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Indiana Jones and The Iron Phoenix, Fate of Atlantis' lost sequel
elkatas
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While browsing NeoGAF today, I found interesting article about Indiana Jones and Fate of Atlantis long lost sequel, Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix. I had never even heard about this project, so I decided to post some tidbits about its development so we could weep together for loss of potentially great adventure game. The game was intended to happen in post-war Germany, in year 1947. Group of nazi survivors living in Bolivian are seeking for Philosophers Stone to resurrect Adolf Hitler. Game would have started from Soviet-occupied Berlin, and send Indy to Kiev, Ireland, and Tibet.
The game had been under development for 15 months, until it was canned. But what went wrong? Nearly everything. First problem was that the project was meant to be co-project with unnamed Canadian company. Thanks to their lack of skill, project was severely slowed. Aric Wilmunder, who worked as a lead for the project, dropped out for unspecific reason. He had contributed some parts to the story together with Bill Stoneham (another project lead), Joe Pinney, and Hal Barwood (the man responsible for Fate of Atlantis). Then there was clash between Anson Jew (lead character designer) and Bill Stoneham (who also worked as lead artist). Jew wanted characters to be in art deco style, similar to Batman: the Animated Series, while Stoneham wanted realistic looking backgrounds. Stoneham and few other retards at art team also wanted to dabble with FMV, something that didn't go very well.
The final nail in coffin was that Lucasarts learned from its German distributors that the game wouldn't get release in Germany due censorship. In earlier games, it had been pretty easy to remove any nazi references, but with Iron Phoenix it wouldn't have worked due nature of the plot. Because Germany was one of more important markets for adventure games, game was canned altogether. Fifteen months of work had gone down the drain, and although game was shown in ECTS (E3's predecessor), no footage has survived outside few concept arts. But the storyline was turned into a 4-part long comic series, which was released in 1995 by Dark Horse. The comic retained much of the original plot and even some of the puzzles, but references to Hitler and Bolivia were removed.
Source: International House of Mojo
The game had been under development for 15 months, until it was canned. But what went wrong? Nearly everything. First problem was that the project was meant to be co-project with unnamed Canadian company. Thanks to their lack of skill, project was severely slowed. Aric Wilmunder, who worked as a lead for the project, dropped out for unspecific reason. He had contributed some parts to the story together with Bill Stoneham (another project lead), Joe Pinney, and Hal Barwood (the man responsible for Fate of Atlantis). Then there was clash between Anson Jew (lead character designer) and Bill Stoneham (who also worked as lead artist). Jew wanted characters to be in art deco style, similar to Batman: the Animated Series, while Stoneham wanted realistic looking backgrounds. Stoneham and few other retards at art team also wanted to dabble with FMV, something that didn't go very well.
The final nail in coffin was that Lucasarts learned from its German distributors that the game wouldn't get release in Germany due censorship. In earlier games, it had been pretty easy to remove any nazi references, but with Iron Phoenix it wouldn't have worked due nature of the plot. Because Germany was one of more important markets for adventure games, game was canned altogether. Fifteen months of work had gone down the drain, and although game was shown in ECTS (E3's predecessor), no footage has survived outside few concept arts. But the storyline was turned into a 4-part long comic series, which was released in 1995 by Dark Horse. The comic retained much of the original plot and even some of the puzzles, but references to Hitler and Bolivia were removed.
Source: International House of Mojo
Hypnotically inclined.
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Also, between this and the Team ICO thread, I've had enough disappointment for one day.
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Whatever happened to it...did it get chopped?
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
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With Lucasarts outsourcing all its projects, its current status is unknown. Same goes for PSP game Indiana Jones and Staff of Moses.
Steam, PSN, XBL, Xfire and everything else JamesDM
Unfortunately Harrison is a little old to be playing the younger Indie, or else they might have gone with something like that.
PSN: SAW776
I should really try it again (yes, I still have it.)
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I thought the director said he wouldn't do any more movies with "funny" nazis anyway.
The first mini-adventure is the Nazis blasting Indy with an experimental raygun which turns out to age people considerably. This ties in with the later plot as Hitler would be reincarnated as a baby, and the ray is needed to get him to adulthood.
Because funny Commie's are so much better? :P
Maybe experimenting on him since he drank from the Holy Grail and should therefore be more resistant to the effects of aging! Brilliant!
PSN: SAW776
I guess that comic book's cover was meant to be box art. Usually this stuff is done first for promotional purposes. It is pretty cheesy, tho', especially if compared to Fate of Atlantis box which I really liked.
Pretty scary thought. And what is his left hand doing?
That looks more like a poster for a circus show.
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I'm not sure, but I think that comic cover was drawn by Drew Struzan.
EDIT: Nevermind. Just good copycat.
However, I have heard about this: http://www.barnettcollege.com/index2.htm - The spritual successor to Fate of Atlantis. I don't know if it will ever be done, but the people working on it are (or were?) incredibly talented.
Edit: Not being I of course check the news site before posting (mmmmmh... yeah) and see that the last one was made only yesterday. Good stuff!
Sunday! SUNDAY! SUNDAY!!!!!!
Indiana Jones will RIDE A MOTORCYCLE through some FIRE with NAZI STUFF IN THE BACKGROUND!
Also he'll be shooting a fucking GUN!
SUNDAAAAAAAAAAAY
Fixed that for ya. Indy sure is talented and ambidextrous chap.
At least they have updated their webpage January. Of which year, I can't however say. It is shame that promising AGS projects often die painful death.
Dev Diary page says January 10 2006.
That can't be right given what it says about the demo.
hmm.
And previous news piece to january says that they saw the fourth Indy movie.
Edit: Beaten. Why did I have to be beaten?