Beta + Cancelled RAREware Video Games - Page 9 of 13

Robert Seddon has linked us to another topic at the DKC Atlas Forum, where The Kirby has an interesting theory about an unused DKC3 SNES sprites for an enemy that was later used in the DKC3 GBA port. The Kirby writes: “My theory is that the TNT Knocka, is actually an enemy that exists in DKC3 SNES’s coding, but was never used, and when the developers for the DKC3 GBA port discovered this enemy (among other things) they decided to save themselves the trouble and use all of these new gameplay elements to create Pacifica, where a few of the new levels contained something that didn’t previously exist in any of the DKC3 SNES levels. It was probably a way they could rehash the old as new.” You can read the full topic in here! Props to The Kirby for the find!

Images:

Qyzbud has noticed that the following rendered background level with the KREM Co. sign (click on it for a bigger version) was never used in the final game, but in DK64’s factory level (Frantic Factory) had that name “KREM Co.” in it, on a clock somewhere and the world map for ‘Mekanos’ in DKC3 features KREM Co. written on the roof of the building where you fight the boss, KAOS.

Zero7 has made us to notice another topic from the DKC Atlas Forum, where Kiddy14 has found a video with beta DKC3 scenes! Here’s a list of differences that you can see in the video:

1- The game’s subtitle was “Dixie’s Double Trouble”.
2- Arich’s Ambush doesn’t have a little branch in the right tree.
3- There aren’t any “happiness” indicators in Swanky’s Sideshow game.
4- The brother bear featured in the video moves weird, plus he’s gray. (The Brother Bear is gray because he is Blizzard)
5- No little boxes in the top-right part of the screen when visiting the brother bear.
6- Apparently Funky still wasn’t a mechanic, he’s still air-boarding!
7- Mechanos has no factories in it (in the world map).
8- Dixie stays in place.
9- Kiddy’s Idle is the same as his when winning a bonus for the first time.
10- There’s an odd dock level. To the left there’s a Y banana formation, a buzz and a steel barrel. Probably an early design from Lakeside Limbo.
11- Ellie in a snow level!
12- There are Neeks! In Doorstop Dash, Squeals on Wheels and Lakeside Limbo.
13- Dixie isn’t shaded.
14- THERE IS A RIPSAW IN BARREL SHIELD BUST-UP!
15- Bananas aren’t animated.
16- A banana bunch over the first Neek in Squeals on Wheels is missing.
17- A DK Barrel is missing in Barrel Shield Bust-Up.

More differences were found thanks to Discrosh:

The mice gauge is missing on Squeals on wheels.
The entire world map is different.
A mice is missing in Barrel Shield Bust-Up beginnig (below the missing DK barrel).
The Minkys and the barrel Shields are missing in Barrel Shield Bust-Up.
The “house area” in Skidda’s Row is different from all “house areas” in the Skidda’s Row final version.

Video:

Gabrielwoj have found a game problem which seems that RARE Ltd. removed a Barrel Sprite but didn’t removed on it’s configurations. The problem is similar to MissingNo, the sprite have been removed in the game, but the configurations haven’t.

Kvinxx has made us to notice a topic from DKC World Club, where he found another ad of DKC3 but from USA. There are no noticeable differences.

Video:

Unseen News

Info on the cancelled Conker sequel

U64 Staff & Contributors

29-09-2008

No Comments

Lord deathsaur has posted an interesting link in our forum, about an article at Mundo Rare with some informations on Conker’s Other Bad Day, the presumed sequel of the original platform/adventure with our lovely squirrel. Mundo Rare has asked to Chris Seavor (the RARE developer that switched Twelve Tales: Conker 64 into Conker’s Bad Fur Day) about Other Bad Day, and he replied that “We actually started on a direct sequel which was going to be called ‘Conker’s Other Bad Day‘ which dealt with Conker’s somewhat unsuccessful tenure as King. […]” but it seems that Microsoft was not interested in the game.. so the project was just stopped. Check the original story at Mundo Rare for more informations and thanks to Lord Deathsaur for the link!

Nintendo, SNES + Super Famicom

Donkey Kong Country [SNES – Beta / Concept / Unused Stuff]

monokoma

21-09-2008

5 Comments

Donkey Kong Country is one of the most famous Rareware games made in Super Nintendo. The technology of Advanced Computer Modeling helped Donkey Kong Country makes a successful fame and great looking graphics.

But not giving much words, the old chimp, Donkey Kong, have been changed during the development. Shigeru Miyamoto first idea was to make Donkey Kong looks like the Donkey Kong Jr., from the NES, the RAREware employers decided to make Donkey Kong looks more strong and looking more “cartoonish” . The Final rendered image have changed, such as, less beefy and with a little less hair. Check the image below:
~You can click the image below to enlarge it~

Also, Robert Seddon has made us notice about a series of Donkey Kong Country unused stuff that some lovely geeks at DKC Atlas have found out in the memory of the game, like unused rooms and sprites. You can read the full topics in here, here and here. Thanks a lot to Robert for these links and props to the DKC Atlas guys for the finds!

Thanks to Lucas and Gabrielwoj for the contribution!

Images:

Videos:

In the Video above, it’s possible to notice some differences:

-The Banana Counter was no limit, it would be possible a “collect all bananas” mode that was scrapped?;
-Banana Animations are a Little more faster;
-In Funky Flights, Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong don’t jump too high in Final version;
-At 4:00 , there is a Concept Art with both Kongs using the Team-Up move, these was used later in Donkey Kong Country 2 and Donkey Kong Country 3;
-At 7:35 , when Donkey Kong in running with the Steel Keg, the checkpoint doesn’t activate. It was fixed in Final Version;
-At 8:07 , when the player gets s Life (Balloon), the sound effect is really different than the final version;
-At 9:00 , it’s possible to see a Debug Coding at the corner of the screen;
-At 12:03 , the First Level is Raining. Even if the player (in final version), does reach at the end and go back, this doesn’t happens;
-Some of the animations are a little more slow, and some others are too fast.

Game Boy Advance (GBA), Nintendo

Battletoads [GBA – Proto / Cancelled]

monokoma

02-08-2008

1 Comment

Battletoads is a video game by Rare Ltd. created to rival the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games. The first game was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1991 and was followed up with sequels released over the ensuing years for GameBoy, SNES, Megadrive / Genesis and Arcade. [Info from Wikipedia] A proto for a cancelled GBA version of Battletoads was discovered in the collection of cancelled RARE games that transparentjinjo has uploaded on his Youtube Channel.

The game was in development only for a few weeks, and everything from character animations and enemy AI to sound effects is a placeholder.

The character design was the result of merging the sometimes conflicting ideas of the original Battletoads artists, who were now in director or lead positions on other teams.

Even the main game design was not fixed at that point. Team instructions ranged from “make a shiny clone of the NES version” to “do whatever you think is best” to “everything cool will have to wait for an Xbox version”.

Images:

Video:

Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360

Sabreman Stampede [XBOX / X 360 – Cancelled]

monokoma

27-07-2008

2 Comments

Do you remember Donkey Kong Racing for the GameCube? When Rare was sold to Microsoft in 2002, they also announced a racing title. As they could no longer use the Donkey Kong characters, rumours appeared saying that the game was being reworked into a racer starring Rare’s own Sabreman.

In 2003, Microsoft trademarked the title “Sabreman Stampede“, it appeared as if there was the final confirmation. In March 2004, Rare answered the following in their Scribes when asked whether Donkey Kong Racing was still alive:

“Well, yes and no. It’s not called Donkey Kong Racing any more, it’s not for the GameCube any more and by this point I’d imagine so little of the original art and code remains that it’s barely even the same game any more, but yes, it’s still coming out. In some form. Wait and see, if you haven’t already picked up on the new title that’s been unofficially floating around the electrical interweb for months now.”

It was not until 2008 that we saw how much the game had changed as an unanonymous poster leaked a video on Youtube (you can find it in our gallery beneath). Developed by a team of which many worked on Starfox Adventures or Jet Force Gemini, Sabreman Stampede had evolved from a racer into a full adventure. One could hardly notice that it had started out as Donkey Kong Racing.

In late 2004 it was decided to port both Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero from Xbox to Xbox 360. As the Kameo team did not have enough resources, members of the “Sabreman Team“, as such they were later credited, were asked to help out. However, this also meant that Sabreman Stampede had to be put on hold, even though porting and reworking it for a Xbox 360 release had already begun. After six years Sabreman Stampede was cancelled. Having started out as a Diddy Kong Racing successor, evolving into a title in which you were riding herds and then becoming an adventure game, its development was stopped due to a lack of focus in design.

As we can read in an interview with Lee Musgrave:

Donkey Kong Racing was obviously pretty heavily tied to Nintendo as a franchise, and as Rare approached the finalization of a buyout deal with Microsoft it was clear that the game had no future, at least with the ape’s as characters. We switched it around to be a Sabreman game, and there was a great early Xbox prototype – but someone, somewhere decreed that it was a little too old-school for the kind of ‘revolutionary gaming experiences’ that the Xbox was capable of delivering, and so it started down a path of meandering changes, updates and ‘evolution’ that finally saw it run out of steam and fall over. There were some great ideas in the game as it developed though, and I still look back to the early racing game design and think we could have done something great with that.

This was all vaporware until July 2008, when Transparentjinjo added a video of the Xbox 360 prototype on his YouTube channel. It seems that Stampede had a long and interesting development history, that sadly ended in a cancellation. Even if we will never be able to play the game, we are happy that some proof of Sabreman Stampede’s existence can be preserved!

Special thanks to Transparentjinjo.

Artworks:

Videos: