Sometimes fate isn't on the side of game concepts and their makers. An idea might just not pan out, or get caught in a vicious cycle of corporate choices. The latter, according to an article at Unseen 64, happened to "Freak Boy," a prospective N64 title that was under development by Zono Incorporated and Burst Studio. Virgin, the publisher, had requested the game be remade from the ground up twice before ultimately canning the project in the late '90s.
The history of the game that never was may very well have stopped there, but a savvy game hound has found what is reportedly a prototype cartridge in Guildford, UK. The find was said to be made in September at a car boot sale (what many in North America might call a flea market), alongside two other prototype carts that were not picked up. They were titled "casino" and "mario 2," so we might not necessarily blame the buyer for leaving them behind.
The buyer has posted a playlist of short video snippets, the first showing the Virgin logo jiggling in all its 64-bit glory. Later footage goes on to show the game itself, which features some form of creature with the ability to take up various pieces onto his body and use them elsewhere to blow stuff up and make pathways. We have uploaded a few of the nine videos below.
Do you think Freak Boy could have flown back in the day had it been fully realized? If you're interested in seeing more, be sure to check out the full article from the archivists over at Unseen64.
[source unseen64.net, via unseen64.net]
Comments 16
Things like this make me wonder how much of videogame history is hidden. Either way like all games that are found I hope they release a rom of it online for free so others can try it out and go through the files.
I always like hearing about games that never came out. The best game I ever found at a garage sale was Wario Ware Mega Micro Games, and I think a few others.
Woah, today is a huge day for N64-related news!
First there was talk on Goldeneye, then an HDMI mod, and now this.
Mario 2??
And casino might be caesar's palace 64, the unreleased gambling rpg .... Oh man!
@dadajo hidden in the sense of games that are partially developed but never released (or even announced)? If all the games that started dev that were cancelled along the way were suddenly 'discovered', you'd be talking many hundreds of games, absolute minimum.
(I know: I've had the 'joy' of being involved in several games that have gone into dev but not only never came out, but weren't ever announced (or even rumored), several of those from very large, mainstream, pubs.)
@Zach
Do you know how far along that was? It would be horrible if the guy missed the chance to get a almost complete game.
About the game, more fog than Turok but Turok did a lot of other things right. This looks like they made the right call.
I wonder if Mario 2 was an N64 cartridge (the article seems to suggest that it was), and if so, could it have been something much more interesting like a traditional 2d mario platformer prototype, or even a piece of the fabled Super Mario 64 2? Guess we'll never know unless someone else snagged up the cart from that car boot sale and decides to post some details.
Depending on available funds I would have got all 3, the other 2 or Mario 2.
I am sure I remember reading something about this in Nintendo Power? Anyone else? Maybe it was another Virgin Interactive game but I remember being not too excited about something from them years ago before using the interwebs.
Wow, what an awesome find! I would have picked up all 3 cartridges. Hopefully this gets released so we can all enjoy what could have been!
Gotta say, that's a pretty dang impressive find. Though I wonder if the game would've been any good if it was ever finished.
@Moon so would i but some one else grabed the other 2 before i had a chance.
@AshFoxX some one else did thats why i did not get it .
more videos will be on the youtube channel soon.
Interesting.
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