mick_aka
Kickin' it lively!
"Mick is moderately adequate."
Joined: April 2007
Posts: 9,817
Location:
XBL: mickloaf
PSN: mickloaf
Nintendo ID: segamick
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Post by mick_aka on Dec 9, 2009 1:09:57 GMT
I hope it's not Judgement Force as that was released ages ago.
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Post by Anthaemia. on Dec 9, 2009 18:35:57 GMT
I'm not sure if it's THE unreleased game that was planned, but I've heard assets from Chris Senn and Ofer Alon's PC build of Sonic Xtreme have leaked... without their blessings!
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Post by Yart on Dec 9, 2009 18:51:53 GMT
The thread starter said it was unplayable though. From what I heard about Sonic Xtreme, it was at least playable.
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Post by Anthaemia. on Dec 9, 2009 19:06:08 GMT
According to several former members of Sega Technical Institute, there were two known playable builds of Sonic Xtreme in its Saturn form, with only the Jade Gully test area publically available. The other area - based on the same boss engine technology (by Chris Coffin, if memory serves me correctly) and featuring Metal Sonic - was shown at the 1996 E3 and may very well surface one day. However, the later PC build was a four-level demo pitched to management and consisting of stage ideas viewed through a proprietary level editor. Video footage of this was shared via Chris Senn's online compendium and several unauthorised leaks, but it's never been officially confirmed whether or not this prototype was actually playable. Judging from the clips out there, I'd say it could at least be manipulated through Ofer Alon's editing tool, which is the only element that was not included with this latest asset release. Confused? The development of this game still has many scratching their heads despite all the best efforts to shed new light on its creation then cancellation... and I've long since given up keeping score of Sonic Xtreme's complicated production timeline!
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Post by TrekkiesUnite118 on Dec 9, 2009 21:45:08 GMT
Apparently this is the Saturn version of Sonic Xtreme:
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Post by Anthaemia. on Dec 9, 2009 22:44:13 GMT
As I said before, the development of Sonic Xtreme was long and convoluted with at least four different games in production at one point or another using the same title. First of all, Sega Technical Institute pitched an idea to management for a new Sonic game on the 32X, which evolved from its original working title of Sonic Mars (after its intended platform's own codename) to the first known project bearing the Xtreme moniker. Then, with the team divided over how the project should continue once it had firmly made it home on the Saturn, we had the officially-sanctioned "Project Condor" version, powered by Chris Coffin's boss engine technology.
To futher complicate matters, Peter Morawiec offered his own proprietary Sphere Renderer technology, but this was only ever used for a series of ideas that are today collectively referred to as Sonic Saturn and Sonic Pool - the latter something I have mentioned in the past. Finally, with Chris Senn and Ofer Alon forming their own splinter group with the intention of now releasing Xtreme as a PC game, the main team enlisted help from Point Of View and ported its own PC-based assets to the Saturn. However, the resulting efforts supposedly couldn't exceed 2fps and were subsequently cancelled. Meanwhile, despite increasingly distancing himself from the rest of STI, Ofer Alon claimed his own engine could reach 15fps on the Saturn, yet was still rejected because management feared his growing ego and maverick status within the company. A few months later, he founded Pixologic and would develop Z Brush... and the rest is history!
The video uploaded is from a test level Ofer Alon created that he never wanted to reach public eyes, though it did because of a leak orchestrated by members of the X-Cult community. Chris Senn has repeatedly asked for Xtreme enthusiasts to wish his former colleague's wishes in not distributing such material, but ultimately more clips were released and now it seems a more substantial breach of trust has occurred. Then again, based on the modificaton dates it's now being claimed these new files were altered by none other than Chris Senn a few years back, possibly for inclusion as part of the Sonic Xtreme Compendium before Alon requested they remain unreleased.
While it would not be in my nature to ever consider reaching such a conclusion, some are now assuming that Senn himself was responsible as they were posted using an anonymous e-mail account that was later deleted, though I personally feel he may have passed on these resources to someone who clearly cannot be trusted. Either way, it's odd that even now we've yet to see any type of comment from him, and regardless it doesn't change the fact his promises of further sanctioned releases now seem rather pointless unless he could perhaps convince Ofer to change his mind and put out the source code or editor tools. Does anyone else find this whole situation one lengthy mess from start to finish?
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