Games That Weren't^®

1998 System 3

Platform: Sony PlayStation, PC, Nintendo 64 and SEGA Saturn

A fantastic game which I have very fond memories playing on my Commodore 64, Myth: History in the Making was due to be revived by System 3 for the Sony PlayStation and various other platforms back in 1998.

Sporting what seems to be a similar engine to The Last Ninja (also in production around the same time), the game got hit with delays due to a dispute with Eidos regarding the name ‘Myth’ (of which Eidos had released a game of a similar name on the PC by Bungie Software). In one news snippet in Extreme PlayStation Magazine, it is suggested that the Eidos game would tarnish the name of ‘Myth’ for System 3.

Well, what of the game itself? This was an update of the original game, where the main hero is taken back in time to confront the evil god Dameron and battle through several levels based on ancient mythology. Essentially the same game story, but remodelled in a 3D and isometric viewpoint.

The PC screenshots shown in Extreme PlayStation Magazine were certainly impressive for the time and it looked as if the game could have been a decent update of the classic 8 and 16-bit classic.

As mentioned earlier, the game seems quite similar to the Last Ninja development which was underway around the same time. The visual style certainly is very familiar between the two. Perhaps both games would share the same engine?

As with that particular iteration of The Last Ninja, Myth was scrapped. The reason given for Last Ninja was that the engine was being completely redone, so its likely Myth would be caught up in this too. We don’t believe it was anything to do with the legal spat with Eidos at the time.

It would be great to try and find out more about this development, who was behind it and just how far it had reached before the cancellation button was pressed. We believe that the PC was the lead edition, and other editions may not have been started – perhaps the PlayStation version was at least, but certainly not the Nintendo 64 and SEGA Saturn editions (though it would be a great surprise if they were!).

If you know anything more about this development, then please do get in touch.

With thanks to Ross Sillifant for highlighting.

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