Tyrannosaurus Tex (found build of cancelled first-person shooter for the Game Boy Color; 1999-2001)

Box art for the game.

Status: Found

Date found: Jan 2013

Found by: Nintendo Player

Tyrannosaurus Tex was a cancelled unreleased first-person shooter that was planned to be released for the Game Boy Color, developed by Slitherine Software and was to be published by Eidos Interactive. It was later released officially by Piko Interactive.

Plot

An alien spaceship full of robots crashes down on earth near a Texan town and becomes stuck underground. The aliens try to fix the spaceship, but also build a replica of their world. They find dinosaur remains and use them to grow living dinosaurs. Then, all of a sudden, humans start digging down into the underground world for oil, causing the dinosaurs to attack. The main character, Tex, receives a bounty to get rid of the dinosaur problem.^[1]

Gameplay

The gameplay would have been very ambitious for the Game Boy Color. It was a first-person shooter with 6 different weapons that would have done different types of damage to the 10 variations of enemies. It had features like a two-player deathmatch, 18 levels, stereo sound, a 3D engine, multiple cutscenes, and more.^[1]^[2]

Development

Slitherine Software, at the time made up of Ben John, his father Mike, and his friend, Dan Crawley, made a tech demo of the game and displayed it at the 1999 European Computer Trade Show, attracting multiple publishers, which ended up with Eidos Interactive becoming the publisher for the game, adding a new member (Ian McNeil) to the team. The game started production in September 1999 and had a planned release date of April 2000.^[1]

However. the game got delayed due to how ambitious it was and how complicated the bugs were, causing Ben John, the main programmer, to run away to Australia with the game code, leaving Slitherine confused as they didn't understand the copy of the code they did have without a programmer.^[3] During this, Eidos left the Game Boy Market, making the development harder, although Ian McNeil did stay with the team, bringing along his father as a financial manager.^[1]

In August 2000, Slitherine Software offered IGN a demo of Tyrannosaurus Tex to squash the rumours of the demos they presented at the 1999 European Computer Trade Show were faked.^[4] IGN had positive things to say about the demo, and provided 45 seconds of gameplay footage, although it isn't viewable anymore.

IGN also later announced that Slitherine had found a new publisher, and was finally planning to release the game in January 2001.^[5] However, even after completing the game, they couldn't secure a publishing deal, and among other complications, Slitherine decided to cancel the release of the title and fully left the Game Boy market.^[1]

Availability

The build for the game was lost for years, until 2012, when a cartridge containing a prototype of the game appeared in an auction on eBay. The copy was a cartridge from March 21st, 2000, previously owned by Jason Wilson. The website Nintendo Player managed to buy the copy and showcase multiple images of both their copy, sending a download link to a ROM of the build on their website so it can be playable to people with the use of an emulator.^[2]

In March 2016, Piko Interactive fully gained rights for the game,^[6] and finally released the finished title for purchase on their website.