Lost Games Page 2: 1994

94 Korean Series & 후라보맨 (Huraboman) - PC-DOS (1994)


Huraboman Artwork

In one of their first advertisements Softry showed artworks for these two titles, but those two images remained all that was ever seen of them. They might have just been projects for Softry's Game School and not intended for an actual release to begin with (although after Cheonha Mujeok, it's hard to believe Softry wouldn't release anything they can, no matter how bad it is).



94 Korean Series Artwork

영혼의 검 (Yeonghon-ui Geom) - PC-DOS (1994)


Yeonghon-ui Geom

Planned RPG by a new developer named Sigmatec Entertainment1. Yeonghon-ui Geom ("Soul Sword") likely never left concept state, despite Sigmatec becoming one of the more productive software houses in Korea for the next few years.


도깨비가 간다 (Dokkaebi-ga Ganda) Beta - PC-DOS (1994)


Dokkaebi-ga Ganda (Beta)

Dokkaebi-ga Ganda (Beta)

A year before its release, Senori Box' Dokkaebi-ga Ganda was first shown with completely different sprites and backgrounds3.



Dokkaebi-ga Ganda (Beta)

Dokkaebi-ga Ganda (Beta)

할로윈 캡슐 (Halloween Capsule) - Mega Drive (1994)


Halloween Capsule

Halloween Capsule

On the PC Softmax can look back at an exceptional released/unreleased ratio among Korean developers, but the company's early venture into the 16-bit console market was less fruitful. The most promising work was the Mega Drive beat 'em up Halloween Capsule. Taking place in a world where all animals have become anthopomorphic after the experiments of a mad scientist, the game would have featured three main characters — a cat, a dog and a duck.

Previews of the game already showed an impressive number of character sprites, which could have made up the entire cast in some genre specimen, but stage-wise only one single background was ever shown (of a planned 7), so it's hard to speculate how far into development this went4.


Sprites


Halloween Capsule

Halloween Capsule

오래된 이야기 (Oraedoen Iyagi) - PC-DOS (1994)


Oraedoen Iyagi

Oraedoen Iyagi

Korea's most steady supply of RPGs for a while came out of Taiwan. Still, while half of the RPGs developed there used an isometric "quarter view", the technique never really caught on in Korea until after the release of Diablo. Only Shock Team started an attempt at the subgenre with Oraedoen Iyagi, claiming several solutions to problems and "beatiful girls" as party members for the hero as the main features5.



Oraedoen Iyagi

파워볼 AD2001 (Power Ball AD2001) - Mega Drive (1994-1995)


Power Ball AD2001

HiCom's first Super Aladdin Boy / Mega Drive project was a futuristic 3-on-3 sideview volleyball game, very similar to the Hyper League mode in Power Spikes II. Power Ball AD2001 seems to have been more "indivudualized", though, featuring 8 characters with individual special moves and 6 different stages. Following the fateful path of Samsung's City Heroes, the game was announced finished in magazines6, but due to some unfortunate chain of events never made it out onto the market.

More screenshots



Power Ball AD2001

"Amegedon" Project - PC-DOS, Mega Drive (1994)


"Amegedon" teaser art

When Lee Hyunse started to plan the animated adaption to his Amegedon (later more correctly transcribed Armageddon) manhwa series, he conceived it as a media-overarching giant project, and together with the first concepts for the movie talk about a number of game tie-ins emerged.

Mirinae should deliver a PC game in form of an RPG, while Softmax was supposed to take over 16-bit consoles with a fighting game7. Mirinae eventually delivered their game, although it turned out a 3D space shooter rather than an RPG. This of course was a better result than the supposed Softmax project, which never amounted to anymore than the initial mention.

More games based on the license appeared later, though, namely LG / Ablex' 3DO game and, in 2001, an RTS by Mips Soft.



"Amegedon" target render

메카닉플라모델 (Mechanic Pla Model) - PC-DOS (1994)


Mechanic Pla Model sprites

An action game not based around mechas, but plastic models of mechas. Judging by the sprites Sigmatek prepared for the game, this would have hardly made any difference, though. While the game never made it in the form it was shown, it might be possible that it developed into the brawler, Mechanic War, although that would still mean the pixel art was dropped entirely in favor of prerendered sprites.



Mechanic Pla Model sprites

스타필드 (Star Field) & 3D 크래이 (3D Clay) - PC-DOS (1994)


Star Field

The 2nd Edutainment Software Exhibition (The Korean name 제2회 컴퓨터 학습 및 게임 SW 페스티벌 actually translates to "2nd Computer Educational And Game Software Festival") held from August 25th to 28th 1994 showed a downright boom towards domestic game development. Among the many exhibitors was also a new company called Gasang Jeonja (가상전자, "Virtual Electronics"), introducing two titles at once8.

3D Clay was supposed to become a 1st person shooter, while Star Field was a would-be space ship action simulation a la Wing Commander. Both games should run in high resolution, but it is doubtful how sincere Gasang Jeonja's efforts were, as of each game only a single screenshot was shown, both of which were very likely mockups.



3D Clay

퇴마록 (Toemarok) - PC-DOS (1994-1995)


Toemarok

DSP Team was an odd development team, as they kept announcing titles without ever releasing anything. The first in their line of failed games was Toemarok, based on a series of online fantasy novels first posted January 1994 by Lee Woohyuk. Parallel to the action sidescroller seen on the screenshots, they worked at the same time on a MUD adaption, too9.



Toemarok

Toemarok

용의 후계자 (Yong-ui Hugyeja) - PC-DOS (1994)


Yong-ui Hugyeja

Another unfulfilled RPG dream by Family Production. Likely never went beyond preproduction.



Yong-ui Hugyeja

광안리 액션 (Gwangalli Action) - PC-DOS (1994)


Gwangalli Action

When Sailon Soft split from Mirinae Software, they didn't immediately abandon their shooter roots. Gwangalli Action showed off some interesting enemy designs before being cancelled.



Gwangalli Action

天下無敵 (Cheonha Mujeok) / Best of the Fight - Arcade (1994)


Cheonha Mujeok (Arcade)

Not to be confused with the PC game by Softry with the same title. This fighter is only known by its application at the Korean game ratings board. Nothing else can be found on it, so it was likely never released. In fact, as the rating board only lists publishers and no developers, it isn't even sure whether it was really developed in Korea. The stage on the available screenshot shows a drum with typical Korean painting and spectators with traditional clothes, which Japanese or Chinese developers most likely wouldn't have had the cultural sensitivity to bother with (compare the big fuss about Juri's stage in Super Street Fighter IV).



Cheonha Mujeok (Arcade)

영웅심리 ~토파즈를 찾아라!~ (Yeongung Simni: Topajeu-reul Chajara!) / Heroism: Search for the Topas! - PC-DOS (1994-1995)


Yeongung Simni

Yeongung Simni

Yeongung Simni

Yeongung Simni


If Heroism had been released, it would have become the only Korean adventure game using the classical verbal control scheme known from early Lucas Arts games. With 19 staff members working on the game for more than a year until late 1994 and aiming at 40 hours of gameplay, it was an unusually ambituous project10.

The plot promised a crazy ride for hero Kim Shimon, who is fired from his current acting role for messing up his scene after a night of chatting. In the following events, he not only would have had to deal with his everyday worries, but also dodge criminals, aliens and racially insensitive depictions of wild bushmen. The game also would have included various mini games, and a help system where former Korean president Kim Youngsam would come in a superman costume to aid the protagonist through particulary dangerous situations11.




Yeongung Simni

Yeongung Simni

Yeongung Simni

Yeongung Simni

Fox Ranger III beta - PC-DOS (1994-1995)


Fox Ranger 3 (Beta)

The last part of the Fox Ranger trilogy was released in 1997, but previews first started to show up a whole three years beforehand. Originally Soft Action would only show concepts for cartoon cutscenes that couldn't contrast any more with the later prerendered intro (and lack of storytelling through the game). In 1995 they presented ingame screenshots as well, which also still looked very different from the final game. The preliminary screen layout rather lead to the impression that the series would make a transition as a fighting game, instead of the action platformer it turned out to be in 1997.



Fox Ranger 3 (Beta)

References
1. PC Advance 4/1994, page 188
2. http://blog.paran.com/haneter/32372449
3. Game Champ 8/1994, PC game booklet page 10
4. Game Champ 9/1994, page 112
5. IBM PC World in Game World 5/1994 page 23
6. Game World 1/1995
7. [reference needed]
8. IBM PC World in Game World 10/1994, page 3
9. IBM PC World in Game World 1/1995, page 39
10. PC Champ 1/1995 page 177
11. Game Power 12/1994 (Game Champ insert) page 15


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