Another boredom streak from yours truly. Lost media is something that fascinates me a lot because media is one of those mediums that can remain the same even after decades, minor changes in subsequent versions notwithstanding. There isn’t a lot of lost video games that are super interesting to me as much as film and TV shows since their preservation methods, are far worse than gaming IMO (and that’s saying something given ROM site closures and everything) and that they are super obscure and are not in the main consoles of that era, usually something far more obscure.
Cancelled media is also super fascinating to me as there are lots of tales from the crew that give a bit of humanity behind the studios that make our favourite, hated or whatever in between, pieces of media from books, movies, TV shows and yes games.
So I thought I could mention my picks for both of them. You can finally share out disappointments to the whole forum with reason.
Starcraft Ghost: basically a third person shooter that deviates from the usual Starcraft fare. Given that there aren’t a whole lot of Starcraft entries, it stands out amongst the rest right out the gate. However, Blizzard claims that the game was halted as it wasn’t very good according to them. Same reason towards a Warcraft point and click game, which I only remember because they also did those top notch animations for the Nintendo CDI games as well as I M Meen. The footage does look promising but given that it is pre Activision Blizzard, it might be more reasonable then. While it might be disregarded or forgetten by fans if it did release, I’d rather have it shown to the world as it did seem really cool
Star Wars Battlefront 3: Yep, you heard me right. This is not the DICE games but rather handled at Free Radical Design. Reportedly it was almost done but was shelved. Just the fact that it was nearly done and canned anyway must’ve been a huge waste of resources. I can’t imagine the look on the team’s faces when they heard their game they had to work their asses off get shelved. I’m sure you guys will also mention 1313, which is similarly heartbreaking, although I think this needs the spotlight too.
Kingdom Hearts V Cast: This one is interesting since it was technically found, but only the assets were found. Even so, if I can tell only the first levels were uncovered as the rest still aren’t found(?). The gameplay looks really clunky but given that it was made for phones and to recreate the console games right down to its graphics being in the same style, that’s inevitable I guess. It recently managed to have it running on an obscure console called Zeebo, which runs mobile phone games mainly. It doesn’t look very good but I also wish that it is found playable to archive its existence as so many artists, designers, programmers and so many others must have worked day in to get it done, even if they knew it was for some mobile phone.
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood: Not to be confused with the anime arc, this is an entire movie based off the arc from the same studio who did the OVA. It was released in Japanese cinemas for a short while before it disappeared. Nothing concrete has been said about its dissapearance, either its fan backlash due to its liberties taken from its source material, someone on the crew dying and them not wanting to do with the project or the whole Quran controversy. I believe the third part the most, but none of them seem like good reasons to stop it from circulating. Even if the movie sucked, they should at least be available in some rare DVD. I’m also shocked there’s no camrip recording that is widely circulated atm. It would be interesting to see it found now that the Jojo fan base is the biggest it has ever been.
London After Midnight: It has been said to be the holy grail of lost horror films, and for damn good reason. Nobody has a copy of the movie that has become widely circulated or at least viewable in some museum in the US. The closest is the reconstruction from Turner Broadcasting, but its only about 30 minutes if I recall with publicity stills. I hope its found but perhaps given the release it will never be found again.
The Day the Clown Cried: The story behind the release of this movie is honestly really fascinating. Jerry Lewis, who was a part of the movie, hated it so much that he didn’t want the world to see it ever. He would frequently bash on it whenever asked on a public space, I think because of the subject matter being too disgusting. I did read the plot synopsis and I thought it might be a cult favourite, as it’s depressing undertones during WW2 helps to sell its despair. The main character is a jerk but that is the point. He doesn’t really learn his lesson, per se, until probably the end? Even so, the ending is legit haunting given the children’s eventual fate. I’ve seen and read The Boy with the Striped Pyjamas, so I know what happens next. There is a reconstruction, also around 30 minutes, uploaded onto YouTube. It’s an interesting watch but I haven’t finished it yet.
I guess that’s all, really. Its a shame they never get to see the light of day or ever see it again for the time being. I guess that’s all from me, maybe you guys can enlighten me. Or ignore this post, idk.
Edit: I have now changed this to become more open ended to other forms of media.
This triggered memories of not games, but tv-series. If you’d rather, we can put this in a separate thread.
One series I was sad to see get cancelled after the first season is:
1.The Last Train.
Setup: A train on an ordinary carries one special item in the knapsack of a passenger. She’s trying to get to a safe haven where she can wait out a catastrophic event she knows is coming. Everyone else is just going about their day. The train crashes, the special item bursts open and releases a gas that freezes the lucky, or unlucky ones depending on how you see it, in time… for a very long while. When the sleeping passengers awake, the world has gone to h-e-double hockey sticks, in a tattered hand baskets. Hint: even the doggos aren’t good bois anymore.
The premise was really interesting to me and human drama in the face of adversity can always go any numbers of way - which is also why I find pyschological horror such an intriguing drama. The show was obviously heavily Sci-Fi influenced, and there was talk about an Ark. Not new stuff, but I was excited to see where the story would go. Plans for a new series, with a bigger budget and likely better actors (no shade, being honest), fell through. Pity.
On checking it’s WIkipedia, I am reminded it did have a sort of Happily-For-Now ending, but eh, I think the world had a lot of potential for expansion.
2. Persons Unknown (2010) TV Series. There is another show I remember with one season, where some random people were trapped in a town, kept in by invisible force-fields on the perimeter. I think they ended up living in a hotel of sorts. The guy who got treated like the ‘leader’ inevitably had hate from two of the other males. Also, every one of the captives had something dark to hide. (Name updated)
@delenn13 or similar cute mod Can you move this to a new topic? Or is it simpler for me to just create one?
this is sad, i have been looking for this game since i had seen a short clip on the tv, so when i got access to the internet i discovered that the game was cancelled, i am a huge fan of zombies so…
Wikipedia:
City of the Dead (also known as George A. Romero’s City of the Dead and The Living Dead: City of the Dead)[1] is a canceled first-person shooter video game, based on George A. Romero’s Living Dead series of zombie films. The game was intended for release on the PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC platforms.[2] Originally announced in December 2004, it was due for release in March 2006.[3] No further details or announcements have been made about the game since its showing at E3 2005. It is presumed cancelled due to the financial constraints of publisher Hip Interactive.
STORY:
City of the Dead was set on a fictional island called “Ningún Futuro” (“No Future” in Spanish). A zombie outbreak occurs on the island after a series of secret military tests on cadavers backfires.
Reports had said there would be no reference in the game to Dawn of the Dead (because the 2004 version ends with the survivors winding up in a zombie-ridden island), one of the more popular films in the Dead Series due to copyright issues with the MKR Group who hold the rights to the film.
I stopped watching live TV because of these shows. I stream stuff later now. These were all cancelled too soon. All the studios care about is the big bucks and they never wait for a show to find it’s wings…They just axe it. They don’t want to waste money so I don’t waste my time…
I don’t do well with horror games so I don’t play them, but sometimes I do exceptions, (it took me a year to finish Dead Space 1), I would loved to play this.
I don’t know or care what you think about Kojima(personally I think he’s overrated), but psycological horror imagery is something I’ve always found interesting to say the least, and I had hi hopes for this one after I learned that Del Toro was involved, and after it was cancelled, my disappointment was greater when I found out that Junji Ito was also part of the project as well.
Is that the one where a dude gets injected with “translator microbes” or something at the start? and also carries a three-piece ring that he uses to distract some guard to scape in the first episode?
Katakis 3D. What makes it especially disappointing is that there IS a prototype out there, but the IP holder won’t give anyone permission to release the ROM.
Yes about the translator and I don’t remember the rings. It was a long time ago. Maybe it’s time for a rewatch since the only decent Scifi is Picard right now.
Hey now. I’m sure there are people that haven’t watched it.
I mean, I know someone that had gotten Skyrim on Xbox 360 years ago and then PC and still hasn’t even launched the game. That someone’s name happens to be Pylinaer.
Given that Platinum has some issues with the game, perhaps it might’ve been a blessing in disguise. Or it would be a lost cause if it did turn out good, who knows? Unless a prototype surfaces which even if it does it would take a good while before it does.
If it is what I’m thinking off, then thank you very much, I’ve been looking for that series since I saw the first episode long ago so as you can see it can be spoilers for it too
