# Video Games: The Vaporware Hall of Fame
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-the-vaporware-hall-of-fame/368620
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 14, 2006, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-the-vaporware-hall-of-fame/368620 "2006-08-14T02:24:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2006, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-the-vaporware-hall-of-fame/368620/21 "2006-08-14T18:19:58Z")
> [@sturmhauke](#):
>
> The C64 was perhaps slightly more powerful than the Apple ][, but using one to emulate the other is probably impossible, except for trivially small programs. The emulator would take up most of the 64 KB of memory, and unlike modern computers, even if you had a hard drive it was way too slow to use as virtual memory. That concept probably hadn’t even been thought up yet.
This particular emulator was [a piece of hardware that plugged into the back of a 64](http://www.applefritter.com/node/229).
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### Author:  [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2006, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-the-vaporware-hall-of-fame/368620/22 "2006-08-14T21:11:39Z")
IIRC the 11th Hour (sequel to The Seventh Guest) was released, but years late (nowhere near DNF timeframe though)
Daikatana was also eventually released way late.
Brian
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### Author:  [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2006, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-the-vaporware-hall-of-fame/368620/23 "2006-08-18T03:38:53Z")
> [@mobo85](#):
>
> **Nintendo 64 Disk Drive (64DD)**. Although released in Japan, this add-on never made it to the United States. (Mention should also be made of the **Famicom Disk System** , which Nintendo abandoned in Japan after a few years and worked solely with cartridges. Classic NES games such as _Metroid_ and _The Legend of Zelda_ originally appeared in Nintendo’s home country as Famicom Disks.)
I have a book that had info on Ocarina of time; “It’s definitely going to be a 64DD title” :dubious: :rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@brianjedi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianjedi)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2006, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-the-vaporware-hall-of-fame/368620/24 "2006-08-18T04:03:44Z")
Madden NFL '96 on the PlayStation. Every platform, including a couple of graphing calculators and a garage door opener had a port of it, but the PS version never made it out the door. Blame is usually placed on developer Visual Concepts (who would go on to kick EA’s ass with NFL 2K5.)
Sticking with the PSX, the “system upgrade module” that was supposedly going to be necessary for Tekken 3 and Gran Turismo 2. Never happened, Tekken 3 ran just fine on the PSX.
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### Author:  [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2006, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-the-vaporware-hall-of-fame/368620/25 "2006-08-18T06:18:47Z")
Speaking of the PSX, although that was a sort of unofficial nickname for the original PlayStation, Sony also released a [new device called the PSX](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSX_(DVR)) in Japan. It was supposed to reach other markets but it never did. In any case it was a poor choice of name.
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### Author:  [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2006, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-the-vaporware-hall-of-fame/368620/26 "2006-08-18T06:45:51Z")
Superhero games could be a classification of vaporware alone. For more than ten years announcing that you were making a superhero game that was anything other than a by-the-numbers action game meant that the company would be out of business in two years. Champions, Agents of Justice, and The Indestructables are the biggest three announced, followed eagerly, and then killed the software division of Hero Games, Microprose, and Bullfrog respectively.
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### Author:  [@audiobottle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audiobottle)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2006, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-the-vaporware-hall-of-fame/368620/27 "2006-08-18T11:23:44Z")
> [@Meeko](#):
>
> I have a book that had info on Ocarina of time; “It’s definitely going to be a 64DD title” :dubious: :rolleyes:
Didn’t Mask of Majora require a special addon that increased the RAM or something? I second the Phantom game console for nomination. Although, since they finally did kill it, I’m not sure if it still counts as vaporware anymore.
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### Author:  [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2006, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-the-vaporware-hall-of-fame/368620/28 "2006-08-18T11:34:36Z")
> [@audiobottle](#):
>
> Didn’t Mask of Majora require a special addon that increased the RAM or something?
The [expansion pak](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expansion_Pak) for the N64? That was real, I got one free with Donkey Kong. It was necessary for some games like Donkey Kong and Mask of Majora IIRC and helped others like Perfect Dark (which ran in a cut down mode without it)
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### Author:  [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2006, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-the-vaporware-hall-of-fame/368620/29 "2006-08-18T13:14:34Z")
I recall there being a game called _Bishop Six_ in which the main character was supposed to be a British SAS officer, which involved some sort of aliens-are-among-us conspiracy and seemed quite promising. No idea what happened to it, though…
_Fallout 3_ which has already been mentioned, is another notable one.
There were rumours of a sequel to _Colonisation_, which never eventuated either, IIRC…
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### Author:  [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2006, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-the-vaporware-hall-of-fame/368620/30 "2006-08-18T22:47:56Z")
> [@Der Trihs](#):
>
> I recall claims from the 3DO people that they were going to produce a “holodeck” program for it that would produce, well, holodeck type simulated worlds on your 3DO. Never happened, of course.
Huh? I worked at 3DO for 8 years and this doesn’t ring even a faint bell.
Of course, there’s the M2…
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### Author:  [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2006, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-the-vaporware-hall-of-fame/368620/31 "2006-08-18T22:51:17Z")
Was the M2 the PC emulator for the 3DO console?
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### Author:  [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2006, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-the-vaporware-hall-of-fame/368620/32 "2006-08-19T06:15:51Z")
> [@D\_Odds](#):
>
> Was the M2 the PC emulator for the 3DO console?
No, that was the 3DO Blaster. (Assuming you’re talking about a card you stick into a PC to let it run 3DO games).
M2 was 3DO’s next generation system, which was sold to Matsushita for 100 million dollars, and then never really released. I worked on a nearly-completed M2 game for quite a while.
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### Author:  [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2006, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-the-vaporware-hall-of-fame/368620/33 "2006-08-19T07:28:13Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#):
>
> Huh? I worked at 3DO for 8 years and this doesn’t ring even a faint bell.
> Of course, there’s the M2…
Say, **Max** , a buddy of mine claimed to have worked for 3DO composing music for their games, I’m thinking that he’s probably full of it. If I ran his name past you, is there any chance you might recognize it?
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