Hardcore From Digital Illusions new information
 

Some updated information on Hardcore.

it's old now but it's not mentioned on Hol so i decided to tell ya ;)

http://hol.abime.net/4350

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Check the video there, i would've linked a proper direct link but for some reason it doesn't always work >:I

http://www.gamer.no/artikler/52407/g...efield-skaper/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD_oF...layer_embedded


basically mentions how they moved production away from Amiga and over to SEGA Megadrive and game was 1 bug away from beeing released before Psygnosis decided to kill the project (along with 12 other SEGA MD projects).

Check the video on the page.

So sad, looks awesome.

Indeed looks a very interesting game.

There was a developer diary in Swedish magazine Datormagazin, running over several months.

Where could I find Datormagazin scans?

https://dmzarkivet.se

For example, here is one screenshot from Hardcore and another one from another abandoned DI game, Malfunction: https://dmzarkivet.se/pager.cfm?issue=199311&page=15

I take it that no "playable demo" ever got released?

...I wonder where HOL got their screenshots from?

Nope, no playable demo......just some preview screenshots for it and Benefactor at the end of Digtal Illusions' PD game Amiganoid, which appeared on an Amiga Format coverdisk.

http://amr.abime.net/amr_search.php?...=0&action=Find

:crying

Thanks for the details Carlo ;)

I heard they wanted to release the game to the public but Sony that owns the studio now wouldn't let them.

They're owned by EA now.

I think psygnosis owns the rights to the game and is owned by Sony.

Hardcore, now Ultracore, will be bundled with the new Mega Sg from Analogue. Can' wait to get my hands on this game. :D


Yes, no Amiga version. But it wasn't the main development platform. They switched to the Mega Drive very fast. New Video looks great.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVatpX0hMTg

Not true. My information is from the gfx artist who worked on both versions before it was cancelled completely. Where did you get your information from?

I am ok with that move to change name and bundle it with Mega Sg, just hope it will be later available for GOG and modern consoles.

So I have a chance to play and finish Ultracore. It looks like there were some small changes made between Hardcore and Ultracore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RDRQcBmEzE - here is trailer for Hardcore
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzviKfM_U0U - and here is for Ultracore

I have noticed that there is no two shump top view sections.
They were previewed in old magazines, in Hardcore trailer and on publisher site (but were cut later). I wonder why they cut them? Were they not fun to play or too much buggy to fix?

Also game got like three big parts, each one with two levels with some sub-bosses and bosses. I wonder why there is nice picture with bit of story after first two levels, after another two and at the end, but there is no picture/intro at start of game?

That tank section was something DICE wanted to add to the planned MegaCD version of the game - only a half finished level exists - thats the level you see in the trailer.
SLG didnt add them to the game, becasue backporting that to the Megadrive turned out to be too hard.

The original DICE plans was to have 5 big parts, where between each Run`n`Gun area (as defined by the 3 area tilesets) there was supposed to be tank section that would lead to the next area. The Amiga magazine screens of those tank sections are mockups of those plans, they were never coded. When the game moved to Megadrive, the limited ROM space didnt leave them any choice anyway. Only later when MegaCD came up, they planned to readd them to that version.

As for the missing intro, we can only assume they had made one for the Amiga, but then simply cut it from Megadrive version for space reasons without creating any replacement before the game was canned.