''The Assassin'' is an unreleased

action role-playing An action role-playing game (often abbreviated action RPG or ARPG) is a video game genre that combines core elements from both the action game and role-playing game genres. Definition Action role-playing games emphasize real-time combat wh ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

that was in development by American studio OMC Games and planned to be published under the company's Hellified Games label on a scheduled Q1 2000 release date for the

Atari Jaguar CD The Atari Jaguar CD is a CD-ROM peripheral for the Jaguar video game console. Only 13 games were released for the Jaguar CD during its lifetime. However, previously unfinished and homebrew games have since been released. History Atari announc ...

. It was intended to be a

prequel A prequel is a literary, dramatic or cinematic work whose story precedes that of a previous work, by focusing on events that occur before the original narrative. A prequel is a work that forms part of a backstory to the preceding work. The term ...

to ''Orb Of Bengazi'', another title that was in development by OMC for the add-on. ''The Assassin'' takes place in the future of the year 2147 where the player assume the role of Michael Steele, a

detective A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads the ...

from

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

who is put on a

trial In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal, w ...

for killing the perpetrator who

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

ed his brother Kavanaugh Steele as an act of

revenge Revenge is defined as committing a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. Vengeful forms of justice, such as primitive justice or retributive justice, are often differentiated from more fo ...

, but starts delving more in-depth on his investigation and getting caught on a web of

deception Deception is the act of convincing of one or many recipients of untrue information. The person creating the deception knows it to be false while the receiver of the information does not. It is often done for personal gain or advantage. Tort of ...

when looking for answers to questions he was previously not aware of. Conceived and originally in development for the

Atari 8-bit computers The Atari 8-bit computers, formally launched as the Atari Home Computer System, are a series of home computers introduced by Atari, Inc., in 1979 with the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The architecture is designed around the 8-bit MOS Technology 650 ...

, the game was later moved to the Jaguar CD after the author of the game came across with unforeseen technical issues with his

8-bit In computer architecture, 8-bit integers or other data units are those that are 8 bits wide (1 octet). Also, 8-bit central processing unit (CPU) and arithmetic logic unit (ALU) architectures are those that are based on registers or data bu ...

development equipment when moving from the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. The title was also set to feature an internally developed

role-playing game system A tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG or TRPG), also known as a pen-and-paper role-playing game, is a kind of role-playing game (RPG) in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech and sometimes movements. Participants d ...

called ''Blood City''. Although ''The Assassin'' was originally planned to be released sometime in 1999, it was later pushed back for release in 2000 but it never materialized in the end, despite reassurances by the developer. In addition to its prequel, OMC Games had three more games in development and planned to be released under their publishing label for the

platform Platform may refer to: Arts * Platform, an arts centre at The Bridge, Easterhouse, Glasgow * ''Platform'' (1993 film), a 1993 Bollywood action film * ''Platform'' (2000 film), a 2000 film by Jia Zhangke * '' The Platform'' (2019 film) * Pla ...

that failed to materialize as well.

Gameplay

Gameplay in ''The Assassin'' would have revolved around the game world, visiting locations and interacting with the local inhabitants. The first demo that was officially released to the public is not interactive, while the second demo is playable but only to a certain point before gameplay stops. The final game would have made use of the internally developed ''Blood City'' RPG system.

Synopsis

''The Assassin'' takes place in the year 2147, where

human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are Hominidae, great apes characterized by their Prehistory of nakedness and clothing ...

s coexist with

mythological creature A legendary creature is a type of extraordinary or supernatural being that is described in folklore (including myths and legends), and may be featured in historical accounts before modernity, but has not been scientifically shown to exist. In t ...

s on a futuristic

cyberpunk Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting said to focus on a combination of "low-life and high tech". It features futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cyberwa ...

setting. Michael Steele, a human detective of Chicago travels to

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

in order to investigate the death of his younger brother Kavanaugh, only to find out that he was murdered. As a result, he soon tracks down his brother's assassin and kills the perpetrator without remorse but Michael is later caught and sent to

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...

, where he is put under trial for his action.

History

James Garvin, an avid video game player and writer had aspirations of entering into the

video game industry The video game industry is the tertiary industry, tertiary and quaternary industry, quaternary sectors of the entertainment industry that specialize in the video game development, development, marketing, distribution (marketing), distribution, ...

, while attending his

computer engineering Computer engineering (CE, CoE, or CpE) is a branch of engineering specialized in developing computer hardware and software. It integrates several fields of electrical engineering, electronics engineering and computer science. Computer engi ...

studies at

The University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

. James began programming in 1982 with

TI-BASIC TI-BASIC is the official name of a BASIC-like language built into Texas Instruments' graphing calculators. TI-BASIC is a language family of three different and incompatible versions, released on different products: * TI-BASIC 83 (on Z80 proces ...

on the

TI-99/4A The TI-99/4 and TI-99/4A are home computers released by Texas Instruments (TI) in 1979 and 1981, respectively. Based on TI's own TMS9900 microprocessor originally used in minicomputers, the TI-99/4 was the first 16-bit home computer. The assoc ...

but he then moved on to both

Commodore BASIC Commodore BASIC, also known as PET BASIC or CBM-BASIC, is the Dialect (computing), dialect of the BASIC programming language used in Commodore International's 8-bit home computer line, stretching from the Commodore PET, PET (1977) to the Commodore ...

and

Atari BASIC Atari BASIC is an interpreter for the BASIC programming language that shipped with Atari 8-bit computers. Unlike most American BASICs of the home computer era, Atari BASIC is not a derivative of Microsoft BASIC and differs in significant way ...

with the 800XL in 1983, and he was later encouraged to become a full-time programmer by learning the Assembly

programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Programming languages are described in terms of their Syntax (programming languages), syntax (form) and semantics (computer science), semantics (meaning), usually def ...

. Some of his inspirations include Paul Murray, Philip Price and

Richard Garriott Richard Allen Garriott de Cayeux (''né'' Garriott; born 4 July 1961) is a British-born American video game developer, entrepreneur and private astronaut. Garriott, who is the son of NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, was originally a game designer ...

, in addition of being a fan of

Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French holding company Atari SA (formerly Infogrames) and its focus is on "video games, consumer hardware, licensing and bl ...

during his

adolescence Adolescence () is a transitional stage of human Developmental biology, physical and psychological Human development (biology), development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age o ...

. ''The Assassin'' originally started as a game intended for the

, but was later moved to the Atari Jaguar after James came across with technical issues when trying to make his development equipment for the 8-bit computer when moving from USA to Japan. He pitched his project to

Atari Corporation Atari Corporation was an American manufacturer of Home computer, home computers and Video game console, video game consoles. It was founded by Jack Tramiel on May 17, 1984, as Tramel Technology, Ltd., but then took on the Atari name less than ...

but was met with a negative reception from the company, changing his overall outlook about Atari. When Atari Corp. merged with

JT Storage JTS Corporation was a maker of inexpensive IDE hard drives for personal computers based in San Jose, California. It was founded in 1994 by "Jugi" Tandon—the inventor of the double-sided floppy disk drive and founder of Tandon Corporation& ...

in a

reverse takeover A reverse takeover (RTO), reverse merger, or reverse IPO is the acquisition of a public company by a private company so that the private company can bypass the lengthy and complex process of going public. Sometimes, conversely, the public compa ...

in April 1996, James became an official developer for the Jaguar and received development materials to program games for it. In 1998, OMC Games announced the game to be in production along with two other projects intended for the Atari Jaguar CD, but they later reassured that it would still be released for the Atari 8-bit computers after

Hasbro Interactive Hasbro Interactive, Inc. (Currently named Atari Interactive, Inc.) is the former video game subsidiary of board game and toy manufacturer Hasbro. Originally formed in 1995 and headquartered in Beverly, Massachusetts, Hasbro Interactive initially ...

released the patents and rights to the Jaguar into

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

in 1999 by declaring it as an open platform and opening the doors for homebrew development, allowing independent publisher and developers to release unfinished titles from the system's past life cycle as well as new titles. In an article written by Eric C. Mylonas on "The Graveyard" section featured in the November 1999 issue of ''

GameFan ''GameFan'' (originally known as ''Diehard GameFan'') was a publication started by Tim Lindquist, Greg Off, George Weising, and Dave Halverson in September 1992 that provided coverage of domestic and imported video games. It was notable for it ...

'' magazine, he teased the possibility on covering ''The Assassin'', if reception of the issue was positive enough. Despite multiple promises by the developer to deliver the game after various delays due to multiple internal issues within the group, they ultimately ceased its development and left the project unfinished as a result. There were also graphics created by the game's artist that went unused as well.

Release

Although ''The Assassin'' was left unfinished, OMC Games released two

ROM image A ROM image, or ROM file, is a computer file which contains a copy of the data from a read-only memory Computer chip, chip, often from a ROM cartridge, video game cartridge, or used to contain a computer's firmware, or from an arcade game's arc ...

demos in 1999 to the public for free to be downloaded and played on the Atari Jaguar with either a Skunkboard

flash cartridge A flash cartridge (also known as a flashcart) is a homebrew video game cartridge that uses flash memory for storage as well as running applications. These cartridges enable homebrew applications and games to be used and played when they are ...

or a modified system with the BJL homebrew program loader installed, in addition of

emulator In computing, an emulator is Computer hardware, hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run sof ...

s that support the Jaguar, among other ways to play it. Richard Turner, owner of the JustClaws website, demonstrated one of the demos of the game during E-JagFest 2000.

Legacy

''The Assassin'' was part of one of the many projects in development by OMC Games for the Atari Jaguar platform and possibly for other systems, as the company had four more titles planned to be released; a sequel to the game titled ''Orb Of Bengazi'', a

medieval fantasy Historical fantasy is a category of fantasy and genre of historical fiction that incorporates fantastic elements (such as magic (fantasy), magic) into a more "realistic" narrative. There is much crossover with other subgenres of fantasy; those c ...

action role-playing game called ''Age Of Darkness'', a cyberpunk title similar in gameplay to ''

Ys I & II is an action role-playing game compilation released by Hudson Soft and NEC for the PC Engine CD-ROM² in 1989 and TurboGrafx-CD in 1990. It consists of enhanced remakes of the first two ''Ys'' games by Nihon Falcom for the PC-8801 home computer ...

'' named ''Eternal Darkness: Scent Of the Spider'', and a

shooter Shooter may refer to: People * Rod Beck (1968–2007), American baseball pitcher nicknamed "Shooter" * Shooter Jennings (born 1979), country music singer * Evan McPherson (born 1999), American football placekicker nicknamed "Shooter" * Adrian Sh ...

game influenced by

Ambrosia Software Ambrosia Software was a predominantly Mac (computer), Macintosh software and Mac gaming, gaming company founded in 1993 and located in Rochester, Monroe County, New York, Rochester, New York (state), New York, United States, U.S. Ambrosia Softwa ...

's 1996

space trading and combat simulator Space flight simulation is a genre of flight simulator video games that lets players experience space flight to varying degrees of realism. Common mechanics include space exploration, space trade and space combat. Overview Some games in the ge ...

Escape Velocity In celestial mechanics, escape velocity or escape speed is the minimum speed needed for an object to escape from contact with or orbit of a primary body, assuming: * Ballistic trajectory – no other forces are acting on the object, such as ...

'' and ''

Treasure Treasure (from from Greek ''thēsauros'', "treasure store") is a concentration of wealth — often originating from ancient history — that is considered lost and/or forgotten until rediscovered. Some jurisdictions legally define what constit ...

s 1998

shoot 'em up Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs) are a Video game genre, subgenre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain typ ...

Radiant Silvergun is a shoot 'em up video game developed and published by Treasure. It was originally released in Japanese arcades in 1998 and subsequently ported to the Sega Saturn later that year. The story follows a team of fighter pilots in the far future ...

'' titled ''Dark Guardian Episode 1: Unknown Enemy''. Neither project moved beyond the conceptual design phase except ''Dark Guardian Episode 1'', which had an early demo showcased to the public at

JagFest 2K1 The Midwest Gaming Classic (MGC) is an annual trade show open to the general public celebrating all forms of gaming, including video games, arcade games, pinball, TTRPG, Tabletop board games, trading and collectible card games with a focus on ret ...

, a small festival dedicated to the system held in

Milwaukee Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Assassin, the (cancelled video game) Action role-playing video games Cancelled Atari 8-bit computer games Cancelled Atari Jaguar games Cyberpunk video games Detective video games Single-player video games Video games developed in the United States Video games set in Japan Video games set in the 22nd century Video games set in the United Kingdom Video games set in the United States