space simulation

Farstar / Starship Fantasy [PSX – Cancelled]

Farstar is a cancelled Playstation space combat simulator which Teknocrest, an american software house, was working on in 1994 on Taito’s behalf. Just like Brimstone and Lufia for Genesis / Megadrive, however, the project got never completed. Fortunately, the programmer that was developing it preserved a video of the game:

Here’s some footage of a Playstation game called “Farstar” that I was working on back in 1994, I think Taito was planning to release it as “Starship Fantasy” or something like that, it was even listed in Famitsu as coming soon for a time.

It was supposed to be a mix of Wing Commander/Star Trek/Starflight. At least, that’s what I was trying to make. It was pretty ambitious for its time…maybe too ambitious.

Anyway as you can see it’s pretty shitty and was cancelled. I guess I just wasn’t a very good programmer back then…

For more informations check the topic on opa-ages.

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Cosmic Walker [Wii – Cancelled]

Cosmic Walker is a cancelled adventure / action game that was in development for the Wii. At Nintendo Fall Conference 2008 the manufacturer shared a movie reel full of upcoming Wii games that were in development, like Punch Out Wii, Sin & Punishment 2 and Another Code R. Another game shown for the first time was a curious space simulation developed by Gaia, the studio created by former Atlus employee Kouji Okada, but no info was shared about it.

In the Supplementary Information documents released by Nintendo from January 2010 onward the title disappeared from the list of the upcoming games aimed for the japanese market and in October 2010 a news spread that Gaia official site ceased activity thus we can conclude that the project was likely quietly terminated by the publisher.

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Freelancer [Beta – PC]

As we can read on Wikipedia, Freelancer is a space simulation that was developed by Digital Anvil and published by Microsoft Game Studios in 2003. The game was initially announced by Chris Roberts in 1999, but it was only released 4 years later, with many cuts and changes from the original concept. In 1997, Chris Roberts began work on a vision he had since he first conceived Wing Commander. He wanted to realize a virtual galaxy, whose systems execute their own programs regardless of the players’ presence; cities would be bustling with transports and each world’s weather changes on its own time.

Roberts promised features such as automated flight maneuvers, dynamic economies, and a multiplayer mode that could host thousands of players, but diminished versions of these features were implemented in the final release. The game’s initial technical demos impressed reviewers, but after the Microsoft buyout and Roberts’ departure from Digital Anvil, critics had doubts about the game. Microsoft instructed Digital Anvil to scale down the ambitions of the project and focus on finishing the game based on what was possible and the team’s strengths.

Freelancer 2 was in development by Digital Anvil in 2006 for XBOX 360, but the game was cancelled when Microsoft closed the studio.

Thanks to EmoLevelDesigner for the contribution!

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Old beta videos show early versions of the game. There are many scenes that are not included in the final version: