Origin games that never were

Benjamin

Rear Admiral
Looking back through the CIC archives I've found a list of a bunch of Origin games that were planned or in development and subsequently cancelled. With the recent news that EA may be reviving the Ultima games I though it might be interesting to rate the chances of some of Origins other lost tresures making a comeback. This may of course be a little premature but hey, its just for fun!

Any way, here goes:

Strike Commander II- I really, really hope so. But I see this as vaguely possible, we seem to be in a 'sequel boom' at the moment with Lucas arts developing sequels to some of there classics. If that pays off, we could see Strike II

Phoenix Force- I've never heard of this, but thats not to say that it couldn't make it. I'm sure lots of games suffer similar fates, cancelled and forgotton before they got chance to get off the ground, only to get a second chance a few years later. But to be on the safe side I'd say no.

Arthurian Legends - Same as above

Tank Commander - Not too likely, assuming this is Strike Commander in tanks, I'd say 'Commander games would be kept to a minimum.

Prowler - Same as Pheonix Force

Pac Strike CD - Unfortunaly no, too dated

Lost Vale - Same as Pheonix Force

Bioforge Plus - Unlikely as this was to be an enhanced version of the original. but perhaps they could produce a sequel...

Hardcore - Same as Pheonix Force

Armor - Same as Pheonix Force

Silverheart - Same as Pheonix Force

WC3 and WC4 Saturn - Unnecessary

WC4 3DO - Unnecessary

Privateer II - Privateer Online (what with the sucess of Freelancer)or Privateer 3 perhaps...

Firehorse - Same as Pheonix Force

WC3 M2 - lol, VERY unnecessary

Crusader 2 - quite a good chance of this one I'd say, Crusader is another of Origins well established and much loved games

Crusader Online - Ultima online in space? hmmmmm...

Lords of Ultima - This probably became Ultima 10

Star Wars Online - No chance (and unnecessary)

Privateer Online - See Privateer II

Privateer 3 (two or three times) - See Priavteer II

Wing Commander Online - This is the one that would most likely happen, and could if sucessful lead to even more Wing Commander games

BattleCry - Same as Pheonix Force

Wing Commander: Strike Force - Not sure what this one was, if it was the next chapter in the Prophecy trillogy then possibly, depending on the sucess of WC online

Jane's F-18 (1995) - Haven't Janes games been passed on to other developers now?

Jane's F-15 (1996) - As Above

A Wing Commander First Person Shooter - Possible, dependent on the sucsess of WC online

A Wing Commander C&C Clone - As above

Golf Commander (I shit you not) - Hmmmmmmmm...

Cyclone Alley (a Paul Steed game)- Same as Pheonix Force
 
'Phoenix Force' was, I believe, the subtitle for Strike Commander 2... so it should read "Strike Commander 2: Phoenix Force". It was one of the projects Chris Roberts had wanted to work on after Wing III.

Arthurian Legends was originally the third 'Worlds of Ultima' game, which eventually dropped the Ultima aspect. Basically an Ultima 6-engine RPG where you were one of the Knights of the Round Table.

Prowler was a Playstation based mech game that was, IIRC, pretty far into development when it was cancelled. To the point that they were running advertisements and printing Prowler t-shirts. :) Captain Johnny worked on it, I believe -- maybe he can fill this in.

Lost Vale was the dropped addon for Ultima VIII.

Bioforge Plus was the original Bioforge *plus* an addon which told the next chapter of the story.

Paul Steed on 'Cyclone Alley': "So I took all that and rolled it into this game I called Cyclone Alley. Which basically was a racing game like Road Rash, except you’re on these Hover Bikes and you can do 360 loops inside these tubes and you’re in this space station in outer space. That was the general premise."

I'm not familiar with Hardcore or Armor.

Silverheart was a Chris Roberts project worked on after Wing Commander IV -- some sort of fantasy FMV game. A book based on the story was eventually published in the UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0743408675/ref=sr_aps_books_1_1/026-8459250-8162845

Firehorse was a 'John Woo-style Hong Kong action game'. Take what you will from that (G)
 
i don't think he realised that they DID make Privateer 2, its entitled, the darkening. it's an Erin Roberts game.
he also made freelancer, if i rememebr right.
 
Oh, I can actually shed some light on Firehorse... this is from the transcript of a game design-related conference at MIT, where Warren Spector was one of the speakers.

Spector: "Convergence between film and games? When will we see the first genuinely interactive movie? If I have my way, never. They are two different media and I think the game industry has spent a lot of time and money. I've spent a lot of time and money. One of those games that I was on crack, I was working on a thing called Fire Horse [sic], which was going to be an action adventure John Woo style cinematic thing where you actually get to determine when the shots change and you can interrupt shots in the middle. It was a total disaster. It was a waste of money. I threw millions of dollars down the drain. You've never heard of it and there is a reason for that."

Actually, come to think of it, this is one that's well worth reading in full, since Spector also goes on to mention Chris Roberts a few times. You can find the transcript here.
 
'Crusader 2 - quite a good chance of this one I'd say, Crusader is another of Origins well established and much loved games

Crusader Online - Ultima online in space? hmmmmm...'


Benjamin, I'd like to make certain. There was a Crusader 2, it was Crusader: No Regret; or are you talking about something different.

Crusader Online was called Crusader: No Mercy.

Here is a link to a picture that was thought to be No Mercy:

http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Labyrinth/6366/nomercy.htm

I'd like to mention: 'But, I've also heard distant rumors that a Crusader Online could still be in the works, though if it were to happen it would be next year, which means it would be on the market sometime in the year 2003. '

What year is it again? :D
 
ZFGokuSSJ1 said:
Benjamin, I'd like to make certain. There was a Crusader 2, it was Crusader: No Regret; or are you talking about something different.
Nope. In an IRC chat transcript that you can find on the Worlds of Origin website (I don't recall the address, and I don't know if the site even still exists), Origin said that Crusader: No Regret is not Crusader 2. Originally, No Regret was supposed to be an add-on, but they decided to make it stand-alone (hmm, Secret Ops, anyone? ;)). They didn't consider it to be an actual sequel, however.
 
i don't think he realised that they DID make Privateer 2, its entitled, the darkening. it's an Erin Roberts game.

Actually I did realise that, hence why I said privateer online or priavteer 3 in acknowledgement to the fact that there already was a Privateer II ;) I just copied the list directly from the CIC and didnt change or update it...
 
Quarto said:
Nope. In an IRC chat transcript that you can find on the Worlds of Origin website (I don't recall the address, and I don't know if the site even still exists), Origin said that Crusader: No Regret is not Crusader 2. Originally, No Regret was supposed to be an add-on, but they decided to make it stand-alone (hmm, Secret Ops, anyone? ;)). They didn't consider it to be an actual sequel, however.

Oh.. I didn't think it was an add-on. It seemed like a whole new game. Hopefully since Andy Hollis is back, there might be another Crusader!
 
Prowler was a Mechwarrior-esque game.

It originally started development as a 3DO title, it shifted later over to be a PlayStation game. (almost) :D

The player was a member of the TRI (sound familiar?) or Terran Robotic Infantry.

Earth & the TRI were at war with somebody else (of course), I can't remember who exactly..

It was all "Mech" style combat... except the instead of "Mechs" they were called "Prowlers" for obvious legal reasons.. ;)

The TRI's prowlers were all styled after creatures in Greek mythos.. there was a T-shirt that had a Prowler on it that was the "minotaur" if I remember correctly..

and the Badguys prowlers were all styled after Egyptian mythos..
Anubis, Bast, Horus..

It was actually a pretty cool game, and was just starting to pick up real steam when it was killed along with BF+, Armor and others..

Oh well..

-Johnny
 
What was Armor? I wasn't familiar with that one (or Hardcore).

(Also, nobody has mentioned Technosaur yet! Technosaur! Woo!)
 
I don't really know too much about Armor..

it was sci-fi.. dealing with powered-armor units and combat..

not exactly sure what kind of gameplay it was supposed to have..

Technosaur was actually pretty cool too.. the backstory was a little stupid.. but hey.. it was a computer game.. it probably would have done fairly well had they not killed it (assuming they could have gotten it out in a timely manner).. it would have been a StarCraft-esque game before StarCraft existed.. with cyber-dinosaurs.. still sounds cool to me..

-Johnny
 
I'd put my money on a Prowler with a good pilot.. Lizards aren't very smart...

But it would be a good fight..

-Johnny
 
nEVER HEARD OF.. ARGH..

stupid CAPSLOCK key..

Never heard of "Lords of Ultima"

There was a BattleCry project after Prophecy.. I'm not sure if it was after SecretOps or during.. hmm.. maybe even before..

Billy Cain was the project director or producer on it.. it was a Conan-esque (at least as far as art style) fantasy combat game of some kind.. not much more that I know about it except that Billy had a "Golden Axe" arcade game in his office during that time..

Hmm.. must have been pre-SecretOps or early SecretOps timeframe.. because at the end of SecretOps, Hal had moved into that office..

-Johnny
 
What's Hal up to these days?

I met him once right after Origin had dropped Privateer Online for the ho-jillionth time, and he seemed like a pretty cool guy. Said he'd just made up a neat timeline for the game's background.
 
He's up near Crid country, I think.. working at Micro$oft.. I want to say he's working on a Viking game.. but I could have imagineered that..

-Johnny
 
Wow, I still feel terrible for how we treated him when he came to agwc in 1996-1997 as the Kilrathi Saga fan relations tech support guy. :(
 
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