A brand new deep-dive article into the historical past of Maxis’ ill-fated SimCopter 64 has been revealed by the nice folks over the Video Recreation Historical past Basis, and it delivers some fascinating new perception and details about the unreleased Nintendo 64 recreation.
This specific prototype construct — unrelated to a later model that got here to gentle earlier this 12 months — is the E3 1997 demo and has been dumped and preserved after being supplied to the VGHF by an nameless donor. Beforehand, off-screen showfloor footage was all that was accessible, however the recreation has now been archived for posterity, with the video above captured on actual {hardware}.
As you’ll be able to see, a giant dollop of pop-in and a beneficiant serving to of that patented N64 fog is current and proper on this prototype construct, which is described as a “fairy direct port of SimCopter for PC”. This early model could be altered within the months that adopted, being closely ‘console-ified’ in an analogous method to the SNES model of SimCity.
The brand new article — which fits into spectacular depth and is completely value a learn in case you have any interst in any respect within the Sim sequence or Nintendo 64 growth — particulars how Maxis itself helmed this mission (versus the Japan-only SimCity 64, which was developed by HAL Laboratory). It additionally explains how all 30 cities from the PC recreation had been imported immediately from that recreation (albeit with varied bugs on this prototype), and the way the sport modified in subsequent showings, ditching gameplay that former Maxis Ok.Ok. president Aki Kodama calls “simply flying over a digital metropolis, similar to one other flight simulator,” and turning into one thing very totally different by Summer season ’98. By that point, it had develop into a extra console-friendly “story-driven motion recreation” that writer Phil Salvador describes as “extra like Pilotwings 64 or Blast Corps”.
You may try footage of a December ’97 construct of the sport under for comparability.
Salvador additionally debunks the concept — primarily based on feedback from Shigeru Miyamoto, no much less — that the sport was in growth for the 64DD. If that was ever the intention, on present proof, it seems possible the concept by no means obtained off the drafting board earlier than growth was scrapped altogether.
In the event you’re within the full story, it is an enchanting learn. Head on over to gamehistory.org and assist the sterling work they’re doing over there.
