstop, Huckleberry Hound and Snagglepuss.

As we can read from the ECTS 1997 press release, in the game’s story Dick Dastardly used a sound machine to rob the Hanna Barbera world of the sounds that bring it alive. Through cunning detection techniques, Fred Flintstone had to trace the devilish Dastardly and put a stop to his mischief.

Tribe, Ocean’s in-house development team, have successfully combined traditional animation techniques with the latest video and graphic technology to bring the world of Hanna Barbera to life. The beautiful animations in Zoiks! allow for maximum interaction and are works of art in themselves. Add to this a stunning ‘surround sound’ soundtrack and speech recorded by the original cartoon cast and the result is a cartoon experience that you can truly interact with.

Zoiks! uses sound in a way no other game has before. Players learn by trial and error how certain sounds affect certain objects and characters, giving them clues to help them track down Dastardly. This format allows younger players to learn intuitively as they play without patronising more experienced gamers.

The game was meant to be published by Infogrames in 1997, but something went wrong during the development and Zoiks! was never released in the end. A little article on the game was published in Edge issue 32.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

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Hachi Koi [DS – Cancelled]

Hachi Koi is a cancelled “love simulator” that was in development by Electronic Arts for the DS in the Japanese market. The game was announced in 2008, but in december 2009 Famitsu reported that the project will never be released.  From Adria Sang’s blog we can read more about Hachi Koi’s “plot”

Players learn from the death god that they’re going to die on their next birthday, which happens to be one month away. There’s only one way to avoid this fate: fall in love and make someone fall in love with you.

Thanks to Saga Darvulia for the contribution!

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Leisure Suit Larry 8 [PC – Cancelled]

Leisure Suit Larry 8, tentatively subtitled Lust in Space (as well as “Explores Uranus” in some references), was a computer game part of the Leisure Suit Larry series, which was in early development in 1998. Only some very early test stuff was being done while Al Lowe waited for the project to be approved, but in the end funding was cut and the project cancelled.  Shortly afterwards, Sierra’s adventure games department was disbanded and Al Lowe left Sierra on February 22, 1999. Like the canned Space Quest sequel, Larry 8 was to be in full 3D, but no more than a few test renders now survive.

The full title of the game, as well as its teaser, was referenced in Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail! triggered with an easter egg after completing the game. [Infos from Wikipedia]

Thanks to Celine and Frank Cifaldi for the contribution!

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Shadow of Atlantis [Sega CD / 32X – Cancelled]

Shadow of Atlantis (also known as Nautilus) is a point and click adventure game that was originally in development for the Sega CD and after many delays, it was ported to the 32X, but in the end it was never released. The project was based on characters and situations from Jules Verne’s classic novels, 20000 Leagues under the Sea and Mysterious Island. Shadow of Atlantis was designed and produced by Eric Quakenbush, a game designer that worked with Sega on many other games, as the cancelled Virtua Hamster. There were even some plans to port Shadow of the Atlantis to the Saturn, but as we can read at Sega16, “Sega eventually scrapped the concept altoghter sometime in 1997”.

Also, in ActionPackedVideo‘s Youtube Channel we can see some more videos from the project. As we can read in one of the descriptions:

This was the result of a skunk-works project that I put together with the Sega Multimedia Lab staff that were idle after we shipped Jurassic Park Sega-CD game. The demo got the game a green light and I was promoted to the producer group but it never shipped. Eventually the salary for all those idle workers was billed to my project so you are looking at about $70,000 worth of demo!

Eric Quakenbush designed and produced this CD adventure game which featured live action sequences as well as many intriguing puzzles.

Unfortunately Sega discontinued the Sega CD platform before production could be completed.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution and to Mekanaizer for the video!

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