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Disruptor - the PS1 game that started life as a 3DO / 3DO M2 game

VGEsoterica

VGEsoterica

Member
I love a good development hell story. They are always filled with missed steps, confusion...and a little bit of disappointment. Disruptor has got to be one of the wildest development histories I've ever encountered though.

Disruptor was 90%+ finished for the 3DO and it was previewed in magazines / played in the 3DO offices per a friend that worked at 3DO back in the 90's. At the last minute Insomniac decided to move the development of Disruptor to the 3DO M2...until the writing was on the wall that M2 was probably going to die before it was even given a chance to live!

So what did Insomniac do? Pivoted to the PS1! And it was a great game...but did you know the prerendered demos 3DO showed at CES when they unveiled the M2 hardware were in part based on Disruptor? and that ads were even released promoting the game as a 3DO M2 release?

To this day I have never been able to track down a playable alpha/beta of the game for either 3DO platform...but considering it was so close to release I bet somewhere Insomniac has a copy sitting on their shelves. Insomniac do you read NeoGaf? If so...can you slide me an iso? K thanks!
 
coffinbirth

coffinbirth

Member
Man, I LOVED this game back in the day!
I'd like to point out a few things:
This was Insomniacs 1st game!
Was published by Universal Interactive, which at the time had an executive producer by the name of one Mark Cerny!
This game was shopped around to publishers as a prototype that was developed on 3DO hardware, and didn't actually receive funding to develop past that stage until UI came around and it was moved to Playstation. It is my belief that whatever was shown/demoed on 3DO is all that exists for that platform, but I'd love to be wrong!
 
VGEsoterica

VGEsoterica

Member
coffinbirth said:
Man, I LOVED this game back in the day!
I'd like to point out a few things:
This was Insomniacs 1st game!
Was published by Universal Interactive, which at the time had an executive producer by the name of one Mark Cerny!
This game was shopped around to publishers as a prototype that was developed on 3DO hardware, and didn't actually receive funding to develop past that stage until UI came around and it was moved to Playstation. It is my belief that whatever was shown/demoed on 3DO is all that exists for that platform, but I'd love to be wrong!
Click to expand...
from what I was told by people who played it in house at 3DO was that it was at the beta stage and only needed polish to ship so if their memory is correct it was closer to release than it seemed. I am sure Universal pushed to move to PS1
 
coffinbirth

coffinbirth

Member
VGEsoterica said:
from what I was told by people who played it in house at 3DO was that it was at the beta stage and only needed polish to ship so if their memory is correct it was closer to release than it seemed. I am sure Universal pushed to move to PS1
Click to expand...
I find that somewhat dubious as by the time UI picked up this project(early '96) the 3DO was already in bargain bins and the writing was pretty clearly on the wall that it was a dead platform. I can't imagine UI looked at that situation and allowed for any allocation of resources towards further development on 3DO after they ported the engine to PS1. Cerny's own quote about Disruptor says a lot, to me, anyways...

"we saw the prototype running on 3DO and agreed to fund development on Playstation".

I, however, am not in contact with any of these people, as you have been, so I will defer to that claim as potentially being more accurate than my hypothesis, but when you step back and look at it, to me anyways, it seems pretty clear that UI weren't shopping for 3DO games in 1996.

All that being said, it wouldn't surprise me if the bulk of the actual game was developed using the 3DO devkits they already had and ported it over as they went. Would certainly be neat to see!
 
VGEsoterica

VGEsoterica

Member
coffinbirth said:
I find that somewhat dubious as by the time UI picked up this project(early '96) the 3DO was already in bargain bins and the writing was pretty clearly on the wall that it was a dead platform. I can't imagine UI looked at that situation and allowed for any allocation of resources towards further development on 3DO after they ported the engine to PS1. Cerny's own quote about Disruptor says a lot, to me, anyways...

"we saw the prototype running on 3DO and agreed to fund development on Playstation".

I, however, am not in contact with any of these people, as you have been, so I will defer to that claim as potentially being more accurate than my hypothesis, but when you step back and look at it, to me anyways, it seems pretty clear that UI weren't shopping for 3DO games in 1996.

All that being said, it wouldn't surprise me if the bulk of the actual game was developed using the 3DO devkits they already had and ported it over as they went. Would certainly be neat to see!
Click to expand...
that's definitely how it happened but it was from what I was told beyond the prototype stage and well past an alpha by the time it was transitioned to PS1 with a 3DO M2 port planned for 1997. They may have continued work on the 3DO version until they were up and running on PS1 too to aide porting vs stopping work and restarting. Just conjecture but fun conjecture lol
 
Ivan

Ivan

Member
I love the design much more than in popular fps games from the time. I loved Alien trilogy too. And Codename Tenka.
 
TGO

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
I remember this, I believe it was on the Playstation Magazine Demo Disc
I remember enjoying it but I never got it though.
 
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StreetsofBeige

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I rented this game on PS1. I dont remember much about it except it was a slick engine 3D shooter game. At the time, 3D games on PS1 were hit and miss. But this game was smooth like playing a shooter on PC. Other games at the time that had good 3D on PS1 were Tunnel B1 and an Aliens game.

Dont remember if the actual game and enemies were any good, but at least the engine was.
 
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Dave_at_Home

Dave_at_Home

Member
I remember renting this game when it first came out. I was really young at the time (ten or eleven) and first person shooters were all new to me. Didn't know what I was doing and never finished it. Hidden gem.
 
Billbofet

Billbofet

Member
VGEsoterica said:
it actually hasn't aged that badly. I've def played worse aged FPS games from the PS1 era thats for sure
Click to expand...
You have inspired me to give it a try on my PSP. I just watched some vids to refresh my memory and, IIRC, this was one of the first FPSs to have "sway" as you moved. I remember thinking it was so amazing and immersive.
 
Doczu

Doczu

Member
Mods could you please give OP a 3DO centrred tag? Cause he's like the only guy here that talks about it 😂

That said - really interesting stuff. I loved Disruptor, one of my first PS1 games on a bootleg cd 4 game compilation, with music and fmv's cut out (imagine my shock when i bought an original copy and found out it had a story!). Never knew it jumped ship twice before launching.
 
MiguelItUp

MiguelItUp

Member
I was always really curious about playing this and never got around to it. I remember really looking forward to it, but it being 3DO made it impossible. Then when it was PS1, I was excited, but never got it. :(

I never realized it went through this, explains a lot. Wild!
 
synchronicity

synchronicity

Member
Yeah I really enjoyed this back in the day. I had no idea - nor did anyone, ha - who Insomniac was or would be, but it was really fun and creative. (minus the fmv scenes :p)
 
S

SpongebobSquaredance

Unconfirmed Member
Game looks very cool. Is it any good?
I've tried Po'ed once, which according to my knowledge was also a 3DO game but I didn't like it despite being kinda unique..
 
Eddie-Griffin

Eddie-Griffin

Banned
There's debate on the M2 discussion, when The game switched to PS1 before release there was zero indication the M2 was not going to happen and the demos blew PS1 out the park more and more as time went on so I find it hard to believe the M2 was ever a target.
 
Eddie-Griffin

Eddie-Griffin

Banned
SpongebobSquaredance said:
Game looks very cool. Is it any good?
I've tried Po'ed once, which according to my knowledge was also a 3DO game but I didn't like it despite being kinda unique..
Click to expand...
Playing POed is a bit rought outside the 3DO since it was designed for it's directional pad, but the game itself was trying for an "open" fps environment in mostly 3D graphics which was a big deal for the time.

Pretty strange game though.
 
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