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Propeller Arena - Sega's Lost Dreamcast Title?

Posted by simoniker on from the never-to-be-seen-again dept.

Thanks to TNL for their new feature exploring the unreleased Dreamcast online-enabled flight title, Propeller Arena, which was cancelled in 2001 "at the last moment in the wake of the September 11th tragedy." The article points out: "Initially, Sega's pulling the plug on Propeller Arena might have seemed a bit of an overreaction to the events of 9/11. After all, what did a fantastical WWII-style arcade game have in common with modern day events?" However, the writer has had a chance to play a near-final Beta of the title, and suggests that "...once one actually plays the game Sega's decision seems much more understandable. One level is called 'Airport,' while another, 'Tower City,' is apparently patterned after Manhattan, the anchoring feature of the stage's city skyline being huge replicas of the World Trade Center's Twin Towers." But he finishes by praising it as "one of the most graphically pleasing ganes for the console", and arguing that the "fun factor of the online mode would have been through the roof."

51 comments

  1. Everyone may be just a little too sensitive by ObviousGuy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The WTC attacks happened over two years ago, and while it may have been a very large shock to those whose lives were directly touched by the tragedy, there seems to have been a swing towards not mentioning the attack at all in anything but the most rose colored speech.

    A bad thing happened and we are all trying to 'get over it'. However, I fail to see how a game based on a propeller plane flying around a big city in any way defames those who lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks.

    There is a time to be somber and thoughtful, but there is also a time to realize that not everything revolves around you and your personal tragedies.

    --
    I have been pwned because my /. password was too easy to guess.
    1. Re:Everyone may be just a little too sensitive by SuperMo0 · · Score: 2, Informative

      The problem is, though, that people aren't really willing to see ANY form of imagery that reminds them of what they saw.

      As a reminder, remember when the DC (District of Columbia, not Dreamcast) sniper was running loose? Around the DC area (which I happen to live in) people were throwing a fit over the game Silent Scope. Even though you were sniping criminals, and you were a police officer (or bounty hunter, can't remember which), the fact of the matter was you were sniping people who half of the time were 100 or so yards away, which was exactly the situation that the sniper used to his advantage. People just didn't want to be reminded of it, and so threw a fit over it.

      The same holds for 9/11, at the time. People simply did not want to be reminded of the trauma that they all experienced, especially the people that were there when it happened. It would have been a nightmare for Sega if they had released that game, and probably would have sunk the Dreamcast faster.

    2. Re:Everyone may be just a little too sensitive by SamSim · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't know about anybody else, but after over two years, I'm done mourning.

      Now before you mod me down, hear me out. I still wish it had never happened. I'm still unhappy that 2,000 people died unnecessarily. But I'm finished with being unable to look at anything resembling two towers, complaining about any movie which shows the WTC in the skyline of New York. I was finished a long time ago. I'm mature, I can tell the difference between bad taste and geographical accuracy.

      --
      qntm.org
    3. Re:Everyone may be just a little too sensitive by SuperMo0 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      But the game was ALSO shelved two years ago. I'm not saying that it's wrong to bring it out NOW, I'm saying that they were justified not bringing out the game THEN. But how many people do you think would keep a straight face at Sega releasing a Dreamcast game close to 2 years after they announced it was dead?

    4. Re:Everyone may be just a little too sensitive by johndoejersey · · Score: 0

      side note: the film phonebooth was also delayed for the reason listed by parent.

      this isnt restricted to video games and events on the magnitude of 9/11.

      british tv comedy mr bean had an episode cancelled the week after the incident involving the snatching of a young child from a shopping centre in liverpool (james bulger incase if anyone remembers)

      They later showed the episode, and the basic story was that mr bean was baby sitting, and he took the kid to a fun fair, he tied some balloons to the pram the kid was in, and the pram floated away, the rest of the story had mr bean trying to rescue said child.



      It wasnt even a very good episode.

    5. Re:Everyone may be just a little too sensitive by bjb · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Hey, I agree that flying a propeller plane around a big city doesn't defame the lives of the 9/11 attacks, but at the same time, I would get slight hee-bee-jee-bees doing certain things in the game. Basically, because I was in tower 1 when it was hit (see this if you want). To this day, I can't quite watch people doing any kind of free fall (amusement park, cliff diving, bungee jumping, etc) and if I saw someone fly even a computer plane into a building, it hits a nerve with me.

      Yeah, I'm more or less over the event, I've talked about it 1000s of times (literally, not figuratively), but there are some images I will have trouble with for years to come.

      Regardless, I want to see this game get released some day :-)

      --
      Never hit your grandmother with a shovel, for it leaves a bad impression on her mind...
    6. Re:Everyone may be just a little too sensitive by superultra · · Score: 1

      Keep in mind that immediately following 9-11, video game publishers changed the box art or software on dozens of games. Microsoft made software changes to Flight Sim 2003 and dozens of publishers changed box art (Westwood's C&C box at the time had two planes headed directly for the WTC, Project Gotham Racing's art was backdropped by the WTC, etc etc).

      The Dreamcast was on its last legs anyway, and all that was trickling out were titles that had been in development and were close to completion (i.e. Alien Front). Propeller Arena was one of the very last titles Sega had developed for the DC, and so I doubt it made financial sense to anyone within Sega to even risk getting negative media exposure for what little profit they would have scrounged from the 131 point sales of Propeller Arena. "Get over it" may be applicable now, but it certainly wasn't two months after 9-11.

      So we're not talking as if Sega just canceled this title last week. They canceled it years ago; why this is popping up on slashdot now is beyond me. I think it does represent how ahead of the online game Sega really was, but this is still pretty old news to be digging up. Moreover, Sega did, however, release it in arcades, where I understand it performed quite well.

      P.S. A fairly complete version of the title is "available" through "non-orthodox" modes of distribution. "Quotes" are illicitly fun to use, "yes"?

    7. Re:Everyone may be just a little too sensitive by Artifex · · Score: 2, Insightful

      No kidding. I decided that I'd had enough when I heard how they cut up Spiderman to remove the long WTC sequence. Far from being insensitive, it would have been a damn good tribute.

      For those who haven't seen the one trailer of the scene that exists, some bad guys try to escape from a scene via helicopter, and suddenly they get stuck in the air... in a giant web Spidey put between the towers.

      They should have left the scene in the picture. Instead of being upset, I think most people would cheer in the theater, if not give a standing ovation at seeing the WTC standing firm against the bad guys, if only in our imagination.

      --
      Get off my launchpad!
    8. Re:Everyone may be just a little too sensitive by PainKilleR-CE · · Score: 1

      As a reminder, remember when the DC (District of Columbia, not Dreamcast) sniper was running loose?

      Just a side note: when I turned on the local news to check the weather this morning, the sniper trial news came on (this trial is being held in the city where I work, the trial of the other guy involved was held nearby), I saw a nice sketch of the sniper as well as images labelled 'Matrix' and 'Ghost Recon'. Apparently now his defense is 'The Matrix made me do it and Ghost Recon showed me how, but really I'm crazy and the other guy convinced me to do it'.

      Just a little heads up that the mass media might be talking about games again by the end of the day. Or maybe they'll just skip it.

      --
      -PainKilleR-[CE]
    9. Re:Everyone may be just a little too sensitive by sehryan · · Score: 1

      I was under the impression that the scene you are refering to was a 'trailer only' scene, and was never intended to be seen in the movie, even if 9/11 hadn't happened.

      --
      The world moves for love. It kneels before it in awe.
    10. Re:Everyone may be just a little too sensitive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      (The following is off-topic, I know, but your reaction struck a chord with me.)

      The Grand Theft Auto series of games, and games like them, have a similar effect on me, because I have seen senseless urban violence first-hand. I live in a great place now, and I've never been particularly poor, but growing up, I saw enough real, innocent people have their lives ruined by violent criminals who held no value in human life.

      Maybe those who are oblivious to urban violence are more prone to tune that kind of thing out, or maybe it's the ones for whom urban violence is an everyday reality, I don't know. All I know is that my nephews (who are pre-teens and mid-teens, but have witnessed knifings and gangfights) play GTA, but I never could.

    11. Re:Everyone may be just a little too sensitive by Artifex · · Score: 1
      I was under the impression that the scene you are refering to was a 'trailer only' scene, and was never intended to be seen in the movie,


      Well, that's a good point, I hadn't thought that the trailer might have lied about the movie. I googled "spiderman wtc scene" and got various conflicting reports, from a spokesperson who said it was only the trailer that had to be recalled to a lot of other people saying otherwise. I guess if it was just the trailer, I would be more inclined to agree, because it might seem more like crass marketing to anyone who didn't know the trailer existed before the tragedy.

      Thanks for bringing the question up.
      --
      Get off my launchpad!
  2. Kinda makes me weep... by sammaffei · · Score: 1

    The Dreamcast was great system that just couldn't make inroads against the Sony marketing behemoth. And now, with the Sammy acquisition in play, it looks like Sega is going the way of Atari.

    Oh, how the great ones have fallen...

    --

    Political correctness is the newest form of slavery.

    1. Re:Kinda makes me weep... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, how the great ones have fallen...

      It's enough to cause rioting in the streets...the Streets of Rage (TM)(R) that is.

    2. Re:Kinda makes me weep... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'll be there alongside ya, brother....with my Bare Knuckle (TM)(R).

    3. Re:Kinda makes me weep... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Dreamcast was great system that just couldn't make inroads against the Sony marketing behemoth. And now, with the Sammy acquisition in play, it looks like Sega is going the way of Atari.

      I don't know how true this story is... but I like it.

      A friend of mine who used to be a game tester for Sega told me the president of Sony and Sega are friends... one day the Sony prez shows up at the Sega offices. He goes up to see the Sega prez and puts a PS2 on the desk, hooks it up and hands the Sega prez the controller. After a few minutes the Sega prez says, "This is a work of art, we can't compete with this." Shortly after Dreamcast has it's plug pulled.

    4. Re:Kinda makes me weep... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Isn't true of Sega and Sony's presidents in Japan OR the U.S. If your friend is talking about the heads of Sony's and Sega's European divisions, I have no way of verifying this.

      Anyway, there were no launch titles on the PS2 that looked or played any better than Dreamcast games of the same period. It took over one year for PS2 developers, including Sony themselves, to be able to match and surpass Dreamcast visuals. And in the PS2's first year, there were NO titles worth owning. Absolutely none.

      Besides, Sega of America (at least) was quite vocal of their competitive strategies against Sony and the PS2.

  3. Re:Slashdot censors and track "anonymous" tsarkon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    it happened to me. i have a low uid. i used to post AC (and get moderated down a bit here and there) in one browser, and in another i did my logged in stuff.

    also, i metamoderated with humor and orginality in mind. i have a feeling i was $rtbled because i went against the grain and this made me fairly sad.

  4. That's a shame by PeeweeJD · · Score: 1

    That is a shame that game was cancelled. The online multiplayer aspect sounds a lot like Crimson Skies for Xbox. Crimson Skies is (IMHO) turning out to be the best Xbox Live "destroy stuff" game.

    1. Re:That's a shame by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'll second that... Seems like if you're still looking for this style of game, Crimson Skies would be the route to travel. WW2 feel to the planes, I think the game is even based on the presumption that everyone lost WW2 and the nations of the world fell apart. I don't know though, I didn't play the game for the story, I played it through because it's fscking fun.

    2. Re:That's a shame by cpt+kangarooski · · Score: 1

      IIRC, Crimson Skies is based on the presumption the Great Depression, an even worse repeat of the Flu Epidemic of 1918, American isolationist policies, and internal regional conflicts, the US broke apart by 1930. There seem to have been other changes elsewhere as well (e.g. Hawaii as a British protectorate)

      But the game takes place during the 30's, so there hasn't been a chance for everyone to lose WW2 yet.

      --
      -- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
    3. Re:That's a shame by VividU · · Score: 1

      Crimson Skies is a great game. But the honor for the best "destroy stuff" game must go the great MechAssault.

      Watching a chain reaction of exploding Ragnaroks collapse tall builings in River City is a sight to behold.

      Doing this from your sofa while playing with and talking to other players from around the country jacks up the "fun factor" off the scale.

    4. Re:That's a shame by PeeweeJD · · Score: 1

      mechassault is cool, but there it is too hard to destroy a mech for my taste... river city is hella fun though...

      crimson skies is a nice medium between ghost recon's kill-ya-with-one-shot and mechassualt's beat-on-ya-for-10-minutes-till-ya-explode...

      I like how you get in behind someone and and light them up with your guns (please no greased yoda doll replies) and they cannot shake you...

      gamertag is peeweejd in case anyone wants to play crimson skies...

  5. Re:Slashdot censors and track "anonymous" tsarkon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am a very honest metamod, and only post AC. Most of the time I am on topic and mean well. Every once in a while I get off topic or just plain stupid. It is fun. This is a new frontier and it is still being explored. If anything happens to my account because of something I posted AC, a new troll will be born.

  6. A few quick facts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
    9/11 - 2,000 people died. This was an isolated incident.

    Obecity - 30,000 dead EVERY YEAR.

    Do people shed a tear when they drive past McDonalds?

    1. Re:A few quick facts by bigman2003 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      In the WTC bombing, a lot of people with great potential died. Young people, people with families, people who might have done good things for society. Probably some of them were coaches for kids basketball teams. Maybe one of them had a child whose birthday was that day, and they were going to come home early for a party.

      Nobody really cares when 30,000 big, fat, lazy, disgusting people with no will power keel over while choking down their last Big Mac. Maybe they had reached the maximum size of stretch pants at Wal*Mart, and were going to go naked the next day because of it. You know, a lot of those obese people can't even wipe their own ass- really. So, either someone else does it for them, or they waddle around with shit between their cheeks.

      So when innocent people die, people have compassion. When someone kills themselves through gluttony, nobody cares.

      --
      No reason to lie.
    2. Re:A few quick facts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In the WTC bombing, a lot of people with great potential died. Young people, people with families, people who might have done good things for society. Probably some of them were coaches for kids basketball teams. Maybe one of them had a child whose birthday was that day, and they were going to come home early for a party.

      Could you poosibly lay the bullshit on a little thicker? The WTC bombing killed a relatively small number of people in the grand scheme of things. While some of them may have been little league coaches or children celebrating their birthdays, others were undoubtedly Grade "A" assholes who deserved to die. Everyone from investment bankers who make millions investing in exploitative industries (cigarette manufacturers, diamonds, arms dealers, textile companies all come to mind)to the schmucks who cheat on their wives. They had it coming if you ask me.

      Fucking arrogant New Yorkers. I was happy when I saw the buildings come down....

    3. Re:A few quick facts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      It is easy to pick on fat people, so lets step it up a notch. Even more people die every year from smoking. Is Bob Dylan without potential, will power, and purpose? You may not like his voice, hell, his voice just gets worse from his smoking. He just has a problem. Lots of people do. If you can't think of any fat people or smokers who have made a difference in your life, you have not lived. If you think you are better than them, I feel sorry for you. While I am certainly not blaming you for the obecity of others, your intolerant attitude certainly doesn't make fat people feel like going out and doing things, just to get weird looks and faint "look how fat he/she is" whispers.

      There is also another dimension to it. Brilliant people are often thought to be crazy, fat people thought to be lazy. Someone doesn't eat meat? Well that must mean they think they are better than me! Patterns of thought like this are just mental lazyness. When you can't bother to seperate the cream from the crop, you should just keep your mouth shut. Yes, lazy people often end up fat. I am sure you know plenty of skinny lazy people too. It really doesn't mean much. It just isn't black and white like that. If I used reasoning like yours, I would think everyone on this planet was stupid.

    4. Re:A few quick facts by bigman2003 · · Score: 1

      Well, let me explain my post a little further-

      The parent to my post was comparing people who died of obesity, to those who died in the World Trade Center disaster.

      I don't think you can really compare those who killed themselves through self-hate and neglect, to those who were murdered.

      I'm sorry if I think that people should take responsibility for their actions- and over-eating is something they should take responsibility for.

      Going to work, and getting killed is not really their fault, and I do feel compassion for them, and their families.

      The person who drives down the road drunk at 100mph is an idiot. The person whom they hit, and kill, is an innocent victim. I don't really care about the drunk idiot who caused it, but I do feel sorry for the other one.

      Someone who dies from obesity is like that drunk idiot. Someone who was sitting at their desk when a plane hits the building is an innocent victim.

      If you don't see the difference between those two, I would say that you are the grade 'A' asshole.

      --
      No reason to lie.
    5. Re:A few quick facts by Zork+the+Almighty · · Score: 1

      Do people shed a tear when they drive past McDonalds?

      Yes - for poor old Grimace. His untimely death from morbid obesity is an omen for us all.

      --

      In Soviet America the banks rob you!
    6. Re:A few quick facts by skarmor · · Score: 1

      People who die of obesity do have it coming - I'm not syaing I have any sympathy for those fatasses. What I am saying is that you laid it on pretty thick about those poor, poor people who got killed in the WTC.

      Many of those bastards deserved the firey death that they received. My initial reaction to the "disaster" was, "Hey, its about time someone did something like that..sweet." Then I spent the rest of the day laughing at the frequency of the use of the word "horrific" on all the news channels.

    7. Re:A few quick facts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If your going to cry me a river over 9/11 one more time I'll puke. People are dying all the time, just as innocent as SOME of those people were. But as it has been mentioned I'm sure there were plenty of assholes in the mix, only wish that if it goes down a second time (if they ever rebuild it), we'd have time to evaccuate the innocent and fill it full of assholes.

  7. This game looks familiar.. by Niobium-41 · · Score: 1

    Is it just me or does this game look a lot like the Xbox version of Crimson Skies? 3rd person, dogfighting over cities, online play..

    Probably just a coincedence..

    1. Re:This game looks familiar.. by Acidic_Diarrhea · · Score: 1
      Man, you're right!

      Hey, have you noticed that Quake III and Unreal Tournament look similar? First person, shooting guys in narrow corridors and outdoor terraces, online play...JESUS CHRIST! this conspiracy has gone unnoticed...

      Wait a second, Daytona USA and Ridge Racer...cars, going around a track, WOW! How deep does this rabbit hole go?

      --
      I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
    2. Re:This game looks familiar.. by Alkaiser · · Score: 1

      Yeah...another thing...this game (or its predecessor) was out in arcades in the US around 1997. I remember dogfighting people in the dorms because we were always trying to decide who the better Wing Commander pilot was.

      So if it looks a bit similar to Crimson Skies, that's the CS people's fault.

      On top of that...Troll...all games nowadays look like some other game that's out nowadays. The trick for the Marketers is trying to act like that other game never existed.

      --
      Netjak.com independent reviews of domestic & import video ga
    3. Re:This game looks familiar.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Hey, have you noticed that Quake III and Unreal Tournament look similar?
      They should, given that UT was a blatant ripoff of Q3A. Unless you really believe that "uhhh no, we thought of it a long time before Q3A was even announced, no really, trust us" bullshit.
  8. Propeller Arena by Propeller+Arena · · Score: 5, Informative

    I was working at Sega during the development of Propeller Arena.

    At the time, the game was in its last stage of development. The game was debugged and on its way to being mass produced. The packaging had also been completed in the early days of September in 2001. It was simply days away from being released.

    During the game, there was a powerup you could collect that would allow you to release a huge bomb. The explosion from the bomb created a large, mushroom cloud looking graphic. If your plane was destroyed in any way while carrying one of those bombs, the bomb would explode. The camera would zoom back to show a distant shot of the explosion. If your plane crashed into one of the buildings, it would do the same. The image was eerily similar to those we saw on 9/11.

    To complicate the matter further, the packaging for Propeller Arena showed the City level on the cover. It also showed a plane crashing into one of the large buildings while carrying one of those big bombs.

    With this in mind, Sega management decided to pull the game. I can't say I blame them at all. It was a shame that we all worked so hard on such a fun game but at the same time, the sinister acts that had occurred were on everyone's minds. Releasing such a game could easily reflect negatively on the company. It would have been real easy for a critic to say something like, "Sega is trying to capitalize on a national tragedy." So, the game was quietly put away.

  9. ok... by metalmario · · Score: 0

    It's ok if they didn't release the game in USA, but why has the rest of the world suffer because of the simple minded people of USA? Why not release it in Europe and Japan?

  10. wheres the torrent to the game? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    us DC loyalists want to play it

  11. Available for download anywhere? by Mean_Nishka · · Score: 1

    Is this something Sega is releasing into the public domain? If this website got a hold of it perhaps they could do the community a nice favor and release it for download.

    --
    www.lonseidman.com

  12. it might just be me, but... by hiroshi912681 · · Score: 1

    I'm sure it'll get released on the internet eventually like how Half Life was.

    The only thing is, I wish sega would release server software for their discontinued games... I miss playing chu chu rocket online =(

  13. Re:ummm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Gay slang for "homosexual man's anus."

  14. Re:Slashdot censors and track "anonymous" tsarkon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why do I not notice this problem?

  15. Propeller arena by Lostuse · · Score: 1

    yes this game looked great i had really wanted it, its too bad that it had to be canceled... hopefully someday the almight belokk or someone else will get the ability to rip this hes looking for it now if anyone has it and wants to realese it or any other unrealesed games hes always looking for them... well i can pray something happens... nice to see info about this get slashdotted...