SegaSoft

Necessary Evil (Illusions Gaming) [PC – Cancelled]

Necessary Evil is a cancelled online adventure game that was in development around 1996 – 1997 by now forgotten developers Illusions Gaming Company (Blazing Dragons, Beavis and Butt-Head Do U), planned to be published by Segasoft for PC. Illusions Gaming was a video game company founded in Sausalito (California) in the early 90s,  mostly working on point & click games based on several licensed properties.

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Necessary Evil was an ambitious project for its time: it merged point & click adventure gameplay with RPG mechanics and an online multiplayer mode for up to 2 players. One player would take the role of a vampire, while the other would be the hunter who tries to kill them. To defeat your rival you had to manipulate and talk to NPCs to put them against the other player, changing the course of the story and the in-game factions.  

Unfortunately there’s not much more information about this lost game and the only proof of its existence is some footage shown on Electric Playground TV show (Season 1, episode 8, November 1997). If you know someone who worked on Necessary Evil and may know more about it, please let us know!

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Sacred Pools [Sega Saturn, PC – Cancelled]

Sacred Pools is a cancelled interactive movie / FMV game that was in development by Code Monkeys and Segasoft in 1995 / 1996, for Sega Saturn and PC. It seems the project was shown in video form at E3 1996 along with other classic Saturn titles, such as Nights, Panzer Dragoon 2, Virtual On and many more, but in the end Sacred Pools was never released. A few details were published by various gaming magazines at the time, as in Ultra Game Players #74 (January 1997), Mean Machines Sega Magazine #45 (July 1996), PC Player #07 (July 1996), and Sega Saturn Magazine UK #10 (August 1996).

The game had a quite negative feedback from the press and that could be one of the reasons of its cancellation:

“Just when you thought the interactive movie was dead.. along comes Sacred Pools. This is another Segasoft venture, and one which they say revolutionises adventure gaming by mixing computer graphics with video footage. At present only the video footage was on show, and it’s the usual mix of Dr. Who effects and actors without dignity. And we thought they’d learned their lesson with Double Switch.”

As far as we know, Sacred Pools was meant to be one of the first adult-only titles for the Sega Saturn, in the form of “erotic thriller” with explicit (?) sex and violent scenes, but we don’t know exactly what the team wanted to shown in the game. Sacred Pools was just one of many unreleased games planned by Segasoft, such as G.I. Ant, Heat Warz, Ragged Earth and Skies.

A few more details were shared in the Assembler Games Forum by an anonymous user who seems to own a playable beta of the game:

“SEGASOFT paid over $3mil to develop the game. The company is called Codemonkeys now. Not sure if they had a different name back then. But Segasoft pretty much entirely funded the company during that period. […] My knowledge is limited. They spent a bunch of money developing this game that was supposed to be “revolutionary”. The game missed milestones and went way over budget. I have never played that far through the game but what i’ve seen is that it is basically a FMV game where you can sort of move around the world. You have choices of which direction to go and what to do, but they are limited and (obviously) on tracks.”

If you have more images or details about this lost game, let us know! We hope to be able to preserve some footage from the game in the future.

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G.I. Ant (SegaSoft) [PC – Cancelled]

G.I. Ant is a cancelled real-time strategy game that was in development by SegaSoft / Sega Interactive for PC in late ‘90s. The project was inspired by classic RTS such as Warcraft II and Command & Conquer, with an original hand-to-hand combat following the team’s past experience with Eternal Champions, a 2D fighting game released for Genesis / Mega Drive in 1993. As you can assume by its title, the setting of the game was a war between ants and other insects, imagined with a World War II aesthetic, using rifles, jeeps and airplanes.

The G.I. Ant  team was composed of various Sega of America developers such as Hideki Ikeda, Charles Workman, Frank Lucero, John Kuwaye and Andrew Tjew; thanks to an interview by Sega-16 with Ikeda, we can read some details about the project:

Sega-16: The SegaSoft titles you were working on were canceled. What games were they and what were they about?

Hideki Ikeda: You might have a better interview talking to Frank Lucero about this one. The last one we (John Kuwaye, Andrew Tjew, and I) were working on was called Bug Wars which turned into G.I.Ant (as in “giant”). Bug Wars was John’s baby, but Frank incubated John’s idea and grew it into G.I.Ant, which was a cool concept of a game based on real-time strategy (back then, we were addicted to Command And Conquer and Warcraft II) and hand-to-hand combat (as in Eternal Champions-type fighting).”

In the end the project was never completed, probably because of low sales of all other SegaSoft PC titles.

Thanks to Rafael for the contribution!

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Skies [PC Dreamcast – Cancelled]

Skies is a cancelled massively multiplayer online game set in a 3D world of winged creatures ranging from angels to dragons and vampires. The game was coded by Paradigm Entertainment while the concept and publishing duties were by SegaSoft. Initially conceived for PC, later the game was announced to be headed to Dreamcast too. However neither version materialized ever, probably because SegaSoft was restructured in Sega.com Inc. in 2000. Below you can read part of a RPG VAULT interview with Paradigm’s Gary Bandy:

Jonric: Can you give me an outline of the game world and the main storyline?

Gary Bandy: Skies represents the next generation of interactive online entertainment. It transports the player to another realm using state of the art flight simulation technology in a real-time 3D universe. The world of Menigar is an open and extendible universe. It will be constantly updated with new quests and opponents to conquer. The player will have the unparalleled ability to fly freely through the Skies of Menigar. “Skies” allows the player to interact with Menigar’s thousands of inhabitants, most of whom just happen to be other users sitting at internet connected PCs around the world.

Menigar is a magical world with a landscape of floating cities and castles. Within this game we are creating an all new mythos of creatures and environments. All of the inhabitants of Menigar can fly, however there will still be some ground-based movement inside the confines of cities.

Jonric: What kind of characters, classes and races can I play in Skies? And how much can I customize my starting character?

Gary Bandy: Initially there will be a number of different types of characters for the player to choose from. Customization will be offered in terms of different colors and magic the player collects will alter the character’s abilities. One of the really cool features of the game is the ability to “age” the character – as the player becomes more skilled in the game and has achieved certain goals and objectives, the character will physically grow and mature and that aging will be visible to other players. For example, a “newbie” may make a wise decision to not mess with an “elder!”

Jonric: How does character development work? Is it level-based, skill-based, or something else?

Gary Bandy: Character development will be skill based and loosely dependent upon the experiences, accomplishments, and affiliations of the player.

Jonric: Is there a wide range of skills? Are all skills available to everyone?

Gary Bandy: There is a wide range of skill available but not all are available to everybody – some will be dependent upon the type and age of the character and others will be dependent upon the objects in the player’s possession. Skills can also be affected through adventuring, missions and quests, and factions or affiliations.

Jonric: How does magic work in skies? Will there be a lot? And will all spells be available to all characters? What can you tell me about LEDOs and their role in the game?

Gary Bandy: Magic is based on the collection of Limited edition Digital Objects or LEDOs. There are plans to incorporate more than 200 different types of LEDOs in the game – each with a different value and availability – some will be more rare than others. Also, LEDOs can have different effects when used in combinations so there is a huge variety of things that can happen.

Jonric: Can you tell me about monsters in Skies? Will there be any non-monster NPCs?

Gary Bandy: We created a set of characters for the game and will let the players decide which ones they want to play. There will be a variety of NPCs. Balance between races and good and evil was the goal for character creation within Skies.

Jonric: How will combat work? What will happen to your character when it dies?

Gary Bandy: Combat will take place through a real-time 3D exchange of magic spells – depending on which LEDOs the player has in their inventory. In certain situations, the triumphant character can collect one of the LEDOs from the vanquished player.

Jonric: Tell me about factions. It seems like the game will encourage everyone to join a faction. Is that so, and if so why?

Gary Bandy: Factions or guilds are helpful – more brains on a problem, more friends in combat. Factions will create a more social atmosphere into the game. There are plans to have a voting system, allowing members of factions to voice their opinion on current issues within the game.

Jonric: What about quests? How do you plan to implement them?

Gary Bandy: Some quests will be embedded within the game as the player explores and discovers things, while some will be “faction specific” – individual groups may be sent on specific quests. Other quests may be announced to all players by the game managers.

Jonric: Will there be player versus player combat? Non-consensual player combat? If so, how do you plan to address newbie-killing and the whole issue of PK?
Gary Bandy: Player killing is a definitely a part of the game although not the only aspect of it. There will be safe havens where no killing is allowed, while other areas are open. One of the challenges of designing the game is to ensure a balance between the action oriented shoot-em-up and puzzle solving quests in the game. Killing of newbies is certainly discouraged – especially for more experienced players. There is nothing to gain from an elder killing a newbie – they will not be allowed to collect a LEDO from the player, and in fact, their “fame” level will very likely decrease.

Scans from Edge issue 48, GamePro issue 109 and Console Plus issue 79.

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