Rocket Science Games

Playstation, Sony

Pest! (Rocket Science) [Playstation – Cancelled]

monokoma
19-10-2019
2 Comments

Pest! is a cancelled action game that was in development by Rocket Science Games around 1996 – 1997 for the original Playstation. As far as we can speculate from the short video preserved below players could take the control of “rat leader” or “pest-control guy”. When playing as the rat leader you had to collect cheese around the levels while setting up traps to stop your enemy. When playing as the pest-control guy, you had to find a way to stop the rats. You can imagine Pest! as some kind of “Tom & Jerry” type of action game, where you had to escape from your rival or trap them.

Rocket Science was quite active during the mid ‘90s and were working on many different prototypes for PS1 and Sega Saturn, but only some of them were released. Other projects such as Flying Aces, Rocket Boy, Dark Ride and Loadstar 2 were quietly cancelled. Unfortunately while some of their games were critically acclaimed, none of them did particularly well financially. Unable to secure additional funding, RSG was forced to close down in 1997. 

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32X / Mega CD, Saturn, Sega

Flying Aces [32X/Saturn – Cancelled]

monokoma
06-12-2011
No Comments

Flying Aces is a cancelled flight simulator / shooter set in the first World War, that was originally in development by Rocket Science Games for the Sega 32 X in 1994 / 1995. As we can read in GamePro #68 (thanks to Celine for the scan!), the gameplay was depicted with live action FMV and included multiple views from both inside and outsite the aircraft.

Only few screenshots remain from the 32X project and when the Sega Add-On was already dead, it seems that RSG tried to port the game to the  Saturn (scan from Cd Consoles #4), without any luck. Neither version of Flying Aces was ever released.

Unfortunately, while some Rocket Science’s games were critically acclaimed, none of them did particularly well financially, and unable to secure additional funding, RSG was forced to close down in 1997. [Info from Wikipedia]

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32X / Mega CD, Saturn, Sega

Rocket Boy [32X/Mega CD Saturn – Cancelled]

monokoma
21-04-2010
1 Comment

Rocket Boy is a cancelled platform game that was in development by Rocket Science Games for the Sega Saturn in 1994 / 1995. Players were able to explore a full 3D world set in a weird / fantasy galaxy, with the goal of finding a way to return home before the parents of the main character were back for dinner. As written in an article in Wired 2.11 (page 108), Rocket Science decided to cancel this project because it was too similar to other platform games of its time:

The trend toward more literate games means that some projects well along the Rocket Science pipeline have had to be scrapped. “We saw some things at the Consumer Electronics Show very similar to our Rocket Boy and DarkRide, so we’ve put those on hold,” says Caldwell. “But we still have Wing Nuts, a World War I dogfight game, in the works.”

In 1997 Rocket Science had to close down due to financial problems and Rocket Boy vanished forever with them. Celine found a pic of the game in Cd Consoles magazine issue #5 and Rod_Wod found one more in another magazine! These images are likely concept artwork and not in-game.

Thanks to Jason for the english corrections!

UPDATE:

On Mega Force issue 36 there is an article about Rocket Boy. The project initially was planned for Sega Mega CD (and 32X combo) and featured pre-rendered graphics which were very popular at that time. The game was an action/platform with an isometric view similar to SegaSonic the Hedgehog. Added “real screen shots” images in the gallery with the scanned article.

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32X / Mega CD, M2 / 3DO, Others, Saturn, Sega

Darkside / Dark Ride [Saturn 3DO – Cancelled]

U64 Staff & Contributors
07-09-2009
1 Comment

Darkside (sometimes written as Dark Ride or Darkride) was one of many titles being devloped by Rocket Science Games before being cancelled. It was to be a psychodellic tunnel-based game with bizarre graphics, and was briefly previewed in the December 1994 issue of Games World: The Magazine, which stated that ‘the team behind the game are perfecting the smooth scrolling of the ride… before the gameplay’.


Rocket Science Games themselves are probably more interesting than the games they made- funded by Sega Enterprises and promising more than they could deliver on, they mostly made Sega-CD and PC-based FMV based titles such as Cadillacs & Dinosaurs: The Second Cataclysm and Obsidian. However, their titles never sold well, and Sega themselves cancelled half of the company’s titles around 1994/95 to keep costs down- it seems Dark Side / Dark Ride was one of the victims of this. They eventually went out of business in 1997.

The preview in Games world: The Magazine states that the game was being developed for the 3DO, although almost all other RSG games were being developed for either the Sega CD or the PC- whether this is a mistake on the magazine’s part is unknown.

In a short article published in French magazine CD Consoles issue #4 we can read that “Darkside” was in development for the Saturn and the game would have took the player into an imaginary world, to explore it aboard a cart on rails (as in a rollercoaster). Could this have been an on-rails shooter? We are not sure.

As written in an article in Wired 2.11 (page 108), Rocket Science decided to cancel this project because it was too similar to other games of its time:

The trend toward more literate games means that some projects well along the Rocket Science pipeline have had to be scrapped. “We saw some things at the Consumer Electronics Show very similar to our Rocket Boy and DarkRide, so we’ve put those on hold,” says Caldwell. “But we still have Wing Nuts, a World War I dogfight game, in the works.”

If you have some more info on this game, please let us know!

Thanks to Celine for the scan! Thanks to Jason for the english corrections!

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32X / Mega CD, Sega

Loadstar II (2) [Mega CD – Cancelled]

monokoma
25-06-2009
4 Comments

Loadstar II: Showdown on Phobos  is a science-fiction action game for the Mega / Sega CD, that was in development in 1995 by Rocket Science Games, but then cancelled for some reasons. As Tim Stoddard has commented “chances are that this was cancelled because Rocket Science Games decided to move away from the FMV game genre (their reason for scrapping Wing Nuts) and since the system was almost dead in late 1995”. Loadstar II would have became the sequel of Loadstar: The Legend of Tully Bodine, released in America in 1994.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

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