Superman: The New Superman Adventures (found build of cancelled PlayStation port of Nintendo 64 action-adventure game; 1999-2000): Difference between revisions

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{{InfoboxLost
{{InfoboxFound
|title=<center>Superman: The New Superman Adventures (PlayStation port)</center>
|title=<center>Superman: The New Superman Adventures (PlayStation port)</center>
|image=Supermanps1.png
|image=Supermanps1.png

Revision as of 03:47, 1 December 2020

Supermanps1.png

Still image from gameplay footage.

Status: Found

Date found: 28 November 2020

Found by: Richard Evan Mandel

In 1999, Superman: The New Superman Adventures was released on the Nintendo 64 by Titus Software, a now-defunct French-based studio. Also known as, Superman 64, it was met with an overwhelmingly negative reception for buggy controls, bad graphics, and terrible gameplay.

Soon after its release, Titus commissioned BlueSky Software to commence work on a PlayStation port of the Nintendo 64 game. However, since the PlayStation couldn't handle the free-roaming Metropolis of the original, BlueSky had to re-create the game from scratch.

Development

The development of this PlayStation version had progressed far enough that magazine ads were published, pre-ordering made available, and the game was being officially licensed by Sony Computer Entertainment America.

However, BlueSky lost rights to the Superman franchise, forcing them to cancel the game in order to avoid copyright issues.

Findings

Since its cancellation, glimpses of the game had been seen out in the wild on several occasions. The first being a prototype recovered by the PlayStation Museum, who released two seven-minute clips in 2007 and 2011. Another had been seen at a game prototype enthusiast forum ASSEMbler Games on January 14th, 2014. An ASSEMbler Games forum-goer had provided an intimate look into the prototype's internal files, including the SLUS code, with the condition to release it for a certain amount of cash. The resulting tension between the owner and the community of the former's behavior drove him to supposedly break the disc and erase the backup ISO he had, eliminating the chance of a possible rip of the game. In summer of that year, a forum-goer at the same forum provided unique footage of a prototype version of the game dated June 22nd, 2000.[1] On that same thread, another member disclosed that he had possession of that same prototype but misplaced it.[2]

On October 7th, 2018, user dizzzy uploaded one of the prototype betas of the PlayStation port onto Archive.org.[3] The newly found beta dates back to October 29th, 1999, and contains 9 levels, up to the "Brainiac" level.

On November 28, 2020, Richard Evan Mandel made a journal post on his DeviantArt page "DigitalExplorations" revealing that he had uploaded an ISO of the full 2000 prototype. Claiming that the upload was a "release" rather than a "leak," Mandel described how he had acquired a copy of the build from an auction in June of 2013 (alongside a build of Resident Evil 1.5 estimated to be around 40% complete) and that he was the same Assemblergames forum poster who uploaded video footage of the prototype. Mandel then goes on to explain how he initially junked his digital copy of the prototype due to the hostile environment he faced on the forums in 2013 and even reformated the drive it had been on, but was still able to recover it in the spring of 2020 using iCare Data Recovery, a piece of software designed for recovering accidentally erased digital files. According to him, the recovery process was unusually lengthy (likely on account of the ISO's size and complexity), but nevertheless possible. At the end of the journal post, Mandel includes a MediaFire link to a .rar file containing the 2000 build's ISO, thus allowing it to be publicly available seven years after the initial Assemblergames forum.[4][5]

Known Available Footage

PlayStation Museum's video on the PlayStation port.

Part 1 of gameplay footage.

Part 2 of gameplay footage.

Part 3 of gameplay footage.

Trailer for the port.

References