Sometime in 1999, it was confirmed that a sequel to 1080° Snowboarding was coming to the Nintendo 64. Rather than Nintendo handling development of the game, they passed development on to second-party studio Left Field. When the game failed to materialise, it was confirmed that the game was no longer being produced for the N64, but for the Nintendo GameCube. Not long after this announcement, it was also confirmed that Left Field was revoking its status as a second-party studio so it could develop multi-format titles.
Development of the game was handed to Nintendo’s American development studio, Nintendo Software Technology Corporation (NST). They originally planned to call this game 1080°: White Storm, before finally renaming this game 1080°: Avalanche. It is assumed that the game was completely rewritten by NST, but it’s possible that some elements of Left Field’s work remains. – [info from wikipedia]
The early screens and video show at least 2 different beta of the game, in which the character design and the graphic were different from the final version.
When it was first shown, Mario Kart for the Gameboy Advance looked a bit different than the final version. If you take a look a these beta images, the characters had bigger heads and smaller karts. Also it seems that the tracks had some differences in the details and in the course design, as we can see in the images and the video below.
Mattrizzle of The Cutting Room Floor discovered that there are a few unused tracks still in the final game’s data. Most of them appear to be Super Mario Kart’s battle courses, which means that they were probably at one point planned to be in the game along with the Super Mario Kart tracks. Unfortunately, the starting positions in each of the battle courses don’t exist, so the starting points default to position 0,0.
Thanks to Mario125 and Goomther for the contribution!
4×4 Off-Roaders is a cancelled Gameboy Advance racing game that was in development by Small Rockets in 2001. The game was powered by a nice voxel 3D graphic engine, something that was not usual on the 2D-centric GBA console. We dont know why the game was never released, but it’s possible that Small Rockets never found a publisher.
MRC was one of the first racing games to be published for the Nintendo 64. It was developed by Genki and released in 1997: the quality of MRC left a lot to be desired, but with the shortage of games on the Nintendo consoles, it was able to interest the lovers of the genre. From some screenshots released before Genki finished the game, we can notice a much cleaner and defined graphics than the ones in the final game. Probably these were just target renders that were not actually running in real time on the N64. The HUD of the game was still not finalized: the rank and the total time were initially on the right, while the Lap Time was on the left of the screen.
[spoiler /Clicca qui per la versione in Italiano/ /Nascondi la versione in Italiano/]MRC fu uno dei primissimi giochi di corse ad arrivare sul Nintendo 64. Uscito nel 1997, la qualità del titolo di casa Genki lasciava parecchio a desiderare, ma vista la scarsità di racing games sulla console Nintendo, riuscì comunque ad interessare gli appassionati di macchine.
Le immagini beta rilasciate prima dell’uscita, mostravano una grafica molto più pulita e definita di quanto si può osservare nella versione completa; probabilmente Genki diffuse dei semplici concept screens di MRC, che non giravano realmente in tempo reale sull’hardware N64. Anche l’HUB del gioco non era quello definitivo, le info su schermo erano invertite: la posizione in classifica ed il tempo totale della gara erano inizialmente a destra, mentre il Lap Time era segnalato a sinistra (come potete notare dal confronto con lo screen finale sulla destra).[/spoiler]
Beta Version:
Final Version:
See also this French excerpt from an old Nintendo-related newspaper. It’s notably touting the presence of real-world cars (Renault, Ford and Alfa Romeo) even if some screenshots on the same page shows the “Imagineer” car from the final product.
During the early days of the Nintendo Ultra 64, many racing games were announced for the console, including this Top Gear Rally, sequel of Top Gear for the Super Nintendo. The early images released showed a stunning graphics for its time, with wonderful light effects, high definition and good polygonal models: obviously, all these screens were taken from a target render, as the Nintendo 64 was never able to do such kind of graphic detail. The real Top Gear Rally is actually very different what they wanted us to believe, with more rough graphic, blurred out scenario and without all the lighting effects that made the tech demo so impressive. Some of the cars that we can see in the early screens seem almost cut and pasted in there with Photoshop.
We can also notice a different HUD and a smaller map. Probably these screenshots were created with the sole purpose of giving an idea of the look of the project, but without taking into account the actual technical features of the N64, not powerful enough to run a 3D engine too much complex for its time.
Also, ezri85 noticed some beta differences in the second video below:
The differences between it and the final version are subtle, but they are there. Not to mention the unused musical score that plays over it. From what I can see, the differences between this beta, and the release game are: some unfinalised vehicle textures, physics appear to be different/incomplete, track map is visible and some minor HUD differences.
[spoiler /Clicca qui per la versione in Italiano/ /Nascondi la versione in Italiano/]Durante i primi mesi di vita del Nintendo 64 furono molti i giochi di corse annunciati per la console, fra cui questo Top Gear Rally, seguito dell’omonimo Top Gear per Super Nintendo. Le immagini precedenti all’uscita mostravano una grafica davvero straordinaria per l’epoca, con effetti luce e modelli poligonali che lasciavano a bocca aperta, promettendo qualità estetiche davvero realistiche.
Come ben sanno tutti i giocatori che hanno potuto provare la versione finale, l’aspetto di Top Gear Rally è in realtà molto diverso da come volevano farci credere queste foto del suo prototipo. Il gioco completo presenta una grafica decisamente più approssimativa, sfuocata e poco definita, senza tutti quegli effetti luce che rendevano impressionanti le foto beta. Osservando meglio il prototipo, è facile capire come questa versione di Top Gear Rally non girasse in tempo reale sul Nintendo 64, ma fosse solamente un concept in computer grafica, tanto che molte delle auto sembrano addirittura ritagliate ed incollate con Photoshop sui disegni poligonali delle piste.
Confrontandolo con le immagini della versione finale (a destra), possiamo notare anche la differente disposizione degli HUB con le informazioni della gara ed una mappa più piccola. Probabilmente questi screenshots erano stati creati con il solo scopo di dare un idea del proggetto futuro, ma senza tenere conto delle reali caratteristiche tecniche del Nintendo 64, non abbastanza potente per far girare un motore 3D di questa portata.[/spoiler]
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